Battle Creek Letters

Ellen G. White

Copyright © 2017, Ellen G. White Estate, Inc.

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Letters and Manuscripts Relating to Medical Missionary Work and Going to Battle Creek May 28, 1928

Document File 194

Re-copied Aug. 6, 1928 G—189—03 V. E. R.

Re-copied Aug. 6, 1928 B—57—04 V. E. R.

Re-copied July 11, 1928 Extracts from K—23—87 V. E. R.

Re-copied July 11, 1928 MS—13—01 V. E. R. Diary January 1898

Re-copied July 11, 1928 B—38-99 V. E. R.

Recopied July 11, 1928 K—55—99 V. E. R.

Re-copied July 11, 1928 D. F. 193 V. E. R.

Re-copied July 13, 1928 MS—117—99 V. E. R.

Re-copied July 15, 1928 K—204—99 V. E. R.

Re-copied July 15, 1928 K—215—99 V. E. R.

Re-copied July 15, 1928 B—106-1900 V. E. R.

Re-copied July 15, 1928 MS—58—1901 V. E. R.

Re-copied July 15, 1928 MS—74—1902 V.E.R. Unheeded Warnings

Re-copied July 16, 1928 B—128—02 V. E. R.

Re-copied August 23, 1928 K—123—02 V. E. R.

Re-copied August 21, 1928 D—138-02 V. E. R.

Re-copied August 21, 1928 K—174—02 V. E. R.

Re-copied August 4, 1928 K—65—03 V. E. R.

W—172-1903

W—195—03

B—242—03

B—222—1903

Re-copied 7/20/88 B—256-1903 By L. F. W.

Re-copied 7/18/28 T-266-1903 by L. F. W.

Re-copied 7/17/28 MS-145-03

Re-copied 7/15/28 H—51—1904 by L. F. W.

Re-copied 7/15/28 MS-10-1904 by L. F. W.

Re-copied 7/13/28 B—177-1904 by L. F. W.

Re-copied 7/15/28 B-259-1904 by L. F. W.

Re-copied 7/13/28 R-281-1904 by L. F. W.

Re-copied 7/12/28 K-367-1904 by L. F. W.

Re-copied 7/12/28 K-319-1905 by L. F. W.

re-copied 7/11/28 B—311-05 by L. F. W.

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Letters and Manuscripts Relating to Medical Missionary Work and Going to Battle Creek May 28, 1928

Document File 194

Sanitarium, California

November 7, 1905

Instruction to be Repeated

During the night we were in a council meeting, trying to decide what we were going to do. One of authority stood up and said, “Everything that has been given to ministers, to men in responsible positions, to teachers, to managers, to the different conferences, is to be repeated and repeated, because Satan is now doing a special work to make of no effect the testimonies that come from God. We must work earnestly to bring this instruction before the people.”

I was pointed to the work that Moses did just before his death. Calling the children of Israel together, he rehearsed to them their past experience, their trials, their failures, and the warnings that had been given them. And Joshua, when the time came for him to lay down his work, called the tribes together, and recounted to Israel their history since they were called out as the people of God.

Today we must rehearse the instruction that God has given to us as a people. The warfare between the forces of light and darkness is going on. Those who think that the powers of evil are asleep are very much mistaken. The enemy is constantly seeking to bring in things that will unsettle the confidence of God’s people. These things may appear very inoffensive, but they contain grave errors and dangers, which must be met. We must take our stand firmly in defense of the truth given us after the passing of the time. The Holy Spirit gave us an understanding of these truths. - [4]

Re-copied Aug. 6, 1928 G—189—03 V. E. R.

Extracts from a Letter Relating to the Question of Our Young People Going to Battle Creek for their Education

“The light given me by the Lord—that our youth should not collect in Battle Creek to receive their education—has in no particular been changed. The fact that the Sanitarium has been rebuilt in Battle Creek does not change the light. All that in the past made Battle Creek a place unsuitable for our youth exists today, so far as influence is concerned.

“Word has come to me that letters have been sent out to our churches in the different states offering our youth special inducements to connect with the Battle Creek Sanitarium. The leading men in our conferences are requested to send their most promising young men and young women to the Battle Creek Sanitarium to be educated and trained as nurses. This is an effort to counterwork the counsel of the Lord. Those who present these inducements are walking contrary to the will of the Lord.....

“I would say, be careful what moves are made. It is not God’s design that our youth should be called to Battle Creek.

“Letters of inquiry are coming to us, asking, “Has Sister White changed? Does she now favor the re-establishment of a college in Battle Creek?” In the past I have given the word of the Lord in regard to the removal of the school from Battle Creek, and I have not changed....

“In connection with every one of our sanitariums there is to be provided for the training of the youth as medical missionaries, so that our young men and women need not go to Battle Creek to receive an education in these lines. It is the intelligent and promising and promising youth who are called for to come to Battle Creek, and these are the very ones that are needed in other places, in our schools, in our sanitariums. These young men and young women will be needed to do the work that must be done in different parts of the Lord’s vineyard. There are many lines of work to be carried forward, and many laborers are needed. We need one hundred laborers where now there is but one. Our forces are not to be centered in one place. They are to be scattered throughout the field. Plants are to be made in all parts of the Lord’s vineyard. We protest [5] in the name of the Lord God of Israel, against the calling of our youth into a place to which the Lord declared they should not go.” [6]

Re-copied Aug. 6, 1928 B—57—04 V. E. R.

St. Helena, Calif.

Nov. 12, 1903

To Our Leading Medical Workers:—Instruction has now been given me that I must place in the hands of our ministers and physicians the light given me in past years for Dr. Kellogg and his associates, lest the mistakes of former years be repeated.

Our medical missionary workers know but little of the instruction that for the last twenty years the Lord in mercy has been sending to the pioneers in this work. Testimony after testimony has been given in regard to the danger of centering so much in Battle Creek, and the necessity of opening new fields and making plants in many places. Again and again the Lord has declared that it was his will that the company of workers collected in Battle Creek should be broken up into several companies.

If our physicians will stand solidly with their ministering brethren, they will receive help. But they have started on a track which if followed will lead to an effort to tear down the foundation pillars of our faith. Spiritualistic sentiments have been presented in so plausible a manner that many of our medical missionary workers have been fascinated by them. I pray that they will not continue to foster these ideas. Their work is now to put away from them these pleasing fables.

How could our brethren say that in “Living Temple” there was nothing contrary to the truths of God’s Word? The Lord’s watchmen should have been quick to see that evil was stealing into our ranks. They should have been wide awake to discern the approach of the enemy, and to give the alarm. The rebuke of God will rest upon those who willingly close their eyes that they may not discern the dangerous character of the fables that are stealthily finding place among us. The rebuke of God is upon the ministers and medical missionary workers who have been asleep on the walls of Zion, when as vigilant watchmen they should have warned the people of the Lord against the dangers threatening them.

The time will come, Christ tells us of, when many deceivers will go forth, declaring themselves to be Christ. The Saviour says, “Go ye not after them”. We need not be deceived. Wonderful scenes, with which Satan will be closely connected, will soon take place. God’s Word declares that Satan will work [7] miracles. He will make people sick, and then will suddenly remove from them his Satanic power. They will then be regarded as healed. These works of apparent healing will bring Seventh-day Adventists to the test. Many who have had great light will fail to walk in the light, because they have not become one with Christ.

Let us study the Word of God. Let us make it a part of our lives, bringing its teachings into the daily experience. Thus only can we gain the knowledge that will enable us, in these days of peril, to distinguish the true from the false. Study the fifth and sixth chapters of John. They contain instruction that is indeed the mystery of godliness. “Search the Scriptures,” Christ said: “for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of Me.”

There are some who, though they have received great light, do not feel the need of following Jesus in humility and contrition. God has honored them, but they have not reflected his glory. Jesus says to them, “Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life.” “I received not honor from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in My Father’s name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” “How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?” [8]

Re-copied July 11, 1928 Extracts from K—23—87 V. E. R.

Basle Switzerland,

Feb. 23, 1887

Dr. Kellogg:

You are engaged in a great and good work and in this constant strain the physical, mental and moral powers are taxed to the uttermost and ought not to be, because the future demands of your tact, your experience and your practical knowledge. It comes to me with force at times the great violence you are doing to yourself when you have knowledge of just the result that you must shorten your life and I feel intensely over this matter. For it will not make the matter one whit better. I have learned, if you go calmly along trusting in God, committing the keeping of your soul to Him as unto a faithful Creator you will be able to preserve the calmness and ease, a peace that cannot be marred, that will astonish you.

It is these men who feel so intensely as James White, J.N. Andrews and yourself that wear and are bruised in spirit. Now if they would heed counsel and would educate and train themselves to endure what cannot be cured and just lean more heavily and continuously upon divine power, then the wear and the friction would almost entirely cease. The peace of Christ comes into the soul. God means we shall trust in Him and enjoy His goodness; He lays out day by day before us. And we must have eyes and perceptive powers to take these things in.

However great and glorious the full and perfect deliverance from evil we shall realize in heaven it is not all to be kept for the time of final deliverance. God brings it into our present life. We need daily to cultivate faith in a present Saviour. Trusting in a power out of and above ourselves and this exercise of faith in unseen support and power which is waiting the demand of the needy and dependent we then can trust amid clouds as well as sunshine, singing of present deliverance and present enjoyment of His love.

The life we now live must be by faith in the Son of God. The Christian life is a strangely mingled scene of sorrows and joys, disappointments and hopes, tears and confidence. There will be much dissatisfaction with self, as he views his own heart so deeply stirred, surged with passion that seems to bear all before it and then follows remorse and sorrow and repentance followed by peace and deep hidden joys, because he knows as his faith grasps the promises that are revealed in God’s Word that he has the forgiving love of a long-suffering Saviour. [9] And that Saviour he seeks to bring into his life, weave into His character.

It is these revealings, these discoveries of God’s goodness that makes the soul-humble and leads it to cry out in gratitude, I live, yet not I, for Christ liveth in me, We have reason to be comforted. Severe outward trials may press around the soul where Jesus lives. Let us turn to Him, for the consolations He has provided for us in His Word.

The nether springs of hope and comfort may appear to fail us, but the upper springs which feed the river of God are full of supply and can never be dried up. God would have you look away from the cause of your afflictions to Him who is the owner of soul, body and spirit. He is the lover of the soul. He knows the value of the soul. He is the true vine, and we are the branches. We shall have no spiritual nourishment only as we draw it from Jesus who is the true life of the soul.

“Ye believe in God, believe also in Me”, says Jesus. It is the will of Jesus that we shall be full of hope, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, and love. It is not God’s will that we should remain in sorrow and discouragement. While it is His will that we should discern His love and His matchless mercy....

There is only one way for you, and that is to save your own life by laying burdens on others that you may live to save the lives of many. We prize your superior scientific skill. We need it. We do not want to lose it. And we ought to have some power of influence to control your course of action lest you will become a man of an unbalanced mind, and the precious skill you have will lie buried in a ruined casket.

I do not write to burden you. I feel deeply for you and you must change your course of action. You are living two years in one, and I utter my protest against this. You understand this taxation, this pressure of the living machinery cannot continue without giving out of some of the fine works and then, oh, my brother, then, what death, that which you would be far worse, living without power to do it at all.

I thank God for that which you have been to the cause of God. I thank my heavenly Father for the light which He has reflected through you and for this reason, I want you to live and continue to be a source of light.

I see in the plans you have devised light and wisdom, and if these will help you to practice temperance in your labor you have through the wisdom of God been wise, but if notwithstanding [10] you will keep dragging and pushing the whole load, which others connected with the institution could and should do, then your only future is to be crushed under it.

The Lord has sustained you, I do not for a moment question this. You say you have asked your brethren to select men to come into the sanitarium to be educated and trained to bear responsibilities. Cannot you see that the men, your brethren, would think might do, you might count a failure and be tried at the stupidity of your brethren. There is not one who would venture this. I would not dare to do it myself. [11]

Re-copied July 11, 1928 MS—13—01 V. E. R. Diary January 1898

Medical Missionary Work and the Ministry

The question has been asked, did you not give Dr. Kellogg encouragement after he had entered into this work? I answer, I did; for I had been instructed that a work of this character should be done by all our churches; that a deep interest should be taken in this very line of work; that according to the light which the Lord had been pleased to give me, this line of work should have been taken hold of with resolution by our ministers, not to create a large center in one place, but to establish the work in many cities and to arouse the people to give of the Lord’s money for the work in behalf of suffering humanity.

The Lord gave me light that in every place where a church was established, medical missionary work was to be done. But there was in the Battle Creek church a great deal of selfishness. Those at the very heart of the work indulged their own wishes in a way that dishonored God. Dr. Kellogg was not sustained in the health reform work, the importance of which had been kept before the church for thirty years. This work was hindered because of the feelings and prejudices of some in Battle Creek who were not disposed to conform their course of action to the Word of God regarding health reform principles.

The history of Daniel is recorded for the special benefit of those who desire to place themselves in the best condition of physical soundness, that they may reach as high a standard of usefulness as Daniel reached. The first chapter of Daniel is one of the most forcible discourses on temperance that could be given. Read it, read it, and as you read, become wise, not in your own conceit, but wise like Daniel and his fellows, whose physical, mental and spiritual understanding increased with their sanctified resolution to adhere strictly to the principles of temperance in eating and drinking. These youth were greatly blessed in their effort to honor and please God by preserving their physical powers so that they would have mental strength, and so that God could mould and fashion them after the divine similitude. We read; “As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.... And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that kings inquired [12] of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.”

Had those who claim to believe the truth for these last days done as Daniel did, had they been determined to walk in all the light God caused to shine upon them, the great difficulties which have existed in Battle Creek would not have been. The great dearth of means would not have been. Had those who crowded into Battle Creek gone out and taken up evangelistic work, first for themselves, as did Daniel and his fellows, and then for others, the Lord would have given them wisdom and skill and understanding. But the light given was not lived out. The testimonies sent by the Lord in regard to health reform were made the subject of criticism. They were misused and abused by those who were determined to vindicate their own ideas and carry out their own plans.

Had the church followed in the light God gave, refusing to lay another brick in the erection of buildings which were not in the order of God, a great burden of debt would have been avoided. When the time came to move, the people could have established themselves in places where they would have given character to the work of God for this time.

The work God pointed out for those in Battle Creek was for them to leave Battle Creek and work in places where there was nothing to represent the truth. Thus plants would have been made in many places. The students would not have been gathered in one large company. The Lord would have worked.

God has not forsaken his people, but his people have forsaken him. Those in Battle Creek should have worked for the ones who needed their help. Dr. Kellogg took up the work they did not do. The spirit of criticism shown to his work from the first has been very unjust, and has made his work hard. The lack of sympathy his brethren have shown him has prepared the way for the work he has been doing in criticising them. The Lord has no justification for any such work.

Had the church done in different localities the work given them by God, had they followed the example left them by Christ there would now be centers all through America. Plants would be established in many places. There would not be a great showing in Chicago alone; the work would be multiplied in many places, with the full co-operation of the institutions established in Battle Creek.

The past should be subject for keen regret. The Lord would now have the medical missionary work recognized as the helping hand of God. But this work has been carried too heavily [13] in one place, when plants should have been made in many places.

The Lord has given Dr. Kellogg his work. It is a fact that our ministers are very slow to become health reformers, notwithstanding all the light which the Lord has given upon this subject. This has caused Dr. Kellogg to lose confidence in them. Their tardy work in health reform has created in him a spirit of criticism, and he has borne down on them in an unsparing manner, which the Lord does not sanction. He has belittled the gospel ministry, and in his regard and ideas has placed the medical missionary work above the ministry. I have seen that in the censuring of ministers remarks have been made which have not been to the honor and glory of God. [14]

Re-copied July 11, 1928 B—38-99 V. E. R.

Elders Prescott, Irwin, Jones, Smith and Waggoner

Dear Brethren,

I have written to Brother John Kellogg in regard to matters which should come before him, asking him not to pursue a course which will in any way detract from his influence. The Lord has greatly exalted and blessed His servant, Dr. Kellogg. He has used him to honor His name upon the earth and to give character to the work. Dr. Kellogg has been obtaining a most precious experience. But there are some who have acted as though they had been appointed to work against him. The Lord has reproved their course of action. They knew not that they were working on Satan’s side of the question. As men and women have thus worked out their own attributes, this has been a hindrance to the doctor. His brethren have had evidence that he has been working in accordance with the will of God. But although they have had light on this point, they have not all stood by his side to help him. Some have held up his hands, but others have not heeded the admonitions given. Every evidence that could be given has been given, but some have shown that they have not practiced self-denial. They have not taken up the cross to follow Christ. Such ones reveal the principles which have corrupted them.

Those who refused the warnings of God followed a course of action which brought its sure result. These influences have sometimes made the work of Dr. Kellogg doubly as hard as it should have been. They have led him to stand apart to some degree from the ministry. I desire to present matters as they are presented to me. Such a spirit of criticism and fault-finding has done the work Satan designed should be done. Dr. Kellogg has been led to take the course he deemed it his duty to take. He has not connected with those who were not in sympathy with the work he knew to be of God.

Our people have not all appreciated as they should the man through whom God has worked, and with whom He has cooperated upon the subject of health reform. They have not reasoned from cause to effect to understand how great was the blessing of the Sanitarium at Battle Creek under the management of Dr. Kellogg and his faithful associates. Through this work the truths of the third angel’s message have entered where it would otherwise have been very difficult for them to find entrance. But the perceptions of our people have been blinded. They have not felt that the Lord has greatly honored His people in establishing the Sanitarium which for the influence and success [15] has not yet been surpassed. Why cannot the churches see that the Sanitarium has success because the Lord is especially at work to make it a place where the truth may be made known in a way that will recommend it to all classes, where it will be made manifest that God is honored, and that the truth of His word is the abiding principle by which all work.

This institution has been the means of elevating the truth, and bringing it before thousands. The religious influence which pervades the institution inspires the patients with confidence. The assurance they have that the Lord presides over the Sanitarium, the many prayers offered for the sick, does much to soothe their nerves. Many men and women who have never before thought of the value of their souls are convinced by the Spirit of God that they have made a mistake. They have put worldly position, human wisdom and wealth in the place of God and heaven. Careless, irreligious souls, full of pride and self-love, stand as it were before the bar of God, to consider their past and future; and not a few change the whole course of their life. Man has inherited an intense desire to save himself, and thus show his independence. Impressions that will never be effaced have been made upon self-righteous souls, who have thought their own standard of character sufficient, who have felt no need of Christ’s righteousness. When the test comes, when enlightenment comes to them, they will take their stand for truth.

The God of heaven is honored by an institution managed in this way. The Battle Creek Sanitarium was established by order of God, that men and women might better understand the virtues of the tree of life. In his mercy God has made the Sanitarium such a power in the relief of physical suffering that thousands are drawn to it to be cured physically, but from the Saviour they receive the forgiveness of their sins, and they identify themselves completely with Christ, and His interests, His honor. Their sins are taken away, and are placed at Christ’s account. His righteousness is imputed to them. The healing balm is applied to the soul. They receive the grace of Christ, and go forth to impart to others the light of truth. The Lord makes them His witnesses. Their testimony is, “He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. They never forget the prayers, the songs of praise and thanksgiving that they heard while at the Sanitarium. Can we realize how much God is glorified by this work?

The Lord has connected Dr. Kellogg with the medical fraternity outside our people. His influence has had much to do with the abolishing of drugs to a large extent, and the introduction of nature’s own restoratives. This work has not been done by making a raid upon drugs, for it needed the wisdom of a serpent and the harmlessness of a dove. Dr. Kellogg’s connection with [16] God enables him to take the presence of the Holy Spirit with him into assemblies where there is generally much levity, and where many things are spoken that might better be left unsaid. The people respect the doctor’s religious principles, and show that they are somewhat under the influence of this faith.

The Lord would have His people awake, and realize that Dr. Kellogg is and must be connected with God, and stand as a rock to the principles of our faith. The Lord has given him knowledge and understanding. The singular success of the Sanitarium at Battle Creek is a wonderful mystery to all. God has planned the whole thing, that men in the highways as well as in byways should be brought in connection with Dr. Kellogg and his associates and the Bible instruction given. Thus they are continually being educated. Everything in this line that the physicians have done gives glory and praise to Him who is behind the physicians. All believers in the truth have cause to show much gratitude that we have such an institution as the Sanitarium, also that God works with His instrumentalities, Dr. Kellogg and his co-workers, who are accepted in the beloved. These influences are to be appreciated.

The Lord will sustain and up hold Dr. Kellogg as his man of opportunity just as long as Dr. Kellogg will stand true and steadfast to the principles of truth. The Lord sees the work he is doing in the medical missionary line. This work is not in any way to stand separate from the ministry. The ministry must not be divorced from this work, and the Lord would have the church act a part in this work. Every talent in our churches should be employed in the work of doing good. The rough places of nature, the wild places, God has made attractive, by placing beautiful things among the most unattractive. This is the work we are called to do. But the medical missionary work must not become disproportionate. It must be a work that is in order with the rest of the work.

Dr. Kellogg is in danger of gathering altogether too many burdens. His influence is to be decidedly felt in the Sanitarium. It is needed there more largely, and with his workers he is to continue to exert the influence on the people that he has exerted in the past. The extra burdens he takes endanger his usefulness. The Lord would have Dr. Kellogg preserve his life, that he may do the work and exert the influence needed in the management of the Sanitarium. His voice can do more at times than the voices of ten of his co-workers. There are wheels within wheels, and it is not a small matter to keep these wheels in such order that they can accomplish the work.

The Lord’s eye is upon you, Dr. Kellogg. The light given by God is that there are dangers you need to avoid. God’s work in many lines is to be done. Your voice and the voice of your associate physicians are needed in our camp-meetings. You need to [17] give lessons upon health reform, upon the necessity of preventing disease. But the Lord has not laid upon you the burden of presenting the importance of working altogether for the outcasts. That is a part of the work which will come. I am told to warn you that there is danger here. While you may present the favorable things, there are a flood of things that are unfavorable that all will not meet intelligently.

This work needs to be guarded most strenuously. At present time the means from the churches must not be diverted into so many different channels that the treasury is emptied. Our people need to be faithful in paying their tithe, that the ministry may be supported, and the necessary work done in this line. Many more camp-meetings must be held. Efforts are to be put forth for the people all through the camp-meeting. Visiting is to be done. Words in season are to be spoken. Efforts are to be made to make the meetings revival meetings. And after the camp-meetings the work is not to cease. “Ye have not chosen me,” Christ said, “but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you. These things I command you, that ye love one another.” God’s servants are to watch and pray, losing no opportunity of speaking a word for Christ or of giving away a paper or a tract. The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. Christ’s love for souls will fill the heart of the sincere worker. It is a most deplorable thing that any human being should stray from God. Those who have any connection with God will work to help sinners. And there is to be perfect unity among all the workers in God’s great moral vineyard.

Most earnest work should be done in a camp-meeting from the commencement to the close. There should be those who can conduct children’s meetings. In our camp-meeting at Newcastle Sister Peck took up this work, with several interested workers under her direction. Those meetings were continued all through the camp-meeting, and are still being held.

After the camp-meeting is over, ministers should be left to follow up the work, with those who can be educated to give Bible readings and trained as missionary workers. This work requires a treasury enriched by the tithe and by gifts and offerings.

The Lord works and His servants work, watching for souls as they must give an account. The promised Spirit comes from God, who give the increase. God sends His servants to a place, and they must work with all their united energies to present the word in its simplicity. The conscience is enlightened. A sense of sin is felt. The explanation of sin is given as John has given it, “Sin is the transgression of the law.” Most [18] earnest work is done in every place where camp-meetings are held. There are now in Brisbane, as a result of the campmeeting and the gathering in work, about thirty believers and others are being added to the numbers.

Let all God’s workers study the plan of salvation, and think what the working out of that plan cost. Calvary speaks with all its agony of suffering. There the Son of God died to secure eternal life for those who receive Him. No one but Christ can make man a partaker of the divine nature. Only His human hand pierced on Calvary’s cross, can lay hold of fallen man, and uplift him. [19]

Recopied July 11, 1928 K—55—99 V. E. R.

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, N. S. W.

March 24, 1899

Dr. Kellogg:

Dear Brother,

I have nothing more at present to send you, except that the Lord has impressed my mind forcibly that anything more I might say would do no good. There are some things that can be said in the future, when hearts and minds are where the Holy Spirit can work Them.

