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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
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 trust,
using aright the talents God gave you, you would not have worked
alone. One who never makes a mistake was presiding. Only the Holy
Spirit’s power can keep the spirit sweet and fragrant, soft and subdued,
enabling the worker to speak the right words at the right time.
You have not been faultless. Often you lost control of yourself.
Then your words were not what they should have been. At times
you were arbitrary and exacting. But when you were striving for the
mastery over self, angels of God cooperated with you, because, through
you, God was working to exalt His truth and cause it to receive honored
recognition in the world. God gave you wisdom, not that your name
should be magnified, but that those coming to the sanitarium in Battle
Creek should carry away with them favorable impressions regarding
the work of Seventh-day Adventists and respect for the principles that
are the foundation of their work. The honor given you did not come
to you because you were righteous above all men, but because God
desired to use you as His Instrument.
God’s Purpose in Establishing the Sanitarium
It was God’s purpose that in the sanitarium, missionaries, teach-
ers, and physicians should become acquainted with the third angel’s
message, which embraces so much. Angels of God were to be your
strength in the work that was to be done in order that the Battle Creek
Sanitarium might be known as an institution under the special supervi-
sion of God. The missionary feeling and the sympathy that prevailed in
this institution was a result of the work of invisible heavenly agencies
there. God said: “I thought it good to show signs and wonders. In
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My might I wrought to glorify My name.” Many have gone from the
sanitarium with new hearts. The change has been decided. These,
returning to their homes, have been as lights in the world. Their
voices have been heard, saying: “Come all ye that fear God, and I will
make known to you what He hath done for my soul. I have seen His
greatness; I have tasted His goodness.”