Divine Rebuke for Ignoring Counsel
145
study. Fortunately the lessons taught by these experiences were not
lost upon church leaders.
Trustees, Ellen G. White Estate.
* * * * *
A View of Threatening Dangers in 1890—I am alarmed at the
outlook both for the sanitarium and the publishing house at Battle
Creek and our institutions generally. A spirit has been manifesting
itself, and strengthening year by year in the institutions, that is of an
entirely different character from that which the Lord has revealed in
His Word should characterize the physicians and workers connected
with our health institutions, and the work of publishing. The idea is
entertained that the physicians at the sanitarium and men in responsi-
ble positions in the publishing house are not under obligations to be
controlled by self-denying, self-sacrificing principles of Christianity.
But this idea has its origin in the councils of Satan. When physicians
make manifest the fact that they think more of the wages they are to
receive than of the work of the institution, they show that they are not
men to be depended upon as unselfish, God-fearing servants of Christ,
faithful in doing the work of the Master.—
Selected Messages 2:194
.
Worldly Policies Steal Away Identity—It is conformity to the
world that is causing our people to lose their bearings. The perversion
of right principles has not been brought about suddenly. The angel of
the Lord presented this matter to me in symbols. It seemed as if a thief
were stealthily moving closer and still closer and gradually but surely
stealing away the identity of God’s work by leading our brethren to
conform to worldly policies.
The mind of man has taken the place that rightfully belongs to
God. Whatever position a man may hold, however exalted he may be,
he should act as Christ would were He in his place. In every stroke of
work that he performs, in his words, and in his character he should be
Christlike.
[170]
Man is not to permit God’s work to be carried on contrary to
a plain “Thus saith the Lord.” But it is becoming more and more
customary for men to separate from God, thinking that it is their