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Letter 4, 1896
To the Men who occupy Responsible Positions in the Work
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, Australia
July 1, 1896
Dear Brethren:
I cannot sleep after twelve o’clock, for matters have been laid open before me during the past night that have been presented to me from time to time since the Conference at Minneapolis. Some things which were then shown me, I could not fully comprehend, but I saw that methods were being devised and planned which would bring in corrupted principles. Some matters have been presented to me several times, in order that I might comprehend them.
The light which God has been pleased to give me upon matters relating to His work, I cannot now fail to understand too distinctly, for the things which I have been shown have become realities. I presented no false vision before the men in Battle Creek [when] I said that some were handling responsibilities which they were not fitted to undertake. When men like A. R. Henry and Harmon Lindsay refuse to be worked by the Holy Spirit, and yet consent to accept important responsibilities, Satan takes possession of their minds, and plans and devises for them.
When these men entered upon this work, they did not foresee the results, but step by step has been taken under the generalship of satanic agencies, who knew from the beginning what the results would be. Had they kept in touch with the divine character, they would not have done the work they have done, but while at Minneapolis they both closed their eyes to the light, and padlocked their hearts against evidence, in order that the Holy Spirit might not find entrance; and their course has testified to the result.
When Elder Olsen linked himself with these men, he perverted his spiritual eyesight, and saw things in a strange light. He knew that they were resisting the Spirit of God, but thought that by uniting with them, he could convert them. The result has been contrary to this, for to a large degree, they have converted him. His clear discernment between right and wrong has been injured.
From the beginnings of his work as president of the General Conference, Elder Olsen’s policy has been a mistake. Instead of upholding that which he knew to be according to the law of God, instead of standing firmly as a faithful guardian for those holy trusts which would keep the (great) heart of the work pure, at any apparent expense or financial loss, he has tried to occupy a position on both sides. He has not been altogether in harmony with the men I have referred to, but so much so that Satan has stolen a march upon him. Unconsciously he has been ensnared, and his principles of integrity and purity have been corrupted. God has been dishonored, and His Spirit has been grieved.
Christ taught His disciples that the measure of divine attention bestowed on any of God’s work is proportionate to the rank which that object occupies in the scale of creation. The little brown sparrow, apparently the most inferior of birds, is watched over by Providence. Not one falls to the ground without the notice of our heavenly Father. The flowers of the field, the grass which clothes the earth with verdure—all share the notice and care of our heavenly Father.
“Behold the fowls of the air,” Christ said, “they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature. And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” [Matthew 6:26-29.] If the lilies of the field are objects upon which the great Master Artist has bestowed care, making them so beautiful that they out-rival the glory of Solomon, the greatest king that ever wielded a scepter; if the grass of the field is made into a beautiful carpet for the earth, can we form any idea of the regard which God bestows upon man, who was formed in his image?
God has given man intellect in order that he may comprehend greater things than these beautiful objects in nature. He carries the human agent into a higher department of truth, leading the mind higher and still higher, and opening to him the divine mind. And in the book of God’s providence, the volume of life, each one is giving a page. That page contains every particular of his history. Even the hairs of his head are numbered. God’s children are never absent from His mind.
And though sin existed for ages, seeking to counteract the merciful tide of love flowing from God to the human race, yet the love and care that God bestows upon the beings He has created in His own image has not ceased to increase in richness and abundance. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16.] He crowned His benevolence by the inestimable gift of Jesus. By this sacrifice, a healing flood of life and heavenly grace was poured upon our world. This was God’s gift to man—a gift that defies all computation. By giving His Son, God made it impossible for man to say that he could have done more; and the mind of man is put to the utmost stretch in the effort to comprehend this wonderful love.
By thus pouring the whole of treasury of heaven into this world, by giving us in Christ all heaven itself, God purchased human affection and human ability. By yielding our minds to him, they will be cleansed from all selfishness and covetousness, and filled with unselfish love. The Lord directs every mind that will be captivated by His love, and reveals to it the mystery of godliness.
But when sin entered the world, it corrupted men, so that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. For centuries God looked with patience and forbearance upon the awful presumption of the antediluvian world, and upon His broken law, which a degenerate race was trampling under foot. Then He came forth out of His hiding place, and punished the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, sweeping them away by a flood.
But no sooner was the earth re-peopled than men resumed their hostility to God and heaven. They transmitted their enmity to their posterity, as though the art and device of misleading men, and causing them to continue the unnatural warfare, was a sacred legacy.
Christ came to announce to our world that He had brought to men the donation of eternal life. “To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name.” [John 1:12.] But so constantly had satanic hatred against the law of God been cherished in the heart, and so widely had it spread throughout the entire race, that at the time of Christ’s advent, every human agent who showed friendship to God and advocated the law was accounted as a traitor to the common cause. A wakeful impiety was exercised by the enemies of God, and those who departed from evil made themselves a prey and were treated as enemies (to the welfare of man.) The principles of injustice and fraud were wide spread, and a masterly power was constantly at work, seeking to bring into confederacy the forces of evil. This contemptible confederacy of boasted of its power in the very face of heaven.
The Lord of life and glory is coming the second time, without sin unto salvation; and I present the above picture for your consideration, for it has been presented to me as a representation of the state of things which (Satan is seeking shall) exist at Battle Creek. I might enlarge upon this subject, for it is deep and broad and high; but other matters must be presented before you.
The men who have been connected with the greatest interests upon this earth have tainted and corrupted the work of God. The instrumentalities which He designs shall be used in advancing His cause have been used to forward unlawful schemes, which are in direct opposition to the work which God has specified as His, (and which He cannot vindicate.) God has been forsaken by (the) men who have voiced decisions regarding His work, which has thereby become entangled. Men have seemed determined to place the mold and superscription of their human wisdom upon the work of God. They refused to be worked by the Holy Spirit, and brought in their own wisdom and devising. The result of this has been seen in various ways.
The sacred character of the cause of God is no longer realized at the center of the work. The voice from Battle Creek, which (has been) regarded as authority in (counselling) how the work should be done, is no longer the voice of God; but it is the voice of—whom? From whence does it come, and where is its vital power? This state of things is maintained by men who should have been disconnected from the work long ago. These men do not scruple to quote the Word of God as their authority, but the god who is leading them is a false god.
Men whom we had reason to believe would maintain their integrity against all wrong have proved to be (unreliable,) unable to bear the test of trial. Brother H. W. Kellogg was not proof against the representations of Brother A. R. Henry and some others. Professedly, these men were working for the interests of the publishing institution, and though Brother Henry Kellogg at first declared that he would not adopt certain resolutions, or act upon certain methods, which he knew were not fair in business lines or in keeping with the way of the Lord, yet he finally accepted these propositions, which meant act after act of complicated robbery, robbery which was clothed in angels’ garments.
I say complicated, for everything seemed to have reference to some other line and some other interest. This, (if you desire you can) define, but my guide cautioned me in no case to accept propositions coming from the board of directors of the publishing house in Battle Creek, for they meant robbery, robbery of those dependent upon the talents and abilities which God had given them. They meant robbery on the right hand and on the left, even more so than the men who advocated them could discern.
I have been brought where I heard conversations which must not remain a secret much longer. Brother Kellogg should have stood firm to principle, listening to no flattering representations, for he had a much longer experience than many others. But he sanctioned methods that he should never have approved. Had he stood firm in the love and fear of God, had he borne the test, holy angels would have anointed his eyes with eyesalve; he would have seen the cupidity, selfishness, and oppression that were robbing God’s servants of their rights; he would have realized that the men who proposed these measures to him were actuated by unholy impulses and devisings, that they were men who did not plan with God.
It is impossible to designate to what extent the false has taken the place of the true, or how far deceptive principles have been carried in business deal. But the father of deception has been working through men, and has taken possession of one line after another, working in an underhanded manner to gain control of the whole, and conduct the work on principles which would be carried out at the expense of integrity. Satan has spread his net to entangle souls, in order that religious instruction shall not come to the people in God’s way, but through men who would misapply, control, tear down, or exalt, just as they should see best. This deception took with Brother Henry Kellogg, and his approval gave strength to falsehood. The men who had power in their hands could then say, It is done.
They met with similar success when it came to my nephew Frank Belden’s turn to be tempted. When he went to the office he was not prepared for the temptations which surrounded him, and he too sacrificed (right) principles. Thus the leaven worked. Others, whom I will not name, when brought into connection with the perverting influence, listened to representations that were not founded upon truth, but which were the inventions of human minds. All who adopted these resolutions confederated together to accomplish certain ends. They dismissed the Word of God from their counsels (in thus doing,) and consented to be guided by human influence in their high sphere of action. Thus souls were sacrificed on the altar of mammon.
The men who originated these specious inventions nourished and cherished them until they believed them to be truth, and set aside the simplest, plainest, and most decided injunctions in the Word of God.
Again and again I have been taken by my guide to hear words and assertions which were untrue, but which were spoken with great earnestness, in order to captivate the minds of men with reference to authors and their books, and in regard to money and how it should be used. This seemed to be a subject upon which A. R. Henry was crazed, but his enthusiasm was the inspiration of Satan, and by the influence of the tempter the moral depravity has spread, till their is danger that it will corrupt every right principles in the life of Brother Henry.
Harmon Lindsay is no more pure in his integrity than is A. R. Henry. I have seen different ones come from interviews with them, dazed and bewildered, accepting theories concerning the course to be pursued toward their fellow men that were in direct contrast to the counsel of God.
Those who have gone to Battle Creek for the purpose of attending the General Conference, have been leavened by this wrong influence. The mind of Philip Wessels was leavened and corrupted by the false representations made to him when there. He has retained the arguments of some of the men in responsible positions, and the result is seen in his separation from God and his work. The men who were supposed to be trustworthy betrayed their trust and so corrupted his principles that he can see nothing clearly. I pointed out his danger to him, but he would receive no message from me. The fact that Sr. White received royalties was the stumbling block which was placed before him in Battle Creek.
I speak that which I have seen, and which I know to be true. The speculative spirit has been gaining supremacy in the Battle Creek publishing house, and oppression is seen in a marked degree. I must speak plainly, for a power from beneath, a power that works in the children of disobedience, is working in the men who are acting in opposition to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Speculations (for years) have been entered into by some in responsible positions for the purpose of erecting large buildings, which would give the idea of great prosperity. The men who have planned this, put forward as their reason that it would give character to the work, but the real reason is pride, selfishness, avarice, and covetousness. These large buildings would not be erected by self-denial and self-sacrifice on the part of the men to whom God has entrusted his work.
Some seek to erect large buildings in order to give an impression of the blessing of God, while in their hearts they devise every possible plan to take from their brethren that which is their due. They have (evidenced [that] they have) no conscientious scruples in regard to receiving all that they can possibly grasp, for Satan gives them the impression that in their cruel business dealing, they are doing God a service. Large buildings can give no Christlike character to the work, be they ever so imposing. Correct principles maintained, a righteous character developed by those in God’s service, firm resistance against evil—these will do more to honor God than the finest buildings.
“Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.” [Jeremiah 9:23, 24.]
Not only have these men corrupted minds in Battle Creek, but they have carried their un-Christlike principles with them wherever they went. Elder Olsen made them his staff of honor, and as they accompanied him on his journeys, they tainted and corrupted the minds of the people (in various lines.) The president of the conference has no right to burden the conference with a multitude of cares which will endanger the truth of God in his own heart, and in the hearts of others. He must not spend his time in trying to assist men who have devised plans and methods of dealing with are unfair, and the men that do this should not be paid the highest wages ever paid any one in the Office.
The president of the conference should learn whether the business transactions are carried on with the strictest integrity; he should know whether they are presided over by men who have pure, clean hands. His indignation should be aroused against the slightest approach to a mean, selfish action. Let one wrong deed be practiced and approved, and the second and third will follow in the same line of fraudulent deception.
“Hear ye now what the Lord saith; arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.” “Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name; hear ye that rod and who hath appointed it. Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights? For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.” [Micah 6:1, 6-12.]
This Scripture is applicable to those who, unwilling that any besides themselves shall have a chance, have been devising and planning to make merchandise of their fellow men.
I have been shown that some (men) worked with Elder Smith, in an underhanded manner, in order to lead him to place the lowest possible royalties on his books. Elder Smith was deceived in (the object of) these men; he thought that they were really trying to advance the cause of God; and they obtained their desire. Then they came to me and to others, telling us that Brother Smith only received so much for his books, and urging them that canvassers would rather handle books that would sell rapidly.
But the night after this plea was made, the matter was opened before me. I saw that they had visited Brother Smith, and obtained his consent to a low royalty, in order that they might present this as that which I and others should do. This was obtaining terms of royalty by fraud. I was shown the spirit that prompted these men to action.
In the days of Nehemiah “there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews. For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live. Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth. … Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already; neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and our vineyards. And,” writes Nehemiah, “I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.” [Nehemiah 5:1-3, 5, 6.]
I have heard from many the cry of unjust dealing, and knowing something of the inward working of these matters, I have been stirred with indignation. For years men have been working contrary to God’s Word, ignoring judgment and justice. Shall we be compelled to follow the same course pursued by Nehemiah? We read of him, “I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one against his brother. And I set a great assembly against them.” “Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies? I likewise and my brethren, and my servants might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury.” “The former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver, … but so did not I, because of the fear of God.” [Verses 7, 9, 10, 15.]
Shall we call a halt? Shall we present the condition of things to the people? The most inconsistent plans have been devised by men whose minds were not moved by the Holy Spirit. Men have striven to bring their fellow men under their jurisdiction, but we cannot endorse their actions, for God regards not those who practice oppression, who make man an offender for a word, and who lift up and cast down at their pleasure, placing men in close places, that they may gain their own unjust ends.
Any one who has had courage, moral courage, to call these things by their right name, and who has refused to be drawn into the net spread for the unwary, who would not be robbed without making a protest, were not looked upon with favor by those with whom they disagreed. Members of councils and boards who would not uphold exaction and double dealing, but who took a firm stand for the right, were not invited to be present at the meetings where these plans were discussed.
A great crisis is coming upon us. If men still yield to men, as they have been doing for the last fifteen years, they will lose their own souls, and their example will lead others astray. God’s soldiers must put on the whole armor of God. We are not required to put on human armor, but to gird ourselves with God’s strength. If we keep God’s glory ever in view, our eyes will be anointed with the heavenly eyesalve; we will be able to look deeper, and see afar off what the world is. As we discern its dishonesty, its craftiness, its selfish eye service, its pretence, and its boasting, its want of fair honest dealing in the ordinary intercourse of life, and its grasping covetousness, we can take our stand, by precept and example, to represent Christ, and convert (souls from) the world by our sound principles, our firm integrity, our hatred of all dissembling, and our holy boldness in acknowledging Christ.
Do not let the world convert you. Hold fast your profession of faith, maintaining your religious principles firmly but not stubbornly (refusing light.) Your religion cannot be in any other man’s keeping. Honor the cross of Christ, and the cross will honor you. Let every man stand in God, not to be bought, not to be sold, but to reveal a Christian fortitude. Serve no man through fear of what that man can do (to you) that is disagreeable. Christians you cannot be if you depend on any other man’s conscience. Christ died to give men moral independence, freedom to exercise their God-given ability. His servants are to be circumscribed by no man or council of men unless they have decided evidence that the men or council of men are worked by the Holy Spirit.
God has given us all that we possess. It all belongs to Him, and we are not to sit at the footstool of any man to obey his orders, for God has made us free moral agents. He requires us to preserve our moral independence and not be bound about by any man. Our consciences are to be controlled by no power on earth. The Holy Spirit will work upon minds if we will hearken to its faintest whispers. It is the voice of your Advocate in the heavenly courts.
There has been merchandise carried on in our institutions. Why have my brethren upheld and sanctioned wrong? Why have they allowed their judgments to be controlled by those who neither fear God nor regard man? Why have their principles of right and justice been swayed and guided by another mind in matters of conscience? They may think it a better mind and a better judgment; but they are not to exchange their judgment for that of another man. Place your will and mind where the Holy Spirit can reach it, for it will not work on another man’s mind and conscience to reach yours. But those whom it was thought had pure religious principles have shown themselves too ready to give up their own religion for that of another man.
God’s servants are to resist sternly any deviation from righteous principles. Nehemiah took his stand decidedly against the first encroachment of man’s rights. He had his own brother officers to meet, but he separated himself from them and rebuked their plans to obtain control of everything. He stood as a reprover, frowning down their course, which was contrary to the Bible standard of righteousness. When urged to confederate with them in their course of injustice, he gave a decided testimony, “So did not I, because of the fear of God.” [Verse 15.]
Letter 5, 1896
To those in Responsible Positions in Battle Creek
December 18, 1896
Dear Brethren:
I tell you in the name of Jesus that those who teach (and work) the most effectively and those who devise and execute plans for the glory of God are those who wait humbly upon God, who wait and watch hungrily for His guidance and His grace. The Lord has pledged His word to give to him that is athirst of the water of life freely. This will be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. He promises to satisfy the deepest and the most urgent wants of his children.
The prayer of Paul for his brethren was that they might be filled with all the fulness of God. Those who are thus filled will never disappoint us or grieve the Spirit of God. They are more anxious to be rich in faith and abundant in experience than to possess the richest treasure that earth can give, for they have Christ in the soul as the well spring of life. And what then? They reveal a fountain of inward piety, making it manifest that they have the mind of Christ, and that they live and breathe in a pure, wholesome atmosphere.
My brethren, how could you think that the Lord would direct His people to place confidence in the men that are working in council in Battle Creek? Would the Lord lead those in your councils to reach out the arm of power to gather in more and more responsibilities, loading down the General Conference with the new order of things, and with new methods? Would He direct them to take the responsibility of embracing everything? Consider the spiritual condition of those who are willing to accept the position of stewards of money, stewards of other men’s consciences. If you had any just sense of what these things involve, you would not venture in such a line, even though you had twice the talent you now possess. You simply do not know yourselves what you are about. In order to manage the responsibilities connected with the essential work of the Conference, a board of men who understand justice and equity is needed. They should be able to take in the situation of the work at the very place where they are located, where so many people are collected together.
