Chapter 110—The Health Institute
In former numbers of Testimonies for the Church I have spoken of
the importance of Seventh-day Adventists’ establishing an institution
for the benefit of the sick, especially for the suffering and sick among
us. I have spoken of the ability of our people, in point of means, to
do this; and have urged that, in view of the importance of this branch
of the great work of preparation to meet the Lord with gladness of
heart, our people should feel themselves called upon, according to
their ability, to put a portion of their means into such an institution. I
have also pointed out, as they were shown to me, some of the dangers
to which physicians, managers, and others would be exposed in the
prosecution of such an enterprise; and I did hope that the dangers
shown me would be avoided. In this, however, I enjoyed hope for a
time, only to suffer disappointment and grief.
I had taken great interest in the health reform and had high hopes of
the prosperity of the Health Institute. I felt, as no other one could feel,
the responsibility of speaking to my brethren and sisters in the name of
the Lord concerning this institution and their duty to furnish necessary
means, and I watched the progress of the work with intense interest and
anxiety. When I saw those who managed and directed, running into the
dangers shown me, of which I had warned them in public and also in
private conversation and letters, a terrible burden came upon me. That
which had been shown me as a place where the suffering sick among
us could be helped was one where sacrifice, hospitality, faith, and piety
should be the ruling principles. But when unqualified calls were made
for large sums of money, with the statement that stock taken would
pay large per cent; when the brethren who occupied positions in the
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institution seemed more than willing to take larger wages than those
were satisfied with who filled other and equally important stations in
the great cause of truth and reform; when I learned, with pain, that, in
order to make the institution popular with those not of our faith and
to secure their patronage, a spirit of compromise was rapidly gaining
ground at the Institute, manifested in the use of Mr., Miss, and Mrs.,
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