All I have to say now is that your way and spirit toward your brethren is not approved by God. He calls for unity. Variance and dissension are not created by the Lord. The Lord has given light to men that it may be a help to them and all connected with them. If the same spirit is manifested to justify and condemn what has been cherished in the past, settle it in your mind that Jesus Christ is not glorified. The softening, subduing influence of the Spirit of God is greatly needed. Nothing can dishonor God more than the independent self-sufficiency which marks the defections of your brethren and fails to see your own dangers and defects. I am afraid for you. I am afraid for my brethren in responsible positions.

I will now hold my peace; for anything I might say may confuse. I fear for nothing that I have written. It lies out in clear, straight lines, because the Holy Spirit is working with the human agent. I greatly fear that the power and glory of God which may come in will not be recognized. God says, Work in unity. He does not say that your course has been one which will advance and unite hearts. You need to put on Christ, to follow your own Leader more closely. You are in a positive danger through your own spirit, which will always strive for the supremacy unless it is kept in subjection. You are upon a high pinnacle of greatness, because the Lord has prospered the principles you have advocated. But the Lord never designed that you should criticise your brethren and hold yourself aloof from them because they do not put their whole interest in the work you are interested in.

My brother, the Lord does not sanction any disunion or any variance. If you draw in even cords with your Redeemer, you will draw in even cords with your brethren. There is need [20] of unity, else Christ would not have prayed for this oneness. This oneness does not mean that all should do the work you are doing, or that you are to feel that you are to do the work your brethren are doing. Your several works are to blend together. If you are one with Christ and with one another, you bear the credentials that God has sent His Son into the world. The Lord then has a seal to His work. We must cease the work of criticising and fault-finding, and sustain the hands of our brethren.

We must not tear one another down, the work of absorbing in America the means in the churches, so that foreign fields are deprived of facilities with which to carry on the work should not be encouraged. We have been deprived in this country of means we should have had.

The light came to me, clear and distinct, that the Medical Missionary work was absorbing too much, while a more definite work in special lines was being neglected, that you gathering into your arms a class of work that is never-ending, which was eclipsing the work that needs to be done in every city,-the proclamation of the soon coming of Christ. The third angel’s message was being blanketed, and you were not altogether straight on these things. There was danger in several ways that you did not discern. You are a man of special influence. You will sway heavily in any course you take, whether right or wrong; and I wrote to this effect. The danger is that you will withdraw yourself, and make of your work a great center; and this you will certainly do unless you fulfill to the letter the word of the Lord. You are to build up, and in no wise to weaken or tear down. The Lord will lead you if you do not pull too strong to lead yourself. When you are baptized with the Holy Spirit of God, you will draw in harmony. You are to stop censuring your brethren, and they are to help to sustain you; for a heavy responsibility rests upon you. You are not to exalt the work you are doing; for it is only as the arm is to the body. This cannot and must not be. You would make the medical missionary work the body and not the arm. You are out of order, and you must be called to order. I write this because I do not want everything turned in this one channel to the extinguishing of every other important work. God does not want your sympathies drawn wholly in one direction while everything else is ignored.

I leave these words with you, my brother. You are certainly gathering more than you can carry. God help you to be wise, that the church, as well as the medical missionary work, may be helped. The medical missionary work needs to be more proportionately balanced. God help you. [21]

Re-copied July 11, 1928 D. F. 193 V. E. R.

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong,

April 17, 1899

To Our Chief Physician:

My dear brother,

I have a most intense interest in you and your work, and I pray that the Lord will guide my pen as I write to you. The Lord has made you a man of His appointment, and the angels of God have been your helpers. The Lord has placed you in the position that you occupy, not because you are infallible, but because He desires to guide your mind by His Holy Spirit. He desires you to impart to those with whom you come in contact a knowledge of present truth. Grave responsibilities have been entrusted to you, and on no account should you allow yourself to be entangled in work that will weaken your influence with Seventh-day Adventists. The Lord has chosen you to fill a place of His appointment, to stand before the medical profession, not to be moulded, but to mould minds. Every day you are to be under the supervision of God. He is your Maker, your Redeemer. He has a work for you to do, not separated from Seventh-day Adventists, but united with them. You are to be a great blessing to your brethren by giving them the knowledge that He has given you.

Through you God has worked and will work, honoring you by trusting to you important responsibilities. “We are laborers together with God.” He will use you and me and each human being who enters His service, if we will submit to His guidance. Each one is to stand in his watchtower, listen attentively to that which the Spirit has to say to him, remembering that his every word and act leaves an impression, not only on his own character but on the characters of those with whom he is connected.

“God’s Building”

“Ye are God’s husbandry; ye are God’s building.” This figure represents human character, which is to be wrought upon, point by point. Each day God works with His building, stroke upon stroke, to perfect the structure, that it may become a Holy temple for Him. Man is to co-operate with God. Each worker [22] is to become just what God designs him to be, building his life with pure, noble deeds, that in the end his character may be a symmetrical structure, a fair temple, honored by God and Man. There is to be no flaw in the building; for it is the Lord’s. Every stone must be perfectly laid, that it may endure the pressure placed upon it. One stone laid wrong will affect the whole building. To you and to every other worker God gives the warning: “Take heed how you build, that your building may stand the test of storm and tempest, because it is founded on the eternal Rock. Place the stone on the sure foundation, that you may make ready for the day of test and trial, when all will be seen just as they are.

A Temple of Living Stones

“He loves you with a love that is immeasurable.”

This warning God presents to be as especially necessary for your welfare. He loves your brethren in the faith, and He works with them to the same end that He works with you. His church on earth is to assume divine proportions before the world, as a temple built of living stones, each one reflecting light. It is to be the light of the world, as a city set on a hill, that can not be hid. It is built of stones laid close together, stone fitting to stone, making a firm, solid building. All the stones are not of the same form or shape. Some are large, some are small, but each has its own place to fill. And the value of each stone is determined by the light that it reflects. This is God’s plan. He desires all who are engaged in His work to fill their appointed places in the great work for this time.

We are living amidst the perils of the last days. We are wisely to cultivate every mental and physical power; for all are needed to make the church a building that will represent the wisdom of the great Designer. The talents given us by God are His gifts, and are to be used in their right relation to one another, so as to make a perfect whole. God gives the talents the powers of the mind; man forms the character.

Different Instrumentalities

The Lord has wrought with you, enabling you to act your part as His workman; but there are other workmen also who are to act their part as His instrumentalities. These help to compose the whole body. All are to be united as parts of a great machine. The Lord’s church is composed of living, working agencies, who derive their power to act from the Author and Finisher [23] of their faith. The great work resting upon them is to be carried forward in harmony. God has given you your work. But He has other instrumentalities, and to them He has given their work, that all may become, through sanctification of the truth, members of Christ’s body, of His flesh, and of His bones. Representing Christ, we act for time and for eternity; and men, even worldly men, take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him.

Truth a Unit

God’s people are not to be in confusion, lacking order and harmony, consistency and beauty. The Lord is greatly dishonored when unity does not exist among His people. Truth is a unit. The unity that God requires must be cultivated day by day, if we would answer the prayer of Christ. The disunion that is striving for existence among those who claim to believe the last message of mercy to be given to the world must find no place; for it would be a fearful hindrance to the advancement of God’s work. His servants are to be one, as Christ is one with the Father, their powers, illuminated, inspired, and sanctified, united to make a complete whole. Those who love God and keep His commandments are not to draw apart; they are to press together.

Words of Cheer

The Lord does not forsake His faithful workmen. Bear in mind that our life in this world is but a pilgrimage, that heaven is the home to which we are going. Have faith in God. If my words have wounded and bruised your soul, I am sorry; I am wounded and bruised also. Our work, a strange work, a great work, given us by God, links us heart and soul together. You dare not throw off your armor. You must wear it till the end. When the Lord releases you, it will be time for you to lay down your armor at His feet. You have enlisted in His army to serve till the close of the battle, and you would not disgrace yourself and dishonor God by deserting. May the Lord open to you many matters that He has opened to me. Satan is watching His opportunity, to dishonor the cause of God. I have been shown your peril, and I have also been shown your guardian angel, preserving you again and again from yourself, keeping you from making shipwreck of faith. My brother, lift up the standard, lift it up, and be not faint-hearted or discouraged.

I have given leading men in the General Conference and the Mission Board the light given me by God,—that you and they should counsel together; that instead of holding themselves aloof, they should be your fellow-helpers; that you had been ordained by God to stand in a position of trust, and you needed help instead of censure. [24]

In the intensity of my desire that you should make straight paths for your feet, I have written earnest words to you, but never, never to denounce or condemn you. O that God would make you understand that my deep interest in you has not changed in the least. I have a most earnest desire that you shall stand fast in God, firm, tried, and true. I know that the Lord wants you to have the crown of victory. [25]

Re-copied July 13, 1928 MS—117—99 V. E. R.

The Medical Missionary Work

I have much to say, but when I see that the words I shall speak will be used to carry out the extravagant ideas of men, while the work of eternal interest is not considered, I feel like holding my peace.

The medical missionary work is God’s work, and there should be branches of this work in every place where the gospel of present truth is preached; but the medical missionary work does not consist in binding every power and facility to the work of lifting up the depraved classes, while fields all ripe for the harvest are left untouched. Workers need to be trained who will proclaim the truth in the dark places of the earth.

Work must be done not only for the outcasts, but for the higher classes of society. Not half the effort is made that should be made to win this class to God. As I meet noble looking men and women, my heart yearns toward them. I think of the possibilities before them; for they have talents. But they are not aware of their dependence upon God for every spiritual and temporal favor. If they would give themselves to God, how grandly the truth would be displayed through their agency. God says to them, “Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God’s.” Lay not up for yourself treasures on earth but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where Christ is pleading for you. Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth.” To work for this class requires tact and ingenuity and individual effort by workers whose hearts are softened by the grace of God. While the world is heaping up treasures for the fires of the last days, let those who believe the truth work with all their God-given abilities to gain eternal treasures.

I would not have any of our people so narrow that they should say to Sister Henry, Sever your connection with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Sister Henry can sow the seeds of truth in this society. Not that she need give all the knowledge she has obtained on subjects that are objectionable. She can tell the glad tidings of salvation. Then when hearts have become warmed by the Holy Spirit’s working, and the walls of prejudice begin to give way, she can present the truth point by point. This work for the W.C.T.U. has a wearying and discouraging side, and we should unite in helping our sister. [26] Only eternity will reveal what has been accomplished by this kind of ministry, how many souls, sick with doubt, and tired of worldliness and unrest have been brought to the great Physician, who longs to save to the uttermost all who will come unto Him. Christ is a risen Saviour, and there is healing in His Wings.

The medical missionary work is to burst all barriers. All are invited to take a part in it, and help where help is needed. The wealthy are to be reached, and their sympathy and assistance solicited; for are they not the Lord’s stewards? Idle children are to be instructed; they are to enlist in the army of workers to help the sick and suffering. Train the children, for they are the Lord’s heritage. As the children sang in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Highest, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” so in these days children’s voices will be raised to give the last message of warning to a perishing world. We are not to shut ourselves away from our fellow beings. We are to be in the world, while not of the world.

The lads can take a part in medical missionary work, and by their jobs and tittles help to carry it forward. Their investments may be small, but every little helps, and by their efforts many souls will be won to the truth. By then God’s message will be made known, and His saving health to all nations.

A solemn responsibility rests upon parents to teach their children to work for all who are unconverted. They are never to be ashamed to use their hands in lifting home burdens, or their feet in running errands. While they are thus engaged, they will not run in paths of negligence and sin. How many hours are wasted by the children and youth which might be spent in carrying home burdens and thus showing a loving interest in father or mother. They might take upon their strong young shoulders the responsibilities which some one must bear.

The value of time is beyond computation. Time squandered can never be recovered. A king on his death bed was heard to exclaim, My kingdom for one hour of time. Every moment granted to the youth is precious. Not one can they afford to idle away; for they are stewards of God. They are sowing not only for time; but for eternity, and that which they sow they will also reap again.

The improvement of wasted moments is a treasure. When He fed the five thousand people with five loaves and two small fishes, Christ taught a lesson which the youth would do well to heed. After all had satisfied their hunger He commanded the disciples, “Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.” The hours, the days, the weeks, the years are passing into eternity. What record are they leaving behind?

The youth who grow up careless and rude in words and manners [27] reveal the character of their home training. The parents have not realized the importance of their stewardship, and the harvest they have sown, they have also reaped.

Children, never prove unfaithful stewards in the home. Never shirk your duty. Good hard work makes firm sinews and muscles. In promoting the prosperity of the home, you will bring the richest blessings to yourselves.

Parents cannot commit a greater sin that to neglect their God-given responsibilities in leaving their children with nothing to do; for these children will soon learn to love idleness, and grow up to be shiftless, useless men and women. When they become old enough to earn their living, and are taken into employment, they will work in a lazy droning way, and will think they will be paid just the same if they idle away their time, as if they did faithful work. There is every difference between this class of workers and those who realize that they must be faithful stewards. In whatsoever line of work they engage, the youth should be “diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,” for he that is unfaithful in that which is least, is unfaithful also in much. [28]

Re-copied July 15, 1928 K—204—99 V. E. R.

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, N. S. W.

December 12, 1899

Dr. J. H. Kellogg:

Dear Brother,

I would help if I could, but I do not know how to help you. The dangers of your plan of operation in connection with the Conference held in South Lancaster were presented before me. I saw that you could not plan and devise as you had been doing, to carry out your ideas, without injury to yourself and to the cause of God. I was instructed by the Lord that your temptation would be to make your medical missionary work stand above every other work independent of the Conference. But this plan was not right. You were tempted by the enemy, and I hasten to write to you. I sent a copy of the letter to Elder Irwin; for it was necessary that some one besides yourself should know your danger, that efforts might be made to save you from the course of action you had premeditated.

You needed the counsel of others than your colleagues. Fresh new ideas were needed in your councils; for all your ideas did not bear the divine credentials. You had been swaying the minds of those connected with the medical missionary work, until you and others were becoming like men lost in a fog of uncertainty.

You had your work, to which God appointed you. You were to be a faithful physician of the souls as well as of the bodies of those under your charge. Had you fulfilled this responsibility with all the keen talent God has given you in trust, you would not have worked alone. One who never makes a mistake was presiding. Only the Holy Spirit’s power can keep your spirit sweet and fragrant, soft and subdued, ever trusting in God, ever speaking the right words at the right time....

Never, never should a sanitarium be established to become an interest independent of the church. Genuine medical missionary work is in no case to become divorced from the gospel ministry. The cross is the center of all religious institutions. These institutions are to be under the control of the Spirit of God, and no one man is to be the sole head in these institutions. The divine mind has men for every place. [29]

Re-copied July 15, 1928 K—215—99 V. E. R.

Jan. 12. 1900

Dr. J. H. Kellogg:

I write to you as a mother would to her son. I would go to see you if I could feel it my duty to leave the work here; but I dare not do this. You have built up hopes and nurtured plans without due consideration of how the tower is to be finished and supported. As one who knows, as one who has been permitted to have an insight into the future and the result of the work you have taken upon you, I call upon you to stop and consider. God knows your frame. He knows that you are but dust, even the small dust of the balance. You will certainly need the counsel, not of those who have permitted you to go on in the work that you deemed so important, but the counsel of men who at present time are more level-headed than even J.H. Kellogg.

I wish to state, Dr. Kellogg, that if you will receive the messages of warning given you, it will save you from great trial and mortification, and will be to the saving of your soul. Cast not behind you as of no consequence the warnings which as yet you do not understand. I tell you plainly that you are carrying forward that which you call missionary work according to misconceived judgment and opinions. The Sanitarium will suffer because you have given yourself up to do a work for which God will call you into account. I have been instructed that you have been doing a work which the Lord never appointed you to do. Means have been drawn from the Sanitarium to erect buildings for the care of people who can never be relied on to fill places in the ministry or on councils. They have not a knowledge of the work of character-building, and they can not be relied on as men of forethought. They have ruined their mental powers and destroyed their spiritual discernment by the indulgence of appetite and passion, and this makes them weak. They are fickle and changeable.

The Lord has shown me that if the enemy can by any means divert the work into wrong channels, and thus hinder its advancement, he will do so. The place assigned you by the Lord was under Him in the divine Theocracy. You are to learn of Jesus, the great Teacher. You were to be and do after His character and example.

I have been forced to inquire why several of our canvassers in this field who were canvassing for “Home Hand Book” have left the field having only paid their expenses. Some did not even do this. They stated that when the time came for them to deliver their books, they could not obtain copies to deliver. They were themselves greatly disappointed, and the people who [30] were expecting the books were also disappointed. What shall we do about this? I have talked with the men at the Echo Office about it, and they say that they can not obtain copies of “Home Hand Book”.

At every camp-meeting we make special efforts to get before the people the light on health reform, as contained in your publications. But while you have been consuming, you have not been producing. Never was there a time in this country when a great interest was shown in regard to questions relating to health. What is it that hinders your books from being supplied to our offices, to be furnished to the canvassers. Shall this delay continue? Shall the people still be disappointed.

I have been instructed to say that you have drawn your time and strength and money away from enterprises which if they had been advanced, would have done ten fold more good than the enterprises that you have carried forward. Invention after invention has taken your time and means. Your money has been used in a way that has done more harm than good. The setting of men to work in various ways in what is called medical missionary work has consumed much time and money, but has produced next to nothing. The Lord has entrusted capital to you, to be used in advancing His kingdom, and if you misuse this capital you must settle with Him.

Investments have been made without sitting down and counting the cost, without finding out whether there was enough money to carry forward the work started. A shortsightedness has been shown in your plans. Men have failed to see that the Lord’s vineyard embraces the world. There is such a thing as investing money in that which it is hard to say is not a good work, because explanation can not always be made to the one whose brain has been constantly at work to create and invent, but who has not the income to sustain the enterprises started.

The income of the Sanitariums that have been established must not be drawn upon to sustain the work so-called medical missionary work. The means that has been used to sustain this large and ever increasing work should by the Lord’s order, have been used in making plants in other countries, where the light of health reform has not shone. Sanitariums less costly than the large ones erected in America, should have been built. Thus plants would have been made which would have produced fruit, and when strong, would have established plants in other localities.

The Lord is not partial. But He has been misrepresented. The work that should have been done in the different parts of His vineyard has been hindered because men have failed to see how the work has been overdone. In this way money has been used to enable workers in other parts of the vineyard to move forward without hindrance in the work of elevating the standard of truth. Some [31] portions of the vineyard are not to be robbed in order that the means may be absorbed in one spot.

Man judges in accordance with his finite judgment. God looks at the character of the fruit borne, and then judges the tree. In the name of the Lord, I call upon all to think of the work we are required to do, and how this work is to be sustained. The world is the Lord’s vineyard, and it is to be worked. Suppose in every place where there is a large center, the work which has been done in America should be made the pattern. Where would be our memorials of truth, which are to make a proper impression on the world?

There are those who are in danger of bringing into the work the objectionable sentiments received in former education. They need to practice the principles laid down in the Word, else the work will be marred and spoiled by their preconceived ideas. When we work with all the sanctified ability God has given us, when we put aside our will for the will of God, when self is crucified day by day, then actual results are seen. We move forward in faith, knowing that our Lord has promised to undertake the work entrusted to Him, and that He will accomplish it, for He never makes a mistake.

The Lord’s servants are merely stewards at work. The Lord’s part of the work is to do that which is entrusted to Him when His followers surrender themselves to Him to be worked by the Holy Spirit. When by faith men place themselves in the Lord’s hands, saying, “Here am I, send me”, He undertakes this work. He does that which is entrusted to Him. But men must get out of the Lord’s way. They must not by their devising hinder His purpose. For years the Lord has had a controversy with His people because they have followed their own judgment, and have not relied on divine wisdom. If the workers get in God’s way, hindering the advancement of the work, thinking that their own power is sufficient for the planning and carrying forward of the work, the Lord will correct their error. By His divine Spirit He disciplines and trains every worker. He shapes His own providences to carry forward His work according to His mind and judgment.

If men would only humble themselves before God, if they would not exalt their judgment as the all-controlling influence, if they would make room for the Lord to plan and work, the Lord would use the qualifications He has given them in a way that would glorify His name. He will purify His workers from all selfishness, trimming down their superfluous plans, cutting off the branches that would entwine around this and that undesirable object, pruning the vine so that it will produce fruit. God is the great Husbandman, He will make everything in the lives of those who are laborers together with Jesus Christ, by making them partakers of the divine nature, to cause them to bear fruit abundantly. He desires His people, through actual experience in the truth of the [32] gospel to become true, solid, trustworthy, experimental missionaries. He would have them show results for higher, holier, and more definite than have been revealed in the last fifteen years.

The potter takes the clay in his hands, and molds and fashions it according to his own will. He kneads it and works it, and then tears it apart, and then presses it together. He wets it, and then dries it. He lets it lie for a while without touching it. When it is perfectly pliable, he continues the work of making from it a vessel. He forms it into shape, and on the wheel trims and polishes it. He dries it in the sun, and bakes it in the oven, thus it becomes a vessel unto honor, fit for his use. So the great Master desires to mold and fashion us, and as the clay is in the hands of the potter, so we are to be made in His hands. We are not to try to do the work of the potter. Our part is to yield ourselves to the molding of the Master-worker.

It is not a great number of institutions, large buildings, and wonderful display that God requires, but the harmonious actions of a peculiar people, a people chosen by God and precious, one with one another, their life hid with Christ in God. The Lord will never place one man as a controlling power over another man. Every man is to stand in his lot and in his place, exerting a right influence in thought, word, and judgment. When all God’s workers do this, and not till then, will the work be a complete, symmetrical whole. Individually we need solid faith, which is in perfect harmony with the first declaration of the first, second, and third angel’s messages. The work that the gospel embraces as missionary work is a straight-forward, substantial work, which will shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. God does not want the faith of His peculiar people to take on the features or appearance of the work now called medical missionary work. The means and talents of His people are not to be buried in the slums of New York or Chicago. God’s work is to be carried on in right lines. Self-denial, self-sacrifice, and the true missionary spirit are to be shown. We are to work as Christ worked, in simplicity and meekness, in lowliness and sanctified moral elevation. Thus we can do a work distinct from all other missionary work in our world.

My brother, you have not as much firmness and assurance as you have had. You have the most critical cases to handle, and at times a dread comes upon you. To perform these difficult duties, you know that rapid work must be done, that no false moves must be made. Again and again you have had to pass swiftly from task to task. Who has been by your side during these critical operations? Who has kept you calm and self-possessed in the crisis, giving you quick, sharp discernment, clear eyesight, steady nerves, and skillful precision? The Lord Jesus has sent His angel to your side, to tell you what to do. A hand has been laid upon your hand. Jesus, not you, has guided the movements of your hand. At times you have [33] realized this, and a wonderful calmness has come over you. You dared not hurry, yet you worked rapidly, knowing that here was not a second to waste. The Lord has greatly blessed you. Others who knew not of the presiding Presence working with you gave you all the glory. Eminent physicians have witnessed your operations, and praised your skill. This has been pleasant to you. You have not always been able to endure the seeing of the invisible by faith. You have been under divine guidance. You have been greatly honored by God, that His name, and not yours, should be magnified. But you had a great desire to distinguish yourself; you have not placed your entire dependence upon God. You have not been willing to heed the counsel of the Lord’s servant. With your own brain you have planned many things. The Lord would have you respect the gospel ministry. At the very time you needed discerning eyes, that you might see, not only one side of the work, but all sides, you chose for counsellors men under the reproof of God, as did Elder Olsen. If they would second your propositions, you would link up with them, to start enterprises that the Lord placed no burden on you to start. The Lord has given you a work that you have strangely neglected.

The Lord gave you your work, not to be done in a rush, but in a calm, considered manner. The Lord never compels hurried, complicated movements. But you have gathered to yourself responsibilities that the Lord, the merciful Father, did not place upon you. Duties He has never ordained, chase each other wildly. Never are His servants to leave one given duty marred or incomplete in order to seize hold of another. He who labors in the calmness of the fear of God does not do work in a haphazard manner, for fear something will hinder an anticipated plan, if he does not rush it through.

