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How God Guides His Children, April 4
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will
guide thee with mine eye.
Psalm 32:8
.
My dear brother, I shall be glad to write just as definitely as I can. I thought
I had done this in my former letter. I then presented the situation as plainly and
frankly as I could do, and I am unable to write you anything more definite than
was said in my letter, which stated the particulars to you.
The Lord does not give light in such a way as to leave the one addressed no
chance to walk by faith. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen” (
Hebrews 11:1
). There is not a straight line marked out for any
one of us. We need to pray and believe and watch unto prayer, ever praying and
trusting. My brother, you must seek the Lord in order to know your duty....
Never have I been more sure of anything in any move we have made than that
the Lord’s hand was in the selection of this land [for Avondale College]. We must
now advance with the opening providence of God and erect our hospital. We must
have a sanitarium built nearer Sydney, but not in the city. Hawkesbury is the place
we are contemplating for its location. We do not propose to have an immense
institution, but a plain, suitable building in some such place as Hawkesbury. Then
we can have branches established in Sydney, Newcastle, and other places. This
is the way the Lord would have us do. He does not design that we shall erect a
colony of buildings in one center, as has been done in Battle Creek. Our work is
to extend over a large territory. We must move forward slowly, surely, solidly. We
are binding about the edges of everything. Economize we must, for it is our only
way. The sanitarium in Sydney has been waiting to hear from you, but because of
the way in which you have stated matters, we cannot say, “Come,” until you feel it
your duty to come. When you can feel it your duty to loose yourself from Africa,
we shall be prepared to receive you. The Lord is willing to hear our petitions, and
we shall let Him work in His own way. We do not mean to wait for you or anyone
if Providence opens the way for us to secure a site for our sanitarium, though as
yet we have no means.
You say Dr. Kellogg writes that if I should authorize him to raise $5,000, he
would do it. He wrote me that he could raise $5,000 besides the first $5,000, and
why do I not say, “Do this”? I am not permitted to tell any man what he shall do
or what he shall not do. I lay out our situation as the Lord has directed me to do,
but I have no liberty to go farther.—
Letter 63, April 4, 1899
, to John Wessells and
wife, early believers in South Africa.
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