Not one twentieth part of the home missionary work is being done in Battle Creek that should be done to set things in order in the large business establishment of the public house. A most thorough reformation is needed at the heart of the work, and yet there is such blindness, such blindness, that men have allowed things to drift as they have. Where are the men who have the fear of God before them, who love God, who love their fellow men, who feel a tender regard for the youth, who can be trusted with the work? Where is the man who can act as president of the General Conference in its present tangled, confused, crippled condition? Any man, even though he did his very best, would now be criticized and regarded with suspicion, because the people have been educated to look to Battle Creek as the power of God, the sanctuary where dwells the presence of God.
O that men would learn to consider and to move cautiously where sacred responsibilities are to be borne. If the people only knew the true inwardness of the management at Battle Creek and the workings for a few years past, many would start back with pain and horror. I fear that their faith would be so uprooted that they would never again have faith. Why do not men consider? Why are they not slow to move when taking up new methods and when grasping increased responsibilities under the management of men who do not hesitate to assume the responsibility of other men’s consciences and other men stewardship?
There are men at the heart of the work who do not realize their responsibilities. They do not realize how many there are who are in positions of trust who have not a correct knowledge of God, whom to know aright is life eternal. They know not what it means to sanctify the Lord God in their hearts. They do not know what it means to make God their fear and their dread. Had they known this, they would now be humble men, fearing God, the living God. But like Jehu, they have been driving furiously forward, to assume burdens which they cannot carry. It is because men know so little of true godliness, because they have so little genuine experience in the building up, little by little, of the work and cause of God, that they make long strides without God to lead the way.
I beseech you to seek God, emptied of self. You will then be in a favorable position to be taught. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. He is high and exalted, and the train of His glory fills the temple. He is too wise to err or to be deceived, too just to be biased by any human opinions, too mighty to be resisted, too great and awful in His majesty to be contemplated. Read Isaiah’s description of what he saw, and as you read, bow low in the dust before Him. Reverence the Lord of hosts.
Self-abasement is highly appropriate for all who handle sacred things in Battle Creek. Self is to be abased, not now and then, but continually. God has commanded you to put sacred fire upon your censer, but you have used common fire altogether too much. There are men who, if God allowed it, would assume absolute control over the mind and conscience of their fellow men, though they know not by experience what self-control is. The Lord may forgive your iniquity, and O, if the Lord will in His great mercy turn His face toward you, appreciate His love as you have never done before. In proportion as you, who stand as guardians of faith and trust, have correct views of God and His holiness and glory, your fear to offend Him will increase. This is positively essential before you can be where God can impress your minds by giving you views of Himself.
Sometimes the case seems hopeless to me, because you have been treading in the very footsteps of the Jewish nation. You are repeating their history. The whole heavenly universe is astonished at the spiritual condition of things in Battle Creek. Now and then there is a comfortable, easy feeling, but this is not the deep moving of the Spirit of God. All heaven sees that if you had a more correct experimental knowledge of the truth, you would never assume jurisdiction and command over your fellow men as you have done. You would never think that you could take control of the great interests all over the field, nigh and afar off. It is because of a departure from God that such gross ignorance in regard to the management of His work has come in.
You have given the heavenly intelligences no chance to co-operate with you, for you suppose yourselves to be wise in judgment and in making decisions. Your supreme love for self is an over-mastering power. You know not by practice what genuine love for your neighbor means. But Christ says, “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” [James 2:10.] It is, as you may know by Adam’s transgression, not the greatness of the act that constitutes it a sin, but the fact that you are at variance with God’s expressed will in the least particular. This shows that sin reigns in your heart. You still have communion with the enemy, and you cherish his attributes. The heart is divided. There has been a virtual denial of the Holy Spirit of God and a rebellion against His law.
Were men permitted to have their will and their way with regard to their fellow men, their brethren in the faith, we have had a representation of what would be if God’s hand did not cover His people. Such positions I have never seen assumed by Seventh-day Adventists. I have been made to appreciate the value of the human soul, and have some little sense of how much one soul is valued by God. Then I have been shown how little men value the souls for whom Christ has died.
A spirit that has ruined the faith and corrupted the principles of many has had a controlling power in the office of publication in Battle Creek, and to a large extent has pervaded the whole office. The little respect shown to some of those employed has done much harm. This spirit has been exercised toward men far more righteous than those in position of trust. Again and again my soul has been agonized beyond expression over these things, as they have been transacted before me. You have departed far out of the way. By unfair practices you have perverted your sense of righteousness. The love of self predominates, and the love of Christ is almost extinguished.
No action is transacted toward one of your fellow men in which God is not concerned. He is the eternal, universal guardian of justice. You cannot get away from His presence, if you would. He takes part against all who would commit one act of wrong against their fellow men, high or low, rich or poor. His own hand is spread out as a buckler over the rights of brother toward brother. No man can wound or bruise the soul or rights of his brother without smiting against the hand of justice which holds the sword.
Were men free to depart from the Lord’s requirements and could set up standards of duty for themselves, there would be a variety of standards set up, to suit different minds. Men would feel competent to take the government out of the Lord’s hands, and act as gods themselves. The law of self would be exalted. The will of men would be made supreme, and the high and holy will of God, His purpose of love toward His heritage would be dishonored and disrespected. When men feel free to choose their own way, they are in controversy with God. There is no place for gods in the heaven above. God is the only true God. He fills all heaven. Those who now submit to His will shall see His face; His name will be in the foreheads of all who are pure and holy.
All who work for God in our land should have the Martha and the Mary attributes blended. Self and selfishness must be put out of sight. God calls for earnest women workers, who are prudent, warm-hearted, tender, and true to principle. He calls for persevering women, who will think far less of self and their personal conveniences, who will take their minds from self, and center them on Christ, speaking words of truth, praying with the persons to whom they can obtain access, laboring for the conversion of souls. Lukewarm, self-indulgent, self-centered, covetous souls will be found to be the chief stumbling blocks to the work of God. Those are to be found in every enterprise that God has instituted.
Those who work for God will find some people inapproachable. They appear to be offended that you should invade the privacy of their faith and devotion, and do not look graciously upon those who are workers together with God. These workers must look away from self to Jesus, giving careful attention to the directions found in His Word. Christ must be formed within, the hope of glory. The soul must be divested of all self-complacency. Look away from self to Jesus. Make a most earnest effort to imitate your Pattern, Christ Jesus. The human agents who are working together with God will have the spirit of prayer. They will strive to have transcribed on their hearts and expressed in their lives the holiness and righteousness of the Son of God. No stiff Pharisaism will be seen, but forbearance, mercy, love, humility, and peace will appear in their lives.
O what is our excuse, my sisters, that we do not devote all the time possible to searching the Scriptures, making the mind a storehouse of precious things, that we may present them to those who are not interested in the truth. Will our sisters arise to the emergency? Will they work for the Master? They must have the Spirit of Christ as well as being called by His name. They must walk even as He walked, purifying their souls from everything that defileth, even as Christ is pure. When Christ died to redeem the entire human race from ruin, he certainly meant greater things than our eyes have witnessed. The Lord never intended that the very large majority of the people in the world should die in their sins.
Letter 6, 1896
Brethren Who Occupy Responsible Positions in the Work
Avondale, Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
January 16, 1896
Dear Brethren who occupy Responsible Positions in the Work:
The Lord has a controversy with you. I have no need to specify the reason; you have had them laid open before you again and again. The clean hands, the pure, unselfish, holy purposes have not been brought into your practice, and the benediction of God has not come upon many of those who handle sacred things. The lifting up of the soul and speaking vanity, and the lifting up of men to manage their fellow men, body and soul, is all open before God, with whom we have to do. There is no man or set of men that can manage men. “All ye are brethren.” [Matthew 23:8.] The Holy Spirit of God alone can do this. When you, because of your position, supposed you could say the word, and it would be done just after your idea, you made a mistake. Truth, honor, and integrity have been compromised to gain certain advantages. Justice hath fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
Religious principles have been corrupted. We will either make more pure, noble, and holy principles held by God’s heritage, or else we will mislead by false proposition, unholy schemes, saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we.” [Jeremiah 7:4.] The work and cause of the Lord is sacred. There is to be no mingling of human, common, unholy fire with God’s offering. This has been and is still being done. But men are blind, and see not the result of their zealous efforts. The question is, Shall those who are called from place to place act a part in the sacred work of God, use the fire of God’s own kindling, or shall they use the common fire, of which not one spark should be used, to kindle the incense upon the censers which are offered to God.
The spirit which was manifested to the believers by those who established the work in Battle Creek, led them to understand that there was no hidden closet. All was open and clear as the light of day. But the Lord’s holy purpose has been grieved. Heaven has manifested its purpose to impart power to those who believe; and the Holy Spirit has been revealed. “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered, and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.” [John 14:21-24.]
Obedience is the first price of eternal life. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” [Verse 26.] This is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Comforter is to reveal Himself, not in any specified, precise way that man may mark out, but in the order of God; in unexpected times and ways that will honor His own name. Those who are unbelieving do not receive the richest endowment of grace, which would make them wise unto salvation, patient, forbearing, quick of perception to appreciate heavenly ministrations, quick to discern Satan’s devices, and strong to resist him. God cannot do His mighty works for them because of their unbelief.
Now, just now, is our day of mercy and salvation. The Lord God who dwelleth in the holy place, sees every soul that shows contempt for the manifestations of His Holy Spirit. God has revealed Himself again and again in a most marked manner in Battle Creek. He has given a large measure of His Holy Spirit to the believers there. It has come unexpectedly at times, and there have been deep movings upon hearts and minds, a letting go of selfish purposes, and a bringing into the treasury many things that you were convicted God had forbidden you to have. This blessing extended to large numbers, but why was not this sweet, holy working continued upon hearts and minds? Some felt annoyed at this outpouring, and their own natural dispositions were manifested. They said, This is only excitement; it is not the Holy Spirit, not showers from heaven of the latter rain. There were hearts full of unbelief, who did not drink in of the Spirit, but who had bitterness in their souls.
On many occasions the Holy Spirit did work, but those who resisted the Spirit of God at Minneapolis were waiting for a chance to travel over the same ground again, because their spirit was the same. Afterward, when they had evidence heaped upon evidence, some were convicted, but those who were not softened and subdued by the Holy Spirit’s working, put their own interpretation upon every manifestation of the grace of God, and they have lost much. They pronounced in their heart and soul and words that this manifestation of the Holy Spirit was fanaticism and delusion. They stood like a rock, the waves of mercy flowing upon and around them, but beaten back by their hard and wicked hearts, which resisted the Holy Spirit’s working.
Had this been received, it would have made them wise unto salvation; holier men, prepared to do the work of God with sanctified ability. But all the universe of heaven witnessed the disgraceful treatment of Jesus Christ, represented by the Holy Spirit. Had Christ been before them, they would have treated Him in a manner similar to that in which the Jews treated Christ.
What moved the people at Battle Creek when they humbled their hearts before God and cast away their idols? In the days of Christ, when He proclaimed His mission, all bare witness, and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth. But the unbelief whispered by Satan began to work, and they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” When the Lord Jesus perceived their questioning unbelief, and saw that His gracious words were fading from their minds, He said unto them, “Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.” Then Christ stated facts to them, and said, “Verily, I say unto you, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman which was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel, in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.” [Luke 4:22, 23, 25-27.]
The Jews considered that this was spoken against them, and that those of a heathen nation should be represented as favored by God before the [Jewish] nation, was a statement that should not be tolerated, “and all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.” [Verses 28, 29.] While they were contending among themselves, Christ passed through the midst of them, and went on His way. Certainly this was one of the places where Christ could not do many mighty works because of their unbelief.
The very same spirit has been manifested in Battle Creek. Those who opened the door of their hearts to temptation at Minneapolis, and carried the same spirit home with them, will realize, if not now, in the near future, that they resisted the Holy Spirit of God, and did despite to the Spirit of grace. Will they repent, or will they harden their hearts, and resist evidence?
There is much that needs to be set in order in every institution that is in operation in our world. Finite men are not to make themselves lords, and seek to govern men’s minds and principles, when their own minds and their own principles are very shaky. This uncertainty is being communicated to the churches by men in prominent positions. Unbelief goes in the very atmosphere. Everything is to be shaken that can be shaken, that those things that cannot be shaken may remain.
All who truly love Jesus Christ will now stand enlisted under His banner, eager to magnify His name and accomplish His will. Every opportunity is given in an open field for the manifestation of love and loyalty. There is nothing that Christ hungers and thirsts for so much as whole hearted disciples, possessing His love and gentleness. Who, I ask, will in those days of approaching peril, when the faith of everyone is to be severely tested, comprehend through the Holy Spirit’s teaching the design of God to win all the ability, all the God-entrusted endowments of Christ, to the service of the Prince of Peace? Who will extend the work of God to all places where they are ignorant of the light?
In the cities of America, as well as in foreign countries, a great work is to be done. God calls for cheerful co-workers, and they are not to be repressed, discouraged, and disheartened by counter-working agencies, who themselves refuse to be worked by the Holy Spirit of God. God’s ministers are in service to God.
There are large numbers willing to devote their time to home missionary work if they see that it is pleasant and agreeable to them. They wait for something to do and work to be brought to them, but they lose physical, mental, and moral efficiency in so doing. In every neighborhood, consecrated ability will do much in personal effort, but let not men prescribe for their brethren according to their ideas. Let the oppression of human minds forever cease, and let the Holy Spirit have a chance to work. Let all who can read and discern the signs of the times, know that Christ is nigh, even at the door. Let love for God and Christ grow daily, and let love for your brethren be without dissimulation. Let faith be in constant use. Believe God because He is God. Put your human, world loving spirit under the molding of the Spirit of God. The question is asked, “When the Lord cometh will he find faith on the earth?” [See Luke 18:8.] Faith, then, has become almost extinct.
One of the dangers to which God’s people will be exposed is this: The delusions that are coming upon a world that has turned from the truth. These will be of such deceptive power, that the apostle, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, declares, “If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” [Matthew 24:24.] Our work now is to confirm our souls in the faith—that faith which is a working faith, which works by love and purifies the soul. Faith—living, active, working faith—we must have. Christ demands this of us. Verily Christ hath need of us now to represent Him. Not the cold, harsh, denunciatory, overbearing and ruling power of the prince of darkness.
Those who are Christ’s friends will now do whatsoever He commands them. Stand, therefore, having on the whole armor, and having done all, to stand. Let the soul temple be cleansed of prejudice, of that root of bitterness, [and] hatred, whereby many are being defiled. Cling to the mighty one. Communicate to others light, with cheerful words, and with courage in the Lord. Labor to diffuse that faith and confidence that has been your own consolation.
Let it be heard from every lip and voice, “Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” [Revelation 14:12; 16:15; 19:7, 8.]
Some have been and are still refusing to put on the wedding garment. They still wear their citizen’s dress, and despise the garment woven in the loom of heaven, which is, “Christ our Righteousness.” “And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” [Verse 9.] Who are friends of Christ today? Do you feel an intense desire for the robe of Christ’s righteousness? Are you sensible of the filthy rags of your own righteousness? Then let the truth come into your practical life. If you are friends of Christ, show it in words, in spirit; manifest love to Jesus, and love for the souls for whom Christ hath died.
The sentiments of truth are the elements that constitute a symmetrical Christian character. We are far, far from being Christians, which is to be Christlike. We need the Holy Spirit’s efficiency. God lives and reigns. The very reason that the Holy Spirit’s manifestations were not accepted as precious tokens from God, is that there was not a receiving of the grace of God. The Spirit of the Lord has been upon His messengers whom He hath sent with light, precious light; but there were so many who had turned their face away from the Sun of Righteousness that they saw not its bright beams. The Lord says of them, They have turned their backs to Me, and not the face. There is need of seeking the Lord most earnestly.
I tell you, my brethren, the American Sentinel should not have become what it has. Scathing remarks are made with pen and voice that cannot reach hearts. The bitterest opponents of truth have not had the light we have had; and after years professing to know God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, there are many who are not in 1895, wise as serpents and harmless as doves. They are so ready to put on the war dress and show themselves. They do not know what the voice of invitation means, “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” [Matthew 11:29.]
Crowd the Sentinel with straightforward truth. Keep out your thrusts, for you dishonor God in making this showing. Let there be a humiliation of soul before God. This lording over God’s heritage as though the endowment of the talents of the mind, the soul, the principles of men are to be under the jurisdiction of men, is permeating our churches with a spirit after the same order. There are many getting where the Lord can do nothing for them. They will not recognize the spirit or voice of God, but treat His words as idle tales. Many have breathed the atmosphere that has surrounded the souls of men in positions of trust, who have not only thought in their hearts but expressed with their lips, “My Lord delayeth His coming,” and their acts reveal the sentiment. [Matthew 24:48, 49.]
Who will now understand these things that I write? There are men who have known the truth, who have feasted upon the truth, who are now divided between infidel sentiments. There is only a step between them and the precipice of eternal ruin. The Lord is coming, but those who ventured to resist the light that God gave in rich measure at Minneapolis, who have not humbled their hearts before God, will follow on in the path of resistance, saying, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” [Exodus 5:2.] The banner all will bear who voice the message of the third angel is being covered with another color that virtually kills it. This is being done. Will our people now hold fast to the truth? “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” [Revelation 14:12.] This is our standard. Hold it aloft; for it is truth.
Letter 7, 1896
Brethren in Battle Creek
Granville, Sydney, Australia
May 11, 1896
To my brethren in Battle Creek:
All secret working is open to the eye of Him with whom we have to do. To handle men as if they were machinery, binding their freedom by methods and terms, is an offense which God will not tolerate. This work cannot be done without imperiling souls. But too often men seek to harness men and drive them as horses are driven. Right principles are perverted by selfishness and covetousness, which is pronounced by God to be idolatry. It is easy for men who suppose their power to be unlimited to follow the guidance of their own spirit, and make propositions and decisions that turn the work out of the straightforward channels in which God designs it shall travel into crooked paths. But because a man is in a position at the heart of the work, where he thinks no one would dare to say to him, “Why do ye so wickedly?” he should not seek to rule as a lord over God’s heritage.
These words God has been and is still addressing to those who are standing in high places of trust. Many have been corrupted, some more and some less, by your deceptive reasoning. You have thought that whatever your councils decided would stand as the voice of God, that whatever your councils decided, would stand as the voice of God; but this supposition must no longer exist. You have the Word of God; you have the message which God has given; but you have turned away from obeying this word.