Praying and seeking the Lord, the surrender of the man, J. H. Kellogg, to the guidance of God, would have prevented the creating of many things which have been born, not of the will of God, but of the will of men. You were given your appointed work, but you have neglected things of great importance to take up with your own impulsive spirit, unadvised by the Lord or your brethren, things of minor importance. The brethren could have given you counsel, but you despised any word that interfered with your schemes, which have placed you in an intricate position. Had you done your appointed work, God would have made you a laborer with Him.

The Lord wants your mind to blend with other minds. His servants have sometimes attempted to differ with you. This was the very thing God required them to do. But you treated their advice in such a way that they remained silent when they should have spoken. God desires those He has placed in positions of trust as stewards not to use your brains, but the talents He has given them personally. They are to do justice and judgment in [34] all wisdom because they see the necessity of your changing your course of action.

You do not allow men to think and act on their own individual responsibility. You and Brother Haskell and Brother Butler saw the difficulties in Elder James White and the necessity of blending together to remove responsibilities from him. If he needed this, you have come to the place where you need it tenfold more. And yet no one associated with you dares to tell you the truth.

I bore the testimony given me by the Lord, and you, J. H. Kellogg, declared that it was not true. You took the message in such a way that the effect of it nearly unbalanced your mind. Every word that was written to you was true, and sometime you will see that the message was written to you in mercy, to save you from dishonoring yourself and dishonoring God. If you had received the light, in the place of trying to pick flaws in the words given, the Lord would have blessed you. But your course of action cast a reflection of me; and you are still trying to criticize and to prove, if possible, that the warning was not from God, but was the report of some one who had written to me. You are going over the ground gone over by every other man who has not wanted to be interfered with by counsel or reproof. You are showing that the testimony of warning was not premature, but was sent at the right time.

If you are determined to carry on the same kind of warfare that you have been carrying on, straining nerve, brain, and muscle to come out ahead, and to prove that the message the Lord sent was not true, you will find that your plans will be counterworked by Him who for years has been giving you warnings.

The Lord has not laid upon you the burdens you have been carrying. The result of your carrying these burdens is felt all through the vineyard of the Lord. God has not called His people to ignore present truth for these last days, and take up a work that so absorbs workers and means that the Lord is not represented as He would otherwise be. Never would a rival Sanitarium have been through Satan’s devising, planted so close to the Lord’s institution if you had kept at your work for the class of people whom the Lord desires to become acquainted with present truth, the message God has given to those who follow Him to be communicated to the world. The Sanitarium in Battle Creek was to bring the chosen people of God before men of high standing to represent the ways and works and power of God. It was to be His witness in behalf of truth, elevated, sanctifying truth. The Lord made you, my brother, His honored instrument. He has never required from you one task that would crowd out your work in connection with the institution that was to stand for truth, to do a certain work for God, flashing light upon the pathway of thousands. [35]

The Lord would have kept the Sanitarium pure and true, to represent the truth for these last days. But the very ones who should have helped you do this work, you have despised, and turned from as unworthy of your notice. God sees that His work is being lowered into the slums, as Satan wants it to be; that the elevated sanctification of the truth will become so mingled with tares that its peculiar, holy character will sink out of sight. The Lord saw how this would be, and He sent you warnings. Yet your study is to go right on in your own way, and pick flaws in the message, just as others have done before you. I dare not trust the messages in your hands. You read that portion which sustains you, but the portions which warn and caution and give the note of alarm, you do not bring before those who should hear them.

You have had a great and sacred work to do. If you hold faithfully to the work God has assigned you, through the skill given you, you will be enabled to work swiftly, though never appearing to be in haste. When your eyes are opened you will see the deep poverty of the mission fields. You will see that the workers there are hampered at every step, while the Lord’s money is being used to sustain other inventions and institutions, so that the message which should be given to the world, the first, second, and third angel’s messages, are lost sight of.

Faith and works are closely united. Men must be taught, not only by words, but in practice, that they are not to defer in everything to you. Elder Butler thought that everybody must yield to him. He came to think that he must command everything. This destroyed his brain power. He was only a finite instrument. He could not impart what he has not received.

God impresses different men to be laborers together with Him. One man is not authorized to gather too many responsibilities upon himself. The Lord would have the physician, upon whom so much depends, so closely connected with Him that his spirit will not be stirred by little items which common sense would teach people how to deal with. The Lord desires Dr. Kellogg to be one of the most efficient workers in the medical profession, slighting nothing, knowing that he has a Counsellor close by his side to sustain to strengthen, to impart a quietness a calm to the soul. Feverishness of spirit and uncertainty will make the hand unskillful. The touch of Christ upon the physician’s hand brings vitality, steadiness, restfulness, and confidence, and power.

God desires His institutions and His chosen and adopted children to do Him honor by representing the attributes of Christian character. Those who are supposed to be rescued from the pit into which they have fallen cannot be relied upon as counsellors, as those who can be trusted to engage in the sacred work done in these last days. The enemy is determined to mix error with truth. To do this he uses the opportunity given him by the debased class for whom so much money is expended, whose appetites have been [36] perverted through indulgence, whose souls have been abused, whose characters are misshapen and deformed, whose habits and desires are grovelling, who think habitually upon evil. Such ones can be transformed in character; but few ever are. Many make a superficial change in their habits and practices, and then suppose that they are Christians. They are received into church fellowship; but they are a great trouble and a great care. Through them Satan tries to sow in the church the seeds of jealousy, dishonesty, criticism, and accusing. Thus he tried to corrupt the other members of the church. The same disposition that mastered the man, led him to break away from all restraint and brought him into the place where he was found. He is reported to be rescued. But time shows that the work done for him did not make him a submissive child of God. Resentful feelings rise at every supposed slight. He cherishes bitterness, wrath, malice. By his words and spirit, he shows that he has not been born again. His tendencies are downward, tending to sensuality. He is untrustworthy, unthankful, unholy. Thus it is with all the debased who have not been soundly converted. Everyone of these marred characters, untransformed, become an efficient worker for Satan, creating dissension and strife.

The Lord has marked out His way of working. As a people we are not to imitate and fall in with the Salvation Army methods. This is not the work the Lord has given us to do. Neither is it our work to condemn them and speak harsh words against them. There are precious, self-sacrificing souls in the Salvation Army. We are to treat them kindly. There are in the Army honest souls, sincerely serving the Lord, who will see greater light, and will advance to the acceptance of all truth. Those in the Salvation Army are trying to save the neglected downtrodden ones. Discourage them not. Let them do that class of work by their own methods and in their own way. The Lord has plainly stated what the Seventh-day Adventists are to do. Camp-meetings are to be appointed, and a series of tent-meetings held. There should be no hesitancy in presenting the truth applicable for this time. A decided testimony is to be borne. The discourses given should be so simple that children can understand them. [37]

Re-copied July 15, 1928 B—106-1900 V. E. R.

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, 1900

Officers of Medical Missionary Association
and the Battle Creek Sanitarium
To Those Whom it May Concern:-

How shall we advance the work of God, Shall we say to the ministers, We are ready to dismiss you. We will carry forward the medical missionary work according to our own ideas. You do not work as we desire you to, and we want none of your counsel.

Has the Lord given medical missionaries the work of disparaging the ministry and exalting their own work in contrast? We wish all to understand this. The Lord does not design His work to be done after the manner in which it has been carried forward for years in America. The unworthy and the unrighteous have received advantages which should have been given to others. The work has been swayed in wrong lines. Shall it continue thus? Shall there be no change? God says, Set things in order, and connect with Me. God has the salvation of the world before Him, not the salvation of those in one or two places. The gospel must be preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come.

Many are asking me how I regard the ministry of the gospel with reference to the medical missionary work. These two lines of work should blend. They both help to compose the body. The genuine medical missionary work should not be exalted above the gospel ministry. Some are in danger of regarding the medical missionary work as the body, when it is only the arm and the hand.

God has given Dr. Kellogg every encouragement to believe that the heavenly angels would be by his side if he would pursue a right course. But notwithstanding the warnings and reproofs which have been given him, he has persistently followed his own way. He is now demonstrating the truth of the warnings which have been given him. He has not done what he might have done as God’s steward to build up the work in solid lines, that it might in the highest degree represent Christ. He has been diverted from the right way. He has deceived himself and those who are associated with him. I would warn him again of the danger of the road over which he is traveling. God has given no mortal man license to judge his delegated ministers in the way Dr. Kellogg has judged [38] them. Dr. Kellogg has no more right to judge the ministers than the ministers have to judge him.

The time will come when Dr. Kellogg will see that his spirit and actions have not been such that God could say to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” When the heavenly eyesalve is applied to his eyes, he will see his course as it really is. He will see that some phases of his work are just as much opposed to the teachings of the gospel as are the works of the enemies of the cross of Christ

As a people we must stand together, refusing to be coerced into signing contracts binding themselves about in order to be favored. God says, “Stand bravely for the right; follow Bible principles; and I will be with you as your helper.” But when God’s people play the cowards as they did at the meeting concerning Lincoln College, they show that they fear man more than they fear God. When God is with a man, that man receives power from on high, and can guide and direct, but when a man is controlled by another spirit, his wisdom is to be regarded and treated as foolishness.

God will be with His people just as long as they follow His directions. If He says to one, Go to Nineveh, and warn the inhabitants of that wicked city of their danger, He sends His angels with His servant to protect him till his work is done. But we need to remember that in our association and connection with the depraved, there are bounds and barriers which cannot safely be overstepped. We need to be guarded, lest the atmosphere surrounding our souls shall become clouded, and through Satan’s deceptive power we shall lose all sense of the difference between righteousness and holiness and defilement and sin.

Man’s only safety is constant, earnest belief in the truth. We are to follow the very lines of work God has laid down. Satan is over on the ground, taking advantage of every circumstance to prevent man from being sanctified through the truth as it is in Jesus. He seeks to lead them to pursue such a course that he can lead them to carry out his own purposes.

The Lord desires memorials for Him to be established in all parts of the world. Here in Australia we have tried to advance in God’s appointed way, taking the Bible as our rule of faith and practice. The only safety for the cause and the work of God in these last days, when deception is so prevalent, is to preserve the principles which have been the foundation of our success. If we desire to have God’s blessing, we must practice Christ’s self-denial and self-sacrifice. Study the Word of God. Walk and work as Christ walked and worked. Men must put away the ambitious schemes which have puffed them up and exalted them in their own estimation, when they should always keep humble. Let those who desire to follow a course of action which represents the life of [39] Christ, hear His words, “He that will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.”

God help his servants to cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils. They have trusted in human help until they stand under the displeasure of God. -

Right principles are to be strenuously maintained by the people who claim to be chosen of God. The work in our institutions is to be as open as the day. The people have a perfect right to know what is done in these institutions. They are not to be left in ignorance as to how the money they donate to the cause of God is appropriated. And those in positions of responsibility in our institutions are not to grasp the highest wages. Do not repeat the experience of the past fifteen years. Christ says, “Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” That which makes the burden so grievously heavy is to have to meet the influence of men who have the intense desire to be original, to bring in a new order of things. Men who know little of practical godliness and true Christian service have been placed first as leaders. -

Christ’s atonement includes the whole human family. No one, high or low, rich or poor, free or bond, has been left out of the plan of redemption. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The duty of God’s stewards is to represent Christ, to stimulate men to rise from the atmosphere of heaven. Men and women need to realize day by day that Christ is their pattern. They are to follow his footsteps. He says, “Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” This is the great practical lesson which is to be thoroughly and intelligently learned. [40]

Re-copied July 15, 1928 MS—58—1901 V. E. R.

A Union of Ministerial and Medical Missionary Work Essential

In the night season I am laboring earnestly with persons who do not seem to understand that in the provisions of God the medical missionary work is to be as the right hand of the body. Some utterly fail to realize the importance of missionaries being also medical missionaries. A gospel minister will be twice as successful in his work if he understands how to treat disease.

Continually increasing light has been given me on this subject. Some who do not see the advantages of educating the youth to be physicians both of the mind and of the body, say that the tithe should not be used to support medical missionaries, who devote their time to treating the sick. In response to such statements as these, I am instructed to say that the mind must not become so narrowed down that it cannot take in the truth of the situation. A minister of the gospel, who is also a medical missionary, who can cure physical ailments, is a much more efficient worker than one who cannot do this. His work as a minister of the gospel is much more complete.

For many years I have been gathering rays of divine light on this subject. Let those who are being educated for the ministry receive an education in medical missionary lines. The time has come when the minister of the gospel who expects to go to foreign fields should have a knowledge of surgery, that in cases of necessity he will know how to handle medical instruments. This knowledge opens doors for the presentation of the truth to the higher classes as well as to the most lowly.

This sacred, solemn trust should be carefully guarded. Those who understand the principles of the gospel and the work of the physician should be encouraged to seek the Lord, believing that He will give knowledge. Nothing will open doors for the truth like evangelistic medical missionary work. This will find access to hearts and minds. and will be a means of converting many to the truth.

The evangelist who is prepared to minister to a diseased body is given the grandest opportunity of ministering to the sin-sick soul. Such an evangelist should be empowered to administer baptism to those who are converted and desire baptism.

The gospel is the power of God to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. It is God’s purpose that His gospel shall go to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples. And medical missionary work is the right, helping hand of the gospel, to open doors for the proclamation of the message. Preaching [41] the gospel to the heathen means much more than the well-filled churches in more favored lands comprehend.

As the medical missionary cares for the sick, if he is well equipped with knowledge and instruments for putting that knowledge into practice, he will surely break down prejudice. Women should be educated in medical missionary lines, that as they go forth to heathen countries, they may help those of their sisters who need help. In His service the Lord will open doors whereby His Word can find entrance.

Living the gospel, maintaining its principles, this is a savor of life. Doors that have been closed to him who merely preaches the gospel, will be opened to the intelligent medical missionary. God reaches hearts through the relief of physical suffering. A seed of truth is dropped into the mind, and is watered by God. Much patience may be required before this seed shows signs of life, but at last it springs up, and bears fruit unto eternal life.

How slow men are to understand God’s preparation of the day of His power. He works today to reach hearts in the same way that He worked when Christ was upon this earth. In reading the Word of God, we see that Christ brought medical missionary work into His ministry. Cannot our eyes be opened to discern Christ’s methods? Cannot we understand the commission He gave to His disciples and to us?

The world must have an antidote for sin. As the medical missionary works intelligently to receive suffering and save life, hearts are softened. Those who are helped are filled with gratitude. As the medical missionary works upon the body, God works upon the heart. The comforting words that are spoken are as a soothing balm, bringing assurance and trust. Often the skillful operator will have opportunity to tell of the work Christ did while He was upon this earth. Tell the suffering one the story of God’s love. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This gospel message, connected with practical missionary work, will be a saver of life unto life. The soul will be saved through belief in Christ.

Ignorance can appreciate the work of relieving suffering; and minds darkened by prejudice will give way before the God-fearing medical missionary. Thus the gospel will be brought to many souls who otherwise would not be reached.

Let no one consider that the Medical missionary work is taking the place of the gospel; for it is the gospel practiced, the gospel adapted to the needs of suffering humanity. It prepares the way for the reception of the truth. [42]

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tiding of good.” The gospel of Christ is to be preached in its true bearings, as that which saves to the uttermost all who believe. The doing of loving deeds is a helping hand which opens the door for the living word, making the wilderness and the solitary place to rejoice and blossom as the rose. [43]

Re-copied July 15, 1928 MS—74—1902 V.E.R. Unheeded Warnings

South Lancaster, Mass

November 27, 1901

The Lord has again shown me some things with reference to Dr. Kellogg’s dangers. May the Lord give me much of His Holy Spirit; for of myself I can not do the work that God has committed to me. And unless God shall influence the minds of Dr. Kellogg and his associates, they will surely say, “Who has been talking with Sister White?” My answer is, “One who is in authority”. But the question, “Who has been talking with Sister White?” by whomsoever asked, shows a lack of confidence in the work that the Lord has given me to do. It shows that this work is not appreciated.

Is it so that if, when the Testimonies come to our brethren, they harmonize with their ideas and plans, they are confident that they are of God; but that if, when they come, they do not harmonize with their cherished plans, they regard them as of no special value? If this is so, how can the message I bear fulfill the purpose for which it is sent? What power to help is there in the message I bear if when leading men receive from me a communication that cuts across their plans, they have so little faith in the Testimonies as to say that I have been influenced by my son or by some member of my family, or by some one else high or afar off. It is hard for me to believe that this is a true measure of their confidence. When the testimonies reprove men of experience, who are bearing large responsibilities, are we to expect that they will endeavor to justify themselves, as others of less experience have done? This is the temptation to which many yield, and by yielding they lose the benefits and blessings that they might receive by accepting the message.

Suppose that some one had talked with me concerning the work of Dr. Kellogg and other leading men. Do you think that I would dare to mingle these words and thought with the message that the Lord gives me for these brethren? While we are in this world, we shall always hear words of criticism regarding the course that others are pursuing. If my brethren look upon the warnings that they have received as being unimportant because of words that have been spoken and letters that have been written to me, if they refuse to accept the Testimonies given through me, because they think in their hearts, “Somebody has influenced Sister White; somebody has told her, “they must bear the responsibilities [44] of the influence of this course of action upon themselves and others.

It makes me very sad to know that some have yielded to this temptation. The Lord has charged me to enter into no controversy with any one who, when a message comes, shall ask, “Who has told Sister White?” I am neither to admit nor deny such charges, but to state the facts according to the instruction that God has given me at different times and in many places. If I do not speak, I am accountable for withholding the light. I have not wittingly but many times I have had cautions to defer speaking until the time of danger makes it necessary to speak.

I have so great an interest to see Dr. Kellogg following on to know the Lord, that I shall try to do my utmost to remove every shadow that might cause him to walk in strange paths. I shall listen to every word that he has to say to me. If he speaks right words, I shall thank my heavenly Father. If he speaks words, the truth concerning which I know much better than he himself, I shall never try to please him by calling darkness light and light darkness; for by so doing I should be imperilling his soul. If I speak at all, I shall always try to speak the truth,—that which is based on a “Thus saith the Lord”. Whatever interpretation may be placed upon my words, or whether they are received or rejected, I shall not refrain from speaking, unless I am instructed by the Lord to remain silent. When certain things come to pass I must speak in order to prevent wrong plans from being carried any further. And I must speak not only to Dr. Kellogg, but also to other men in positions of responsibility who are unacquainted with the facts and with the result of a disregard of the messages that God has given.

I know Dr. Kellogg’s dangers in his home life, in church capacity, and in his connection with men of the world. Many things have taken place that the Doctor has not understood, and messages have been sent to him that I well know he will not receive as truth before a certain time, when a doctor will open before his mind, and the spirit of God will lead him to see that he has laid on the foundation as precious material that which will not bear the test of fire.

A Failure To Help

During the past ten years these things have pained me exceedingly. When I sent from Australia for means to enable us to build a sanitarium near Sydney, there should have been a prompt and hearty response. This would have exerted an influence that would have led others to sacrifice, and as the result the Sanitarium in Australia would long ago have been completed, and set in running order. But the Doctor made himself believe that the debt on the Battle Creek Sanitarium was a sufficient excuse for [45] not sending means to us in Australia to help in establishing a sanitarium that would give character to the work in that needy field.

I was instructed that as the Lord had led my husband and my self and the many other helping hands to sacrifice in order to establish the Battle Creek Sanitarium, so it was the Lord’s purpose for the managers of the long established and prosperous medical institution at the heart of the work to help to establish other medical institutions in destitute fields even if doing this led them to limit their expenditure for their own convenience. They should have been anxious and glad to see a memorial established in Australia for this was God’s will concerning them. But they did not heed the invitation. The work that they might have done, they did not do. Dr. Kellogg and his brother made personal gifts; but this was not fulfilling the Lord’s requirement. Certain ideas prevailed that were not inspired of God. Certain things were done that brought great discouragement to our work and workers in Australia, binding about and greatly hindering the work that the Lord specified should be done. Had the Doctor and his associates heeded the word of God at this time, the medical work in Australia would be years in advance of what it now is.

God does not sanction any plan, born either in council meetings or in any individual mind, that leads to the framing of certain laws binding about and restricting the operations of the Battle Creek Sanitarium or any of our other sanitariums from using a portion of their earnings to build up sanitarium work in any other part of the world, where just such work is essential, in response to the call of God.

When the interests of God’s cause demanded that funds should be sent to the barren fields of Australia to establish a sanitarium there, a prompt response should have been made. The word of the Lord came to me to appeal to the Battle Creek Sanitarium for means. We asked for no gift from Dr. Kellogg, but from the Sanitarium—the institution that was boastingly spoken of as being the greatest sanitarium in the world. But notwithstanding the fact that the institution had a good patronage, its managers did not heed the call to help.

The managers of the Battle Creek Sanitarium have done much to establish other sanitariums in America; but the heavenly universe has beheld with sadness their neglect to the unfinished sanitarium in Australia. This neglect has been dishonoring to God, and has placed in great perplexity the workers who have made every exertion to do all in their power to erect the building and to place it in running order. This uncompleted institution has been a testimony against us. It might have been finished long ago, if the brethren in America who were handling the Lord’s money had done their duty. The impression made on the people in Australia is anything but favorable. [46]

I have tried to keep the way of the Lord before our people, and especially before Dr. Kellogg, in order that he should not place confidence in his judgment as supreme. A different manner of working is to be brought in. There are important interests that demand the support of God’s people, in order that doors may be opened in new fields. Australia and Southern fields have long stood reprovingly barren and unworked. Those who have looked on these destitute fields for years, and passed by on the other side, will have much to answer for in the day of judgment. On the books of heaven is recorded the selfishness shown in the disproportionate support given to certain lines of work, to the neglect of other lines.

The Meaning of True Beneficence

True beneficence means more than mere gifts. It means a liberal interest in the welfare of the various branches of God’s work. It means to be a medical missionary of God’ appointment.

It means to teach the improvident the need of economy. There are thousands of the widows and the fatherless, the young and the aged, the afflicted and the crippled, who should be taught how to help themselves. Many confined to their beds, are unable to work. But those who can work should be made to realize that if they do not work, they shall not be fed. Every one who is capable of eating a square meal is capable of working to pay for that meal. If made to pay for his food, he will appreciate the money-value of strength and time. Such beneficence carries with it valuable lessons. It not only ministers to the needs of the poor, but teaches them how to care for themselves.

God’s stewards are not to work selfishly only for that which is nearest them. They are not to use much-needed money in a vague, careless way, taking little pains to ascertain the results of the appropriations. Our brethren have sometimes placed gifts in the hands of responsible men, asking them to use it where it was most needed. These stewards could have gained the approval of God by sharing with needy mission fields some of the money thus placed in their hands. The sharing of these donations with needy fields would have evidenced that the Holy Spirit was working on human minds. Especially should the fields to which the Lord had called attention, have been assisted.

In many a new field the workers, burdened with the cause of men and women in physical and spiritual suffering, call upon the Lord for assistance. They see what a blessing a sanitarium would be to the cause in their new and destitute field, and they pray for help, expecting that at the right time God will move upon the hearts of His stewards of means to help them, to provide the means for the establishment of medical missionary work. Such prayers are heard, and their answer will be seen if the Lord’s trustees will recognize the calls of the needy missionaries, and respond liberally. [47]

God’s cause at this time is in special need of men and women who possess Christlike qualifications for service, executive ability, and a large capacity for work; who have kind, warm, sympathetic hearts, sound common sense, and unbiased judgment; who will carefully weigh matters before they approve or condemn, and who can fearlessly say No, or Yea and Amen; who, because they are sanctified by the Spirit of God, practice the words, “All ye are brethren,” striving constantly to uplift and restore fallen humanity. [48]

Re-copied July 16, 1928 B—128—02 V. E. R.

“Elmshaven”, Sanitarium, Cal.,

July 6, 1902

To the General Conference Committee
And the Medical Missionary Board:
Dear Brethren,---

Over and over again instruction has been given me that all must be done that can be done to draw people away from Battle Creek. I was shown that the Sanitarium there was deteriorating for the want of men of capability and consecration to carry it forward in pure, upward lines, in accordance with the Bible principles. Very clearly it has been presented to me that it would be in God’s order for the work of the Battle Creek Sanitarium to be divided, and plants made in many other places, in the cities that are in need of Sanitariums. More true medical missionary work would then be done; and from many places the light of truth would shine forth with saving power.