My brethren, angels of God have veiled their faces at the partiality and hypocrisy which has been shown by some. Deceptions similar to that of Jacob are practiced, and the time has come to investigate the teachings of Christ to ancient Israel.
God will in no case justify any attempt to turn man from his rights. He will not excuse men for grasping all they possibly can, by deceptive reasoning, irrespective of their own agreements, or of the result their course will have upon those disappointed and wronged. Do as you have been doing a little longer, and the confidence of the people in any voice from Battle Creek will be destroyed. The word of the Lord to you is, “Who has made man? Did you, who treat him as your machine, give him flesh and blood, nerve and muscle? Did you create the mind, the intellect, with which he is to serve me in my appointed way? Who entrusted man with talents, that he might make the best use of them, and return them to God? I the Lord have created man. I the Lord gave him reasoning powers. I the Lord redeemed him with the blood of my only begotten Son. By creation and by redemption he is mine. I will demand of him the talents which I loaned him to do my service.”
Those who have sought unjustly to ruin their fellowmen, who have taken man, soul and body, under their control, will have an account to render to God. Some in Battle Creek have sought to guide and control God’s human instrumentalities.
God says, “They are mine, mine to work, mine to impress, mine to imbue with my Spirit, mine to use to My name’s glory. I give to every human being opportunities to use and improve his abilities and talents, to advance My work, to proclaim My righteousness in the earth. How dare you dictate (and seek to control) My chosen instrumentalities? The buildings which in your pride you have erected do not glorify Me. The salvation of one soul is more to me than costly mansions, than gold or silver. But you have made an atom of a world, and a world of an atom. These buildings will soon perish, but they have not a living soul. The souls I have bought at an infinite price—the gift of my only begotten Son—you have failed to appreciate. Some have been treated with partiality and (others with) indifference, as though they were mere machines. Some have been driven away from Me, and led to despise Me, because of your insincerity and unjust dealing. These souls I will require at your hands. The riches of a world sink into insignificance when compared with the loss of a soul. And yet you have treated those who would not voice your man made commandments, your human resolutions, as though they did not possess souls capable of living through the eternal ages.
Christ died to bring life and immortality to light through the gospel; and therefore man is of value in God’s sight. He is to do his part, working where he finds himself best adapted, for God has given him talents and power to use these talents. He is to cultivate his capabilities. He is not to be a machine, a shadow of another man, but is to use his God-given intellect, and with humble, contrite heart ask God for wisdom. He is not to absorb another man’s propositions simply because that man is in a high position of trust, but is to remember that there is a fountain of living water from which he may drink and drink again. The source of divine power is open to all.
Man is only finite. At best his sphere is limited. If he is a branch of the living Vine, he must, with other branches, draw nourishment from the parent stock. (This makes him of value with God.) If men do not draw daily sustenance from the living Vine, they cannot bear the fruit of the Vine, and are cast forth as worthless branches, to be consumed.
Let all remember that however flourishing they may appear to be, they do not bear the Vine; the Vine bears them. The power to produce fruit is not in them, but in the parent stock. As they draw nourishment from the parent stock, they bear abundant fruit.
Every branch has a work to do. Christ says, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now are ye clean, through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” [John 15:2-8.]
This figure of the vine and the branches is a precious representation of the living Christian and the dead, fruitless professor, who claims to be of Christ, and yet does not the works of Christ.
The character of a man’s work is determined by the fruit he bears. Look into his home life. Is he gathering with Christ? Do his spirit, his words, and his actions testify that he has learned in the school of Christ to be meek and lowly, to wear Christ’s yoke of perfect obedience?
“As the Father hath loved me,” said Christ, “so have I loved you; continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” [Verses 9, 10.] Every soul that has a vital connection with God will reveal the works and ways of God. The doing of the commandments of God is his absorbing interest. He receives light from Christ and radiates it to others.
When men are selected as counsellors, they are looked upon as guardians (to protect) the rights of those with whom they are connected. To all in this position I would say, When any man, high or low, rich or poor, needs sympathy, advice, or help, bind that man to your heart by wise, compassionate, tender love. (Let there be no harshness, no demeaning,) for he is Christ’s property, beloved of Jesus Christ. Satan has bound him up with sin; he finds sorrow and pain and (misery in) sin. He is seeking for Jesus. Lift Him up, the Man of Calvary for one soul saved is worth more than (the riches of) a world.
But this work of soul saving has been neglected; personal efforts have not been made. Men in responsible positions, craving large buildings “to make an appearance, and give character to the work,” have neglected the only means that can give character to the work. The only way they can do this is to abide in the vine, and show by their good works that they are vitally connected with it. Thus they can represent Christ (in the fruit they bear) and diffuse light to the world. “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” “And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” [Isaiah 58:6, 11.]
Christ says of His work, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound: to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.” [Isaiah 61:1-3.]
The further the Pharisees separated from God, the more eager they were to manufacture commandments restricting the freedom of their fellow men. They bound heavy burdens upon them, grievous to be borne. They transgressed the commandments of God, and mingled with them the traditions and maxims of men. These traditions they exalted above the Word of God. “In vain do they worship me,” said Christ, “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” [Mark 7:7.]
This is true in regard to those who have done a work which God has not authorized them to do. The very work that should be done, brought to view in (Isaiah 61:1-3), has been strangely neglected. Some have been very ready to pronounce judgment upon the work of their fellow men, because it did not exactly represent their ideas. But has God pronounced them infallible? The spirit they have manifested in pronouncing judgment upon God’s messengers shows their fallibility, and their ignorance, both of the Scriptures and of the power of God. These men are counterworking the work of God. They have felt at liberty to make decisions and laws which would bring talent under their jurisdiction. They have placed themselves in the judgment seat, to control their fellow men. But has God appointed them to do this work? He would say of them, “What doest thou here? Who sent you on this journey? Who gave you this errand to perform? Who made you a (critic and) judge on matters of doctrine? Who appointed you to pick and to choose the words and expressions which my servants shall use?”
God is true. God is trustworthy. He speaks to men, and moves upon human hearts. The very words you would cut out (of this article) are, it may be, the very words God has said should be written. God has been imparting light to His people in large measure; and He has not set up an inquisition at Battle Creek to decide questions which should be taken to Him. He does not design that those to whom He has given His Holy Spirit shall be worked by men who need a much larger measure of the grace of God before they can decide what is truth and what is error.
It has been the misfortune of some in Battle Creek to be afflicted with a defective eyesight. Like the Jews, they see everything in the light of their own understanding. But does this prove them to be infallible? This spirit cherished ruined the Jewish nation, and God will not sanction it in any of His professed people. Men need to pray for the heavenly enlightenment. God calls upon all, high and low, to fasten their eyes upon an uplifted Saviour, and make their souls secure by being clothed in the garments of his righteousness.
I have been shown that the ability and talents of every man are entrusted to him by God, and that men are never to be so controlled that they will express and act another man’s mind. God has given every man his work. To one He gave five talent, to another two, and another one. To each individual is entrusted some peculiar gift. Every man, woman, and child is in possession of (varied) talents which may be sanctified to the Master’s use, and for which he is responsible to God, the donor.
To be “talented” is not to be applied to a favored class, whose privilege it is to look down upon others as being deficient in tact and intellect. The whole family of God is entrusted with talents; they are responsible agents, and are to trade upon the Lord’s goods, and learn to acquire more. God will bless all who will use the abilities which He has entrusted to them. If they are faithful and humble, realizing their dependence upon Him, to whom they must render an account of their mental and physical endowments, they will receive wisdom from Him, as did Daniel, who looked to God for wisdom, and then put into exercise every power that God had given him, until he became a trusted man in the kingdom of Babylon.
From the lowest and most obscure to those highest in position, each one has his place in the family of God. Each one has been entrusted with gifts. He is to make the most of his talents, putting them out to the exchangers. The smallest gift should not be ignored or despised. It is not the number of talents that makes men valuable in the sight of God, but the way in which they appreciate and employ their talents. God’s gifts are not to be used to glorify self. They must be prized as His gifts, and sacredly consecrated to His glory.
While probationary time lasts, men should work the works of God, “for the night cometh, when no man can work.” [John 9:4.] God requires of everyone vigilant work, combined with faithful waiting and watching. Working alone will not do. Bustle and continual activity is not enough to satisfy the requirements of God. We must “rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” [Psalm 37:7.] (We must not move hurriedly.) We must work and watch and pray and wait.
God’s children must cultivate personal piety. With humble, contrite hearts they must cherish the love of God, fearing to walk contrary to His will and way. They must be active in every line of service, “not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” [Romans 12:11.] With unceasing watchfulness, and sincere, earnest prayer, they must keep their lamps trimmed and burning. Every opportunity that presents itself to serve God must be improved. By use our gifts will increase. Christlike virtues are active. The talents are exemplified by representing Christ in every line. This is Christian character, shining in Christian virtues. This is Bible religion. “Take heed to thyself, and to the doctrine.” [1 Timothy 4:16.] The neglect of personal piety will make the most (so called) splendid endowments of no value in the sight of God. The most splendid service (so called) is nothing to Him unless the soul, body, and spirit, are devoted to His service.
The responsibility of each soul is measured by the endowment of grace he has received from God. All are to be laborers together with God. Those who feel sure that they have large ability, that they have been entrusted with a great work, must reveal the character of that work. They may engage in many lines, they may lead a very busy life; but this is of no account with God. Are they yoked up with Christ? is the question God asks. Do they work in Christ’s lines, or do they reveal their hereditary and cultivated tendencies?
“We are laborers together with God; ye are God’s husbandry; ye are God’s building.” [1 Corinthians 3:9.] All are to labor as Christ labored, increasing in spirituality and growing in wisdom and knowledge, “and in favor with God and man.” [Luke 2:52.] Growing—how? To the full stature of men and women in Christ. But when a man in a position of responsibility grows in self-sufficiency, and lifts up his soul unto vanity, feeling (the inclination) to act as ruler toward any member of God’s family, wait no longer, relieve him of his trust, for God is not with him. (He will hurt souls.) He is venturing a warfare at his own charges. He feels capable of doing a great work without Christ’s help. He will exalt himself as a man of superior wisdom, who must be highly esteemed. He thinks that his brethren must do as he decides.
God is given no chance to work, for he will tell what this one shall do with his talents, and what place that man must occupy (as if he was God.) He will take it upon him to lord it over God’s heritage. It is not safe to keep any such one in the work in which eternal interests are involved; for he will mingle selfishness, injustice, and unrighteousness with his service. He is a backslider from right principles, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from iniquity.
The Lord is now proving every man’s fidelity. Some will surrender soul, body, and spirit to the Lord. The church is made up of large and small vessels, and a large revenue is brought to the Lord from the goods He has lent. But God alone can judge the capabilities of His servants. He alone has the power to discern the time and the talents employed for Him. If those entrusted with few talents are faithful in their work, they receive just as large a reward as the one to whom a larger number of talents was entrusted. When men think that they can decide who has accomplished the most good, and treat God’s workers accordingly, they often make serious mistakes. The man who is humble, and does his work as unto God and not to man, may not make as great a show as the man who is full of bustle and show; but his work counts for more. Often the ones who makes a great parade calls attention to himself, interposing (himself) between the people and God, and his work (proves) a dead failure.
Those whom God has highly gifted carry a weight of responsibility which they must meet in the judgment. They are responsible for the improvement or the abuse of their talents. If the steward is not faithful, he will be challenged and condemned for corrupting his power, and dishonoring his God. We are trading upon God’s property. Are we presenting Christ in character? When we seek to reveal the character of Christ, accepting the gift of the Holy Spirit, God will work with us. We will be Christlike. No rebuffs, no harsh, stinging, condemnatory words will come from our lips. We will not lock the door of our hearts against the Holy Spirit’s entrance. When God works, we will not say, “It is fanaticism.” No guile will be found in our lips. We will be holy in all manner of conversation, serving God with singleness of purpose. Then we shall be prepared for a pleasant day of reckoning.
In the day when God comes to make up His jewels, the works of every soul will stand out clearly and distinctly, not heaped together in an indiscriminate mass. He who bestowed the gift will scrutinize the returns received from every talent. He knows just what men have done, and will reward them accordingly. Happy will those be to whom the words of commendation are spoken, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” [Matthew 25:21.]
The trouble with those in Battle Creek is that they have forgotten that God is not dependent on their fluency or on their business ability. God could do more or them were their hearts humble and contrite, for He can use such workers, while the self-sufficient He cannot use. God will select whom He will for His work. The Lord Jesus when on earth selected fishermen, whom he knew would be willing to be molded. He did not measure their efficiency by their knowledge of grammar or by their business ability, but He prayed to His Father, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” [John 17:3.]
There is a diversity of gifts. If those who have received many talents feel the need of keeping proportionately near the Saviour, of keeping closely yoked with Christ, if they understand that they must live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, their endowments will be used in such a manner that they will be a rich blessing to their fellow men. But men have been proved in Battle Creek, and it has been made manifest that they have not all been “diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” [Romans 12:11.] They have been ready to tell this man what he must do, and that man what he must do, and so the ordering and directing has gone on. They have made rules and resolutions and agreements with their fellow men, only to change and break them, to promise and not perform. Yet notwithstanding their failure to practice well-defined, Christian principles, they have been anxious for more power, anxious to take more responsibilities.
God has written in the books of heaven, “Weighed in the balances, and found wanting.” [Daniel 5:27.] Many have given abundant evidence of their selfishness. They have placed themselves as judges, to judge their fellow men. Yet their cruelty and injustice have not been sufficiently discerned to enable those connected with them to see to what a pass we are coming. God is displeased. His anger is kindled against the men who have acted as gods. Like the Jews they have been loading the cloud of vengeance, which must at last break upon them. Unless they shall now understand that the souls of men are not given into their hand, that they cannot act out their selfish, avaricious covetousness under the plea that it is for the cause of God, there will be no remedy for them.
Wake up, brethren, wake up, before it is too late for your characters to be changed. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” [Isaiah 55:6, 7.]
Letter 8, 1896
Brethren in America
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
February 6, 1896
To my brethren in America:
The great office work of the Holy Spirit is thus distinctly specified by our Saviour, “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin.” [John 16:8.] Christ knew that this announcement was a wonderful truth. He was nearing the close of His ministry on this earth, and was standing in view of the cross, with a full realization of the load of guilt that must be placed upon Him as the Sin-bearer. Yet His greatest anxiety was for His disciples. He was seeking to find solace for them, and He told them, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” [Verse 7.]
Evil had been accumulating for centuries, and could only be restrained and resisted by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fulness of divine power. Another spirit must be met; for the essence of evil was working in all ways, and the submission of man to this satanic captivity was amazing.
Today, as in Christ’s day, Satan rules the minds of many. O that this terrible, fearful work could be discerned and resisted. Selfishness has perverted principles; selfishness has confused the senses and clouded the judgment. It seems so strange that notwithstanding all the light that is shining from God’s blessed Word, there should be such strange ideas held, such a departure from the spirit and practice of the truth. The desire to grasp large wages, with a determination to deprive others of their God-given rights, has its origin in Satan’s mind; and by their obedience to his will and way men place themselves under his banner. Little dependence can be placed in those that have been taken in this snare, unless they are thoroughly converted and renovated; for they have been leavened by wrong principles, which they could not perceive were deleterious in their effect.
O if those in the various fields, in America and all over the world, were working according to the Bible rule, and were striving to uproot selfishness, what a work would be accomplished for the church! But sins which have from time to time been pointed out, are lying at the door of many, sins which the Lord regards as of no light character. If men would only give up their spirit of resistance to the Holy Spirit, the spirit which has long been leavening their religious experience, God’s Spirit would address itself to their hearts. It would convince of sin. What a work! But the Holy Spirit has been insulted and light has been rejected. It is possible for those who for years have been so blind to see? Is it possible that in this late stage of their resistance their eyes will be anointed? Will the voice of the Spirit of God be distinguished from the deceiving voice of the enemy?
There are men who will soon evidence which banner they are standing under, the banner of the Prince of Life, or the banner of the prince of darkness. If they could only see these matters as they are presented to me; if they could only see that, as far as their souls are concerned, they are as men standing on the brink of a precipice, ready to slide over to the depths below, I do not think they would stand trembling on the brink another instant, if they had any regard for their salvation.
It is not the will of God that any shall perish, but that all shall have everlasting life. O could I be assured that in the coming Conference my brethren would feel a sense of what pure principles mean to them and to all with whom they are associated, my heart would leap with joy! If those that have wandered so far from God and from true righteousness would show that the Holy Spirit was striving with them, that they were conscious of their guiltiness in departing from the Word of God, and acting as blind leaders of the blind, I should have hope. When these do awake from their paralysis, they will be overwhelmed with a sense of lost time, lost opportunities, which were given to them that they might show their appreciation of the infinite compassion of God for fallen man.
Every soul that will accept Jesus as his personal Saviour will pant for the privilege of serving God, and will eagerly seize the opportunity to signalize his gratitude by devoting his abilities to God’s service. He will long to show his love for Jesus and for His purchased possession. He will covet toil, hardship, sacrifice. He will think it a privilege to deny self, lift the cross, and follow in Christ’s footsteps, thus showing his loyalty and love. His holy and beneficent works will testify to his conversion, and will give to the world the evidence that he is not a spurious but a true, devoted Christian.
Men are now earnestly plying every art and trade in order to satisfy their desire for more gain. If they would use this tact and zeal and careful thoughtfulness in an effort to gain something for the Lord’s treasury, how much would be accomplished. When men who are thoroughly selfish accept Christ, they will show that they have a new heart, and instead of grasping all that they can possibly obtain to benefit themselves, instead of making bitter, stunted sacrifices for the Lord, they will cheerfully do all that they can to advance His work. The spirit of grasping, which has been so largely developed, will die, and they will heed the words of Christ, “Sell that ye have, and give alms.” [Luke 12:33.] They will work as laboriously, with zeal and energy and earnestness to build up the kingdom of God, as they have worked to obtain riches for themselves.
I tell you the truth. We are far behind our holy religion in our conception of duty. O if those who have been blessed with such grand and solemn truth would arise and shake off the spell that has benumbed their senses and caused them to withhold from their God their true service, what would not their well-organized efforts accomplish for the salvation of souls! What a change would be seen in the principles carried out! The world, the flesh, and the devil would not blind men and women as to what constitutes pure, sacred, loyal principles.
The Word of God appropriated is the preparation for eternal life. But men have placed such an interpretation upon this Word that it has been made meaningless. Heart and conscience have been hardened and corrupted. Brethren, in the name of Jesus I ask, Do you believe the Word of God? Are you sons and daughters of God? If you are, it is because you have been converted, and have received Christ into your soul-temple, and your minds have been brought under a new law, even the royal law of liberty. O if I could have the joyful news that the will and mind of those in Battle Creek, who have stood professedly as leaders, were emancipated from the teachings and slavery of Satan, whose captives they have been for so long, I would be willing to cross the broad Pacific to see your faces once more. But I am not anxious to see you with enfeebled perceptions and clouded minds because you have chosen darkness rather than light.
The divine Spirit reveals its working on the human heart. When the Holy Spirit operates upon the mind, the human agent will understand the statement made by Christ, “He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.” [John 16:14.] Subjection to the Word of God means the restoration of one’s self. Let Christ work by His Holy Spirit, and awaken you as from the dead, and carry your mind along with His. Let Him employ your faculties. He has created your every capability, that you may better honor and glorify His name. Consecrate yourself to Him, and all associated with you will see that your energies are inspired of God, that your noblest powers are called into exercise to do God’s service. The faculties once used to serve self and advance unworthy principles, once serving as members of unrighteous purposes, will be brought into captivity to Jesus Christ, and become one with the will of God.
There is a work to be done in the churches. Young men and women must be trained and educated, and then places will be found for them in the work. You are worried and perplexed because Dr. Kellogg is gathering in disproportionately in the medical missionary work, because his work far exceeds the work done in the churches by the General Conference. What is the matter? It is plain that the light given by God has not been acted upon. Men have supplanted God’s plans by their own plans. The prosperity of the medical work is in God’s order. This work must be done; the truth must be carried to the highways and the hedges.
But the heart of the work, the great center, has been enfeebled by the mismanagement of men who have not kept pace with their Leader. Satan has diverted their money and their capabilities into wrong channels. Their precious time has been passing into eternity. The earnest work that is now being done, the aggressive warfare that is being carried on might long ago have been just as vigorously carried on in obedience to the light of God. The whole body is sick because of mismanagement and miscalculation.
The people to whom God has entrusted eternal interests, the depositaries of truth pregnant with eternal results, the keepers of light that this to illuminate the whole world, have lost their bearings. Has God made a mistake? Are those at the heart of the work chosen vessels that can receive the golden oil, which the heavenly messengers, represented as two olive trees, empty into the golden tubes to replenish the lamps? Are those in Battle Creek, the man and women that God has appointed to do the most solemn work ever given to mortals, in partnership with Jesus Christ in His great firm? Are those whom He has bidden to communicate light from the burning lamps to others, that the regions of darkness may hear the saving message, doing their duty?
What are we doing? Do you believe that this is the period in which we are to labor as never before for the salvation of sinners? How much better you would have been, employed in doing this class of work, than in taking up lines of work which the Lord never set you to do. Who, I ask, in your councils, in your Foreign Missionary Board, are Christians, in heart and soul? O that every one of you could serve for a time in foreign countries! Then you would know, much better than you now do, what self-denial and self-sacrifice mean. And if you were permitted to return, you would work much more diligently, intelligently. Your nay and your yea would be spoken with a much graver burden, and with a sense of the responsibility involved. But as yet, you have not touched even the border. The indifference with which decisions are made in regard to these things is an offense to God.
Where you are, you have every facility for work, and you know nothing about the hardship of starting the work in new fields, among a people that have scarcely any knowledge of missionary work. Workers are appointed as missionaries to these foreign fields, and then they are left to get along as best they can, while those at the heart of the work think it is very important to do something that had better be left undone.
O if you could only once have a sense of how the Lord looks upon your course for several years past, you would hide your heads for shame! You would labor, you would deny self, that you might send all you could possibly gather to foreign fields. If you only knew what you should know, the calls of missionaries would stir every fibre of your being. How intensely you would labor; how self-denying you would be, that you might send facilities to those who must have them. Missionaries must have facilities, or else it is their duty to leave the field, for they consume their God-given strength in doing very little.
O, if those who profess to know the truth had the Spirit of Christ, the self-sacrificing Redeemer, who gave up His riches, His splendor, His high command, and did all that a God could do to save souls, they would deny self, lift the cross, and follow Jesus. How will you who love worldly treasure answer to God in the great day of judgment for your feeble and sleepy efforts to send the truth to regions beyond? The money expended in bicycles and other needless things must be accounted for. As God’s people you should represent Jesus; but Christ is ashamed of you. My heart is pained, I can scarcely restrain my feelings, when I think how easily our people are led away from practical Christian principles to self-pleasing. As yet many of you only partially believe the truth. The Lord Jesus says, “Ye can not serve God and mammon,” and we are to live by every word that proceedeth out of His mouth. [Matthew 6:24.] How many believe His Word?
The Lord abhors your selfish practices, and yet His hand is stretched out still. I urge you for your souls’ sake to hear my plea for those who are missionaries in foreign countries, whose hands are tied by your Nays. Satan has been working with all his powers of deception to bring matters to that pass where the way will be hedged up for the want of means in the treasury.
Do you realize that every year thousands and thousands and ten times ten thousand souls are perishing, dying in their sins? The plagues and judgment of God are already doing their work, and souls are going to ruin because the light of truth has not been flashed upon their pathway. Do we fully believe that we are to carry the Word of God to all the world? Who believes this? “How then can they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” [Romans 10:14.] Who has faith, faith that will enable him to practice this word? Who believes it in the light which God has given?
The Lord calls for united action. Well-organized efforts must be made to secure laborers. There are poor, honest, humble souls whom the Lord will put in your place, who have never had the opportunities you have had, and could not, because you were not worked by the Holy Spirit. We may be sure that when the Holy Spirit is poured out, those who did not receive and appreciate the early rain will not see or understand the value of the latter rain. When we are truly consecrated to God, His love will abide in our hearts by faith, and we will cheerfully do our duty, in accordance with the will of God.
But the little interest that has been manifested in the work of God by our churches alarms me. I would ask all who have means to remember that God has entrusted this means to them to be used in the advancement of the work which Christ came to our world to do. The Lord tells every man that in the sight of God he is not the owner of what he possesses, but only a trustee. Not thine, but Mine, saith the Lord. God will call you to account for your stewardship. Whether you have one talent, or two, or five, not a farthing is to be squandered on your own selfish indulgence. Your accountability to heaven should cause you to fear and tremble. The decisions of the last day turn upon our practical benevolence. Christ acknowledges every act of beneficence as done to Himself.
Letter 39, 1896
Haskell, S. N.
Cooranbong, Sunnyside, New South Wales, Australia
April 26, 1896
Dear Brother:
“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” [Galatians 6:7.] Let the question come home to each individual soul, What kind of harvest am I preparing to reap?
There is a self-propagating power in evil, and the man, woman, or child who pursues a wrong course in any line, becomes through his influence a propagator of evil, a parent to a line of misdoings.
When the Lord shall send a message by any one of His delegated messengers, it is for the good of the person who shall hear it and with humble heart act upon it. To go on just the same as if no warning had been given is to refuse to be corrected in an evil way, and [to] refuse the admonitions which the Lord graciously gives the soul that He sees is in peril of losing the crown of eternal life. Pride, self-will, obstinacy, and a determination to hold to some idol and refuse to yield up some gratification which has been indulged in until it has become a fixed habit and a part of the very nature is injurious to both mind and body.
If the Lord in mercy calls to the wrong doer, “Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?” it is because He wills not the death of the sinner but rather that he should accept the invitation of mercy and truth unto the Lord, repent, and be saved. [Ezekiel 33:11.] He may do many things that are right and consistent in themselves, and yet hold firmly to wrong practice and refuse to obey the warnings of God. The conviction is stifled, and the first step in resistance of the message, brought to him from Jesus Christ, was the first step in the pathway which led directly to the strengthening of self in resistance, and to stupefying the conscience.
There will be a satisfaction in hearing the Word from the lips of the Lord’s servant notwithstanding the natural master—passion—which holds the will in selfish, lustful indulgence of some kind, holds undisputed lordship over his spirits, and he is the servant or slave to sin. This passion may be selfishness, self-indulgence of appetite, it may be lustful passion, it may be ambition, envy, jealousy, or pride; it may be the appetite craves tobacco or stimulating drinks, yet it is lust and holds dominion over the man until he shall through faith, by placing his will on the Lord’s side, control the unnatural appetite which he has acquired.
The Word of God delivered in earnestness, the spirit of the living God speaking through the human agent, would break through the stronghold of Satan; but the moral power of the human agent is not exercised fully, strongly, to heed the words of warning God has sent. His will is not put on the Lord’s side, but on the side of the enemy, to be a co-worker with Him to his own ruin, as well as to the ruin of others.
When Paul stood before Felix in his own defense concerning the faith in Christ, as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, “Go thy way for this time, when I have a more convenient season I will call for thee.” [Acts 24:25.] How many act in the same way as did Felix? Under the Holy Spirit’s ministration, they are moved; they tremble at the appeals of God through His servants, but it has become habit to hear, to feel, and yet make no change in their course of action, and the next appeal has less effect. God spares them, He bears long with their perversity. Satan’s kingdom trembles at the Word lest those who are warned of God will hear the message from heaven and shall yield to the entreating, compelling message of the Spirit of God. It is at such times that Satan trembles for his ascendancy.
When sin is denounced in all its forms, revealing the danger to which the impenitent are exposed, and the direct comment is made, “Thou art the man” [2 Samuel 12:7], the individual, sought after and drawn by the Holy Spirit, knows that all this means him, that he is in peril; but he has procrastinated so long that he knows not his danger and ventures on still further [in] resistance, still clinging to his unsanctified propensities. It looks like a hard matter to break up his old habits. He does not heed the admonitions, but goes on in his own strength. He will do everything he can in any other line, but he does not heed the admonitions of God on the very points that are essential, and therefore the impression wears away. The impulse is gone. For a time he felt his danger, but the oil of grace was not in his vessel with his lamp, and he continues in self-indulgence. The mind soon habituates itself to indifference in regard to his own personal danger, and his old habits, which are second nature, are not disturbed. He has sown to the flesh, he shall reap that which he has sown, which is corruption.
Letter 60a, 1896
Friends of the Avondale School
Cooranbong, Australia
December 20, 1896
The Character and Work of Our Avondale School.
To the Friends of the School:
The light which has been given me regarding the work of the Avondale school is that we must not pattern after the similitude of any school that has already been established. We must study the Word of God critically as our great lesson book, in order to know what the school may become under the guidance of the Word of God if we receive and do that Word. Unless we are watchful and guarded, we shall experience the same hindrance to the spiritual education, that have retarded the work of our older schools. This we shall do by a misconception as to what is the most essential work to be done by students, and by the teachers for them.
When Christ was in our world, He had but few followers, and His disciples were continually kept back by the customs and the maxims of the scribes and Pharisees from making the advancement that they might have made, from supplying their great lack of knowledge, and from becoming efficient workers. The customs and traditions, which had come down from generation to generation through the rabbis, had been made all-essential, and were regarded as of more force even than the ten commandments. Thus the precepts and teachings of men were dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God.
I have been warned that the teachers in our younger schools should not travel over the same ground that many of the teachers in the Battle Creek College have passed over. Popular amusements for students were brought into the Battle Creek school under a deceptive garb. Satan approached as an angel of light, and worked most assiduously. If he could secure the sanction of the teachers in this school at the great heart of the work, there was prospect that every school established would follow its example. The leaven of evil introduced and sanctioned at the Battle Creek College would spread its properties to all with which it had connection, and thus affect all the schools.
The Lord has thought it essential to give reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness on many points regarding the management of schools among Seventh-day Adventists. All the light that has thus been given must be carefully heeded. No one should be connected with our schools as a teacher who has not had an experience in obeying the Word of God. The instruction which the Lord has given to our schools should be strictly regarded, and if the education given is not of a different character than that which has been given, in the Battle Creek College, we need not be to the expense of purchasing land and erecting buildings.
In every school Satan will try to make himself the guide of the teachers who are instructing the students. It is he who would introduce the idea that selfish amusements are a necessity. It is he who would lead students sent to our schools for the purpose of receiving an education and training for the work of evangelists, ministers, and missionaries to believe that amusements are essential to keep them in physical health, when the Lord has presented to them that the better way is for them to embrace manual labor in their education, and thus let useful employment take the place of selfish amusements. These amusements, if followed, soon develop a dislike for useful, healthful exercise of body and mind, such as would make students efficient to serve themselves and others.
The education to be gained in the felling of trees, the tilling of the soil, and the erection of buildings, as well as the studies of the classroom, is what our youth should seek to obtain. Tent making also should be taught; buildings should be erected; and masonry should be learned. Farther on, a printing press should be connected with the school, that an education may be given to students in this line of work.
There are many things which the lady students may also engage in, such as cooking, dressmaking, and gardening. Plants and flowers should be cultivated, strawberries should be planted. Thus the lady students may be called out of doors to gain healthful exercise and to be educated in useful labor. Bookbinding also, and a variety of trades should be taken up. These will not only give exercise to brain, bone, and muscle, but they will also give knowledge of great value. The greatest curse of our world today is idleness. The students coming to our school have had an abundance of amusement, which serve merely to please and gratify self. They are now to be given a different education, that they may go forth from the school prepared for any service.
The proper cooking of foods is a most important accomplishment. Especially where meat is not made a principal article of food is good cooking an essential requirement. Something must be prepared to take the place of meat, and these substitutes for meat must be well prepared, so that meat will not be desired. Education and culture on all points of practical experience will fit our youth for usefulness when they shall leave school to engage in mission work at home or in foreign countries. They will not then be dependent upon the people to whom they go to cook for them, to sew for them, or to build their habitations; but they will be prepared to education the ignorant, to show others how to do all manner of labor by plans and methods that will produce the best results, and they will thus become much more influential and helpful. Their abilities will be especially appreciated where money is hard to obtain, for a much smaller fund will be required to sustain such missionaries.
Those who have put to the very best use their physical powers in useful, practical labor, while obtaining an education, will show that missionaries can become successful teachers and educators in various lines of labor, and wherever they go, all that they have gained in these lines will give them favor, influence, and power.
It is also very essential that students shall understand the principles of medical missionary work, for wherever students may be called, they need a knowledge of the science of how to treat the sick. This will give them a welcome anywhere, because there is suffering of every kind in every part of the world.
It is an important matter that students be given an education that will fit them for successful business life. In many schools, the education given is one-sided. In our school the common branches should be fully and thoroughly taught. Bookkeeping is one of the most important lines of study to fit students for practical business life. Bookkeeping should be looked upon as of equal importance with grammar. And yet there are very few who leave our schools with a clear knowledge of how to correctly keep accounts. Those who have a living interest in the cause and work of God should never allow themselves to settle down with the idea that they are not required to know how to keep accounts.
The reason for many of the mistakes made in accounts and the failure in business matters is because men have not a thorough knowledge of bookkeeping. They are not prompt in making a faithful record of all transactions and keeping a daily account of their expenditures; and many are charged with being dishonest when, designedly, they were not dishonest. Their failure has come through a lack of knowledge of accounts. Many a youth, because of ignorance in the matter of keeping accounts, has been led into errors that have caused him serious trouble.
True education means much. We have no time now to spend in speculative ideas or in haphazard movements. The evidence that the coming of Christ is near are many, and are very plain, and yet many who profess to be looking for Him are asleep. We are not half as earnest as we ought to be to gather up the important truths that are for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Unless we understand the importance of passing events, and make ready to stand in the great day of God, we shall be registered in the books of heaven as unfaithful stewards. The watchman is to know the time of the night. Everything is now clothed with a solemnity that all who believe the truth should feel and understand. They should act in reference to the great day of God.
Our time is precious. We have but few days left of probation, in which to qualify ourselves for the future eternal life. We are not to devote these precious moments to cheap, common, or superficial things. We shall have to guard against the holding of ideas and maxims, which may be presented as essential from a human standpoint, for it is not the words of worldly wisdom, it is not the maxims of men or the theories of human beings, that will qualify us for acceptable service, but it is the Word of the living God. In all our schools this Word is to be made the essence of education.
It is in feeding upon the Word of God that we obtain the divine element that the soul needs in order to secure a healthy development of all its spiritual powers. Those who dig deep for the hidden treasure will find their reward in the precious veins of ore, and these hidden truths will make them wise unto salvation. They are following the example of their Saviour, and all the wiles and subtleties of satanic agencies cannot beguile them from a position of steadfast self-denial.
Letter 62, 1896
Lindsay, Sister
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
May 20, 1896
Dear Sister Lindsay:
I am constrained by the Spirit of God to address you personally, for God has given me a message for you. Your faith must be of a different character from what it now is, or you will never meet the Lord Jesus in peace, you will never enter the portals of the city of God. Christians are to be co-workers with God, but look at your life and ask yourself whether you have consecrated your life entirely to His service. Have you daily striven for communion with God? Have you sought to overcome your inclination to worldliness and your love of dress? Wherein is your life different from that of a worldling? Wherein does your influence savor of the fragrance of the righteousness of Christ? Does your life evidence that you believe the Word of God? Does your faith mean anything to you? Do you carry credentials which show to the world that you have enlisted in the army of the Lord Jesus?
The eternal Word of God should be your spiritual food; unless you live on it, you can have no life in Christ; but take that Word, search its pages, and ask yourself if the precious truth there revealed is suited to your taste. Instead of this, the Word of God is a dead letter to you. The truth it contains has been so interpreted by you that it has lost its precious meaning; its power to move your conscience and cleanse the soul-temple, has been made of none effect. Do you believe the Word of God? Those who are God’s chosen ones love God, and He works in and through them. Are you bearing about with you a heavenly atmosphere? Are you obtaining a valuable experience in spiritual things?
My sister, unless you are transformed in character, you will not be numbered among the jewels of God’s kingdom. You have no love for the truth. God requires us to listen to the words He sends by His servants, but how little have you prized the truth. By misapplying and misinterpreting the truth, by making light of it, and talking unbelief, you dishonor God. Your life has been one continuous round of selfishness. Your inclination to dress and to indulge in cheap, common talk has worked against the truth. If you loved God and the truth, the divine, sanctifying influence of God’s Word would be revealed in your disposition and actions.