I am instructed to say that our people must not be drawn upon for means to erect an immense sanitarium in Battle Creek; the money that would be used in the erection of that one mammoth building should be used in making plants in many places. We must not draw all we can from our people for the establishment of a great sanitarium in one place, to the neglect of other places, which are unworked for the want of means. It is not the Lord’s will for His people to erect a mammoth sanitarium in Battle Creek or in any other place. In many places in America, sanitariums are to be established. These sanitariums are not to be large institutions, but are to be of sufficient size to enable the work to be carried forward successfully.

Cautions have been given me in reference to the work before us. We are not to encourage students in large numbers to receive their education at Battle Creek. Battle Creek is not the only place to which we are to look for the education of nurses and other medical missionary workers. In every sanitarium established, preparation must be made to train young men and young women to be medical missionaries. The Lord will open the way before them as they go forth to work for Him.

The evidence before us of the fulfilment of the prophecy declares that the end of all things is at hand. There is much important work to be done out of and away from Battle Creek. There will be need of sanitariums in many of the cities of the South, as well as in other parts of America.

It is time for us to think soberly. Taking all things into consideration, we should read the providence of God in His movements. [49] Was the Battle Creek Sanitarium consumed by fire in order that the plans might be enlarged, greater building erected, and more display made? I think if there were more praying, more earnest study of God’s ways and purposes for the advancement of His work, we should see our brethren taking a course altogether different from the course that some are now taking.

When we bring into a garden a stream of water, to irrigate it, do we provide for the watering of one spot only, leaving the other parts, dry and barren, to cry, “Give us water?” This is a representation of the way in which the work has been carried forward in Battle Creek, to the neglect of other places. Shall the desolate places remain desolate? No! Let the stream flow through every place, carrying with it fertility and gladness.

Never are we to rely upon worldly recognition and rank. Never are we, in the establishment of institutions, to try to compete with worldly institutions in size or splendor. We shall gain the victory, not by erecting massive buildings, in rivalry with our enemies, but by cherishing a Christ like spirit of meekness and lowliness. Better far the cross and disappointed hopes, than to live with princes and forfeit heaven.

The Saviour of mankind was born of humble parentage, in a sin-cursed, wicked world, He was brought up in obscurity at Nazareth, a small town of Galilee. He began His work in poverty and without worldly rank. Thus God introduced the gospel in a way altogether different from the way in which many deem it wise to proclaim the same gospel in 1902. At the very beginning of the gospel dispensation He taught His church to rely, not on worldly rank and splendor but on the power of faith and obedience. The favor of God is above the riches of gold and silver. The power of His spirit is of inestimable value.

Thus saith the Lord: “Buildings will give character to My work only when those who erect them follow My instruction in regard to the establishment of institutions. Had those who have managed and sustained the work in the past always been controlled by pure, unselfish principles, the selfish gathering of a large share of My means to one or two places, regardless of the requirements of other places equally needy, would never have been. Institutions would have been established in many places. Seeds of truth sown in many more fields, would have sprung up and borne fruit to My glory.

“The plants in Battle Creek have been unduly increased, when centers of influence should have been made in many other cities. There should have been more of an equalizing of facilities. The institutions in one place are not to embrace the whole land, swallowing up the means required for other places. The places that have never had the advantages that a few places have had are now to receive attention. My people are to do a sharp quick work. [50] Those who with purity of purpose fully consecrate themselves to Me, body, mind, and spirit, shall work in My way and in My name. Every one shall stand in his lot, looking to me, his Guide and Counselor.

“My name has been greatly dishonored. Let no one erect large, costly building even in Battle Creek; for the managers of the work there have been reproved for doing this in the past. God does not make such plans, and He can not endorse them. He has reproved and rebuked many for errors that they have made. Many wrongs have been corrected, but an earnest, thorough work is still to be done.

“I will instruct the ignorant, and anoint with heavenly eyesalve the eyes of many who are now in spiritual blindness. I will raise up agents who will carry out My will to prepare a people to stand before Me in the time of the end. In many places that ought to have been provided before with sanitariums and schools, I will establish My institutions, and these institutions will become education centers for the training of workers.”

The Lord will work upon human minds in unexpected quarters. Some who apparently are enemies of the truth will in God’s providence invest their means to develop properties and erect buildings. In time, these properties will be offered for sale at a price far below their cost. Our people will recognize the hand of Providence in these offers and will secure valuable properties for use in institutional work. They will plan and manage with humility, self-denial, and self-sacrifice. Thus men of means are unconsciously preparing auxiliaries that will enable the Lord’s people to advance His work rapidly.

In various places, properties are to be purchased to be used for sanitarium purposes. When opportunity offers, our people should purchase properties away from the cities, on which are buildings already erected and fruit orchards already in bearing. Land is a valuable possession. Connected with our sanitariums there should be lands, small portions of which can be used for the homes of the helpers and others who are receiving a training in medical missionary work.

In proclaiming the message, God’s servants must wrestle with perplexities. Obstacles must be removed. Sometimes the work will go hard at the beginning, as it did when we were establishing institutions in Battle Creek, Michigan, and Oakland, California. In Cooranbong, Australia, we began in a very crude way, pitching our tents in the woods, felling trees, and clearing the land, preparatory to the erection of buildings. What conflicts we had! What victories we gained! Unconsecrated workers and false friends have at times been connected with our institutions in that country; but the Lord has set things in order. By the power of His spirit a reformation has been brought about. All can see the stately steppings of the Lord God of Israel. [51]

Work is to be done in all parts of the vineyard. In early days of the message a right beginning was made, but the work has not developed as God desired it to develop. Too much has been centered in Battle Creek, and Oakland, and few other places. Our brethren should never have built so largely in one place as they have in Battle Creek. In many fields very little has been done to establish memorials for God. This is wrong. Years ago very many of our workers and people had the spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Success attended their efforts. The Lord has signified that His work should be carried forward in the same spirit in which it was begun. The world is to be warned. Field after field is still unworked. Shall we as a people, by our actions, our business arrangements, our attitude toward a world unsaved, bear a testimony altogether different from the testimony borne by us twenty or thirty years ago? Shall we give evidence of spiritual disease and lack of wise planning? Upon us has shone great light in regard to the last days of this earth’s history. The sight of souls perishing in sin should arouse us to give the light of present truth to those now in darkness. God’s messengers must be clothed with power. They must have a reverence for the truth that they do not now possess. The Lord’s solemn, sacred message of warning must be proclaimed not merely in our churches, but in the most difficult fields and in the most sinful cities,—in every place where the light of the third angel’s message has not yet dawned. Every one is to hear the last call to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

My brethren, let your building plans be reconsidered. Bring your building within your means. The Lord sees the work that must be done. He sees the fields that are unworked and destitute of facilities. From all in His service He requires equity, just judgment. In all parts of the world there is work to be done that ought to have been done long ago. A large amount of means is not to be absorbed in one place. Every building erected is to be erected with reference to the other places that will need similar buildings. God calls upon men in positions of trust in His work not to block the way of advance by selfishly using in one place or in one line of work all the means that can be secured.

A Peculiar People

It has been stated that the Battle Creek Sanitarium is not denominational. But if ever an institution was established to be denominational, in every sense of the word, this Sanitarium was. Why are sanitariums established if it is not that they may be the right hand of the gospel in calling the attention of men and women to the truth that we are living amid the perils of the last days? And yet, in one sense, it is true that the Battle Creek Sanitarium is undenominational, in that it receives as patients people of all classes and all denominations. [52]

Do not the following words point out a denominational people:---

“The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you; every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed.”

“What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes which I command thee this day for thy good.”

Now and ever we are to stand as a distinct and peculiar people, free from all worldly policy, unembarrassed by confederating with those who have not wisdom to discern the claims of God, so plainly set forth in His law. We are not to take pains to declare that the Battle Creek Sanitarium is not a Seventh-day Adventist institution; for this it certainly is. As a Seventh-day Adventist institution it was established, to represent the various features of gospel missionary work, thus to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

We have come to a time when God has been greatly dishonored. Those who have long known our belief, and what we teach, have been surprised by the statement that the Battle Creek Sanitarium is not denominational. No one has the right to make this statement. It does not bear the witness that God wishes His people to bear before men and angels. In the name of the Lord we are to identify ourselves as Seventh-day Adventists. If any one among us is ashamed of our colors, and wishes to stand under another banner, let him do so as a private individual, not as a representative of Seventh-day Adventist medical missionary work.

Let us take our position as Seventh-day Adventists. The name is a true expression of our faith. I am instructed to call upon God’s people to bring their actions into harmony with their name, of which they have no need to be ashamed. The Seventh-day Adventist faith will bless whenever it is brought into the character-building. [53]

Recent movements, made in connection with the Sanitarium enterprises at Battle Creek, made it necessary for us to take our position decidedly before the world as a people who have not changed their faith. We are to show that we are seeking to work in harmony with heaven in preparing the way of the Lord. We are to bear witness to all nations, kindreds, and tongues that we are a people who love and fear God, a people who keep holy the seventh-day Sabbath,—the sign between God and His obedient children that He sanctifies them. And we are to show plainly that we have full faith that the Lord is soon to come in the clouds of heaven.

We have been greatly humiliated as a people by the course that some of our brethren in responsible positions have taken in departing from the old landmarks. There are those who in order to carry out their plans have by their words denied their faith. This shows how little dependence can be placed on human wisdom and human judgment. Now, as never before, we need to see the danger of being led unguardedly away from loyalty to God’s commands. We need to realize that God has given us a decided message of warning for the antediluvians. Let our people beware of belittling the importance of the Sabbath, in order to link up with unbelievers. Let them beware of departing from the principles of our faith making it appear that it is not wrong to conform to the world. Let them be afraid of heeding any man’s counsel, whatever his position may be, who works counter to that which God has wrought in order to keep His people from the world.

The Lord is testing and trying His people, to see who will be loyal to the principles of His truth. Our work is to proclaim to the world the first, second, and third angel’s messages. In the discharge of our duties, we are neither to despise nor fear our enemies. To bind ourselves up by contracts with those not of our faith is not in the order of God. We are to treat with kindness and courtesy those who refuse to be loyal to God, but we are never, never to unite with them in counsel regarding the vital interests of His work; for this is not the way of the Lord. Putting our trust in God, we are to move steadily forward, doing His work with unselfishness, in humble dependence upon Him, committing ourselves and all that concerns our present and future to His wise providence, holding the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end, remembering that it is not because of our worthiness that we receive the blessings of heaven, but because of the worthiness of Christ, and our acceptance, through faith in Him, of God’s abounding grace.

I pray that my brethren may realize that the third angel’s message means much to us, and that the observance of the true Sabbath is to be the sign that distinguishes those who serve God from those who serve Him not. Let those who have become sleepy and indifferent awake. We are called to be holy, and we should carefully avoid giving the impression that it is of little consequence whether or not we retain the peculiar features of our [54] faith. Upon us rests the solemn obligation of taking a more decided stand for truth and righteousness than we have taken in the past. The line of demarcation between those who keep the commandments of God and those who do not, is to be revealed with unmistakable clearness. We are conscientiously to honor God, diligently using every means of keeping in covenant relation with Him, that we may receive His blessings,—the blessings so essential for the people who are to be severely tried. To give the impression that our faith, our religion is not a dominating power in our lives, is greatly to dishonor God. Thus we turn from His commandments, which are our life, denying that He is our God and we His people. [55]

Re-copied August 23, 1928 K—123—02 V. E. R.

“Elmshaven”, Sanitarium, Calif.

Aug. 5, 1902

Dr. J. H. Kellogg:

Dear Brother,

I received your excellent letter a short time ago. You were not at home when you wrote, but were traveling from place to place, and therefore I did not answer immediately. After I received your letter, my heart was much oppressed. For several nights I could not sleep past one o’clock, but walked the room, praying. The fourth night I said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? I am willing to do anything that it is duty for me to do.” I was instructed, “I have a message for you to bear to Dr. Kellogg.” I thought, “It will do no good. He does not accept the messages that I bear him, unless these harmonize with his plans and devisings.” Yet I must give the message given to me for you.

My brother, you have not heeded the light given you. If you go forward in your own judgment, to carry out your purposes, you will lead other minds astray. Many of the plans that have been laid for our work are not according to the plans and purposes of God.

Had thorough work been done during the last General Conference at Battle Creek; had there been as God designed there should be, a breaking up of the fallow ground of the heart, by the men who had been bearing responsibilities; had they, in humility of soul, led out in the work of confession and consecration; had they given evidence that they received the counsels and warnings sent by the Lord to correct their mistakes, there would have been one of the greatest revivals that there has been since the day of Pentecost.

What a wonderful work could have been done for the vast company gathered in Battle Creek at the General Conference of 1901, if the leaders of our work had taken themselves in hand. But the work that all heaven was waiting to do as soon as men prepared the way, was not done; for the leaders closed and bolted the door against the Spirit’s entrance. There was a stopping short of entire surrender to God. And hearts that might have been purified from all error were strengthened in wrong doing. The doors were barred against the heavenly current that would have swept away all evil. Men left their sins unconfessed. They built themselves up in wrong doing, and said to the Spirit of God, “Go thy way for this time; [56] when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee.”

The present is our sowing time for eternity. We must reap the fruit of the evil seed we sow, unless we repent the sowing and ask forgiveness for the mistakes we have made. Those who, given opportunity to repent and reform, pass over the ground without humbling their hearts before God, without doing faithful work in putting away that which He reproves, will become hardened against the counsel of the Lord Jesus.

All blessings come to us by virtue of our union with Christ. He, the Lord of hosts, “hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before Him in love.” He has chosen all who will receive and believe and practice the truth,—chosen them to be united to Him by adoption, to be members of the royal family. He has made an atonement for sin, and all who by faith receives Him as their Saviour become sons of God.

Christ knows the weakness and the failings of the human heart. Of ourselves, we can never make ourselves fit to be co-workers with Him. It is God’s purpose that each soul shall realize his inefficiency, and hunger and thirst after righteousness. Through the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, we can be made vessels meet for the Master’s use.

Jesus saves only those who repent of their sins. By the efficacy of His blood, they are cleansed from all defilements. In all wisdom and prudence He works in the one who in faith surrenders to Him. “Let him take hold of My strength,” He says, “that he may make peace with Me, and he shall make peace with Me.” All those who die to self He will make vessels unto honor. He will bestow on them wisdom and understanding in spiritual things, giving them a rich measure of His grace.

It is Christ’s purpose to enlighten our understanding, that we may know “what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power” to all who deny self, and taking up the cross, follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Words can not express the blessedness of following His guidance. He pledges himself to work with those who strive to represent Him in thought, word, and deed. He gives them assurances to encourage them when they are cast down. He speaks words that will uplift them, but He never designs to exalt them in their own estimation. He gives them the earnest of His Spirit, recognizing their meekness in wearing His yoke. “Learn of Me,” He says, “and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Holiness of heart and works and spirit is obtained through a belief of the truth.

The power of the grace of God is manifested when He leads men [57] away from their own thoughts and their own desires, and makes them willing to die to self. He leads them to believe on Christ and to trust in Him. He will raise them from spiritual death to spiritual life and to immortality, and will seal them as His forever, because of their continual obedience to His commands.

The heavenly Messenger turned to you, and said, “Unless you are converted and become as a little child, you will walk in self-sufficiency and self-confidence, and will estrange yourself from God. The Lord has given you encouragement, but you are not in simplicity co-operating with Him. You do not hunger for the greatness of His power. Did God lead you to bind yourself up with worldly men, who do not obey His commands? What has drawn this veil over your spiritual eyesight, that you do not honor and glorify God, but walk in a way that glorifies self?”

The Kingdoms of this world are soon to become the kingdoms of our Lord. “The seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.” There is to be a rapid and triumphant spread of the gospel. “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.”

The ark of God’s testament, covered by the mercy seat was seen in His temple. What does this ark contain?—The law of God. Moses was directed to make an ark, in which was to be placed the law of God, written with His own finger upon the tables of stone. This law God gave for the guidance of his people, and it was stamped with the assurance, staked upon His almighty power, that He had entered into covenant relation with them. Today God makes a covenant with all who will take their stand as loyal subjects of His kingdom, reverencing the law that occupies so prominent a position, beneath the mercy seat.

The ark is a representation of the keeping power of God. In it the law is kept. And today there comes to us John’s testimony, “The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament.”

The ark was to the Jewish people all that the Bible is to be to us. In the Bible are gathered the testimonies of divine truth we are ever to keep before our minds. We are to study the Word of God in the way pointed out in the sixth chapter of John. “He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood,” Christ said, “dwelleth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by me... It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” [58]

Wonderful words! Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God brings eternal life.

The Word of God is to become a part of our very being. You are to become as a little child, as must every one who is admitted into the city of God. We are to be His little children, not kings and rulers, striving for the supremacy and to make a great display, but little children, realizing our lack of knowledge and experience. It is only when we serve God in the strictest integrity and in humility of mind, trusting in Jesus, that we are safe. Everything is to be shaken that can be shaken.

The heavenly Messenger said to you, “Your only hope is in clothing yourself with the garments of Christ’s righteousness. Never, never link yourself up with the world, Those who disregard God’s holy precepts will in the last great day stand with the apostate. The word of the living God is to be our Guide.

“God is not with you in all the steps you have taken. In your councils, take no steps to unite with worldly men, lest you lead into false paths those who should be true to the principles that must characterize us as a people. It is our work to point men to the living truths of the law of God which His people are to keep pure and holy.

The leaders in our medical work should now be considering the testimonies that for years have been coming to them. If they pay no heed to these warnings, the Lord can not co-operate with them as He desires to. There is danger of your placing yourself and others in harmony with worldly plans. Faithfulness in duty, trust in God at every step—this is your safety. If you follow your own ambitious projects, you will go where Jesus has given you no liberty to go. Obey the Word of God, and you will be safe. Ellen G. White [59]

Re-copied August 21, 1928 D—138-02 V. E. R.

“Elmshaven”, Sanitarium, Calif.

September 5, 1902

Dear Brother Daniells,

I have just read the letter that you wrote to my son, Willie in regard to attending the California Camp-meetings, I have much to say to you in regard to many matters, but can not write at length now.

I write this morning to tell you that we desire you to attend if possible, the Fresno camp-meeting. The Fresno and the Los Angeles meetings are the only ones that I expect to attend this season,—not but that I should be glad to attend others, but I must spend most of the time in preparing my writings for publication, so that they may be placed in the hands of the people. For the first time since returning to this country, Willie has taken hold of my book in earnest. All our helpers are doing excellent work in this line. The preparation of the book “Education”, and “Testimony for the Church”, No 35, has held me close at home for several weeks.

We greatly desire you to attend the California meetings. You should certainly be at Fresno. You may also be able to attend the Los Angeles meeting.

It is with fear and trembling that I start out on a journey now. I fear that I may gather too many burdens on my soul. When I stand before large congregations, it seems as if I were reigned up before the great white throne, to answer for the souls that have been presented before me as unready to meet the Lord in Peace

I am much worried about Dr. Kellogg. In many respects, his course is not pleasing the Lord. It seems to be so easy for him to drift away from foundation principles. He is in great danger of not holding the beginning of his confidence steadfast unto the end.

My brother, I wish to write a few words to you confidentially in regard to the Doctor; Do not let him beguile you by his statements. Some may be true; some are not true. He may suppose that all his assertions are true; but you should neither think that they are, nor encourage him to believe that he is right. I know that he is not in harmony with the Lord. Do not sanction his effort to gather from every source all the means possible for his line of the work; for God does not favor so great an outlay of means as is now being made in Battle Creek; not does He favor the way that the Doctor is managing the health food business. [60]

Brother Daniells, constantly the Lord is keeping Southern California before me as a place where we must establish medical institutions. Every year this region is visited by many thousands of tourists. Sanitariums must be established in this section of the State. Tent-meetings must be held in as many of the great tourist-resorts, far and near, as the Southern California Conference can work, with the laborers that they have. If ever there was need of awaking to the importance of working in such places, it is now. [61]

Re-copied August 21, 1928 K—174—02 V. E. R.

“Elmshaven,” Sanitarium,

Nov. 11, 1902

Dr. J. H. Kellogg:

My dear brother,

When you took your position with those who have warded off all testimonies of reproof, did you feel that you were standing on safe ground? Do you not know that those who despise and throw aside the counsels of the Lord, are in fearful peril? And do you not know that by standing with them, you are making of no account the work given me of God? Any one could say, “Some one has told Sister White:” but this would not make it so. Any one could close his eyes to his danger, but this would not make the danger less real. This is too serious a matter for you to trifle with.

“Some one has told her.” This, then is the measure of your faith. But though you say this, you know better. I charge this upon you in the name of the Lord. But I will not argue about the matter. If you cavil over the instruction that God has given, refusing to accept it as truth, under the subterfuge that all unrepentant sinners have used and will continue to use, the guilt is your own. But so long as the Lord presents before me you case and your dangers, I shall not cease to warn you. If you will not take heed, if you refuse to change, I must then present the instruction given me to those in responsible positions, that the people of God may not be leavened by the influence of your erroneous position.

Dr. Kellogg, no one can appreciate more fully than myself the honor that God has bestowed on you in connecting you with His work as His chosen physician. I have a knowledge of you as a boy, and the Lord has instructed me in regard to the dangers that threatened you even in your childhood years, because of hereditary and cultivated tendencies.

One evening my husband and I talked about your case for a long time, and then joined in prayer for you. In the night season light was given that we were to make a way for you and two of your companions. We decided to invest three thousand dollars in this,—a thousand dollars for each of you. Light was given me that my husband and I were to act the part of a father and a mother to you. I was instructed that as you engaged in active service the responsibilities placed on you would bring temptation and trial. So long as you heeded the cautions given you by the Lord, you would be safe, but should you trust in your own wisdom, you would be in positive danger. [62]

The path was marked out by the Lord for all of you. Each one of you, if you chose to be worked by the Spirit of God would receive special grace, which would fit you for service.

Light was given that you would have to keep careful guard over yourself, else you would become ambitious for name and place, and would take yourself out of the hands of Christ. But if you kept yourself humble before God, you would overcome all inclination to prevarication and misrepresentation. I was shown that it was most essential for you to have clear views of the atonement and clear views of what it means to be a Christian.

The Lord laid upon me the work of bearing, clearly and distinctly, the testimonies that He should give me for you. He told me that I was to act as His servant in keeping you from destroying your own influence. You were in danger of looking upon yourself as capable of doing great things in your own strength if you did not follow the Lord closely, you would walk in strange paths, and would mislead the people of God.

The instruction was given me regarding you: “If he refuses to heed the messages I send, he will pursue a course that will prevent My having any connection with him. Only those that honor Me can I honor. Be straightforward. Do not enter into controversy; for this will do no good. The more Dr. Kellogg is argued with, the more subterfuges will he use. His danger is not now as great as it will be. If he will heed the councils I shall give you for him, I can use him to accomplish an important work. He will make many crooked paths. He will hurt your soul; nevertheless continue to bear the testimonies that I give you, diminishing them not so much as by a word; for this is his hope.

“If he will be humble and contrite, I can use him. When he prays and believes, he will be enabled, by the softening, subduing influence of My Spirit, to do a good work. But when he thinks he is ruler, he will at times speak and act in a lordly, overbearing manner. There will be times when, if his path is crossed, he will be filled with a determination to carry out his own plans, plans that would dishonor God and bring reproach on His cause.

“If he will always bow to the divine Ruler, if he will always be ready to listen to the words that I give you for him, if he will accept them without resorting to prevarication or subterfuge, if he will subdue his rashness and his indomitable will, and humble himself before Me, I will forgive his transgressions.

“His danger lies in a determination to carry things heavily in his own way. He will suffer many things unjustly, and he will do great injustice to others by putting his own estimate on character, disparaging those who refuse to walk in his ways and accept his plans. [63]

My brother, in regard to this last point, you have tried to hurt the influence of those who did not come into line in harmony with your ideas, who would not submit to your judgment. But in some respects, the judgment of those you so harshly condemned, was superior to your own. Your harshness has separated from the work men who would have been an honor to the truth, men who were fitted to do excellent service in the medical missionary work. But they refused to be bound to your terms.

Had you been less authoritative and more gracious, how much better it would have been. The Lord could not co-operate with your unsubdued and determined will. O how many there are whom you could have subdued and won by kindness and tender courtesy, but in those hearts, by your masterly dictatorship you caused hatred rather than love to spring up. Had you been true to yourself and to those you might have kept as fast friends, you would have laid aside your garments of authority, which you wore as if charged with special dictatorship. How many souls you have bruised and wounded and driven from you forever, because you have felt it your privilege to humble them before others.