Light has been given you in rich measure; you have had many opportunities to learn what is truth. The light given us of God bears an important relation to our lives. If received, we improve in character, and it is a savor of life unto life, but if rejected, it is a savor of death unto death, because it testifies against us. Had you grown in knowledge and spirituality in proportion to the light you have had, you would now possess an intelligent, experimental knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent; but your impenitence, your carelessness in regard to sacred things has worked harm to your family, and this has been felt by other families. You have not been a spiritual help to your husband. You have been a hindrance to his obtaining that experience which would enable him to use his talents to the glory of God.
As the mother of your children, you are called upon to educate them to form characters fit for the kingdom of God, setting before them an example of self-denial and piety which will lead them to avoid a life of cheap indulgence, and seek most earnestly to be children of God. By doing this, you would bring to the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, imperishable materials, and your work would tell for time and eternity. But your affections are with the world. Your disregard of truth and righteousness has had its effect upon your family, which is now like a false signboard, pointing in the wrong direction.
Every day, every hour, every moment of your time belongs to the Lord, but have you given Him that soul-service which He has purchased with His own blood? The great and amazing love which God has expended upon men is beyond computation. No greater or more powerful love could be exercised or imagined. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we might be called the sons of God.” [1 John 3:1.] “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16.] In view of this, what use are you making of the wonderful mercy of God and His great love for you? I ask you, in the name of Him who has died for you, what are you doing for Christ?
My sister, do not trifle with this message, for it is from the Lord. He desires you to be a witness for Him. He wants you to arise and co-operate with Him, and He has let light shine into your mind to awaken your conscience; but cheap, frivolous things have occupied your mind, and you have not become transformed in character. You have not opened the door of your heart to the heavenly Guest. You have not cherished a love for the truth, but have forgotten its claims, and it has become a dead letter to you. Testimonies from the Spirit of God have no influence over you. Will it continue to be thus till the close of time? If so, you will be obliged to say, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved.” [See Jeremiah 8:20.] The hours you spend in pleasure are fast passing away. Day by day, hour by hour, you are deciding your own destiny for weal or for woe. Which shall it be? You case will soon be decided for ever. Turn to the Lord before it is too late; for He is long suffering and plenteous in mercy.
Letter 63, 1896
Lindsay, Harmon
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
April 20, 1896
Harmon Lindsay
Battle Creek, Michigan
Dear Brother:
I am constrained to say to you, “The Judgment is to sit, the books are to be opened, and every man is to be judged according to the deeds done in the body.” You look upon things seen as of value, but he who is a citizen of the heavenly kingdom will be constantly looking at things not seen. The power of earth over the mind and character is broken. He has the abiding presence of the heavenly Guest according to the Saviour’s promise, “I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” [John 14:21.] He walks with God, as did Enoch, in continual communion. Only he who walks with the Lord Jesus in this life will be translated or come forth from the grave changed from mortal to immortality, to dwell with Christ in the heavenly courts through eternal ages. There must now be manifest in us the Holy Spirit’s working, a power that will enable us to withstand temptation.
The end of all things is close upon us, but for some of us the end of our probation may be yet nearer. As you look upon your substantial, convenient establishment, as you see the good things of this life with which you are surrounded, I ask you to consider that these must all pass away. You yourself may soon be an inhabitant of the very narrow house, to remain till called forth by the trump of God. As you, your wife, and your children devote your thoughts to earthly things, your characters are receiving a worldly mold. As they are at death, such they will be in the morning of the resurrection. No conversion, no transformation of character, will be made then. How would you and your wife and children appear before the redeemed, holy throng with your present tastes, habits, dress, thoughts, and words? Let every one of your poor, deceived family remember that the reaping time will be as the sowing time has been. None can sow tares and reap wheat.
How can you appear in the last great day without the robe of the righteousness of Christ? The word is spoken, “Why are they here without the wedding garment which I gave my life to purchase for them? Take them out of My presence. It is not possible for them to love and enjoy My presence here. They have not educated themselves to be at home in heaven. It would be no place of joy to them. It does not harmonize with their habits and their tastes. Nothing here can harmonize with the characters they have formed. They have loved, admired, and glorified themselves. They did not choose to heed My invitation to come out from the world and be separate. They did not learn of Me to take My yoke, to bear My burdens; they cannot appreciate the rest that I have purchased for all who are laborers together with Me.
“If Harmon Lindsay had been true to the Word of God, he would have been true to his family, true to the church, true to his neighbor, and true to his fellow men. He would have made his calling and election sure. But he thought his own wisdom all sufficient. I sent my Holy Spirit to testify unto him the truth, and to move upon his soul, for there was hidden in its depths that which needed to be brought to the Spirit to testify unto him the truth, and to move upon his soul; for there was hidden in its depths that which needed to be brought to the surface. Messenger after messenger was sent to entreat his attention. Many times I called. Often I presented my grace before him. Often he was moved by the story of the self-sacrificing Redeemer. He felt the heart touch of the Messenger of peace, and tenderness and love awakened to respond to the call. Often he turned to listen as the voice was heard. But in the home there was vanity, self-indulgence, a very cheap religious influence; the wife was frivolous, trifling, vain, and superficial. He might have led her to receive an altogether different mold had he strenuously set his own heart above the world and turned to Me for help and strength. But he failed to do this, and the heavenly was eclipsed by the earthly.
“Temporal blessings were given him, but vanity and love of show absorbed that which should have been used to lay up a treasure in heaven. Selfishness always grows by exercise, and at last he ceased to appreciate the gift of the grace of Christ. His efforts to gratify the frivolous minds about him absorbed the entrusted talents, and he drifted back into his own natural element. He separated from God, and when the Holy Spirit’s voice was heard to call him to repentance, he did not appreciate the voice; he treated it with neglect, then resistance, then disdain, then refused to have anything to do with the message of warning. He received encouragement from others who were in positions of holy trust, men whom God had used to be faithful watchmen, but who became untrue to their trust. Every favor that God bestowed upon him to turn him from his course, he refused. The manifestation of the gifts of God seemed to make him more defiant, until there was written in the books of heaven, ‘Unfaithful steward of talents of means, unfaithful steward of talents of influence, unfaithful steward, in that he is saying in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming.’
“He could not be happy; yet he tried to rest in self-complacency, to be at peace with his backsliding heart, and to believe that he was right, that God did not require him to be true to principle. Thus he continued to sow seed of the same kind that had filled his life with evil. The truth was no longer truth to him. To depart from God is to open the heart to infidelity. Inward forces, inspired by the devil, have been weaving about his soul thread after thread of deception and delusion, and his influence has been against the message of the third angel. He cannot see what he is. He cannot see that he has taken up with falsehoods of Satan’s framing. He cannot now see the light of the Holy Spirit which he has quenched in his soul. He is left as blind as were the Jews, who closed their eyes lest they should see, and their hearts lest they should feel. He has called the manifestations of the Spirit fanaticism. His finite lips have expressed sentiments that revealed the working of the power within him. His perception is so perverted that he calls light darkness, and darkness light. The danger is great that he will never again be able to distinguish between light and darkness, truth and error, for he has educated himself in skepticism, deceiving and being deceived. In the work which ought to have been sacred in his eyes, he has mingled the common fire with the holy. He needed to humble his heart before God, and change his entire course of action.”
Eternity, eternity—my brother, how will you meet it? What would be your position should death end your career now? I ask you to consider that you cannot carry the world with you into heaven. Have you supposed that God has accepted your life of deception, that He has been glorified by your course of action? All who enter the city of God, enter there through the strait gate, through agonizing effort. You and some there who have been depended on as trustworthy men, to do the work of God, have been surrounded by an atmosphere that is not divine, but as deleterious to the soul as a poisonous malaria.
Could you have the past years of your religious experience opened up to your view, you would have no more false peace, no more self-complacency. Every fiber of your being would be agonized. If you continue to do as you have done, bear in mind that when the Judgment shall sit, and the books shall be opened, things that have been hidden from human eyes will appear just as they are. Then the forces that have been at work under a pretense of advancing the cause of God will be revealed in an altogether different light from that in which they are now seen.
It is through misconception on the part of your brethren that you have held a position which gives you so much influence. What the outcome will be, God alone can discern. He will judge you by your works. Oh how sad, how sad, will be the future revelation! All the evil seed that you have sown will yield its harvest. By God’s own appointment you must reap the sure result of your own course of action. The selfishness and injustice toward brethren, in thought, word, and deed, will return upon yourself. You may endeavor to justify your course to yourself and to others, but God rejects that vindication. The only reason for what you have done is that found in a perverse heart and a perverse will. You may say, “I did not originate this or that plan;” but just so far as you sanctioned it, you were responsible, and the evil will react upon yourself. In your dealing with your brethren you have acted like a blind man, and have oppressed souls. Others have been of the same spirit with you, and have been even stronger in the wrong than you have been, but I will not now speak of them; it is your individual case that I am dealing with.
Much that has occurred since the Minneapolis meeting gives evidence of the working of things that lie deeper than human reason can fathom. You and others have planned according to your own will, and have been determined to carry out your plans; but God has not planned with you. Much that has appeared on the surface as merely the design of men has had its origin in the schemes of the great master worker of evil. Whenever you try to carry out a policy contrary to that which God has specified, you will, in the outcome, be compelled to acknowledge that, whatever you or those connected with you may do, a power is at work that is not under the control of men, and that, once set in operation, will continue to act and re-act.
The two great powers in controversy are working, one from beneath, the other from above. Every man is under the secret influence of the one or the other, and his acts will reveal the character of the inspiration from which they proceed. Those who are united with Christ will work always in Christ’s lines. Those who are in union with Satan will work under the inspiration of their leader, opposed to the Holy Spirit’s power and action. The will of men is left free to act, and by action is revealed what spirit is moving upon the heart. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” [Matthew 7:20.]
Man may become a fellow laborer with God in carrying out the great work of redemption. God allows each man his own sphere of action. While He has given His Word as the guide of life, He has also given the Holy Spirit as a sufficient power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character on the human agent, and, through Him, upon all who shall come within the sphere of his influence. The human agent is urged to co-operate with God, to work out His mercy, His goodness, and His love, thus impressing other minds. Every man is to become instrumentality through which the Holy Spirit can work. He can become this only by yielding all his capabilities to the control of the Spirit. God gave His Spirit upon the day of Pentecost, and through its working upon receptive hearts, He could impress all with whom the believers came in contact.
Through our relation of friendship and familiarity with human beings like ourselves, we may exert an uplifting influence. Those who are united in a common hope and faith in Christ Jesus can be a blessing to one another. Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” [John 13:34.] Love is not simply an impulse, a transitory emotion, dependent upon circumstances; it is a living principle, a permanent power. The soul is fed by the streams of pure love that flow from the heart of Christ, as a well-spring that never fails. O, how is the heart quickened, how are its motives ennobled, its affections deepened, by this communion! Under the education and discipline of the Holy Spirit, the children of God love one another, truly, sincerely, unaffectedly—“without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” [James 3:17.] And this because the heart is in love with Jesus. Our affection for one another springs from our common relation to God. We are one family, we love one another as He loved us. When compared with this true, sanctified, disciplined affection, the shallow courtesy of the world, the meaningless expressions of effusive friendship, are as chaff to the wheat.
Every man, woman, and youth has an influence upon others. This influence we have from God. It flows from God to the human agent, and we are responsible for its use. “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another; if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity (love), which is the bond of perfectness.” [Colossians 3:12-14.] Will we consider that this pure, unselfishness love, one toward another, is the bond of perfectness in character? “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks unto God and the Father by him.” [Verses 15-17.]
“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” [Ephesians 4:29-32.]
This is the instruction of the Word. How has it been obeyed? Oh, if this had been brought into the character of all the workers, what a change would there be in our institution! How different now would be the mold upon the work of God in Battle Creek! The strange developments that have been revealed in the decisions of your councils would not have seen the light of day. Bitter jealousies would not have been thriving in the hearts of those who profess to be followers of Christ. Advice or decisions that would involve a brother in distress or perplexity, or bind him in poverty, would be shunned as you would shun the leprosy. It is a fearful thing for a man to lose his own soul, yet every day men are taking steps that will result in the loss of their souls. The question came from the lips of Christ, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man given in exchange for his soul?” [Mark 8:36, 37.] Solemn, fearfully solemn, question! And yet how many are, like Esau, selling their souls for a mess of pottage. And for a man to lose his own soul means more even than this. His words, his example, his evil-spun theories lead others into perplexities and difficulties. He tolls [draws] men away from Christ to rank under the black banner of the prince of darkness. He is, in short, a soul-slayer; he is doing his best to destroy the principles which God has commanded to live. How terrible the thought of destroying the souls of men whom Christ came to our world to save. The result of our lives day by day should be to heal, not bruise; to save, not destroy.
Cannot you see that eternal interests are involved in your life practice? Every one is deciding his own destiny. He who reigns in heaven allows every man to take his position to hasten or retard his Lord’s appearing. All who consent to be freed from their natural selfishness, and to [be] charged with the Holy Spirit of God, are taking part with God. As the human channel they are pouring forth the currents of divine influence. Their work has God’s blessing within it. They are building upon the foundation—gold, silver, precious stones. When the day of judgment shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is, the gold, silver, precious stones are imperishable; the wood, hay, stubble, are consumed, and the life work of the builder is lost. Just in proportion to man’s consecration to God in this life will be his advancement in the future life. According to its character, his work is rewarded, and determines his place in the temple of God.
Each human being is responsible for the salvation of his own soul, and is under the most solemn responsibility for the salvation of the souls of others. He is to exert a saving influence; he is to watch for souls as they who must give an account. Each man, woman, and youth is passing his time here as a probationer. In that great day when the accounts of all are opened, it will be known who is the foolish builder on the sand, and who the builder on the eternal Rock. Then it will be known who have dishonored God’s sacred work by bringing in their own principles and practices. It will be seen who have woven their own spirit into methods and plans, to be passed on to the churches to mold their work. All the pettishness, the envy, the jealousies, the want of self-sacrifice, the stubborn resistance to the Holy Spirit’s working—all this the day will declare. Every work will be judged according to its character.
My brother, I leave these words with you, saying, “Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die?” [Ezekiel 33:11.]
Letter 64, 1896
Lindsay, Sister
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, Australia
May 8, 1896
Dear Sister Lindsay:
Please read Christ’s instruction to the lawyer, recorded in Luke 10:25-28. “A certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? 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. And he said unto him Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.” This lesson outlines the duty of all.
By this mail I am writing to Brother C. H. Jones, and if possible will send you a copy of his letter.
Again and again, at different times and in different places, decided warnings have been given me. I could not define the import of these warnings, for they were presented to me in figures and symbols. I have been very much puzzled over this matter, which was introduced before my husband’s death. Since that time I have been shown that efforts would be made to bind up the publishing house in Oakland with the publishing house in Battle Creek, in order that the publishing house at Battle Creek might have control. These warnings I did not fully understand, because many times the message had been given me that these two instructions should not be at strife one with another, or manifest anything savoring of jealousy or envy, but that they should stand as sister institutions, each doing their appointed work as God’s instrumentalities. “Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.” [Isaiah 11:13.] Each institution was established of God to do its respective work.
Before my husband’s death this matter in regard to the publishing house at Battle Creek and the publishing house at Oakland was presented to me under the figure of the vine, and since that time it has been presented to me under the same figure. The Lord has shown me that these two institutions are to be kept as separate as two branches which, though distinct, both center in the parent vine. They are not to be merged into one, but are to be kept distinct, yet each is to derive its nourishment from the same source. Said Christ, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.” “I am the true vine, ye are the branches.” “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit … he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” [John 15:1-5.]
“If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” [Verse 6.] “And now also the axe is laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringest forth not good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” [Matthew 3:10.] “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles. Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” [Matthew 7:16-20.] “Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.” [John 15:8.]
Under different figures this matter has been presented to me, and I know that it is not the Lord’s will that these two publishing houses shall be united. I fear that those at Battle Creek have also made a mistake in taking over the schools and the Health Retreat at St. Helena. The publishing house at Battle Creek has been under the reproof of God for years, especially since the time of the Minneapolis meeting, when some acted the part of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. If its managers were not swelled with self-importance and self-sufficiency, they would not feel that they could carry every crippled institution. The showing of their own institution is anything but favorable.
Edson White was unsparingly condemned because he was to blame in his financial management, but those who condemned him knew that their own financial embarrassment was not after God’s order. This has been represented to me like a man trying to pull a mote out of the eye of his brother, while a beam was in his own eye.
“Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgeth; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasureth up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.” [Romans 2:1-8.]
Letter 69, 1896
McCullagh, S.
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, Australia
July 11, 1896
To Brother McCullagh:
The foregoing [Letter 40, 1893] was written in Hastings. I intended to give it to you while at Ormondville, but did not do so, because I gave a discourse there in which I took up very plainly the principles stated in this letter. You both heard my words, spoken under the power of the Holy Spirit, and Sister McCullagh told me that she received this message as given to herself, for she needed it. She said that she had never seen the case presented in that light before, and that she would make a decided change in her course of action in regard to her child. But this work has been strangely neglected.
It is my first duty to present Bible principles. Then, unless there is a decided, conscientious reform made by those whose cases have been presented before me, I must appeal to them personally. I have often spoken in the presence of you both on these important subjects, but have never felt that the time had come for me to address you personally; for I could not be sure that you would understand the warning, and work diligently to reform, and I feared that you would both make a wrong use of the matter sent you.
All through my acquaintance with her, I have had a tender, heartfelt solicitude for Sister McCullagh. I have felt anxious to help her out of the rut in which she has been traveling, but this I have not been able to do. She has misrepresented and misinterpreted my words, and for her own sake, I cannot keep silent. I feel that the time has come for me to speak. When I heard of Brother McCullagh’s recent illness, I felt that I had a special work to do for Sister McCullagh, that I must open things before her. But I did not wish to bring any additional burden upon Brother McCullagh, for I knew that he could not bear it. He sees some errors in his wife’s methods, but he does not see that he is in danger himself because of her influence over him.
I shall come right to the point, for what I have to say must be said. Neither of you have walked in the light which has been given in regard to health reform. Sister McCullagh, you have evidenced that you were not susceptible to truth by disregarding these principles. You have not put yourself in the channel of light by placing yourself on the right side of the question, but by your course of action, you have tempted your husband to digress. His influence has not been sufficient to correct your wrong habits, but your influence has led him to disregard the principles of healthful living. It was your duty to walk in the light given you on this subject, but you have neglected to do so, and an improper, unhealthful preparation of food has been the result.
The principles of health reform should be brought into the life of every Christian. Men and women who disregard these principles cannot offer to God a pure, vigorous devotion, for a dyspeptic stomach or a torpid liver make the religious life an uncertainty. Eating the flesh of dead animals has an injurious effect upon spirituality. When meat is made the staple article of food, the higher faculties are overborne by the lower passions. There things are an offense to God and are the cause of a decline in spiritual life. Keep out of the stomach everything that will disturb the digestive organs; discard all food that affords no nourishment for the system. I hope Sister McCullagh will feel her responsibility in this matter, and will do all she can to help her husband prolong his life by learning how to cook.
In no way, as a wife or a mother, could you have been more useful, my sister, than by preparing the food to be eaten in a healthful manner. But before your husband had time to learn what constituted health reform, you cast reproach upon its principles. By painstaking efforts you might have gained an education which would enable you to cook wholesome, nourishing food in a palatable manner, for health reform does not mean a poverty-stricken diet. But the articles of food which Brother McCullagh has been obliged to eat if he subsisted at all have been improperly prepared. You have put temptation in his way, and to this he owes a diseased and inflamed stomach which is always hankering for something which will remove the debility caused by indigestion.
The health is in no way improved by the use of those things which stimulate for a time, but afterwards cause a reaction which leaves the system lower than before. Tea and coffee whip up the flagging energies for the time being, but when their immediate influence has gone, a depression is the result. These beverages have no nourishment whatever in themselves. The milk and sugar it contains constitutes all the nourishment afforded by a cup of tea or coffee. Often tea that has been damaged is preserved by coloring it with that which contains poison, and in this way it is offered for sale. Can Sister McCullagh think that while she takes her case in her own hands, and continues to eat and drink as she pleases, putting temptation in her husband’s way by offering him tea as a refreshing beverage, that God will work a miracle to counteract the evil effects of this course of action?
After drinking a cup of tea, which she may call weak, Sister McCullagh feels stimulated, and in this frame of mind she says that which is unwise. Her conversation is not pure, for only those lips are without guile, only those words pure, that fulfill the requirements of the Lord, and He has told us to speak evil of no man. The voice and the tongue are designed by God to be a blessing to man, but when these precious, heaven-sent instruments are put to a wrong use, they do much harm.
For the Sabbath we should not prepare a more liberal supply or a greater variety of food. Instead of this, the food provided for that day should be more simple, and less should be eaten, in order that the head may be clear and the mind vigorous to comprehend spiritual things. Highly seasoned dishes hinder the entrance of truth, and overeating befogs the mind. The most precious words may be heard and not appreciated because the mind is confused and embarrassed by an improper diet. By overeating on the Sabbath, God’s people have done more to dishonor Him than they think.
The true follower of God is temperate in all things. The principles of temperance are far-reaching, and there is danger that those who have received great light on this subject will fail to appreciate this light. God requires that his people living in these last days, overcome every hurtful practice, presenting their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto him, that they may win a seat at his right hand. It is our duty to take ourselves in hand, and strive to bring our minds, our wills, and our tastes into conformity with the requirements of our Creator. The grace of God alone can enable us to do this; by its power our lives may be brought into harmony with right principles. We shall reap that which we sow, and only those who bring themselves into subjection to the will of God are truly wise.
Whatever we do in the line of eating and drinking should be done with the special purpose of nourishing the body, that we may serve God to His name’s glory. The whole body is the property of God, and we must give strict attention to our physical well-being, for the religious life is closely related to physical habits and practices. All we have and are belongs to God; all is His property, and should be used in His service. You must learn this lesson, my sister, before you can merit a place among the undefiled.
You have cherished wrong sentiments in your heart; you have thought, May I not do what I please with myself? Is not my body my own property? No; “ye are not your own.” [1 Corinthians 6:19.] You have been bought with a price, and you have obligations which you owe to God, to your family, and to those with whom you associate. Your course of action influences others, and for this reason your habits and practices must be carefully guarded. God claims your time; for it belongs to him. He demands that the words you speak shall honor and glorify him. He requires that your influence tell on the side of right.
The great Master-Artist alone is the rightful owner of the works of His hands. By creation and by redemption we are His. The very dust out of which we were formed is His production; and “hath not the potter power over the clay?” [Romans 9:21.] Rightfully, He claims our entire service. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and 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.” [1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.]
O the great tenderness and mercy of God! I would, my sister, that you had a deeper sense of your accountability to Him. If you do not reach a higher standard in the Christian life, you will do much harm as the wife of a minister of God. Naturally you are inclined to criticize, accuse, and pick at flaws. How much harm you have done in this respect, you cannot know; you have influenced your husband in such a way that he has taken wrong views of persons and their work, and has been disqualified for doing the work of the Lord as acceptably as he might have done. By precept and example you have planted seeds of bitterness which have sprung up and borne fruit after their own kind.
You cannot be too careful of what you say, for the words you utter show what power is controlling your mind and heart. If Christ rules in your heart, your words will reveal the purity, beauty, and fragrance of a character molded and fashioned by His will. But since his fall Satan has been an accuser of the brethren, and you must be on guard, lest you reveal the same spirit.
The Lord demands that our words be of the very best quality; that our tongues be truthful at all times. Any vestige of prevarication is an offense to Him. Every word we speak needs the most careful consideration, lest it mislead those who are weak in the faith. From the light which God has given me, I know that by your unadvised words you have left wrong impressions on the minds of some in Sydney and suburbs, and much time will be needed to counteract the effects of these impressions. What you have thus expressed in words has not been true, but has been the result of your own imagination. No longer rely on a spurious spirituality. Consecrate yourself daily to God, and then you will believe the truth, and conscientiously talk and practice it.
Sister McCullagh, your management in the home is not good. The education you might have obtained in your youth you did not, which has been a great loss to you. I was led into your inner life from a child, and shown your past experience. In your childhood you were unwilling to receive a training in useful lines. You resisted the attempts made to teach you to study, sew, or do domestic work. Impatient of discipline and restraint, you resorted to any subterfuge that would free you from application. You misled your mother by statements that were not true, and thus gained your own way. The education that would have enabled you to stand at the head of a family you did not obtain, because you disliked to apply yourself to useful duties and avoided them all you could. Solid timbers were not brought into your character-building.
The spirit you revealed when a child was brought into your girlhood experience, and has been woven into your married life. The exertion disagreeable to you then is disagreeable to you now; and this has been a drawback to your spiritual advancement. The want of the education you should have obtained, has been keenly felt by yourself, your husband, and your child. You could have improved very much, by redeeming the past, had Bible truths been received into your heart and mind, and revealed in your daily practice; but this has not been the case; and your home duties have been hard for you.
It is all-important that a mother patiently instruct her child, that she may grow up with systematic habits and a knowledge of how to perform the daily duties which will always have to be done. The example set by the mother in this respect is powerful; be it right or wrong, it will be followed by the child. Had you submitted to discipline in your youth, had you obtained an education in economy and dispatch, you would find it much easier to train your daughter. She must be given the right kind of an education if you desire her to grow up into usefulness. Do not forget to give her a training in domestic work. Instruct her in the different lines of this work, in order that she may be a help to you and to those around her. It will be necessary to set apart some time for recreation; and this recreation should also be of that character which will educate her for usefulness.
Your child has a nervous temperament, and her diet should be carefully guarded. She should not be allowed to choose that food which will gratify the taste without affording proper nourishment. Children are easily persuaded to indulge, and they should never be urged to eat a variety of food. Everything placed before them should tend to strengthen brain, bone, and muscle. Your daughter’s appetite must be regulated, for she has not been educated to eat only at the regular times. Hearty suppers should not be given her, then she will have an appetite for breakfast. Never let her go from home to school without her breakfast. Do not venture to give full scope to your inclinations in this matter. Place yourself entirely under the control of God, and He will help you to bring all your desires into harmony with His requirements.
My sister, you have a work to do which is not pleasant and agreeable if you would regain your lost influence over your child. You have not advanced with the developments of her mind. Be careful lest the mistakes of your childhood be repeated in her training. You have not always been truthful before her. Untrue statements have been made in her hearing, and being sharp and quick, she has seen this, and has followed in a similar course. You have prevaricated to her, and she has little respect for you or for your discernment.
You little know how many falsehoods your child has uttered, while looking directly in your face. To others you have said, “Christabel never told me a lie.” But this statement was a falsehood, and those who heard it know it to be so. At different times others have told you the truth concerning your child. But you looked in her face, saying, “Christabel never told me a falsehood. I will take her words before the statements of those who have told me different.”
My sister, can you be surprised that your daughter has little confidence in her mother’s word? You have educated her to be untruthful; and the Lord is grieved to see one of His little ones led in the wrong path by her mother. You child is not your own; you cannot do with her as you like, for she is the property of the Lord. Exercise a steady, persevering control over her; teach her that she belongs to God. With such a training, she will grow up to be a blessing to those around her. But clear, sharp discernment will be necessary, in order that you may repress her inclination to rule you both, to have her own will and way, and to do as she pleases.
Remember that in your child you have a pupil whose influence is far-reaching. And the influence she exerts upon those around her will either be elevating, purifying, and ennobling, or like a poisonous malaria.
Sister McCullagh, you need to be converted. Your religious experience must be of an entirely different character from what it has been in the past. It is time for you to gird up the loins of your mind and strive earnestly and sensibly, by the grace of God, to lead your child heavenward. Press forward against the powers of darkness. Carry forward your home government faithfully and conscientiously. Speak always in a calm, earnest voice, in which no trace of passion is expressed. Passion is not necessary to secure prompt obedience. A fitful government—at one time holding the lines firmly, and at another allowing that which has been condemned—is ruination to a child.
You have taken little interest in the light given in reference to the training of children; but it is not right for you to thus demerit your responsibilities. You cannot be too careful how you train your child; for the instruction you give will influence her whole life. If in after years she gives her heart to the Lord, her religious experience will bear the mould of her home training. If this training has been defective, her spiritual life will be likewise marred and imperfect.
My sister, you have a duty to perform toward your daughter. Her character must be molded and fashioned for the kingdom of God, and in this work you need the grace of Jesus Christ. A Christian mother will ever be wide awake to discern the dangers that surround her children. She will keep her own soul in a pure, holy atmosphere; she will regulate her temper and principles by the Word of God, and will faithfully do her duty, living above the petty temptations which will always assail her. Look well to the education you are giving your child, lest Satan take her out of your hands, and use her as an instrument with which to do his work. Maintain a faithful guard over her as one who rightly estimates the temptations which she must encounter.
You must awake if your child is spared to you. When you are really transformed in character, as you must be, you will see things in an entirely different light. Your mind will be purified, elevated, and cheered by a sense of the solemn, sacred responsibilities resting upon you; and you will earnestly strive to guide the footsteps of your daughter in the heavenly way.
Brother McCullagh, you have labored far beyond your strength. You treat yourself as though you were a horse, recklessly imperilling the life which God has given you by straining yourself to the utmost. You work till you are all tired out, and then you pity yourself, and reach out for sympathy. Brooding over this has done you no good. God does not require you to work till you have no strength to think rationally. You have injured your vital organs by using your voice improperly, by pitching it in too high a key. Less preaching and more Bible lessons would do much to preserve your health.
You have placed too high an estimate on your labors. Remember that your labors are of value with God only as you work the works of God. You have at times thought that no one could help the people but yourself, but for some time you have been sowing other than pure wheat. Seed has been sown which will bring forth tares. Suspicions have been aroused which have no true foundation. Your words and actions need to be closely guarded. Take more time to study the Word of God, that you may have food for the people that will nourish their souls.
When I am assured that the truth has been brought into your lives, my brother and sister, I shall take courage, and believe that God will work in your behalf by giving both of you mental, moral, and spiritual efficiency. Sister McCullagh will then have a greater desire for her own family to be true, and pure, and holy, and conscientious in all its practice. She will not shun the cross of temperance. She will cease sowing the seeds of doubt and distrust, and will work in harmony with the truth of God for this time.
For Christ’s sake, my brother and sister, heed the words which I have written, for it has cost me a great effort to write them. You have your destiny in your own hands; by your actions you can make or mar it. I tremble for you both, for you are subject to misconceptions. Never give others the impression that you think your brethren do not appreciate you. All such impressions are as the seeds of tares. Be careful never to drop the tiniest seed of doubt or distrust, for this will bring upon you the displeasure of God.
In simple, humble faith cast your care upon Jesus, and you will have rest and peace. Abide under the shadow of the cross of the crucified Redeemer. Banish ingratitude, for, if cherished, it will kill the love of God in your heart. Rest in the assurance that you are in the hands of God. He will take care of you. Can you not trust your life, your character, your all, in the hands of the faithful, loving Jehovah? It is His desire that you should both perfect a Christian character, and by yielding yourself into His keeping, you may be “complete in Him.” [Colossians 2:10.]
Letter 71, 1896
Maxson, Brother and Sister
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, Australia
August 12, 1896
Dear Brother and Sister Maxson:
There are things of special importance that I wish to write you. I must tell you the truth. I have told you the truth, but you have not taken the words of the Lord to yourself and believed them. The testimonies that have pointed out your defects of character that you might make decided reforms, were misconstrued and perverted.
Cain chose not to bring an offering of the appointed kind to God. He decided to follow his own will. The whole of God’s requirements upon us are just this—that we shall become as little children. God requires of you, my brother and sister, that you should lay aside your own will and follow implicitly the dictates of the will of God. He knows, and would teach you; you are not to work the Holy Spirit. He knows; you do not.
Enough has been told you to serve all purposes; and had you consecrated yourselves, soul, body, and spirit, to God, the past showing of the sanitarium would be entirely different than is the present revealing. Should the Lord enter into more explicit specifications, they would be meaningless to you. That which God required of you was to believe, to accept by faith that which he has set before you. You have allowed your ideas and opinions to eclipse the light shining from heaven, and your influence has led others to disregard the light. You have said, as many are saying today, Why, they do not believe and practice the truth. This I do not understand; it does not commend itself to my mind and judgment.
You may believe that God lives and reigns, and that all we have comes from Him. But you yourselves have been held in abeyance to self. Your ways, and not God’s ways, have led to sure results. You have worked yourselves. Cain refused to do what the Lord told him to do. He refused to shed the blood of a lamb for an offering because he could not understandingly accept the requirement. He brought a very nice offering to God; not an exception could be taken to it; but he left out the only thing that made it of any value. It was the specific requirement of God: Bring a lamb for a burnt offering. The slain lamb was to represent the Lamb of God, whose blood, shed to save a lost world, was to be prefigured in every offering made to God.
Cain followed the direction of his own understanding. He would not receive counsel and slay the lamb. The sure result followed of men leaning to their own understanding.
The Lord looked upon the sacrifice of Abel with pleasure, and accepted his offering. With fire from heaven God consumed Abel’s offering, but in Cain’s offering, Adam’s transgression, which made the offering of God’s only begotten Son for the sins of the world a necessity, was perpetuated. Cain’s beautiful offering would likewise been acknowledged by God had he followed the directions of God, and presented the offering typifying the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
When the fire was not kindled under the offering of Cain, he was exceedingly wroth, not with himself, but with Abel and the Lord. The hot fire of passion burned in his heart. Condescending to come down to his level, the Lord met Cain, and said, “Why are thou wroth? and why is they countenance fallen? If thou doest well, (obey the word of the Lord) shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.” [Genesis 4:6, 7.]
Cain had many things to say against Abel, and against the Lord, but nothing against himself. He justified his course of action. He talked with Abel, his brother, and slew him. He refused to mingle the blood of the Lamb, according to the Lord’s specification, with his offering. This neglect led to the death of his brother.
I do not present this to give the idea that you are like Cain; but to show you the danger of taking the first step in disobedience to God, and following your own ideas, and your own reason. In this early history of the human family, God has given lessons which we do well, as students to God’s Word, to pay heed to. The Lord’s words to Cain were to be repeated to the close of this earth’s history. If they refuse to obey my requirements, if they will place their own judgment against mine, and choose their own way, and their own will, and honor their own imaginations, the tempter will take possession of the mind and lead whiter they did not contemplate going. Thy own will followed will blend with the will of Satan, and he will master and control the mind and judgment. Do my words, saith God, and give no place to the devil, and he shall not rule over thee. The second curse was pronounced upon the earth because Cain disobeyed God, and killed his brother.
I have been permitted to have something to do and say in regard to your case for years back. But that which the Lord has bid me say to you has not been received into your heart. I have been reined up to tell you the truth. You have qualifications of character which disqualify you to be a manager. While you have persistently denied this by your words, you have been just as persistently determined to manifest that which the Lord has presented before you of your capabilities—how you could make a success in certain lines, and how you could make a failure by seeking to be a superintendent of a health institution.
Should I present all the reasons before you, they would not be reasons to you; you would not see them as such; and you would have that confidence in yourself of being an all-round man, that you would enter into managing; and difficulties would surely be the result; because you are a superficial thinker and work largely upon the surface. You have not the qualities of mind or character to go deep and thorough in any line connected with managing. It has been your constant desire to show that you were efficient in qualifications you did not possess.
The one lesson that you have not yet learned is to be straight-forward in words and in practice. You say, and do not. You change your ideas after you have expressed them. You take things upon yourself that belong to the Board of Managers. They have felt compelled to let you have your own way; but it has been wrong for them to do so, for if ever a man [has] needed a Board of Directors, you have. They have needed a deeper thinker, a better executor than yourself.
You have supposed that your plans and management were superior, but you are inclined to leave matters at loose ends, and to take upon yourself responsibilities, which, if any one meddled with, you become thoroughly dissatisfied, and are not at all delicate about letting them understand this.
When you attend to your work as a physician, and do not grasp the managing part, which you cannot carry, there will be far less money expended. Many leakages will be stopped; the debts will begin to wear away. The Lord has presented this matter before me more than once. After I have laid these things out clearly before my brethren, and they have allowed you to have your own way, and have suffered things to go according to your planning, when it is not your place to be director, I have laid down the burden, and have had nothing to say.