Provoked by the unbelief of the children of Israel, Moses uttered a hasty, presumptuous speech; and the Lord told him that he had dishonored His name, and that he could not lead the children of Israel into the promised land. Moses repented, and the Lord forgave him; nevertheless, he must bear his punishment. My brother, the Lord would have you learn from Moses’ experience how He regards the hard, hasty, condemnatory spirit you have so often manifested. Throughout your entire lifetime, your inclination to condemn hastily and harshly has been your sin. You have felt inclined to break out on our ministers because they did not come up to the mark on health reform. Your spirit has been such as to make the Lord ashamed of you. In your words and actions there has been that which Christ will in no wise endorse. You have assumed an authority, a rulership, that God has not given you. How can you reform others until you yourself are reformed. No man is prepared to correct the faults of others until he has corrected his own faults. You need to be converted, to be born again, before you can co-operate with the Lord Jesus.

God’s Word to you is: “But to do good and to communicate, forget not.” In some respects you love to do this. You have excellent impulses, but you are not in all respects right with God.

I hoped that after I talked these matters over and over again with you, as I did at the time of the General Conference, you would break through the mist and fog. But it seems that you did not.

Before I went to the General Conference, I was instructed that I could help you. The Lord told me that I must bear my testimony at this meeting against the incorrect ideas that had been [64] coming in in regard to forbearance and Christlikeness. My work was to present the standard of Christianity that had been presented to me. As one with God-given authority, I was to bear my message against the wrong principles that had been coming in. I dwelt on general principles, hoping that this would help you to understand the work that you must do if you enter the kingdom of God.

After I returned to St. Helena, certain documents were presented to me which were to be signed by our medical missionary workers. You wrote to me, asking me to examine these documents. I stated plainly that the principles contained in them were not in accordance with the Word of God, and that while in Australia I was instructed to warn our people against subscribing their names to any such papers; for it meant oppression and disaster.

I have the tenderest feelings toward you, Dr. Kellogg. There is no one on earth who understands you as well as I do, and no one else who will tell you of your dangers. When the Lord gives me a message for you, I shall surely give it to you. Even if you continue to refuse to accept what I say, I shall not feel that I have nothing more to say to you. I love your soul too well to keep silent. I shall continue to warn you. I promised the Lord that I would do this. And when I see the people of the Lord in danger of accepting your wrong version of things, and of moving blindly, I shall present to them that which I have presented to you, else I shall be held accountable. I love your soul, and I want you to have eternal life. I must tell you the truth. And whether you acknowledge it or not, you must know that what I tell is truth.

Shortly before you father died, he called me to him, saying that he had something to say to me. “I feel that John is in great danger,” He said. “But Sister White, you will not get discouraged, will you, even though he seems to be headstrong? You are the only one who can help him. Do not let him go, even though his case appears discouraging.”

I promised that I would do as the Spirit of the Lord directed me. God’s Word to me has always been, “You can help him.”

Dr. Kellogg, you may tell me that you do not believe the messages I send you, but I know that this is not true. You know of the experience that God has given me in His work. You can not deny that He has led and sustained me. You may close your eyes and ears to the messages that God sends, but after all, you do believe them. And you may depend on this: a mother could not hold more firmly to a child that she dearly loves than I shall hold to you. I expect to see you engaged in the work that God has given you, and I pray for you constantly, in private prayer and at family worship. Sometimes I am awakened in the night, and rising I walk the room, praying, “O Lord, hold Dr. Kellogg fast. Do not let him go. Keep him steadfast. Anoint his eyes with the heavenly eyesalve, that he may see all things clearly.” [65]

The time is nearing when the great crisis in the history of the world will have come, when every movement in the government of God will be watched with intense interest and inexpressible apprehension. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another,—fire and flood and earthquakes, with war and bloodshed. Something great and decisive will soon of necessity take place.

I am holding to you by faith, and I am sure that you will not long remain just as you are. My brother, take Christ as your pattern. Seek with humble and contrite heart for the converting power of the Holy Spirit, that you may deal justly with your helpers, your fellow-workers, in all your ways acknowledging Christ as your Saviour.

Who can comprehend the love that God has shown in sending Christ to save perishing souls. I am conscious that language is far too feeble to depict this love. And our minds can not take it in. It is impossible even for the angels fully to comprehend how completely He identifies His interests with those of His blood-bought heritage, and how tenderly he deals with the tried and tempted, they exclaim in amazement, “Here is love!”

How much God loves human beings, we never can compute. The universe is filled with proofs of His measureless benevolence.

Christ has a claim on all in this world. “All things are delivered unto Me of My Father,” He said. “All things that the Father hath are mine.” “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” All in heaven and in earth is at His service. The great gift of heavenly love was not to be shut up in the bosom of the Father. It was to Christ, to give to needy human beings.

Christ is full of grace and truth. He is all and in all. Then let no human being take glory to himself. The glory is to be given to the Son of God. Now and forever He is to receive all praise.

My brother, humble yourself, and follow in the footsteps of Christ. When you do this, you will be a happy man. When you walk in Christian companionship with God’s ministers, recognizing the fact that God has given a work to them, as verily as He has to you, there will be sweet fellowship among you. But just as surely as you seek for the preeminence, so surely will you show your weakness by supposing that you should have the glory for that which you have accomplished.

You may make yourself a ruling power, but in doing this, you gain no real triumph; for you are enfeebling the mind and extinguishing the liberty of the soul. You are to find your joy in following the Saviour’s example. Not one thread of selfishness [66] is to be drawn into the web that you are weaving. Christ calls upon you to free yourself, in His power, from the claims of Satan. When, like Christ, you are meek and lowly, your masterly self-assurance will vanish. You will be a partaker of the divine nature. Your life will be hid with Christ in God.

You need to be converted. You need to ask in humility and contrition, “What must I do to be saved?” The whole powers of your being need to be called into earnest effort for the salvation of your soul. As you cast yourself on Christ, you are fulfilling His purpose for you. You are no longer a law to yourself. But no violence is done to your will and your freedom of action. The mind is brought under the authority of a new law. But it is the royal law of liberty. The whole being is surrendered to God. The heart is transformed by the Spirit’s power.

When in speech and action you give way to passion, you are acting as a sinner, and as a sinner you are under condemnation, needing to repent and be converted. But when the life is surrendered to the cleansing power of the truth, a change takes place. God’s Spirit is at work in the heart, bringing the truth forward into the strong light of distinct consciousness. The spirit of stubborn resistance is taken away, and a life-giving power takes possession of mind and heart. This experience you need daily to have. As the repentant sinner pleads for the cleansing efficacy of Christ’s grace, a voice speaks to him, saying, “A new heart will I give thee. The soul is cleansed, the highest powers of the being are roused to action.”

You have refused to give your mind up to Christ, that He may bring your rebellious powers into conformity to His will, and you have become as were the disciples when they strove for the mastery. Christ did not rebuke them in anger. Placing a little child in the midst of them, He said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in My name receiveth Me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.”

The Lord wants you to humble yourself before Him as a little child. When you do this, you will gain a precious experience. I write you this because I desire you to know that the Lord will work with you when you are willing to be controlled by His Spirit. When you give yourself wholly to Him, a great change will be wrought in you. You will have such a love for the truth that wherever you go, you will bear witness to the Lord’s power. He will give you a genuine testimony to bear. Then will the Lord pour out upon you His grace and power, and you will enter a new and living way. Christ’s righteousness will go before you, and [67] the glory of the Lord will be your reward. Your words and works will be ratified in heaven. As you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, God will work in you, to will and to do of His good pleasure. Power to overcome will be given you. When the enemy comes in against you like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

I have been given this message to bear to you, and I have done as I am instructed. God forbid that Satan should triumph over you. May God make you His servant, and through you glorify His name.

I expect to see Edson and Emma in a few hours. They left Nashville for St. Helena last Thursday. In much love, [68]

Re-copied August 4, 1928 K—65—03 V. E. R.

Dr. J. H. Kellogg:

My dear brother,

I awake in the night, and my heart is drawn out after you. I ask myself, “Should his life end suddenly, would I be guiltless if I do not now do all in my power to lead his mind away from the world?” I find myself sitting up in bed, sending heavenward the petition, “Lord, open his eyes, that he may see wondrous things out of Thy law. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.”

I have a sense of your danger, and you need to have a sense of it. If we should sustain you in a wrong course, we would ourselves be committing sin. You may have the confidence and approval of men, but the praise of human beings is no evidence of the approval of God. It furnishes no evidence that they see as He sees. Those who trust to the praise and approval of men will end their lives without having obtained a preparedness to meet God.

My brother, I have the deepest interest in you, knowing the value of the human soul, and I entreat you to turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart. In the night season I am pleading with you to heed the Scripture, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” I am waiting and longing to hear from you in regard to your individual experience. It is not feeling, but genuine faith and works, that lay hold upon unseen realities. True faith is substantiated by a sure “Thus saith the Lord,” by the word, “It is written.”

The instruction that Christ gives in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew is the very best education that you or I can ever obtain. “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Who, then needs to err? Who needs to be in darkness, when Christ has spoken words so simple and so easily understood? Will you not show, in your daily experience, that your dependence is in God? Will you not show that you are not seeking to be first? Will you not esteem others better than yourself, because the word of inspiration declares that you should do this? Is it not by [69] taking the position that Christ has declared we should take that you will give evidence that you are a true child of God.

You are inclined to exalt yourself, to cherish a spirit of censoriousness. You show contempt for those who are chosen of God and precious, because they differ with you in some things. It is in the order of God that in some things they should differ with you. But because they do not agree with you in all your plans, you sometimes feel that you want nothing to do with them. Do you realize the danger of despising Christ in the person of His saints? God is light, and when He gives instruction to human beings that does not please them, shall they regard with scorn and contempt the messenger who, as a faithful steward, has had to courage to speak to them the truth? Will you, my brother, become the enemy of the Lord’s messenger, and say many things that are untrue of the one who has told you the truth?

O that you would sit as a humble learner at the feet of Christ! Then you would reveal a character that God could approve. What a change there would be in the atmosphere surrounding your soul! You need so much the softening, subduing influence of the Holy Spirit. It is for your present and eternal good that you become soundly converted, through the sanctifying influence of the truth as it is in Jesus. Examine and prove yourself. Do not let any man deceive you. However highly a man may appreciate you, he can not read your heart. Pray now, without delay, that you may not be deceived yourself or be deceived by others.

I tell you the truth; I lie not. You need a renewed heart. Pray that your eyes may be anointed with the heavenly eyesalve, that you may discern the true character of your religions faith and experience. Have you that faith which works by love and purifies the soul? Are you striving to reach the standard that God has set before you? If you choose, you can make the Word of God of no effect to many souls, leading them away from the safe path. But I want you to stand on vantage ground before God. I want you to sit at the wedding feast, clad in the wedding garment,—the righteousness of Christ.

You have had many, many opportunities to become acquainted with the truth as it is in Jesus. Will you not hold the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end? Will you not look to Jesus as your pattern in character-building? Then the structure that you rear will not be weak and imperfect, but solid and symmetrical. Study carefully the life of Christ. Constantly compare you way of viewing things with the way in which they are viewed in the Word of God. Do not in character misrepresent Christ. Never, never depart from the way of the Lord; for “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

There are many who dishonor Christ by their unsanctified [70] lives. But there are men who have lived with their eyes fixed on the Saviour. There are faithful ones, who have served the Lord with uprightness of heart. Their lives have borne witness to the truth of the words, “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold; yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”

One who knew by blessed experience the value of God’s law thus expressed his thanksgiving: “How sweet are thy words to My taste; yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” “Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee?” “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye upright in heart.”

This may be your experience if you will separate from you all that is marring your character. I beseech you to make an unreserved surrender to God, and to make it now, just now. When you make this surrender, you will have an experience entirely different from the experience that you have had for many years. Then you will be able to say with the apostle Paul, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.” “I delight in the law of God, after the inward man.”

Every privilege is opened before you. Christ presents His loveliness of character for you to copy. When you make Him your example, your pride and self-assurance will be removed. You are becoming weak in spiritual power, through cherishing an unforgiving spirit and indulging wrathful feelings that place you under the control of Satan. These things are bearing sorry testimony against you. When you are converted, your masterly spirit, which leads you to judge and condemn and censure, will be changed.

Will you not accept the invitation, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Christ’s life, from beginning to end, was a life of meekness and humility. He was the Majesty of heaven, yet He came to our world to take His position at the head of the fallen race, and in human nature to reveal the character that all must form who are admitted into the city of God. He came to show the power of the sanctification of body, soul, and spirit that we must possess if we gain the life that measures with the life of God.

Christians must exemplify before the world, before angels, and before men the keeping power of the grace of Christ. You are intelligent in regard to the capabilities of body, and mind, and in regard to the victories that may be gained over the appetites [71] and passions. You are a prominent member of the Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. What you say and do carries a weight of influence. This influence should ever be exerted on the side of obedience to Bible truth. You should ever point the way heavenward, giving those who you seek to educate the gospel remedy for pride and self-exaltation. This you can do by exemplifying in your life the virtues of Christ, the great Healer, the Medical Missionary sent by God to reveal the power of the grace that God’s tried, tempted children can have in this life, preparatory to entering into the city of God, to take their place as little children in His kingdom. We are given opportunity to be learners of Christ here below, that we may be His students in the courts above, learners of Him through the ceaseless ages of eternity. [72]

W—172-1903

“Elmshaven,” Sanitarium, Calif.

August 4, 1903

Dear son Willie,

I wish to address a few lines to you. I am instructed to say that all the preliminaries connected with the management of the medical missionary work are not to proceed from Dr. Kellogg. It is the deceptive power of the enemy of all righteousness that leads Dr. Kellogg to endeavor to bring all our medical institutions under the control of one organization. Certainly such an effort is not inspired of the Lord. The medical missionary work is God’s work, and in every church we are to take a decided stand against every phase of this kind of proceeding.

After I received the letter in regard to the excellent meeting of confession and unity that had been held in Battle Creek, I was writing in my Diary, and was about to record the thankfulness I felt over the fact that there was a change, when my hand was arrested, and there came to me the words: “Write it not. No change for the better has taken place. The Doctor is ensnared in a net of specious deception. He is presenting as precious the things that are turning souls from the truth into by and forbidden paths—things that lead human agents to act in harmony with their own inclination and to work out their unsanctified purposes; things that result in destroying the dignity and the power of God’s people, because these things obscure the light that would otherwise come to them from God through His appointed agencies.”

The doctor is endeavoring to bind the medical institutions fast in accordance with his word, as Satan worked in the heavenly courts to bind up the angels who he induced to unite with his party to work to create rebellion in heaven. Who has authorized him to lay all these plans to try in one way, and then in another way, and then in still another way, to bring about his purpose. These sanitariums are not his at all, and yet he desires to tie them all up in some way so that they will be under his control.

Let every cord now be broken. Let our sanitariums refuse to be tied up with the Sanitarium in Michigan.

This selfish, underhand work I was going to bring out in Oakland, but I thought we would give the Doctor another chance. But I have been instructed to write to him no letters that he would have in his hands to use; and to have no conversation with him; for he would not remember what I did say, because a deceptive power is controlling his whole being. [73]

Every man needs now to take his position on the old-true foundation, to be led by God, and not allow Dr. Kellogg’s dictated propositions to find favor. God has not ordered any such thing. I have seen that history would be repeated, and that the specious working of Satan would be revealed by human agents. We must work discreetly and determinedly to right up things. This recent effort to present binding propositions to God’s people, as if man were God, is the last one he should be permitted to make without our voice being raised in protest. Not another step toward the acceptance of such propositions, is to be taken, lest we be fastened in a snare.

Firmly take your position now. In justice to our churches, we must now decide this matter, and not sell our people into the enemy’s hand; for we have a great work to do. I am now instructed to prepare for publication the messages of warning that have been given over and over again for years to keep Dr. Kellogg from following another leader, but the messages have had no influence, after he decided to drive through his own inventions and plans. He is to be pitied, but he has worked, and will continue to work deceptively. We must now determine that every medical institution shall stand in its own individual right. We must leave the poor man in the hands of God, who understands this matter.

I shall now be prepared to say to our brethren, cut loose cut loose! After taking your position firmly, wisely, cautiously, just as a summer evening, but just as fixed as the everlasting hills, make not one concession. By conceding, you would be selling our whole cause into the hands of the enemy. It is not John Kellogg that you are dealing with; it is a being who once figured in the courts of heaven as an exalted angel. The poor Doctor is not in his right mind.

My mind is now clear. I was in an agony of distress, thinking that I must take this position at the General Conference and rebuke him before the whole assembly. But now I am fully settled in mind that I must take my stand, and not be diverted from it by anything. Let the Lord be honored and glorified. The Lord wants no such workings in His cause, as Dr. Kellogg has sanctioned. The Doctor has sold our people into the hand of the enemy, and now the enemy has thought that he could possess the man altogether. The cause of God is not to be traded away. We must now take hold of these matters decidedly. I have many things that I have not wanted to say, but now my way is clear to speak and to act.

I am sorry for you, Willie. I wish not to be in Battle Creek. But stand stiffly for the truth.

I copy out of my diary the following words, written November 28, 1902: “Oh how sad it is that man will allow himself to be so wrought upon by the enemy that he will dare venture to exalt his finite judgment in opposition to God’s plans and purposes! Once [74] the Doctor would present his plans to me, to ascertain if I had any counsel to give, but not a word of counsel has he asked of me, to find out whether his plans are in accordance with the light God has given me.

“I am sorry to be compelled to take the position that I am forced to take in behalf of God’s people. In taking this position, I am placed under the necessity of bearing the heavy burden of showing the evil of the plans that I know are not born of heaven. This is the burden that many times in the past the Lord has laid upon me, in order that His work might be advanced along right lines. How much care and anxiety, how much mental anguish and wearing physical labor might be saved me in my old age. But still I am under the necessity of going into the field of battle, and of discharging in the presence of important assemblies the duty that the Lord has laid upon me,—the duty of correcting the wrong course of men claiming to be Christians but who are doing a work that will have to be undone at a great loss both financially and in the shaking of the confidence of the people.

“If I act conscientiously, I must meet the crisis; for I believe that the precepts that the Lord has given concerning His work in the past and at the present time, point out the right way, and His plans, His thoughts, are much higher than man’s plans, man’s thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth. God’s voice is to be heard; His wisdom is to guide us. We must not be broken up by any human wisdom or devising. God has outlined His plan in His Word, and in the Testimonies He has sent to His people.

“Man’s authority bears the signature of man. We are not to permit the rank and file of our people to come under the generalship of the weak, mixed-up sentiments of man. God’s authority is to stand supreme in its moral dignity and power. And I must call upon the people of God to recognize His authority, and authority which bears the evidence of its divine origin, and which is commendable and acceptable in the sight of His children on the earth and in the whole heavenly universe. Every soul is called upon to connect himself inseparably with God’s authority.

“In doing the Lord’s work, we are to stand on the foundation on which the truth has always been based. God’s foundation is sure, and all are to stand on it and work from this platform. His words reveals His design, and only the work that is carried on in accordance with the principles of the Word will stand fast forever, approved both by the heavenly host and the adopted family living on the earth during the remnant of time remaining before the close of this earth’s history. This higher aim finite man, when he yields to Satan’s devising, can easily lose sight of; for by yielding to temptation he loses his powers of discernment. It is the work of every Christian to strive to be a laborer [75] together with God.”

I will not write any more now. Tomorrow I will begin in earnest to write in regard to principles that are sound. [76]

W—195—03

“Elmshaven” Sanitarium, Calif.

September 6, 1903

My Dear son Willie,

I must write to you to let you know that my entire trust is in God. By figures and symbols I have been deeply impressed that we need not take upon ourselves any burdens that we do not know how to manage in detail. Satan is a cunning, deceptive general, and we must not give heed to everything that shall be devised by him. We need not feel compelled to work out the solution of every problem that we can not understand, in order to meet Satan’s wiles. Nor am I to keep my mind reigned up to thwart Satan’s devices. Why,—because God is supreme. He is our stronghold in time of trouble and perplexity. If we put our entire trust in Him, we shall find that He is an all-sufficient Guide.

We are not to consider what we can do, but what the Lord Jesus can do for us, if we exercise faith, and fear not, neither become discouraged. We must have confidence in that which God can do for us.

Last Friday I was stirred strongly to write out some things; and I had this manuscript copied, thinking that I must send out a message of warning at once; but afterward the Lord signified to me, Lay it aside for future use. If men do not evidence that they have changed, you will be prepared to give instruction in regard to their cases. Look unto Jesus. There are those who are as full of assurance and self-confidence as the human agent can well be, that their course is right. But such ones should study carefully the record of the last evening the Saviour spent with His disciples.

After the last passover supper, Jesus said: “Behold, the hand of him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table. And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined; but woe unto that man by whom He is betrayed. And they began to enquire among themselves which of them it was that should do this thing.

“And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And He said unto them The Kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so; but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whither is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth, is not he that sitteth at meat? But I am among you as he that serveth. Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And I appoint you [77] a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

“And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto Him, Lord, I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison, and to death. And He said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest Me. And He said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. Then said He unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in Me. And He was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning Me have an end.”

Peter, in his self-confidence, was presumptuous, and fell. Let us learn a lesson from this. Let us not keep our eyes too much on the things that those who know the truth will attempt to do. We need faith,—strong, persevering faith; we need entire trust in our Leader. Our strength lies not in what we—poor, finite beings—suppose we are able to do, but in what we know Christ will do for us. This we may learn from the teachings of Christ....

In this age, a time of Satanic wonders, everything conceivable will be said and done to deceive if possible the very elect. Let believers say nothing to extol Satan’s power. The Lord will distinguish His commandment keeping people with signal marks of His favor, if they will be molded and fashioned by His Spirit, and build up in the most holy faith, hearkening strictly to the voice of His Word.

Let us humble our souls before God. Let us work with an eye single to His glory. Let His praise be continually on our lips; for the benefits that He bestows are daily renewed, and should be acknowledged with thanksgiving.

God is longsuffering and of tender mercy. Should He deal with us according to our perversity, according to our foolish, erratic course, our changeableness, where would we be? But “He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.”

Remember that no human being is of himself sufficient to stand against the wily foe. Hide in God; and be sure that the Holy Spirit is with you. You can conquer the enemy only as the Lord goes before you.

If we stand in the great day of the Lord, with Christ as our [78] refuge, our high tower, we must put away all envy, all strife for the supremacy. We must utterly destroy the roots of these unholy things; that they may not again spring up into life. We must place ourselves wholly on the side of the Lord. Tribulation and wrath will surely come upon those who profess to be Christians, yet who accept the principles of Satan, departing from the commandments of God, in the daily life.

Can we not see the uncertainty and shortness of time? There are many, many, who are unready for the Lord’s appearing. If they continue to act like the wicked, to cherish the principles of the wicked, they will be punished with the wicked. If they betray the truth of God, causing the messages given by Him to become an uncertain thing, can He shield them from disasters by sea and by land? No, no!

Awake, my brethren, awake, Seek righteousness, and stand under the broad shield of Omnipotence. This is your only safety. God calls upon you to seek Him with humility of heart. Read Daniel’s prayer, and see if your experience will stand the test of fire. God will richly bless those who humble themselves before Him. His mercy and grace will be extended to all who wear the yoke of Christ, responding to the invitation, “Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

My dear Son, I can write no more tonight; for it is growing late. I thank the Lord that I am as well as I am. I shall not, unless specially directed, go to any place to attend meeting; for this takes time that I need for the preparation of matter that should come before the people.

We must not allow ourselves to be chilled to death by those who know not what it means to walk with God. We must have increased faith. Then we shall understand what it means to be true medical missionaries. So many use this name, but do not do the works signified by it. May God help His people to arouse from their lethargy, and come to the living fountain.

We must not allow ourselves to enter into contention. We are to speak words that make for peace and grace and truth. We are to search our hearts diligently, humbling ourselves before God. We are to respect our brethren, but we are not to place them where God should be: for they are but men.

I miss you much in my work, and shall be very glad to see you again. Come home as soon as you can. In much love, [79]

B—242—03

Decided Action to be Taken Now St. Helena, Calif. Oct., 1903

To Our Physicians and Ministers:

During the night the Spirit of God has been presenting many things to my mind. The experience that was given us at the General Conference held in Battle Creek early in 1901, was of God. Had Dr. Kellogg at that time done thorough work, the terrible experience through which we are now passing would never have been.