I have felt greatly concerned for Dr. Maxson and his wife, for both are of one mind in cherishing their own ideas as faultless. Dr. Maxson needs to keep himself out of the managing. When the institution is placed under a wise, deep-thinking, discerning man who is given authority to manage and say what principles shall govern a health institution, a sanitarium, then the Lord will bless those who co-operate with him.
God sees that much thought and great carefulness must be exercised to ensure success in managing a large responsibility as a health institution. The powers of evil and good are in constant activity in such a place. Jesus is looking upon it all. He sees the characters of men and women plainly revealed. There are strong points and weak points in every human being. To every man God has given his work. You are not alone in the world. Your thoughts, put into action, mean good or evil to those with whom you associate; therefore you are not to think unwisely, or in a rambling manner, for the thoughts are carried out in action.
I must tell you that your thoughts expressed, your planning and devising, is not always wise. Therefore you should not be left to your own judgment. That which may appear to you as the right thing to do after you have taken a hasty, superficial view of the matter, when acted out, and the result is seen, you shrink from acknowledging that you were the father of the matter. You do not think and act deep enough to convince yourself of your unwise plans and suggestions.
Of all places, health institutions should not depend chiefly upon the physicians as directors. They need all-sided men, of impartial judgment, to plan and execute. The board is not to let things go in a haphazard way, for something results from all our movements. There must be a manager at the Health Retreat, or it will become demoralized.
All-round persons are so much needed for the Lord’s work, persons who will not exalt or honor self, but glorify God, our Redeemer. No person is strong on all points. Some are not strong on any point, only to magnify their own ideas. All are to strive to enter in at the straight gate. Whether they bear pain or humiliation, they must give up all for Christ, in order to be workmen of whom He is not ashamed, who look unto Jesus, not to selfish indulgences, who make most earnest efforts to be approved of God.
Brother and Sister Maxson, you need a decided reformation in the texture of your character. But just as long as you feel it to be your prerogative to work your individual selves, according to your own impulses and ideas, you will not meet the approval of God. You are not what God would have you to be in the Health Retreat. In some things you walk contrary to God, counter-working His will and His way. Your eyes are blinded; you cannot discern your own defects.
God will have His work kept clean from the unsanctified devising of men. The work God would have you do in the Health Retreat has not been done at all times. Whatever defects others may have, you must see your own in a more distinct light, and you must elevate the standard after the divine similitude. Never have so much care as to what others are, or what they may do. Do your duty; make straight path for your feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way.
My brother, you have ofttimes given wrong counsel, and made prescriptions after your own habits, appetites, and tastes, when you should have been following the light God has given by living up to the correct principles of health reform. You might, by precept and example, have corrected habits of eating and drinking which are corrupting brain, bone, and muscle; but by your prescriptions, made according to your own mind, you have sent persons away with their wrong appetites confirmed, appetites which lie at the foundation of the disease from which they were suffering. What excuse will you make to God in the judgment for thus counteracting His work of temperance? Have you not had abundant light? Has it not shone upon you and been disregarded?
The Holy Spirit will guide into truth. If men are willing to be molded by it, they will be guided by our great Leader. There will be a sanctification of the whole being, soul, body, and spirit. You both need the spirit of understanding; then you will have the Holy Spirit, and you will discern it as it is—your Counsellor.
O how much burden was lifted from Moses when the spirit of counsel was given to the seventy elders, making them safe counsellors to help Moses in his responsible work. What work was done under the Holy Spirit’s guidance! The spirit of knowledge was also given in regard to building the tabernacle. Thus God was their great Teacher.
All skill is God’s gift. The spirit of wisdom is from God. The spirit of obedience is from God. All power of body or soul comes from God, and is to be used aright. Every worker who co-operates with God will be successful. He will reveal fruit in daily actions. He will have the grace and peace of Christ. “If any man hath not the Spirit of God, he is none of his.” [Romans 8:9.] Moral perception and living principles abide together.
O there is so much anxiety lest self shall not have full recognition! All this fear is needless. The value of mind, of solidity of thought, and wisdom of action, will make for itself a place and name. There is nothing to be afraid of except that we shall not strive to enter in at the strait gate, and that we shall not have the approval of God. Faithfully living for Christ takes in much more than you suppose. Much more can be done in saving the souls of those who come to the sanitarium.
In the preparation of the food, the golden rays of light are to be kept shining, teaching those who sit at the table how to live. This education is also to be given to those who visit the Health Retreat that they may carry from it reformatory principles. Physicians are not employed to prescribe a flesh diet for the patients, for it is this kind of diet that has made them sick.
Brother and Sister Maxson, seek the Lord. When you find Him, you will be meek and lowly of heart. Individually, you will not subsist on the flesh of dead animals, neither will you put one morsel into the mouths of your children. You will not prescribe flesh, tea, or coffee, for your patients; but you will give talks in the parlor, showing the necessity of a simple diet. You will put away injurious things from your bill of fare.
To have the physicians of our institutions educating, by precept and example, those under their care to use a meat diet, after years of instruction from the Lord, disqualifies them to be superintendents of our health institutions.
Did Christ claim too much for His own teaching when He said, “I am the light of the world”? [John 8:12.] Christ is dealing with our individual hearts. We must be “laborers together with God.” [1 Corinthians 3:9.] The Lord has a higher standard for you to reach. He wants you to think deeper; to contemplate His requirements more earnestly, and have a scrupulous regard for righteous principles. Every principle which the Lord has given in His Word is to be respected, sustained, and carried out. The Lord requires a loyalty so supreme and undivided that the most sacred relationship is to be subordinate to it. He claimed of all men’s service, absolute devotion, not for the wages that they should receive, but for mere love to Him, personal reverence evidenced by keeping all His Words, with no prospects of reward except that which He would give them in His heavenly kingdom.
“We are laborers together with God; ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” [Verse 9.] I tell you, in the name of the Lord, that if you had possessed sanctified ability, and had kept your place as a physician, leaving the managing for others capable of deeper penetration, and more fitted to plan, devise, and counsel, everything would present a different showing. But you wanted to magnify yourself, honestly believing yourself capable of managing. But you have not the qualifications necessary for a manager.
There are things you can do in a religious line, but you may neutralize the influence of truth by your self-indulgent practices, and by counter-working the principles of health reform so that they have little power for good. Self-indulgence in appetite, in one in your position, is most inconsistent. You know that the principles of health reform have the highest authority and a wider sphere than has yet been given them by many who profess present truth.
Dear Brother and Sister Maxson, I am so sorry that the light which the Lord has given me for the last years has not been received by you as superior to your own ideas and opinions. Had you believed and acted upon the light given, what changes would have taken place in you. But the strong idolatry you have manifested for your own opinions, your own customs and practices, has effectually closed the door of your heart to the entrance of light, and the reproofs and warnings of God. You have largely pursued your own course, as if determined to make the messages from the Lord untrue.
Had you believed the light given in regard to your inability, and your lack of qualifications to bear the responsibilities as superintendent or manager, and had kept to your duties as physician, the showing of the institution would be far different from that which now presents itself. The Lord does not give light on health reform that it may be disregarded by those who are in positions of influence and authority. The Lord means just what He says, and He is to be honored in what He says.
One week should not have passed at the Health Retreat without a competent superintendent to arrange prices for the patients and guests, and to regulate the diet. Those who have always lived on meat should be restricted in this line. But if the leading physician and his family are not reformers in this line, they cannot educate others to give up the practice of meat eating. Light is to be given in this line upon all these subjects. It is the diet question that needs close investigations, and prescriptions should be made in accordance with health principles.
For the last twenty-five years I have borne testimonies on this subject. My heart is pained because you will cling to your established habits and practices, refusing to reform. How long can you have clear, sound perceptions in regard to the requirements essential in health reform? You do not look deep enough into this subject, or think enough of it. It is your refusing the counsel and light on these things, when the Lord would have you make decided reforms, that makes you unwilling to accept the self-denial. Your influence in these things is not praiseworthy.
Letter 72, 1896
Maxson, Brother and Sister
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, Australia
November 5, 1896
Dear Brother and Sister Maxson:
I have had the letter of August 12 written to you for some time, but I decided to first sent that which I have already sent you, withholding that which I now send.
You cannot understand how much more effectual your services in the religious interest would be, and how much more satisfactory to yourself, if you would follow the light which has been given you. But it is a phase of your character to strenuously hold to your own ideas, and, if possible, carry them. Every soul of us is in danger, and if we refuse light, darkness will come upon all.
We never proposed to establish sanitariums to have them run in nearly the same grooves as other institutions. If we do not have a sanitarium which is, in many things, decidedly contrary to other institutions, we can see nothing gained. Shall your appetites, habits, and practices be of that order that you will educate those who are connected with you to make excuses similar to those that you have made for the indulgence of eating the flesh of dead animals?
The Lord intends to bring His people back to live upon simple fruits, vegetables, and grains. He led the children of Israel into the wilderness, where they could not get a flesh diet; and He gave them the bread of heaven. “Man did eat angels’ food.” [Psalm 78:25.] But they craved the fleshpots of Egypt, and mourned and cried for flesh, notwithstanding that the Lord had promised them that if they would submit to His will, He would carry them into the land of Canaan, and establish them there, a pure, holy, happy people, and there should not be a feeble one in all their tribes, for He would take away all sickness from among them.
But although they had a plain “Thus saith the Lord,” they mourned, and wept, and murmured and complained, until the Lord was wroth with them. Because they were so determined to have the flesh of dead animals, He gave them the very diet He had withheld from them.
“And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; and the Lord heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp, and the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched. And he called the name of the place Taberah; because the fire of the Lord burnt among them. And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting; and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat. We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all, besides this manna, before our eyes.” [Numbers 11:1-6.]
The Lord would have given them flesh had it been essential for their health, but He who created and redeemed them, led them the long journey in the wilderness to educate, discipline, and train them in correct habits. The Lord understood what the influence of flesh eating has upon the human system. He would have a people that would, in their physical appearance, bear the divine credentials, notwithstanding their long journey.
When I read your letter, I was forcibly reminded of the complaining of the children of Israel because they were not favored with a meat diet. The diet of the animals is vegetables and grains. Must the vegetables be animalized, must they be incorporated into the system of animals before we get them? Must we obtain our vegetable diet by eating the flesh of dead creatures? God provided fruit in its natural state for our first parents. He gave to Adam charge of the garden, to dress it, and to care for it, saying, To you it shall be for meat. One animal was not to destroy another animal for food.
After the fall, the eating of flesh was suffered, in order to shorten the period of existence of the long-lived race. It was allowed because of the hardness of the hearts of men. One of the great errors that many insist upon is that muscular strength is dependent upon animal food. But the simple grains, fruits of the trees, and vegetables have all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood. This a flesh diet cannot do.
A striking case came to my notice in Colorado. A party of eight passed over the range, and pitched their tents in Middle Park, close by Sulphur Springs. We cut down the wild oats to make our beds. One day, while cutting the oats, we were startled by seeing four enormous bear’s feet.
On the encampment grounds near our tent were miners. The men devoted their spare time to fishing and hunting. Our time was spent in writing and horseback riding in search of raspberries. We found an abundance of fruit. We secured a block of wood, which we used as a table, and found a bottle, which we used for a rolling pin. Mrs. Hall prepared and baked in our camp stove oven some very nice raspberry pies. These we divided with the campers, and in return, they brought us mountain trout.
One morning we saw a fine, tall, athletic young man, about thirty years old, starting out on his hunting excursion. We remarked upon his appearance. That day he was taken with a chill. My husband and myself were called into the hotel cabin to see if we knew what was the matter with him. A merchant from Denver seemed perplexed. He said there was a black spot upon the bottom of his foot. It flashed upon my mind at once that this man was mortifying. Himself and comrade had killed a grizzly bear, and had eaten its flesh. But before it was all consumed, the flesh became corrupt; and he was dying from the poison. The next day he vomited green matter, which confirmed our impressions. He died at about eleven o’clock in the morning. This death was caused by the abundant eating of meat which at the last was tainted.
My husband was selected to make some remarks at the funeral. This he did. There was quite a congregation of miners. We sang appropriate hymns. The miners showed the tenderest sympathy for their comrade. They wrapped him in his blanket, and placing him in a lumber wagon, took him to the spot selected for burial. We were surprised to see the grave made of stones closely packed on the bottom, and about one foot and a half up the sides. It was a very neat job. Slabs were taken from the trunks of pine trees, and after placing the body in the grave prepared for it, and covering the face with the blanket, these slabs were closely packed over it, and the earth was shoveled upon the grave. All this was done with the greatest manifestation of sympathy, and with decorum and solemnity. We left the grave of the first white man’s funeral that was ever known to have been held in Middle Park, Colorado.
We have had other cases brought to our notice of a similar character. Mortification of the palm of the hand has set in, but immediate attention was given to it; the mortified parts were sloughed off, and the hand was restored. No cause could be assigned for it, save meat-eating corrupting the blood. We decided that little meat would be consumed by us.
When a limb is broken, physicians recommend their patients not to eat meat, as there would be danger of inflammation setting in. Condiments and spices used in the preparation of food for the table aid in the digestion in the same way that tea, coffee, and liquor are supposed to help a laboring man to perform his tasks. After the immediate effects are gone, they drop as correspondingly below par as they were elevated above par by these stimulating substances. The system is weakened, the blood contaminated, and inflammation is the sure result.
The less that condiments and desserts are placed upon our table, the better it will be for all who partake of the food. All mixed and complicated foods are injurious to the health of human beings. Dumb animals would never eat such a mixture as is often placed in the human stomach. Hot bread and biscuit, fresh from the oven, is not healthful. The heated gases need to evaporate. Hot soda biscuits are often spread with butter, and eaten as a choice diet. But the enfeebled digestive organs cannot but feel the abuse placed upon them.
Unhealthful habits of eating are killing their thousands and tens of thousands. Food should be thoroughly cooked, nicely prepared, and appetizing.
My brother, after all the light that has been given on the diet question, your lamentations because you cannot exercise freedom in meat-eating is apparently similar to the complaining, lamentation, and weeping of the children of Israel in the ears of the Lord. I tell you that from the light the Lord has been pleased to give me there is a continual taxing of the human stomach with a wrong quality of food, also with too large a quantity. The stomach is overloaded and worn out, when it should be capable of performing good work.
The large amount of cooking done is not at all necessary. Neither should there by any poverty-stricken diet, either in quality or quantity. But the richness of food, and complicated mixtures [of food] are health destroying. Highly seasoned meats, followed by rich pastry, is wearing out the vital organs of the digestion of children. Were they accustomed to plain, wholesome food, their appetites would not crave unnatural luxuries and mixed preparations.
Education, habits, and customs make it difficult to reconstruct the family arrangements. Meat given to children is not the best things to ensure success. Make fruit the article of diet to be placed on your table, which shall constitute the bill of fare. The juices of fruit, mingled with bread, will be highly enjoyed. Good, ripe, undecayed fruit is a thing we should thank the Lord for, because it is beneficial to health. Try it. To educate your children to subsist on a meat diet would be harmful to them. It is much easier to create an unnatural appetite than to correct and reform the taste after it has become second nature.
Our sanitariums should never be conducted after the fashion of a hotel. I am sorry that it is such a difficult matter for you to deny your appetite, and reform your habits of eating and drinking. A meat diet changes the disposition, and strengthens animalism. We are composed of what we eat, and eating much flesh will diminish intellectual activity. Students would accomplish much more in their studies if they never tasted meat. When the animal part of the human agent is strengthened by meat-eating, the intellectual powers diminish proportionately.
A religious life can be more successfully gained and maintained if meat is discarded; for this diet stimulates into intense activity, lustful propensities, and enfeebles the moral and spiritual nature. The flesh warreth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
We greatly need to encourage and cultivate pure, chaste thoughts, and to strengthen the moral powers, rather than the lower and carnal powers. God help us to awake from our self-indulgent appetites. The idea of eating dead flesh is abhorrent to me. One living animal eating the flesh of another dead animal is shocking. There is no call for it. All your excuses made in regard to faintness is an argument why you should eat no more meat.
Cancers, tumors, and all inflammatory diseases are largely caused by meat-eating. From the light which God has given me, the prevalence of cancers and tumors is largely due to gross living on dead flesh. I sincerely and prayerfully hope that as a physician you will not forever be blind on this subject, for blindness is mingled with a want of moral courage to deny your appetite, to lift the cross, which means to take up the very duties that cut across the natural appetites and passions.
Feeding on flesh, the juices and fluids of what we eat passes into the circulation of our blood, and as we are composed of what we eat, we become animalized. Thus a feverish condition is created, because the animals are diseased, and by partaking of their flesh, we plant the seeds of disease in our own tissue and blood. Then, when exposed to the changes in a malarious atmosphere, these are more sensibly felt. Also when we are exposed to contagious epidemics and contagious diseases, the system is not in a condition to resist the disease.
I have [had] the subject presented to me in different aspects. The mortality caused by meat-eating is not discerned. If it were, we would hear no more arguments and excuses in favor of the indulgence of the appetite for dead flesh. We have plenty of good things to satisfy hunger without bringing corpses upon our table to compose our bill of fare.
I might go to any length upon this subject, but I forbear. I do hope that you, as a physician, will come to your senses, and will not, by precept and example, counter-work that which the Lord has given me to enlighten minds and bring in thorough reforms.
I am working earnestly on these lines, and shall never cease to work against the practice of meat eating. I have had opened before me the stumbling block which this diet question has been to your own spiritual advancement, and what a stumbling block you have placed in the pathway of others; and all because your own sensibilities were blunted through selfish gratification of appetite. For Christ’s sake, look deeper; study deeper, and act in accordance with the light God has been pleased to give you and others on this subject.
I forbear writing more. I love your souls, and I want you both to accept every ray of light that the Lord has been pleased to give; and then co-operate with the great Teacher by giving that light to others.
In love.
Letter 73, 1896
Maxson, Brother and Sister
Adelaide, Australia
October 12, 1896
Dear Brother and Sister Maxson:
Your letter is not that which I wish it was. When you went to the Health Retreat, your appetite was fully educated to demand a meat diet, and therefore you seem to think no blame should be ascribed to you, because you have made no change in this respect. But this is an error.