God has permitted the presentation of the combination of good and evil in “Living Temple” to be made to reveal the danger threatening us. The working that has been so ingeniously carried on He has permitted in order that certain developments might be made, and that it might be seen what a man can do with human minds when he has obtained their confidence as a physician. God has permitted the present crisis to come to open the eyes of those who desire to know the truth. He would have His people understand to what lengths the sophistry and devising of the enemy would lead.

Men have given to our leading physician allegiance that is due to God alone; and he has been permitted to show what self-exaltation will lead men to do. Scientific, spiritualistic sentiments, representing the Creator as an essence pervading all nature have been given to our people, and have been received even by some who have had a long experience as teachers of the Word of God. The results of this insidious devising will break out again and again. There are many for whom special efforts will have to be put forth to free them from this specious deception.

I am now authorized to say that the time has come to take decided action. The development seen in the cause of God is similar to the development seen when Balaam caused Israel to sin just before they entered the promised land. How dangerous it is so to exalt any man that he becomes confused, and confuses the minds of others in regard to the truths that for the last fifty years the Lord has been giving His people.

Few can see the meaning of the present apostasy. But the Lord has lifted the curtain, and has shown me its meaning, and the result that it will have if allowed to continue. We must now lift our voices in warning. Will our people acknowledge God as the supreme Ruler, or will they choose the misleading arguments and views that when fully developed, make Him, in the minds of those who accept them, as nothingness?

These words were spoken to me in the night season. The sentiments in “Living Temple” regarding the personality of God have [80] been received even by men who have had a long experience in the truth. When such men consent to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil we are no longer to regard the subject as a matter to be treated with the greatest delicacy. That those whom we thought sound in the faith should have failed to discern the specious, deadly influence of this science of evil, should alarm us as nothing else has alarmed us.’

It is something that can not be treated as a small matter that men who have had so much light and such clear evidence as to the genuineness of the truth we held, should become unsettled, and led to accept spiritualistic theories regarding the personality of God. These doctrines, followed to their logical conclusion sweep away the whole Christian economy. They estimate as nothing the light that Christ came from heaven to give John to give to His people. They teach that the scenes just before us are not of sufficient importance to be given special attention. They make of no effect the truth of heavenly origin, and rob the people of God of their past experience, giving them instead a false science.

During the past night, I have been shown more distinctly than ever before that these sentiments have been looked upon by some as the grand truths that are to be brought in and made prominent at the present time. I was shown a platform braced by solid timbers,—the truths of the words of God. Some on high in responsibility in the medical work was directing this man and that man to loosen the timbers supporting this platform. Then I heard a voice saying, “Where are the watchmen that ought to be standing on the walls of Zion? Are they asleep? How can they be silent? This foundation was built by the Master worker, and will stand storm and tempest. Will they permit this man to present doctrines that deny the past experience of the people of God? The time has come to take decided action.

I was instructed to call upon our physicians and ministers to take a firm stand for the truth. We are not to allow atheistic, spiritualistic sentiments to be brought before our youth. God has led us in the past, giving us truth, eternal truth. By this truth we are to stand. Some of the leaders in the medical work have been deceived, and if they continue to hold fanciful, spiritualistic ideas, they will make many believe that the platform upon which we have been standing for the past fifty years has been torn away. These men need now to see with anointed eyes, with clear spiritual vision, that in spite of all men can do, “the foundation of God standeth sure,” and “The Lord knoweth them that are His.”

The message to the Laodicean church comes to us at this time with special meaning. Read it, and ask God to show you its import. Thank God that He is still sending us messages of mercy. Those [81] accepting the theories regarding God that are introduced in “Living Temple” are in great danger of being led finally to look upon the whole Bible as a fiction; for these theories make of no effect the plain word of God.

The tempter is working to gather together at Battle Creek as large a number as possible, hoping that they will receive false ideas of God and His work, and thus make of no effect the impressions that God would have made on the minds of those engaged in the medical missionary work and in the gospel ministry. God abhors the great swelling words of vanity that have been spoken by some connected with the Sanitarium. The judgments of God have been visited upon Battle Creek, and those judgments call for humiliation rather than for proud boasting and self-exaltation.

The heavenly messenger turned to those professing to be medical missionaries, and said, “How could you allow yourselves to be led blindfold, How could you so misrepresent the name you bear? You have your Bibles. Why have you not reasoned from cause to effect? You have accepted theories that have led you away from the truths that are to stamp their impress upon the characters of all Seventh-day Adventists. Your leader has been removing the foundation-timbers one by one, and his reasoning would soon leave us with no certain foundation for our faith. He has not heeded the testimonies that God through His Spirit has given. The books of the Bible containing most important instruction are disregarded because they say so much about a personal God. He has not known whether his feet were tending. But in his recent writings, his tendencies toward Pantheism have been revealed.”

The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place what would result? The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church would be discarded. Our religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath, of course would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure. [82]

Who has authority to begin such a movement? We have our Bibles. We have our experience, attested to by the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. We have a truth that admits of no compromise. Shall we not repudiate everything that is not in harmony with this truth?

A mind trained only in worldly science fails to discern the deep things of God, but the same mind, converted and sanctified, would see the divine power in the word. Only the mind that is cleansed by the sanctification of the Spirit can discern heavenly things.

The Scriptures, given by inspiration of God, are “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Let us go to the word of God for guidance. Let us seek for a “Thus saith the Lord”. We have enough of human methods. Brethren awake to your God-given responsibilities. Your judgment, unless perverted by a long practice of false principles, will discern the deep things of God, given by His Holy Spirit, and your hearts will be made susceptible to the teachings of the word.

May God bring His people under the deep movings of His Spirit. The Spirit makes efficient the ordinary means of grace. God teaches that His kingdom is to be established in the earth “not by might, nor by power,” but by His Spirit. The Spirit is the efficiency of His people.

I am instructed to say that those who would tear away the foundation that God has laid are not to be accepted as the teachers and leaders of His people. We are to hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Words of power have been sent by God and by Christ to this people, bringing them out from the world point by point, into the clear light of present truth. With lips touched with holy fire, God’s servants have proclaimed the message. The divine utterance has set its seal to the genuineness of the truth proclaimed.

The Lord calls for a renewal of the straight testimony born in years past. He calls for a revival of spiritual life. The spiritual energies of His people have long been torpid, but there will be a resurrection from apparent death.

In the future, God will call for the gifts and talents of men not now actively engaged in His service. Let these respond to His call putting their trust in the great Medical Missionary. The power that is the life of the soul has not been seen as it must be. It has been smothered for want of spiritual ventilation,—the blending of human effort and divine grace. [83]

God is calling upon His people to work. He comes to them as they idle away the precious, golden moments, and says, “Go work today in My vineyard,“

By prayer and confession of sin we must clear the King’s highway. As we do this, the power of the Spirit will come to us. We need the Pentecostal energy. This will come; for the Lord has promised to send His Spirit as the all-conquering power.

Men may still learn the things that belong to their peace. Mercy’s voice may still be heard, calling, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” It is only when spiritual life is given that rest is found and lasting good secured. We must be able to say, in storm and tempest. “My anchor holds”. He who builds upon any other foundation than that which has been laid, builds upon shifting sand. God calls for a reformation. But he who seeks to bring about a reformation without the aid of the Holy Spirit’s reviving power will find himself adrift. Those who turn from human foolishness and frailty, from man’s seductive arts, from Satan’s planning, to Christ, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, will stand secure upon the platform of eternal truth. [84]

B—222—1903

St. Helena, Calif., October 15, 1903 To the Leaders in Our Work

Dear Brethren,

I ask you to move carefully and prayerfully. Let your words at all times be seasoned with grace. Let Christ be revealed in spirit, in words, in deportment.

In establishing sanitarium work in Washington, do not link up with Dr. Kellogg. Let the plans laid for the carrying forward of this line of work be such as will bear the endorsement of heaven. In no case is this line of work to be made secondary. It is to be prominent in bringing the truth to the minds of the people. With great wisdom establish a sanitarium in Washington. Establish the work upon a solid foundation. Let the building be neat and tasty, but not expensive. We can not afford to erect an expensive building. The Lord desires this building to be a representation of what He designs all His sanitariums to be.

The Lord will work with His people if they will work humbly with Him. But do not depend upon Dr. Kellogg. He is not making straight paths for his feet, and the lame will be turned out of the way. The Lord calls upon His gospel medical missionary workers to rally under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel. In the aggressive warfare there can be no release. The church militant is not the church triumphant.

Work in straight lines. Do nothing to encourage a root of bitterness springing up. And if this root of bitterness does appear, we are not to let it trouble us, and defile the spirit of true Christianity.

The truth that works by love and purifies the soul is to be cherished. We are to shun as we would the leprosy all spiritualistic ideas of God. There are mysteries that God has not revealed to human minds. Human beings would not know how to handle the Lord’ treasures of wisdom without tarnishing His glory. We are to understand, as diligent students, that which God has revealed. Paul speaks of the mystery “which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God;” and of the purpose of its revelations, saying, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord; in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of [85] whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.”

The most spiritual-minded Christians are those who have the most advanced knowledge of the word. This life is the time in which we are to prepare for eternity. We shall reap what we sow. False teachers will increase in numbers. Satan will lead men and women captive through deceptive reasoning, to destroy their confidence in God. Never were those who have heard the truth more in danger than at the present time. We must pray and watch unto prayer, making the word of God the man of our counsel. As we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. [86]

Re-copied 7/20/88 B—256-1903 By L. F. W.

St. Helena, Calif., Oct. 25, 1903 To the Officers of the Int. M M. & B. Association

Dear Brethren,

The Lord has instructed me that our people are to establish a sanitarium in Washington, D.C. to co-operate with the publishing house and the school to be established there. In this sanitarium opportunity is to be given to the youth to learn how to conduct sanitarium work in harmony with the instruction that God has sent His people.

I was also instructed that in the establishment of the Sanitarium at Washington, we are not to unite with Dr. Kellogg, because he knows not where he has been standing as regards his faith in God and in Christ. The truth must be given to the people of Washington very differently from the way in which it would be given were it under the direction of your Association. The Lord would have His work carried on in a different spirit from that manifested by Dr. Kellogg at the Oakland Conference and in Battle Creek since the Conference.

Several years ago the Lord instructed me that we should establish a sanitarium in Washington, and that it should stand separate and independent from the sanitarium at Battle Creek.

Ever since my return from Australia, light has been clearly given me that those who are firm in the faith should place themselves decidedly on the Lord’s side, and that they should work with all their God-given power to counteract the centralizing influences that have developed round the medical work in Battle Creek.

The Lord has plainly instructed me that we must not permit the medical men in Battle Creek to sway the work in Washington, because, unless greatly changed, they would exert a strong influence to thwart the plan of God in that important center. While these men continue to follow principles that God has condemned, how could the Lord be honored by having the Battle Creek mold placed on all our medical missionary institutions? Those who give shape to our medical work in Washington should be sound in the faith, understanding clearly the principles of the truth that in positive terms has been given to us as a people. [87]

From time to time the Lord has presented many things before me regarding the perils of our physicians who are associated together at Battle Creek. At various time Dr. Kellogg has been presented to me as walking in a false show, desiring to have the credit of being the first in medical missionary work. By his remarks he sometimes gives the impression that he is the author of the medical missionary work. But this honor does not belong to any man. It is the Lord, not man, who is the teacher and leader of His people. God has moved upon the hearts of men in different places to engage in this work. He has given them wisdom to plan and devise, and they have carried forward the work that He has laid upon them. It is His purpose that Dr. Kellogg shall give close attention to the work devolving upon him, and that he shall leave his brethren free to do their appointed work as the Lord shall direct them.

For many years the Lord has been sending testimonies of encouragement, instruction, warning, and reproof to Dr. Kellogg, but because of his great confidence in his own plans, and work, the doctor has failed to comprehend or to heed many of the counsels which were essential to his welfare. The position that he has taken with men of the world, binding himself up with them, gives evidence that instead of becoming established in the truth, he is departing from the faith. His theology is not sound; his mind is confused, and unless he sees his danger, his foundation will be swept away when the test comes. Unless he sees his danger and makes a decided change, he can not be endorsed as a safe, all-round teacher for the students who go to Battle Creek to study in medical missionary lines.

If Dr. Kellogg would link up with his brethren, and receive counsel from them, he would be on safer ground. But he has had great confidence in his own capabilities, and this has led him to take strong positions. Unless his is converted, and humbles his heart before God, his high opinion of his wisdom and knowledge will lead to acts which will place him and the truth we cherish as a denomination, in disrepute. But if he will walk humbly with God, if he will be teachable, if he will let God work upon his heart, the Lord will use him to advance the medical missionary work...But if he is exalted by his associates as the great head of this work, he will bring in a very strange order of things.

Those who have dared to place such large confidence in a finite man, overlooking his defects, excusing and justifying his mistakes, have done him great injury, and God will call them to account. If Dr. Kellogg is not now entirely beyond help, it is not because he has not been sufficiently praised and sustained and exalted by men. If he escapes an experience similar to that of Nebuchadnezzar, it will be because his soul revolts at his own presumptuous ambitions and his high opinions of his plans and his wisdom. [88]

Since the General Conference of 1901, I have carried a very heavy burden. Before I went to the Conference, light was given me that we must do all that we could to help Dr. Kellogg. The Lord said, “He is My physician, But he is himself in need of healing. He has taken upon himself responsibilities that I have not given him.” He was to be given another opportunity to establish his faith in the testimonies that for nearly half a century the Lord has been sending His people. Had he at that Conference fallen on the Rock, and been broken, had he come to God in humiliation and contrition, he would have received great light. But he allowed ambitious plans to occupy his mind. He has not taken time to study the Scriptures diligently, and he has not a true understanding of the work for these last days. He has not cherished a true, genuine faith,—a faith that would qualify him for the work of God. He has been in a dangerous position. Unless he places himself where he can be worked by the Holy Spirit, he will weave into his talks to the students that which is not true. He has planned to do a great work. But the Lord forbids us, as His appointed watchmen, stewards of His grace and shepherds of His flock, to allow him any longer to carry on the work in his own ambitious way. Instead of feeling that it is his work to speak and write about God as he has done, he should go apart for a time, and diligently study the Scriptures.

Dr. Kellogg has taken the position before those not of our faith that the Battle Creek Sanitarium is undenominational, and has thus placed our work in a false light. He made indistinct the line of demarcation between worldlings and those who hold in trust the most solemn truth ever given to mortals. Thus God has been greatly dishonored. The truth that has made us what we are is the same as it always has been. We must now more distinctly define the medical missionary work. As John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ’s first coming, so we are to prepare the way for His second coming.

Past Warnings

For years, the dangers of our medical work have been presented to me. Some of the letters that I have written to the physicians and managers of our older sanitariums will soon be published, for the benefit of our younger physicians. But to you who are associated together at Battle Creek, I feel that I must write very plainly; for you need a thorough awakening.

One year ago I wrote the following, which I will now send you,—

Oct. 26, 1902. During the past night I have slept but little. I feel grateful to God for goodness and love. I thank Him for permitting me to have a part in the work of preparing the way for His second coming. [89]

I have spent the greater part of the night praying that the Lord, by some way of His own choosing, will open Dr. Kellogg’s understanding, that he may see that he is departing from the faith. Unless he is led to realize his true spiritual condition, he will walk away from Christ into false paths. I am greatly burdened by the thought that those connected with the doctor in medical missionary work do not see that he is not standing on the platform of Bible truth. Unless there is a change, grave errors will be brought in. These will be rejected by some, but by others they will be accepted. Dr. Kellogg will have a sad account to give unless he sincerely repents for lifting himself up into vanity and assuming over souls a power that has hurt them spiritually.

Dr. Kellogg has favored those who have consented to follow his plans, and he has disparaged those who have differed from him in their understanding of what constitutes medical missionary work. Of those who have not shaped their course to suit his devising, it has been declared that they are not in harmony with medical missionary work. But these assertions are not always the truth. No man has the right to attach to the work his own plans and methods, and then claim that those who do not in all things act in harmony with his ideas are not medical missionaries.

Dr. Kellogg has woven so much of himself into some lines of the medical missionary work that it is sick, diseased, needing the care of the great Physician. When he does the work of a true medical missionary, as heaven designs he shall, the showing will be very different from what it now is.

When the leaders of the medical missionary work see themselves as the Lord sees them, there will be sorrow and humiliation. All who are enlightened by the Holy Spirit will see that self-denial and genuine humility are the first requisites for the success of medical missionary work. God acknowledges only the work that bears His seal.

Had our brother, who has assumed many responsibilities that God has not laid upon him, devoted his energies to that which for years the Lord has bidden him do he would now be a much safer man to entrust with larger responsibilities. But he does not discern the truth for this time. He has been framing false theories, and by these he governs himself. He thinks and asserts that he is right, but he does not understand the testing truth for this time. Unless he is converted, it will not be safe to accept him as a leader. He who stands as a leader of God’s people should do nothing that will mislead, nothing that will bring in false theories and sentiments.

It becomes those who are associated with Dr. Kellogg to watch and pray, lest they be found building on sliding sand. It is not safe for any man to interpret the Scriptures according to his own ideas. Whoever does this places himself where he is subject to strong temptations. [90]

The Lord has given me many messages for Dr. Kellogg, to encourage him, to point out his mistakes, and to place him where he would have clear light in regard to the testimonies that the Lord has been giving His people. But he did not take heed. The Lord gave him evidence of the truth of the testimonies that He was sending His people. But Dr. Kellogg has often disregarded the cautions and reproofs given him, when they did not coincide with his own ideas and judgment.

When, during the General Conference of 1901, light came clearly to him, he should have confessed his mistakes and errors, that he might be converted. But instead of humbling himself, he began to build himself up in his own purposes. The work that he should have done at this meeting was not done. Had he at that time taken his stand as one determined to cleanse his soul from all iniquity, there would have followed a reformation that would have placed the medical missionary work on a proper basis, where it would have been all that the name includes.

The Lord has a great work to accomplish through His faithful medical missionaries. But in order for them to do this work, they must be converted, body, soul, and spirit. God has made provision for every possible emergency. He will furnish help to all who walk and work in purity of heart. There is no lack to those who walk uprightly.

Dr. Kellogg occupies a position of great responsibility. Many are looking to him as one able to comprehend the truth. But he often misleads minds in regard to his work. He can not meet his high responsibilities unless he is converted. That which he most needs is a knowledge of God’s will concerning himself,—a knowledge of how to speak, how to teach, how to control his spirit. He needs to learn how to place in the Lord’s ministers the confidence that he desires them to place in him. The Lord calls upon Dr. Kellogg and his associates to step into line with their brethren, to become united in spirit with the ministers and teachers who are carrying forward the work that the Lord has given them to do. Many of these workers are conscientiously trying to serve the interests of the cause of God, and they should have the sympathy and support of the medical workers.

The rich and wonderful provisions of the gospel embrace the medical missionary work. This work is to be to the third angel’s message as the right arm is to the body. It is not to be made the head. Dr. Kellogg has endeavored to make it the head, but this is not right.

The Lord reproves those who do not watch unto prayer, those who forget that they are wholly dependent upon him and amenable to Him. He reproves those who misrepresent the great Medical Missionary, those who do not keep the way of the Lord, doing their utmost to prepare a people to become members of the family of the redeemed. [91] He is dishonored by those whose course leads away from Christ and the truth for this time. The Lord desires that our medical workers shall proclaim the last warning message of the gospel. When they leave out the principles of present truth, skepticism runs through their work, and God can not endorse it.

The principles of present truth are to be studied and practised by our people, that the line of demarcation between Him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not may be kept unmistakably distinct. A close examination of God’s word will reveal the riches of the grace of Christ, which are to be received by God’s people, and by them imparted to those in need. [92]

Re-copied 7/18/28 T-266-1903 by L. F. W.

“Elmshaven,” Sanitarium, Calif.

December 3, 1903

Dear Brethren G.C. Tenney and A.T. Jones,

I am charged with a message for you. Now is the time to do decided work. There must be no daubing the wall with untempered mortar. But you are not half awake. You need to be thoroughly aroused before you can give true instruction to those you are supposed to be helping. Your own hearts need to be worked by the Holy Spirit, else you will not be able men, imbued with a clear sense of what you need, keeping strict guard over yourselves. You need to work deeper, and cleanse you souls most thoroughly from impurity. You are not now prepared to give the trumpet a certain sound. Self, unsanctified self, receives altogether [too] much respect from you.

Remember that your actions, words, looks, and thoughts are to be carefully guarded, else you will come short. Neither of you are developing as you ought the traits of character that would make you safe guardians of souls. The word of God is to be something more to you than you make it. You need to have done in your hearts the purifying, cleansing, reformatory work of the Spirit of God.

You may repeat the words of life, many, many times, and yet fail to make them a life-saving power to your souls. The eyes of both of you need to be anointed with the heavenly eyesalve, else your words and your example will mislead. When you closely and critically examine yourselves, you will find that you have a work to do for yourselves before you can skillfully apply the gospel remedy to such a man as Dr. Kellogg.

God is in earnest with you, with Dr. Kellogg, and with every one. My brethren, your spiritual welfare is at stake. You both need the cleansing of the refining furnace. Your standing before God is not what it may be through the grace which Christ supplies. You both need to take heed to yourselves, to cleanse your souls from everything that defiles, and to take your position on a much higher plane.

Do not, I beg of you, neglect this word of warning. The salvation of your souls is in peril. Unless your eyes are anointed with the heavenly eyesalve, you will lose the clear discernment that you must have in order to be faithful watchmen, able to discern between good and evil.

You need to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God. This you must do in order to have the life of Christ. You [93] are not living wholly by the word of God. You do not fully realize what is meant by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. When you understand what this means, you will see the need of the crucifixion of self. You will see your need of the pure, ennobling, sanctifying principles of God’s Word.

God calls upon you to look at yourselves in the mirror of His holy law; and you are not, after doing this, to go away, and forget what manner of men you are.

You are both occupying positions of grave responsibility. The word of the living God must lead you to crucify self, if it becomes to you eternal life. You both need to drink deeply of the well of Bethlehem. Be very particular how you deal with and explain the word of God. It can not be to you spirit and life unless you practice it.

You are both in need of the softening, subduing influence that makes the heart of a man as the heart of a little child. Brother Jones, you are somewhat abrupt, and make sad mistakes. In trying to deal with certain errors and sins as a faithful shepherd, you are often so abrupt that you spoil your efficiency. Then, on the other hand, there are evils which you pass over, neglecting to correct them, failing to call evil, evil, and good, good.

While you are never to cloak evil or lessen the sense of wrong, you should always be filled with the spirit of the great medical missionary. Your words are not to be harsh or abrupt. In a Christlike manner you should reprove those who need reproof. Never should your efforts have a corroding, destructive influence upon minds. You need to cherish the gracious, sanctifying, ennobling influence of the Saviour, else the food you offer to the people will taste so strangely of the human dish that it will be unpalatable.

Again and again this has been presented to me in connection with your case, and very recently I was instructed that your influence will be greatly weakened unless you heed these words.

Had you stood in the light, you could have been a power in presenting the truths of the word of God. But you do not see things clearly. You are not walking in the clear light of truth. How can you, then, help Dr. Kellogg? He has not yet come fully to the light. When he does see the way in which he should go, he will realize how thoroughly he has mingled unsanctified self with his medical missionary work. If this evil should end with the ruin of his own experience, it would be bad enough. But for years his life has had a misleading influence over others, and it is time that there was a renovation, a reformation.

For some time our poor brother has not known what pure, practical godliness is. He has taken himself into his own hands, and [94] has refused to respond to the invitation, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

I long to be able to rest, but the burden continues to weigh heavily upon my soul, as night after night I am calling upon our medical missionary workers to seek the Lord while He may be found, and call upon Him while He is near. I am instructed to say that the teachers of our people need to have a work done for themselves. Their spirit needs to be brought under the control of God. Those who have a knowledge of the truth should live the truth. Our ministers and physicians need real conversion of soul, that they may be imbued with power from on high. They need to rend their hearts before God. A thorough work needs to be done in the hearts of the workers in every line of the cause of God. I call upon them to awake, while they still have opportunity to repent, and prepare to meet their God.

Over and over again I am instructed that our ministers and physicians need to have a decided work done for them. I beg of them not to flatter themselves that they know how to carry forward the work of the Lord. They need a reformation, a real conversion. When they get a glimpse of their need of God, there will come to them a humiliation of heart that will be a savor of life unto life.

God calls upon the men in charge of His work to arouse themselves. They are not now awake. Their hearts need to be changed. Their human desires and inclinations need to be brought under the control of the Holy Spirit.

I heard the voice of a mighty general crying in trumpet tones, “Prepare to meet thy God. Prepare for the great conflict before us. Quit yourselves as brave soldiers of the Lord’s army. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the enemy. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.”

I seemed to see a company bowed in prayer. Confessions of sin were made that till then had been withheld. Then One of authority arose, and with deep feeling read the following Scripture:

“If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and [95] mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

“Thy Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands.” “It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell.” “God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.”

“Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.” “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him.”

I am instructed to warn our physicians and ministers not to become exalted, but to walk as children, wholly consecrated to God’s service, wholly dependent on Him. My brethren, my prayer for you is “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality, and power and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.”

You are God’s husbandry, God’s building. You are to be laborers together with Him. Will you not remember that word “together.” Keeping it ever in mind sanctifies the soul. You come far short of appreciating the advantages that are for those who are called and chosen. Will you not walk worthy of the high honor that God will place upon you if you are faithful? You must walk humbly before Him. Put away all abruptness of speech and action. [96]

I ask you, Brother Tenney and Brother Jones, to do all in your power to lead Dr. Kellogg to the platform of eternal truth. Work in unity. Press together. Let each one stand in his place. Speak the truth plainly, but in love. Keep the standard of truth uplifted.

May God help you to heed these words. [97]

Re-copied 7/17/28 MS-145-03

Beware of Fanciful Doctrines

I have been instructed to say that it is not new and fanciful doctrines which the people of God need. They do not need suppositions, which can not be sustained by the word of God. They need the testimony of men who know the truth, men who understand and obey the charge given to Timothy: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth; and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”

In some instances men have been turned away from the truth to listen to fables. Efforts have been made to set right those thus deceived; but some had drunk so deeply from the polluted fountain, and had become so impregnated with false impressions that it was impossible to undeceive them. They had come to believe that it is more profitable to eat of the food offered in the strange doctrines presented than to eat of the food contained in the word of God.

In New Hampshire there were those who were active in disseminating false ideas in regard to God. Light was given me that these men were making the truth of no effect by their ideas, some of which led to freeloveism. I was shown that these men were seducing souls by presenting speculative theories regarding God.

I went to the place where they were working, and opened before them what they were doing. The Lord gave me strength to lay plainly before them the danger of their course. Among other views, they held that those once sanctified could not sin, and this they were presenting as gospel food. Their false theories, with their burden of deceptive influence, were working great harm to themselves and to others. They were gaining a spiritualistic power over those who could not see the evil of these beautifully clothed theories. Great evils had already resulted. The doctrine that all were holy had led to the belief that the affections of the sanctified were never in danger of leading astray. The result of this belief was the fulfillment of the evil desires of hearts which though professedly sanctified, were far from purity of thought and practice. [98]

This is only one of the instances in which I was called upon to rebuke those who were presenting the doctrine of an impersonal God, diffused through nature, and the doctrine of holy flesh.

In the future, truth will be counterfeited by the precepts of men. Deceptive theories will be presented as safe doctrines. False science is one of the agencies that Satan used in the heavenly courts, and it is used by him today. The false assertions that he made to the angels, his subtle scientific theories, led many of them from their loyalty. And having lost their place in heaven, they prepared temptations for our first parents. Adam and Eve yielded to the enemy, and by their disobedience humanity was estranged from God, and the earth separated from heaven.

Christ pledged Himself to bridge the gulf that sin had made. Thus He became the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He shows us the path that leads to heaven, and promises to impart His efficiency to every one who believes on Him. He came to our world to reveal, not a mixture of truth and error, the pure truth of God. All error is misleading, even though clothed with garments of heavenly beauty.

The character and power of God are revealed by the works of His hands. In the natural world are to be seen evidences of the love and goodness of God. These tokens are given to call attention from nature to nature’s God, that His “eternal power and Godhead” may be understood.

Pantheistic theories are not sustained by the word of God. The light of His truth shows that these theories are soul-destroying agencies. Darkness is their element, sensuality their sphere. They gratify the natural heart, and give leeway to inclination. Separation from God is the result of accepting them.

Christ calls upon His people to believe and practice His word. Those who receive and assimilate this word, making it a part of every action, of every attribute of character, will grow strong in the strength of God. It will be seen that their faith is of heavenly origin. Before angels and before men, they will stand as those who have strong consistent Christian characters. They will not wander into strange paths. Their minds will not turn to a religion of sentimentalism and excitement.

I beseech those who are laboring for God not to accept the spurious for the genuine. We have a whole Bible full of the most precious truth. We have no need for supposition or false excitement. In the golden censer of truth as presented in Christ’s teachings, we have that which will convict and convert souls. Present in the simplicity of Christ the truths that He came to this world to proclaim, and the power of your message will make itself felt. Do not present theories or tests that have no foundation in the Bible. We have grand, solemn tests to present. “It is written” is the test that must be brought home to every one. [99]

Walk firmly, decidedly, your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. God has not laid upon any one the burden of encouraging an appetite for strange, odd doctrines and theories. My brethren, keep these things out of your teaching. Do not allow them to enter into your experience. Do not let you life-work be marred by them.

The minds of the Jewish teachers were filled with maxims and suppositions. They interpreted the word to mean that which God never designed it to mean, enforcing their oddities on the common people.

A warning against such teaching is found in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. The apostle declares that the hearts of the believers were to be “knit together in love; and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” “And this I say,” he continues, “lest any man should beguile you with enticing words... As ye have therefore received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.”

I am instructed to say to our people, Let us follow Christ. We may safely discard all ideas that are not included in His teachings. I appeal to our ministers to be sure that their feet are placed on the platform of eternal truth. Beware how you follow impulse, calling it the Holy Spirit. Some are in danger in this respect. I call upon them to be sound in the faith, able to give every one who asks a reason of the hope that is in them.

Into the hearts of many who have been long in the truth there has entered a hard, judicial spirit. They are sharp, critical, fault-finding. They have climbed into the judgment seat, to pronounce sentence on those who do not meet their ideas. God calls upon them to come down, and bow before Him in repentance, confessing their sins. He says to them, “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. “They are striving for the first place, and by their words and acts they make many hearts sore.

Against this spirit, and against the false religion of sentimentalism, which is equally dangerous. I bear my warning. Take heed, brethren and sisters. Who is your leader?—Christ, or the [100] angel who fell from heaven? Are you sound in the faith? My prayer for you all is that God would grant you “according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” [101]

Re-copied 7/15/28 H—51—1904 by L. F. W.

Sanitarium, Napa Co. California

November 28, 1903

Dear Brother Haskell,

I have recently received two letters from Dr. Kellogg. He strongly urges me to come to Battle Creek, offering to pay all the expenses of the journey. He thinks that I will be favorably impressed if I can see for myself the conditions existing in Battle Creek.

But I do see matters for myself. Night after night scenes are presented before me that reveal a strange condition of things. While Dr. Kellogg has made some admissions, he has not yet gone to the root of the evils for which he has been responsible.

At the General Conference held in Oakland, Dr. Kellogg gave an exhibition of himself that revealed the spirit that controlled him. Long before that meeting he was presented to me as a man who understood not the spirit that controlled him. The enemy of souls had cast upon him a spell of deception.

Some of the recent testimonies I have written and have given them to Elder A.T. Jones, asking him to read them to the Doctor; for I was instructed that if they were placed in the hands of Dr. Kellogg, he might be led to put a wrong construction upon some of the words. This instruction was given to me at the time of the meeting held in Battle Creek a few weeks before the Review and Herald Office was burned.

At the time of the General Conference in Oakland, I was forbidden by the Lord to have any conversation with Dr. Kellogg. During that meeting a scene was presented to me, representing evil angels conversing with the Doctor, and imbuing him with their spirit, so that at times he would say and do things, the nature of which he could not understand. He seemed powerless to escape from the snare. At other times he would appear to be rational.

I was instructed to see Dr. Paulson, and talk with him concerning the issue of the Sanitarium bonds. God forbids that His people should be largely drawn upon to pay for the erection of the mammoth sanitarium that has been put up at Battle Creek. I was also instructed that it would be difficult for some to draw out the [102] money they had invested in bonds, when they would wish to invest it in some needy field. I bore this message at the General Conference, but it does not seem to have had the influence it should have had.

At the sanitarium in Battle Creek, the students and helpers have been encouraged by the managers to write to their parents and friends and tell of wonderful things being done in the institution, while matters were being presented to me in a far different light.

I have used my pen day and night. For months I have seldom been able to sleep after twelve or one o’clock. I have borne a clear, decided testimony all the way through.

At the time of the meeting held in Washington, I was compelled to bear very straight testimonies to Dr. Paulson and to others. Since then I have received very encouraging letters from Dr. Paulson.

Dr. Paulson and others have thought that the strange sentiments to be found in the book, “Living Temple” are sustained by my writings. Some expressions, taken independent of their proper connection have been used to sustain this idea, even as many take statements from the Bible from their setting, and use them to testify to error. This is a scheme of Satan to deceive. I have written to Elder Jones and to Elder Tenney that they are in danger of being influenced by the sentiments found in “Living Temple”.

The Lord has greatly honored Dr. Kellogg as a physician. If he will now conduct himself aright, the Lord will pardon his mistakes. If he could but realize what burdens he has brought upon me both before and since my return to America, he would change his course of action. I mean to do all in my power to save his soul. [103]

Re-copied 7/15/28 MS-10-1904 by L. F. W.

Instruction Regarding the Medical Missionary Work

It is not safe to trust in Dr. Kellogg. I dare not do it. I have not written to him much, recently, but I may have to send something soon. I have not the least confidence in his present attitude toward many things. I learn that notwithstanding all I have written regarding “The Living Temple” a book that was written under the inspiration of the arch-deceiver; notwithstanding with many plain messages that I have delivered in the “Review and Herald” and in letters to our brethren in responsibility, Dr. Kellogg now admits only a few of the mistakes he has made, and still supposes that in former years I taught the same errors. This reveals a blindness beyond conception. All that I can now do is to watch developments closely. I can not see that it would do the least particle of good to say more than I have said.

From the first, I have met this matter firmly, without the slightest hesitancy. The sentiments advocated in “Living Temple” make this book a dangerous production; for in the book is taught an insinuating, deceptive science of Satanic origin. The articles from my pen that have been published in the “Review” have, I understand, hurt terribly the feelings of some; but I intend to protest decidedly against the many deceptions that are coming in to lead souls astray.

Some of the Doctor’s associates look upon these articles as an abuse of him; nevertheless, I am as clear as the day in the conviction that the sentiments expressed in “Living Temple” should not go out to the people.

An effort has just been made to sell over three thousand copies of the original edition still on hand. Only a few revisions were made, by cutting out leaves and inserting others. If we should keep silent a little while, things might develop further. I have done my duty. Months ago I entrusted Elder A. T. Jones with several communications to read to the physicians and helpers at the Battle Creek Sanitarium; but I fear he is leavened with the spirit that controls the Doctor.

The Doctor thinks that we desire to “Wipe him off the slate.” on the other hand, Elder Daniells and others whose eyes are open, suppose that in some way I am favoring Dr. Kellogg, or have changed my attitude toward him. But I am constantly on guard. The Doctor does things that we know nothing about now, but which may compel me to bear still more decided testimonies against his persistent efforts to weave into his teachings this fascinating, [104] spiritualistic science of Satanic origin. I must not let any one suppose that these delusive, misleading sentiments are for a moment entertained by me.

During the labors of my youth, in Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and in Canada Maine, I met these same spiritualistic sentiments decidedly. The power of God would rest upon me during the meeting held; and while I was bearing my testimony, some in the congregation would fall helpless to the floor,—unable to rise for a time,—thus silently testifying to the power of God.

As soon as I read “The Living Temple”, I discerned the dangerous tendency of its teachings. I wrote out some very straight testimonies for the brethren assembled at the fall council held in Washington in 1903. Copies have been sent to some of the leading brethren. As these messages were read all opposition seemed to be cut down. Dr. Kellogg, Dr. Paulson, and other physicians were with the ministers at this Council, and they all acknowledged that the testimonies were clear and convincing. They wrote us that at times the Holy Spirit would rest with great power upon the entire assembly.

The burden I have carried has been a heavy one. For nearly two months I rarely slept any after twelve o’clock; for two months afterward I was unable to sleep later than one o’clock. I would arise, and write out most important messages.

During the Washington Council-meeting, Dr. Kellogg surrendered, and yet his spiritual discernment still seems beclouded. I speak plainly now; I have not spoken before, because of my hope that he would go to the root of these difficulties. But he has not done thorough work, and he gives evidence of great spiritual blindness; therefore I feel free to write as I have written, in order that my brethren may understand that Sister White is still under the supervision of God, and will not be led astray by any deceptive influences,—not even by Dr. Kellogg. I have suffered intensely. The Doctor feels that we are pressing him to the wall; but I can not do otherwise than that which I have done. I am now awaiting developments.

At the Oakland General Conference I could not explain fully why I was to have no conversation with Dr. Kellogg. It was because Satanic agencies were communicating with him, and much that I might have said would have been mis-stated and misinterpreted. This is also the reason why, for a time, I could not send letters direct to him.

Dr. Kellogg is still in the mists of error,—befogged. He says that he can not see as we do regarding the dangerous tendencies of his theories concerning God. He seems to be very much grieved because I have lost confidence in him. I have much, very much, that I could produce on these matters; and I may have to publish much [105] of it. But if I could, in some way, lead the Doctor to go to the bottom,—which he must do before he can rise to the top,-I should praise the Lord with heart, and soul, and voice. At present he is merely skimming the surface, and my soul is still heavily burdened. [106]

Re-copied 7/13/28 B—177-1904 by L. F. W.

Berrien Springs, Michigan, May 21, 1904 To out Medical Men at Battle Creek

Dear Brethren,

God is testing us by blessings bestowed and blessings removed. Shall we learn the lesson He would teach us? Will we bear His test and proving? God has worked for His people by His Holy Spirit. By the bestowal of wonderful blessings, He has striven to awaken in them a desire to impart the light entrusted to them. “I have come to you in love,” He says. “I have come to you in mercy and judgment; yet you would not learn the lesson I sought to teach. My Spirit has been grieved by your failure to respond to My love.” To those who claim to be His servants and yet depart from His way, He says, “If thou art destroyed, Thou thyself art responsible. Ye would not come unto me, that ye might have life.”

Who will at this time make most earnest decisions to be wholly for the Lord God of Israel? Shall the Lord again cause the idols of your choice-beautiful buildings—to be consumed by fire? Shall the reason be taken away because the God-given powers of the mind have been exercised in strange division? By their unsanctified projects, men have burdened themselves and retarded the progress of the cause of God, till it is years behind where it should be. Our cities are still unwarned. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but ye would not.” Satan prepares the way for the doing of many things that God has not commanded. If all had used their powers to the glory of God, the knowledge of the truth would have been more widely extended than it is.

It is the weaving into the web of so many figures that are not in the pattern that spoils the fabric. Have we not had enough of this? The Lord calls for a proclamation of the truth in new territory. This has been the burden of my message for the last twenty years. The Lord calls for, greater simplicity; for people are woefully ignorant. Saith the great Teacher, “Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

As from the Mount of Olives Christ looked down upon the doomed, guilty city, He exclaimed with heartbroken anguish and with tears running down His face, “O that thou hadst known, even thou in this thy day the things that belong unto they peace.” Then He paused, [107] unwilling to pronounce the irrevocable sentence, “But now they are hid from thine eyes.” -

A strict examination should be made in regard to the business that has been transacted in Battle Creek. This will show the standing of the institution. This examination should have been made long ago. The business standing of all our medical institutions is to be carefully and correctly presented before our people, that they may know the real situation of the medical work, where it stands, what it is doing, whether or not it is producing as well as consuming. [108]

Re-copied 7/15/28 B-259-1904 by L. F. W.

Nashville, Tennessee,

June 23, 1904

To Union Conference Presidents, and
Leading Medical Missionaries:—

Before leaving Washington for Berrien Springs, I was instructed upon some points regarding the work at Battle Creek. In the night season I was shown a meeting. Dr. Kellogg was speaking, and he was filled with enthusiasm regarding his subject. His associate physicians and ministers of the gospel were present. The subject upon which he was speaking was life, and the relation of God to all living things. In his presentation he cloaked the matter somewhat, but in reality he was presenting scientific theories which are akin to pantheism. He presented them as being of the highest value.

After looking upon the pleased, interested countenances of those who were listening, one by my side told me that the evil angels had taken captive the mind of the speaker. He said that we were to stand as guardians of the churches, but that we were on no account to enter into discussion on these subjects with those who hold pantheistic theories. He said that just as surely as the angels who fell were seduced and deceived by Satan, so surely was the speaker under the spiritualistic education of evil angels.

I was astonished to see with what enthusiasm the sophistries and deceptive theories were received. The influence of this talk gave him encouragement to call for a council of our brethren at Battle Creek, for a further examination of these seducing sentiments.

I was bidden to warn our people on no account to send their children to Battle Creek to receive an education, because these delusive scientific theories would be presented in the most seducing forms. The matter has been working in the mind of some, till they think they are to be channels to infuse other minds with great light regarding scientific problems. They will be led to take words and sentiments from my books and present them as being in harmony with their theories.

I am bidden to tell our ministers to enter into no discussion over these theories. Let them alone. When engaged in discussion over these theories, their advocates will take words spoken to oppose them and will make them appear to mean the very opposite of that which the speaker intended them to mean. Some have been studying these matters for a long time, and are prepared to present them and to lead souls to adopt them. I am now commissioned to tell our people to beware. [109]

The long night interviews which Dr. Kellogg holds are one of his most effective means of gaining his point. His constant stream of talk confuses the minds of those he is seeking to influence. He mis-states and misquotes words, and places those who argue with him in so false a light that their powers of discernment are benumbed. He takes their words, and gives them an impress which makes them seem to mean exactly the opposite of what they said.

If permitted, the evil angels will work the minds of men until they have no mind or will of their own. They are led as the angels cast out from heaven were led. Under Satan’s influence these angels uttered sentiments directly opposed to loyalty to God. Thus the family in heaven became corrupted.

God has given him opportunity after opportunity to place himself on vantage ground. As his feet were slipping down a precipice, Christ grasped his hands, saying, “Do not struggle. Hold fast to Me.” This the Saviour has done again and again, to save him from making shipwreck of the faith.

At the Berrien Springs meeting the Lord showed Dr. Kellogg special favor. God gave me power to present messages of admonition and encouragement. The two forces met, the Satanic influences and the influence of Christ. But Satan fought hard to hold his advantage, and Dr. Kellogg is now in a more dangerous condition than before the meeting. Every ray of light rejected leaves him more surely fastened in Satan’s coils.

I have no charge to make, no judgment of my own to give. I speak the word of the Lord. Our people are not to become entangled with Dr. Kellogg in sanitariums which are to be established or in sanitariums that have already been established. As a people we are to make sure that the Lord’s money is invested wisely. We are not to take on any additional burden of debt unless it is made plain that we should do this.

Let the world go into spiritualism, into theosophy, into pantheism, if they choose. We are to have nothing to do with this deceptive branch of Satan’s work. The pleasing sentiments of pantheism will lead many souls into forbidden paths. God forbids His servants to leave their fields of labor to enter into a discussion of these sentiments. The last Testimony published opens to our people the danger of these theories, and the Testimonies published in the future will urge still more strongly the necessity of lifting up and carrying high the banner on which are inscribed the words, “The commandments of God the faith of Jesus.” God’s people are to let no one take this banner from their hands. I am instructed that false theories will be presented, and that some in the medical missionary work, who have been wavering, will yield up the faith, and give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. [110]

The only hope for our people now is to take their stand on the true foundation. Higher and still higher they are to raise the banner of truth. Not for one moment are they to give place to the enemy. [111]

Re-copied 7/13/28 R-281-1904 by L. F. W.

Washington, D. C.

August 3, 1904

Dr. W. H. Riley:

Dear Brother,

I have a most earnest desire that you shall stand free in the Lord. I pray that you may have the moral courage to stand firm for the truth, and hold fast the beginning of your confidence unto the end. Do not allow yourself to be led away from the truth to receive fables. It is of no avail to bring the foundation material represented by wood, hay, and stubble. Such material will be utterly consumed. Let us remember that we have been bought at an infinite price by the Son of God. Our physicians must not allow themselves to be held in control by another man’s mind, as they have been, fearing to open their lips to differ with their chief.

The missionaries of the Christian church are to stand in their God-given manhood, with the privilege of exercising freedom of speech and freedom of faith. When they see that a fellow-laborer is not doing as a man in his position ought to do, they are not to harmonize with his plans, or be cowered into silence by a masterful spirit. For them to do this would be a great injury to him and to them.

Our physicians should not be required to verify statements that they know are not true. How dare they do this? How dare anyone require it? They do a great harm to a speaker when they listen to false statements without making any protest or correction.

Our physicians are to stand where no binding influence will hold them speechless when they hear wrong sentiments expressed. At times, with burning earnestness and words of terrible severity, Christ denounced the abominations that He saw in the church and in the world. He would not allow the people to be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity.

We are to unify, but not on a platform of error. That which has been said in the Testimonies in regard to “Living Temple,” and its misleading sentiments, is not overdrawn. Some of its theories are misleading, and their influence will be to close the minds of those who receive them against the truth for this time. Men may explain in regard to these theories, nevertheless they are contrary to the truth. Scriptures are misplaced and misapplied, taken out of their connection and given a wrong application Thus those are deceived who have not a vital, personal experience in the truths that have made us as a people what we are. [112]

We are living amidst the perils of the last days. We are able to watch unto prayer. We are to put our entire trust in God, glorifying Him. Daily we are to learn lessons from the greatest medical missionary that ever trod this earth. He is our tabernacle of witness for heavenly things. He will not accept that which has been done in bringing so much of a commercial spirit into the medical missionary work, neither will He accept the Laodicean condition of the medical missionary association. This association is not doing the work indicated by its name. It is not preparing a people to obtain a sound, healthy experience, which will stand the test of the judgment. I am so sorry; for God is dishonored. His work, which should be a praise in the earth, is belittled. False sentiments have been entertained, and a strange work has been done.

The great Medical Missionary was a wonderful Healer. He worked the most convincing miracles. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He spoke only the truth. Continually there fell from His lips the precious words that bring spiritual strength to those who make them a part of the daily life. Spiritually we are built up from the food that we give the mind. It is our privilege to receive the bread of life from the great medical missionary, who came to give life to the world. Truth, pure, refining, ennobling truth, came from His very heart. He spoke words of heavenly wisdom, which will make men wise unto salvation. His heart was constantly burning with love that brought Him from heaven to our world. His goodness and His power enabled Him to reveal in His life the truth that He came to this earth to bring to the fallen race. In every word, in every act, He manifested the love of God, cheering and encouraging the downcast and distressed. In heavenly wisdom He asserted His true majesty by bending all things to the present and future of human beings. He came to teach men and women how to live here below the life of which He gave them an example,—the life that will make them fit to enter the abodes of bliss.

In His breast mercy may be said to have held her court. Hear His words of compassion, spoken to relieve the sinsick culprit, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” His work was a representation of true medical missionary work. He brought healing to soul and body. In His life was enshrouded the love, the pity, the compassion, the joy, of heaven. Thousands were healed by His words, “I will; be thou whole.” By His work, His glory was so plainly revealed that demons were pained, and when compelled to cease tormenting human beings, confessed Christ to be the Holy One of God.

This work Christ did to show men that He was the tabernacle of witness, that the Word had been made flesh. In the human encampment, amongst the erring and sinful, Christ pitched His tent. He lived close to the poor and the lowly, yet He was the King of glory. He would make all familiar with His character, that we might be partakers of the divine nature, and thus become one with Him in faith and practise. He declares, “All things are delivered to Me of My Father.” “All things that the Father hath are mine.” [113] “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” Why was this wonderful transfer made but that Christ might be the world’s Redeemer, the incarnate Saviour!

To John the Baptist, shut up in prison because of His fearless testimony against the licentiousness and the unlawful marriage of Herod, there came discouragement. He thought, “Why does not Christ exercise His power, and deliver me from prison?” He sent his disciples to Christ with the inquiry, “Art Thou He that should come, or look we for another?”

At the time, Christ was surrounded with the sick, and with those who desired forgiveness of sin. Instead of immediately answering John’s disciples, He turned to the multitude. The arm mighty to save was made bare. He spoke, and the deaf heard His voice. He touched the eyes of the blind, and they were opened to behold the blessed light of day. At His word fever was rebuked. He looked on the dying, and they were brought back to life and health. The frenzied demoniac was freed from the power of evil spirits, and fell down and worshiped the Deliverer, declaring Him to be the Christ of God.

Then, turning to John’s messengers, Christ said, “Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard.....And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.”

When Jesus was about to ascend to His Father, He gave His ministry of healing to His followers, leaving with them the commission, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

The great Teacher, while on this earth, gave His whole life to teach us how to work as devoted, consecrated missionaries for God. In the prayer that He offered for His disciples just before His trial and crucifixion, He declared, “I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.....I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world.”

He came to our world to reveal the character of God. At the hands of those whom He sought to save, He received insult, mockery, and abuse. They crucified Him, but He broke the fetters of the tomb, and ascended to His Father, there to intercede as our Mediator.

The words that we are commanded to teach are the very words that Christ spoke while on this earth. We can dispense with human sophistry. Those who teach it will not have the heavenly endorsement “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” [114] I call upon you, my brother, to be a free man. The time you have spent in the Sanitarium has not given you the qualifications that would fit you to be a co-worker with the great Medical Missionary in saving souls. Had you placed yourself under the instruction of the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, He would have given you an education that would have prepared you to work with Him. You would not have obtained an experience that would have almost unfitted you to be Christ’s co-laborer in the healing of the souls and bodies of His people.

Men and women are being held in the Battle Creek Sanitarium who are needed in the world, to proclaim the message that the Lord is soon to come with power and great glory. This warning must be proclaimed. Those who know the truth for this time are to go forth to take it to those who know it not. They are to cooperate with Christ, the great Missionary, whose work it was to draw men to God. He was content to conceal Himself, to hide His divinity under the garb of humanity.

I call upon those who are at Battle Creek, losing their faith and losing their first love, to come away, and take hold of the work of God in neglected fields, as soon as they have recovered from the influence of the seducing theories that have threatened to spoil them for the ministry of the word and for the precious missionary work in which they might engage were they fully established in the faith. Actions speak louder than words. A world is perishing in sin, and God calls for workers. He wants one thousand at work in the highways and in the hedges, where now there is but one. We have no time to listen to idle tales and false science. The faith of many will be revived when they will humble their hearts before God, and go forth to fulfill the commission of Christ, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

Had a large part of the company of students who have been gathered into Battle Creek, engaged in the work as evangelists, colporteurs, and canvassers, trying in humility to teach the word, there would have been a much more spiritual and sacredly intelligent medical working company. Had they gone forth, taking Christ as their Teacher, many who may never again become settled in the truth, would have received an education that would have enabled them to open the Scriptures to others. Large numbers would have been converted, and would have put out their talents to usury, teaching the things that Christ has commanded. But alas! They have been given a knowledge that, in the day of judgment, when the books will be opened, and every man judged according to the deeds done in the body, they will wish they had never been accepted. Better never to have learned the lessons they have been learning in unbelief and lack of faith, in sophistry and untruthful representations.

Oh, may God open blind eyes! May He have pity on our people, who have so little judgment and wisdom! [115]

Re-copied 7/12/28 K-367-1904 by L. F. W.

Melrose, Mass.

August 31, 1904

Dr. Kellogg:

Dear Brother,

I have a most earnest desire that you shall stand on vantage ground.

Recently I have been unable to do much, but I have received special help from the great Healer. He has given me power as I have borne my testimony before the people. During my stay in Philadelphia, I spoke twice, once in each of the tents pitched in that city. The Lord gave me strength to address those assembled, and I praise His Holy Name.

Since coming to this place, I have spoken several times. A campmeeting is in progress about a mile from the Sanitarium, and on Sabbath and Sunday afternoons and during the week I spoke. The Lord gave me strength, and there was much of His Spirit in the meeting. We leave Melrose before the meeting closes to attend a meeting in Connecticut. I shall be there for a few days only, as I am to attend a meeting in Omaha.

I learned this morning that on our way to Omaha we shall pass through Battle Creek, and since this is so, I thought that perhaps I could spend a day or two there. Could the church be gathered together sometime during the week? I should be glad to speak to them. I do not think I could stay over the Sabbath, for I have an appointment to speak at the Omaha meeting at that time.

I have tried to write to you before, but have been too weary after speaking. Be assured that I received your letter with thanksgiving. I know that the Spirit of the Lord has been grieved and His name dishonored. But if you will carry out the work of repentance that you have begun, I will do my best to help in every way possible. The Lord would be greatly dishonored were His people to follow a course that would lead the people of the world to think that we were divided into two parties. To keep up an internal warfare would please the enemy and greatly retard the work that the Lord would have done in our world.

I have said over and over again that there must be unity between the gospel ministry and the medical missionary work. If you and your associates draw off to do the work that you have been doing, I shall be compelled to publish the warnings that the Lord has been giving you for the past twenty years. The people in our [116] conferences have not seen these warnings. But if this can be avoided by our blending together, much mis-interpretation and mis-understanding will be saved. I have been charged that unless some change is made, I must publish these warnings to save the people of God from being led into strange and forbidden paths. I do not desire that this matter shall come before the world. By coming into line as you propose, you can save this.

All that can be done now is to come into line. We can but suppose that the evil seed that has been sown will bring forth tares. But if you will act your part in the fear of God and for the love of souls, the Lord can overrule the matter for good. We shall certainly be approved of God if we avoid giving the world a chapter that it would be better they should never see.

Will you not take your stand firmly upon the platform of eternal truth, living the truth before the world. Your associates will need to consider what course they should pursue. But you have your part to perform, as if there were not another person connected with you.

I ask you to study the prayer of Christ as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John. I hope, my dear brother, that you will see this prayer in its true character. It is a lesson by which our course of action is to be guided. It contains the science that will stand the test of ages. It is an illustration of the intercession that will stand that Christ is making and to the end of the world will continue to make for those who believe in Him.

The root of the sin that is in our world is an unbelief in Christ and an unwillingness to accept the truths that He came into our world to proclaim. Sin has made us aliens from God. The first step toward restoration is obedience to words, “Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with Me, and he shall make peace with Me.” A belief in Christ as a personal Saviour is the only salvation provided for the sinner.

1 John 5:1-5; 1:3-10. Christ died for us to make an atonement for our sins. He is now standing at His Father’s right hand, pleading for us. To all who receive Him. He will give power to become the sons of God. Had He not paid the redemption price for us, we could not be saved. But His intercessions prevail; He had power to take away your sins. He lives to make intercession and because He lives, we shall live also if we are obedient to His will. He will keep us from falling.

“Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.” Sanctification through the truth means unreserved surrender. In it there is increase, continuous and progressive, until grace is [117] lost in glory.

To the church in Battle Creek I would say, There is a work to be done among you before you can be ready for the Lord’s appearing. Do not exalt yourselves and disparage others as you have done in the past. Let every soul confess and forsake his own sins. We are living in the great day of atonement. Make diligent work for repentance. Your souls are in peril, but by confession and repentance you can be cleansed from sin.

1 John 2. Study the instruction that Christ has given. Criticise yourselves. Set your own hearts in order, for you have not a moment to lose. [118]

Re-copied 7/12/28 K-319-1905 by L. F. W.

Takoma Park, Washington, D.C.

June 2, 1905

Dr. J. H. Kellogg:

Dear Brother,

A scene has been presented before me of actions performed by you, similar to the actions of Satan in the heavenly courts. From time to time I have given warnings to different ones who were being blinded by your sophistries and misrepresentations. Your power of misrepresentation is so continuously exerted that many have been deceived.

In some things you act like a man bereft of his reason. It is a marvel to me how one who has had the light in so many ways, who has received so many warnings and reproofs, can yet go on blindfolding himself and others.

You wrote me that you had surrendered. But wherein have you surrendered? When I received this word from you, I forbore to open before you some things that I shall now have to tell you. I hoped that you would seek to reform. Many times you have been entreated to change your course. You certainly need to do so; for you have been the greatest hindrance to the work that God would have advance in straight lines. Other men have acted a part in some respects similar to the part that you have been acting, but they have not been so regardless of justice, honesty, and truth.

You have not been given occasion to do the things that you have done. For years I have striven to give you every word of encouragement that I dared give you, hoping that you might take hold of the encouragement and make thorough work for eternity. At the General Conference held in Battle Creek in 1901, I treated you as a man who would make every effort to set things right. When your long drawn out documents were presented to me to commend and approve, I was shown clearly by the heavenly agencies the sure results of receiving such documents. I was shown the oppression that would be exercised by you and by others linked up with you, who were spiritually blind.

You have made persistent efforts to try to center everything in Battle Creek, after clear light had been given that this should not be done. For years messages have been coming to you, distinctly pointing out the fact that plants should be made in many [119] places, and that so much should not be gathered into Battle Creek. I was surprised that you took so little heed to messages regarding this that the Lord has repeatedly sent you. You were professedly believing the Testimonies, and yet walking and working contrary to them, following your own impulses, turning from the plain. Thus saith the Lord, to carry out your own plans and devisings. You have had little use for those whom you thought would obstruct your way. You would not harmonize with them and refused to recognize in them any virtue or righteousness.

In the long history presented before me, I can see the dangerous path that you have been traveling. You have boasted of your study of science. But from the light that God has given me, I know that you might better, far better, have become a fool in the eyes of the world, than to accept such science as you cherish, and use it as you have done,—to blind the mind and the judgment of those who were connected with you. Your scientific knowledge has been used by you to help you in acting a part similar to the part that Satan acted in the heavenly courts. Step by step you have been wandering away from God working out plans instigated by the arch deceiver.

The result of your devising regarding the bonds has been presented to me. I was shown at the time that the plan was so made that many who would be led to take these bonds would be disappointed, and would feel that they had made a mistake. The position that you took at Oakland led you to do that which a Christian would be afraid to do. You have leaned on the arm of lawyers for so long to make your own ways and works a strength, that the Lord regards you as a man liable to make any presumptuous movement that might come to his mind. You have made movements that have been directly opposed to the holy law of God.

The words have been spoken of you “Is it because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to the God of Ekron to inquire?” You have turned from and despised the law of God, given in awful grandeur from Sinai until you now follow the way of transgression of these laws whenever your will and way is opposed, without realizing the seriousness of your course. Truly truth and righteousness have fallen in the streets, and equity can not enter. You have become linked up with the tempter, and your mind has been led by the one who tried in the wilderness of temptation to gain control of the mind of Christ. The Saviour would not enter into controversy with the tempter, but quoted His Father’s words. “It is written.” Not one word did He speak of which Satan could take the least advantage.

Men have linked up with you to do a work, the consequences of which they did not understand. You have been the spokesman repeating the words of accusation and condemnation of the arch-deceiver. Your science has been used to benumb the sensibilities and confuse the judgment of others. In long night-talks you have presented your [120] mind and plans and works have become their mind and plan and works. In listening to your words, these men have imbibed the very science of the tempter. You have twisted and manipulated and misstated and misrepresented the testimonies that God has given, making them of no effect.

This whole matter has been presented to me. You have worked as Lucifer worked in the heavenly courts to persuade his associates to unite with him. The enemy has used his arts upon your mind. Your boasted study of science and your assertion that you had obtained something excellent have deceived the men connected with you, and they have refused to listen to the warnings sent to keep them from listening to your false representations.

The Lord now calls upon me to make plain to others that which has been made plain to me. If men refuse to receive the words of warning, the guilt will be upon their own souls. I am bidden to say, Your soul is in an unsaved state. You are not in harmony with truth and righteousness. What remains for you at the end of your commercial enterprises? What at the end of your strife for supremacy? Can you institute a war against God and His angels to get the supreme place in the heavenly courts? Would you succeed in this effort? And if you should succeed, would heaven be a place in which you would want to live? What kind of a character would you have formed amid your commercial enterprises and your ambition for the highest place? Would you be happy if you could gain even that? No. No.

It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment. There is no exception from this. All the reputation gained in this life, all the wealth that can be secured by under-current working will not purchase one moment’s peace, one ray of joy. All the medical skill you have obtained from the hand of God, you could not use to cure yourself. Unless you repent, the moment must come when the word will be spoken, He is joined to his idols, let him alone. The advantage that Satan holds before you, he held before Christ. But the word, “It is written,” turned back the tempter.

Why did the apostle Paul reason with Felix upon this all-important subject,—the judgment to come? In order to turn him from his evil ways to repentance, to conversion. He would arouse his slumbering senses to the danger of his losing the life to come, that he might lay hold on the hope set before him.

I am instructed to bring these things before you, pressing them upon your attention, that, if possible, you may be led to lay hold upon the hope set before you in the gospel. By your schemes and your consultations with lawyers, you are divorcing yourself from your only hope. What shall if profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Heaven and earth shall pass away, but God’s word will never pass away. Not one jot or tittle of his holy law [121] will ever pass away. Not all the power on earth, of men in the highest positions, or of devils, can make void the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“What shall I do,” asked the lawyer, “That I may have eternal life?” Said Christ, “What saith the Scripture? How readest Thou?” And he answering said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Christ said to him, “Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live.”

Two things are set before us,—the conversion here in this life of body, soul and spirit, or the eternal loss of the soul hereafter. When you come to understand that as you are today, there is not the slightest hope for you to secure that life that measures with the life of God, will you then dare to say, I do not confess? I do not repent?—No; you do not, you have not repented. Neither did Satan repent of all the evil that he had done. But it is for your present and eternal interest to fall on the Rock and be broken. If you do not do this, the Rock will fall on you, and grind you to powder. In the invitation that Christ Himself gives you He declares, Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast cut. Those who have helped to hold you in your blindness and exalted infatuation are guilty with you. To the lawyers who have encouraged you in your purpose to do the unrighteous work that you have been inspired to do, the word is spoken, woe unto you lawyers.

“Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto Him, Master, thus saying, Thou reproachest us also. And He said, Woe unto you, lawyers; for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.”

I have no liberty to withhold any longer the matters that I have written. There is so much that must be brought out. And yet I say unto you, as I have said many times before, I have an intense desire that you shall show by your words of confession and by your actions that you will now make thorough work for repentance. Let the plowshare of truth go deep and thorough into your heart. Do not surface work; for God will not accept superficial promises. The Lord Jesus reaches out His hand once more to you, and He will not be trifled with. You have a work to do. Cease your underhand work, which show that you would spoil the work of God. If you will repent, and be converted, the Lord will have mercy upon you. [122]

re-copied 7/11/28 B—311-05 by L. F. W.

“Elmshaven,” Sanitarium, Calif.

October 30, 1905

To Brethren Daniells and Prescott and Their Associates:

I have light from the Lord that at this time we must act with great caution; for the enemy is watching our every movement. At times I have been ready to take steps that would be called aggressive. I would commence to write the history of the experience that we had in Europe. I would read over the letters containing warning and caution that I have had from the Lord for several in Battle Creek. At times, I have felt that I must print all the warnings given me for Dr. Kellogg, especially some that were given me while in Europe. But I have not yet done this because I have been impressed to wait. If I should make a strong move in this direction, the battle would be on. Those who are opposing the light God has given would feel that they had been attacked, and would claim that they were compelled to make moves that otherwise they would not have made. And it would take much of our time to meet the issue.

Let us hold on patiently for a little while, and let the elements break forth that are struggling into life. Let not too many articles be published in the Review and Herald that are of a character to stir up strife.

The words that Christ spoke just before His crucifixion are clear and plain: “Though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him; that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias saith again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts; that they should not see with their eyes, not understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”

“Though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him.”

So it will be in the experience of those who are united with Christ in the accomplishment of the work he has given us to do. We have seen the great power of God. The Lord has wrought in behalf of His people. But Satan is not dead or palsied, and he prepares minds by degrees to become imbued with his spirit, and to work after the same manner as he works against those who bear responsibilities in the work of God for these last days. In the future [123] Satan’s last exploits will be carried out with more power than ever before. He has learned much, and he is full of scientific scheming to make of no effect the work that is under the supervision of the One who came to the Isle of Patmos to educate John, and to give him instruction to be given to the churches.

The miracles that Christ wrought gave to the world evidence of the divinity of His mission. This powerful evidence the Jews would not receive, because Christ’s teaching did not harmonize with their preconceived ideas, or exalt the human agencies who continually exalted themselves.

The Lord has been giving me instruction that we are meeting the same unbelief today, and that we shall continue to meet it as we bear the last message of mercy to the world. Every ingenious device will be used, every possible method taken advantage of, to lead men to live a lie, that the truth shall not stand as God designed it to stand, to prepare a people through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, to stand firm as a rock to principle.

All who believe and practice the word of God will answer the prayer of Christ as given in the seventeenth chapter of John. Read this chapter from the first verse to the last. In it you have the plan of redemption. God’s angels are preserving the world from destruction because there are some who have never yet heard the message of truth.

The course of false science led the Jews to strong unbelief. We are filled with grief when we meet the same unbelief in the world today. Christ came to this world, and received at the hands of the unbelieving Jews that which prophecy declared he would receive The Jews who were fulfilling the prophecies in the Old Testament Scriptures, did not realize what they were doing. They professed to believe these prophecies, and they did not know that they were working out the plan foretold.

“Stay yourselves, and wonder, cry ye out, and cry; they are drunken but not with wine; they stagger; but not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men delivered to one that is learned saying, read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned.”

“Wherefore the Lord saith, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouths, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their hearts afar from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work, and a wonder for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. [124] Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potters clay; for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not, or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?”

Every word of this will be fulfilled. There are those who do not humble their hearts before God, and who will not walk uprightly. They hide their true purposes, and keep in fellowship with the fallen angel, who loveth and maketh a lie. The enemy puts spirit upon the men whom he can use to deceive those who are partially in the dark. Some are becoming imbued with the darkness that prevails, and are setting the truth aside for error. The day pointed out by prophecy is come. Jesus Christ is not understood. Jesus Christ is to them a fable. At this stage of the earth’s history, many act like drunken men. “Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry; they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes. The prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.” A spiritual drunkenness is upon many who suppose they are the people who shall be exalted. Their religious faith is just as is represented in this Scripture. Under its influence, they can not walk straight. They make crooked paths in their course of action. One and then another, they reel to and fro. They are looked upon by the Lord with great pity. The way of truth they have not known. They are scientific schemers, and those who could and should have helped, because of a clear spiritual eyesight, are themselves deceived, and are sustaining an evil work.

The developments of these last days will soon become decided. When these spiritualistic deceptions are revealed to be what they really are,—the secret workings of evil spirits,—those who have acted a part in them will become as men who have lost their minds.

“Wherefore the Lord saith, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men therefore, behold I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, who seeth us, and who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay; for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it. He had no understanding?”

It is presented to me that in our experience we have been and are meeting this very condition of things. Men who have had great [125] light and wonderful privileges have taken the word of leaders who think themselves wise, who have been greatly favored and blessed by the Lord, but who have taken themselves out of the hands of God and placed themselves in the ranks of the enemy. The world is to be flooded with specious fallacies. One human mind, accepting these fallacies, will work upon other human minds, who have been turning the precious evidence of God’s truth into a lie. These men will be deceived by fallen angels, when they should have stood as faithful guardians, watching for souls, as they that must give an account. They have laid down the weapons of their warfare, and have given heed to seducing spirits. They make of no effect the counsel of God and set aside his warnings and reproofs, and are positively on Satan’s side, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

Spiritual drunkenness is now upon men who ought not to be staggering as men under the influence of strong drink. Crimes and irregularities, fraud, deceit, and unfair dealing fill the world, in accordance with the teaching of the leader who rebelled in the heavenly courts.

History is to be repeated. I could specify what will be in the near future, but the time is not yet. The forms of the dead will appear, through the cunning device of Satan, and many will link up with the one who loveth and maketh a lie. I warn our people that right among us some will turn away from the faith, and give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and by them the truth will be evil spoken of.

A marvelous work shall take place. Ministers, lawyers, doctors, who have permitted these falsehoods to overmaster their spirit of discernment will be themselves deceivers, united with the deceived. A spiritual drunkenness will take possession of them. To the unfaithful stewards the Lord says, Take you pleasure and walk in blindness as drunken men; for after having many opportunities, and refusing to improve them, you will act at last as the drunkard acts, throwing away your hope of eternal life. Seeking deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and making lies their refuge, they will misinterpret the warnings and messages God has sent, placing on these warnings their false statements, to make God’s word of no effect. Reports and suggestions are gathered up and kept in the memory, to be used when it is thought they can be used with the best effect. This has been going on for some time. Those who do this work seek deep to hide their counsel from those whom they would injure. But the Lord is acquainted with every movement, every performance. All the secret workings of men are open to the One who knows the heart.

Some who have been deceived by men in responsible places will repent, and be converted. And in all our dealings with them, we must remember that none of those who are in the depth of Satan’s snares know that they are there. [126]

“Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed a forest? And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off; that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.

“Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrines.” Isaiah 29:17-24.

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; and glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.”

I was instructed to speak to you these words of cheer which were spoken to me. I am to call for every soul to be glad, as my heart has been made glad, and to speak this gladness in the congregation of the saints, and to tell of the goodness and power of God in every place where they shall carry the precious gospel of Jesus Christ to those who know not the truth for this time.

Now, just now, we are to proclaim present truth, with assurance and with power. Do not strike one dolorous note; do not sing funeral hymns. The message to be proclaimed for this time is, “Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say unto them that are of a fearful heart. Be strong, fear not. Behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.

“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing, for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

“And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called. The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; [127] but it shall be for those; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, not any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

O what a promise is this for those who will separate themselves from all cunning and scientific scheming, and will follow on to know the Lord identifying themselves with those who have received the truth and are sanctified through the truth. Every promise is for those who will learn the only true science, which is found in the prayer of Jesus Christ.

“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee; as thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”

In this scripture God and Christ are spoken of separately. They are two distinct persons, but one in mind, one in heart, one in holiness and justice, and purity, and one in the work of seeking to save the sinful race. To those who believe in Christ, God will give power to become His sons even to them that believe on His name. This is the science of the life that now is, and of the life which is to come. This is the true science that our medical men need to study,—the science of the saving grace of the gospel. This is the science that students must study in order to become genuine medical missionaries.

Unless the heart, mind, soul, and strength are completely conformed to the will of Christ, the science studied will not give entrance into the narrow way and the straight gate that lead to eternal life. Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Because broad is the way, and wide is the gate that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go thereat. Those who regard it as a valuable science to be sharp, to take advantage of and cheat their neighbors, are cheating their own soul, and unless they change, they can never enter the holy city. No crooked dealing, no deceptive science, will find a place in the heavenly courts.

We are God’s little children, and we are to learn of Him, His spirit is too pure to dwell in the mind and heart of one that is lifted up unto vanity. In His prayer Christ said, “I have glorified Thee on the earth.” This is the science of heaven. “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” [128]

These are the words of Him who was one in mind, in heart, and purpose, with God in the work of saving a fallen world. God and Christ had oneness of purpose, oneness of aim, and they made one eternal never-ending effort to work for the salvation of the fallen race. The prayer of Christ lays open before the intelligent, understanding mind that not one taint of the science of Satan’s practice can enter the holy city.

Satan worked in every possible way to come out victorious in standing in the highest place in the heavenly courts. How artful were his contrivances to win the game! He employed every artful intrigue and device to carry his science against God and His Son Jesus Christ.

As I am shown special things of Satan’s science, and how he deceived the holy angels, I am afraid of the men who have entered into the study of the science that Satan carried into the warfare in heaven. How I have longed to be where I should not be compelled to see the same science practiced on this earth by medical practitioners. How my heart has been agonized as I have seen souls accepting the inducements held out to them to unite with those who were warring against God. When they once accept the bait it seems impossible to break the spell that Satan casts over them, because the enemy works out the science of deception as he worked it out in the heavenly courts. He has worked so diligently with men in our day that he has won the game again and again.

What, I ask, can be the end? Again and again have I asked this, and I have always received the same instruction, Never leave a soul unwarned. Those who are bound in Satan’s coils are the most confident and the most boastful. They will protest at the thought that they are ensnared, yet it is the truth.