Because you have not changed, do not entertain the idea that you have no changes to make, that your practices were entirely as they should be. If your habits and opinions are stereotyped, then the Lord cannot lead you to advanced, purifying reforms. You, my brother and sister, have a serious question to ask daily, “What must I do to be saved?” [Acts 16:30.] The Lord Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” [John 10:27.] We are to follow on step by step to know the Lord, that we may know His goings forth are prepared as the morning. “Follow thou me.” [John 21:22.] “He that will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” [Luke 9:23.]
What constitutes the cross? The requirements of Jesus that cut directly across human devisings, human indulgence of appetite, human calculations, human practices and habits. The child of God is to come into perfect relationship with Jesus Christ. We are to be in constant communion, not with our own minds, but with the mind and will of Jesus. To be a practical Christian accepting duties that involve self-denial, cuts across human inclinations and human habits. Instead of seeking to hold our own position upon a subject on which the Lord has spoken decidedly, we are to follow His counsel. But you vindicate your own position.
The Lord Jesus connected Judas with Himself, not because Judas was correct in all his principles, for he cherished selfishness, which is an attribute of the devil; but notwithstanding this, the Lord Jesus consented to (unite) Judas with the other disciples, and give him opportunity to improve in character building through the education and training He would give all His followers. But Judas did not correct his course of action. The painstaking efforts, the many lessons, of the divine Teacher were lost upon him.
The grace of Christ, if received into his heart, would have converted him from his selfishness, working wonderful changes in him, as in John and Peter. I mention Judas, because this was an extreme case. But as he did not receive the words of Christ and improve; there arose in his heart an opposition to the light. He treasured his defects, and held them as if he considered them a precious treasure. The defects poisoned the whole man, in principle, in spirit, in life, in character, until he sold his Lord for a trifling sum of money. This history has a warning for us.
There are many things that need to be refined, changed, overcome in you, my dear friends. Indulgence only feeds the appetite and strengthens the passions. I have no hesitancy in speaking on this question. You have the light in the testimonies; are these testimonies of God or are they from beneath? You do not choose to receive the light. The Lord has spoken plainly in regard to the deleterious effects of a meat diet and its influence upon children. Whenever I have seen children feeding upon flesh meats, since the light was given me from heaven, I have felt that if the parents only knew what they were doing, they would fast and pray for moral courage, and God-given wisdom and grace to do right. All who feel their need of His Spirit to educate and discipline self, and to properly train their children, will deny self, and take up the cross and follow Jesus.
For certain things, fasting and prayer are recommended and appropriate. In the hand of God they are a means of cleansing the heart and promoting a receptive frame of mind. We obtain answers to our prayers because we humble our souls before God. If our appetites clamor for the flesh of dead animals, it is a necessity to fast and pray for the Lord to give His grace to deny fleshly lusts which war against the soul.
The should be far less anxiety as to what we shall eat and what we shall drink to gratify our fleshly appetites; but we may well encourage the appetite of the soul, and pray for especial enlightenment upon the Word of God, and eat and drink that Word. Jesus says, “I am that bread of life.” [John 6:48.] “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
“Then said Jesus unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hat eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, 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.” Our Saviour explains His lesson, “It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” [Verses 51-57, 63.]
We must be constantly meditating upon the Word, eating it, digesting it, and by practice, assimilating it, so that it is taken into the life current. He who feeds on Christ daily will by his example teach others to think less of that which they eat, and to feel much greater anxiety for the food they give to the soul. The true fasting which should be recommended to all is abstinence from every kind of stimulating food, and the proper use of wholesome, simple food, which God has provided in abundance. Men need to think less about what they shall eat and drink, of temporal food, and much more in regard to the food from heaven that will give tone and vitality to the whole religious experience.
A person may be addicted to the use of alcohol or stimulating drinks in some shape, and he has confused his reason. He does not sense his responsibility. What cure would you advise for a person who thus indulges a habit that is rebuked even by the beasts of the field? The Word of God has denounced it. No drunkards shall enter into the kingdom of God. What would you recommend to sure such an appetite? You would not say, “You may use strong drink moderately. Continue within bounds, but never indulge to excess.”
You would say, “There is no such thing as helping you, unless you co-operate fully with my efforts, and sign the pledge of total abstinence. Your habit is a bad one. You have by indulgence made it second nature, and it cannot be controlled unless the moral powers shall be aroused, and you shall look unto Jesus, trusting in the grace He shall give you to overcome this unnatural craving.” You would say, “You have lost your self-control. Your self-indulgence is not only a moral sin, but it is a physical disease. You are not your own. You are God’s property. He has purchased you with an infinite price, and every faculty is to be employed in His service. Keep your body in a healthful condition to do His will; keep your intellect clear and active to think candidly and critically, and to control all your powers.”
Let us hear the words of Paul, “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” [Romans 12:1-3.] “But let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.” [2 Corinthians 10:17, 18.] This lesson means you; will you heed it?
I would call your attention to the following Scriptures. Study them; practice them. 1 Peter 2:2-4; 1:22-25; 2:7-12; Galatians 5:22-26; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 6:19, 20; 3:16-23; 1 Corinthians 2.
Now my dear brother, I have had matters opened to me in regard to many things that have occurred at the institution at Crystal Springs. Think you that your brother by relationship would have disregarded all the cautions and admonitions the Lord has been pleased to give if you had shown that you respected the testimonies God has given, to be a help and blessing to you? Would he have taken the independent course he has, disregarding the counsel of the Board, and following his own mind, as he has done, and making the debt larger, if your ideas had not been so thoroughly made known, so that they had a leavening influence upon him? There has been a lack of wisdom in centering in one institution so many members of one family, and the result of this has left its impression upon the institution already loaded down with debt. If its management is left with you, or with your brother, debts will increase, (buildings will be created,) and the institution will certainly suffer.
It is not the work of either of you to follow your own ideas as superintendent or manager. Your disrespect to the board, your chafing under the proper restraint of appointed counsellors, is borne of the temperament of the man, not of sound, sensible reason. I have withheld these things from you, waiting for a favorable time when may be, you would come to consider that your judgment and opinions were not infallible. I am so very sorry that (one) connected with you as a physician should venture to expend even one dollar without the approval of those who should be (your) counsellors. But this is the result of your precept and example.
You should take more humble views of your capabilities, and be willing that not one mind, or two or three, but several minds shall carefully consider the wisdom of investing means (in buildings.) This is especially important from the fact that in making terms with your guests and patients, you seldom manage to secure returns sufficient to meet the outgoes. The Lord is not glorified by this management. He is not pleased with your desire to pattern your buildings after those at Battle Creek. Your desire to make an appearance, your restive spirit, your unwillingness to be counselled, your course in allowing debts to pile up in that institution is all wrong, decidedly wrong.
When you shall take time to consider, you must see that your great desire to possess every convenience and facility, without regard to the fact that the institution is overwhelmed with debt is not wise. I must speak to you plainly, As a faithful physician your work for the sick is all the responsibility you can carry. Certainly those who consented to make you superintendent did this because you would not consent to go into the Health Retreat on any other conditions. If I had been one of the board, I should have said, “Dr. Maxson, if this is your decision, the matter is settled. We cannot consent to have you, either as manager or superintendent. This is too weighty a responsibility for you to carry,” and you are well aware, that the Lord has thus presented the matter before you. The brethren who composed the board did not have all the light on this point that you have had.
I speak understandingly when I tell you that a great mistake has been made. Your brother should not have been connected with you in any line. There is danger in too much of a family power. But when your brother was linked up with you as vice president and manager, it was a move made in great blindness. The Lord did not sanction this movement. It was not wise, whatever might be the motive.
Let your calculations be in a different line. Study to bind about the supposed necessities. Plan to interest persons in doing something for the institution. Let the managers and the helpers and all combined feel that they belong to the firm. Let them manifest a conscientious interest in it as God’s instrumentality. Let them seek its prosperity, even at the cost of self-denial and self-sacrifice to themselves individually. Then the people would recognize this spirit, which Christ has revealed in His great mission to save the souls of a perishing world. But that Spirit is not exercised. The workers do not co-operate to build up the institution and lessen expenses. They do not have the wisdom and tact to undertake this work. You are not seeking to retrench, but to expand. All this is a reproach to the institution. It is eating up means that might be saved to lessen the debt. Thus the matter has been presented to me as I have been brought where I could look into the inward workings.
Brother Maxson, you have felt at liberty to choose your own men for the board of directors. If there were those whom you thought would stand in your way and oppose your plans and suggestions, you would try (changing them, putting them out,) to secure a board without them. The very ones who would move discretely, cautiously, who would consider your prepositions, and if they saw the result of your plans meant more money out, would oppose your ideas, you have managed to prevent from acting a part.
I counsel you, both, husband and wife, to give up the financial management of the institution. Let this burden rest upon a carefully selected board, not chosen through your influence, but by the judgment of those upon whom the responsibility rests. Let these Directors wrestle with the problem of bringing the expenditure of the institution within the income, and their will be a binding about of the business transactions. The business will not be run wildly in accordance with your mind and your wife’s mind and your brother’s mind.
I may not express this is the way that you shall understand, but I will try to make it plain. You should have been employed with the full understanding that the institution was to be under a faithful superintendent, be other than yourself. From the first you have exercised too much control in all the business matters, and you have not the capabilities to be a wise manager. Our responsible brethren have allowed you to do very much as you pleased. The Lord has given them light in regard to many things. They did not regard the light. Why? Because you were so determined to carry things as you pleased that they let you have your own way.
I could have repeated over and over the light given in regard to this matter, but it would do you no good. Your strong, determined spirit would lead you to disconnect from the Retreat, as you did once before, irrespective of the injury done to the institution. The directors had a forlorn hope that you might understand that you were not qualified to assume the duties of the board of directors, the superintendent, and the physician, but they made a mistake. The Lord’s work is not to be left to haphazard ventures. Too much is involved in this matter. I am instructed that such movements must in no case be made. We are not to gratify any man’s ambitious presumption by giving responsibilities into his hands, when we have reason to know that he will not manage them wisely.
It is not at the option of the physicians to hold the (position) of sole manager. A mistake was made here in the case of Dr. Burke, and also in your case. The directors were influenced by considerations (of necessities) that you created, and they allowed you to move independently and leave Providence to right up matters. But such movements bear not the approval of God. The work of that institution is not to be left to the judgment of one man, or his family connections. Watchmen must be all that the name signifies; they are to watch on the right hand and on the left. On the one hand Dr. Maxson is at liberty to choose his friends to co-operate with him, if there is evidence that they possess qualities that will be a help and not a burden. On the other hand the responsible men chosen of God as sentinels are to make close investigation to see that this choice of the physician is working for the best interest of the institution, making it stand forth as a praise, giving a character to our work as Seventh-day Adventists.
If the managers are swaying the institution away from the principles which it was created to maintain, (which [they] have been doing,) then a change must be made. To let things go on as they have been going is decidedly wrong. The very first thing to be done is to secure harmony of action, to clear away the difficulties and mark out a sphere of action. Christian principles in accordance with our faith must be maintained at any cost. Let us not be met with the statement that the adoption of Christian health reform principles in such an institution is simply impossible. These principles must be adopted and maintained. When this cannot be done, then let the institution be closed. The doctrines of Seventh-day Adventists are not to be sounded in the ears of guests and patients, but the principles which have made Seventh-day Adventists what they are should be lived out, and show a people in everything obedient to our great Leader Jesus Christ. The institution has not been conducted after God’s order. It must return to the principles given in the lessons of Christ.
A health institution is not established to conform to the selfish, intemperate customs of the world in eating or dressing, furnishing tables or rooms in an expensive style. It is to educate after the manner of Christ; so far as possible, it is to convert to correct principles all who shall patronize it. Those who are in responsible positions are not be become converted to the self-indulgent, extravagant principles of the world, for they cannot afford it; and if they could, Christlike principles would not allow it. Manifold teaching needs to be given. “Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand the doctrine?” [Isaiah 28:9.]
The first work specified begins with the child in its mother’s arms, and continues through babyhood, childhood, youth, and manhood. “Whom shall he make to understand doctrine, them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little.” [Verses 9, 10.] Thus the word of the Lord is patiently to be brought before the children, and kept before them by parents who believe the Word of God. “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing; yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little; that they might go and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.” [Verses 11-13.] Why? Because they did not heed the Word of the Lord that came unto them.
This means those who have not received instruction, but have cherished their own wisdom, have chosen to work themselves according to their own ideas. The Lord gives these the test, that they shall either take their position to follow His counsel, or refuse and do according to their own ideas, and then the Lord will leave them to the sure result. In all our ways, in all our service to God, He speaks to us, “Give me thine heart.” [Proverbs 23:26.] It is the submissive, teachable spirit that God wants. That which gives to prayer its excellence is the fact that it is breathed from a loving, obedient heart. God requires certain things of His people. If they say, I will not give up my heart to do this thing, the Lord lets them go on in their supposed wise judgment without heavenly wisdom until this Scripture is fulfilled.
You are not to say, “I will follow the Lord’s guidance up to a certain point that is in harmony with my own judgment,” and then hold fast to your ideas, refusing to be molded after the Lord’s similitude. Let the question be asked, Is this the will of the Lord? no! Is this the opinion or judgment of Dr. Maxson and his wife? Everything must be viewed in the light of the example of Christ. He is the truth. He is the true light that lighteth every man who cometh into the world. Listen to his words, copy his example in self-denial and self-sacrifice, and look to the merits of Christ for the glory in character which he possessed to be bestowed on you. Those who follow Christ live not to please themselves. Human standards are like feeble reeds. The Lord’s standard is perfection of character.
“For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim; he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work: and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now, therefore, be ye not workers, lest your bands be made strong; for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption even determined upon the whole earth.” [Isaiah 28:21, 22.] Read Deuteronomy 7:6. Read the whole chapter, also chapters 1 and 8. These were presented to me as the words of the Lord. These things are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
We are to have only those connected with our institutions who will (hear) the Word of the Lord and appreciate and obey His voice. When a man will plead and urge to have his mind and his judgment to be supreme in any one of our institutions, you can have no greater evidence that that man does not know himself, and is not qualified to manage. He will make mistakes, and injure rather than restore. He does not know what responsibilities are involved in his relation to God or to his fellow men.
“Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be?” [2 Peter 3:11.] Those who walk humbly with God will not be striving to obtain greater responsibilities, but will consider that they have a special work to do, and will be faithful to their duty. In our institutions great good can be done in educating by precept and example in economy in all lines. If you, my brother, had learned in the school of Christ to be meek and lowly in heart, you would always stand on vantage ground. You have not an evenly balanced character. You cannot safely put confidence in your own judgment in all things. Man’s way is to devise and scheme; God implants a principle. Man is striving to make duty soft and accommodating to his own natural character; but life is a battlefield; life is a race which he has to run if he is victor.
Those who would work in God’s service must not be seeking worldly gratification and selfish indulgence. The physicians in our institutions must be imbued with the living principles of health reform. Men will never be truly temperate until the grace of Christ is an abiding principle is the heart. All the pledges in the world will not make you or your wife health reformers. No mere restriction of your diet will cure your diseased appetite. Brother and Sister Maxson will not practice temperance in all things until their hearts are transformed by the grace of God (and they shall wear Christ’s yoke and have Christ’s meekness and lowliness of heart.)
Circumstances cannot work reforms. Christianity proposes a reformation in the heart. What Christ works within will be worked out under the dictation of a converted intellect. The plan of beginning outside and trying to work inward has always failed, and always will fail.
Standing as you do, my brother and sister, God’s plan with you is to begin at the very seat of all difficulties, the heart, and then from out of the heart will issue the principles of righteousness; the reformation will be outward as well as inward.
God’s way is to give man something he has not. But you have said, I want it not. God’s way is to make man something he is not. Man’s way is to get an easy place, and indulge appetite and selfish ambition. God’s plan is to set man to work in reformatory lines, then he will learn by experiences how long he has pampered fleshly appetites, and ministered to his own temperament, bringing weakness upon himself. God’s way is to work in power. He gives the grace if the sick man realizes that he needs it. Man is too often satisfied to treat himself according to the methods of quackery, and he vindicates his manner of working as right. God proposes to purify and refine the defiled soul; then He will implant in the heart His own righteousness and peace and health, and man becomes complete in Him. Then the issues of life, proceeding from the heart, are represented as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.
This is the kingdom of God within you. Day by day men are revealing whether the kingdom of God is within them. If Christ rules in their hearts, they are gaining strength of principle, power, ability to stand as faithful sentinels, true reformers, for there can be no reform unless there is a thorough co-operation with Jesus Christ. Through the grace of Christ men are to use their God-given faculties to reform themselves; by this self-denying action, which the Lord of heaven looks upon with approval, they gain victories over their own hereditary and cultivated tendencies. Then like Daniel they make impressions upon other hearts that will never be effaced. The influence will be carried to all parts of the world.
Men are taking sides, according to their choice. These that are feeding on the Word of God will show this by their practice; they are on the Lord’s side, seeking by precept and example to reform the world. All that have refused to be taught of God hold the traditions of men. They at last pass over on the side of the enemy, against God, and are written, Antichrist. The people of God, who understand our position in this world’s history, are with ears open and hearts softened and subdued, pressing together in unity, one with Jesus Christ. Those who will not practice the lessons of Christ, but keep themselves in hand, to mold themselves, find in Antichrist the center of their union. While the two parties stand in collision, the Lord will appear, and shine before His ancients gloriously. He will set up a kingdom that shall stand forever.
The question for us to consider is, Have we the attributes of Christ? Excuses are valueless. All circumstances, all appetites and passions, are to be servants to the God-fearing man, not rulers over him.
The Christian is not to be enslaved by any hereditary or cultivated habits or tendencies. He is to rule the animal passions, rather than to be held in the bondage of habit. We are not to be the servants of circumstances, but to control circumstances by an inwrought principle learned of the greatest Teacher the world ever knew. The solemn position in which we stand today toward the world, the solemn responsibilities and duties enjoined upon us by our Lord, are not to be ignored until our will and our circumstances are adjusted. The principle of self-denial and self-sacrifice, as revealed in the example of Christ, of John the Baptist, of Daniel and the three worthies, is to pass like a plowshare through hereditary and cultivated habits, through all circumstances and surroundings.
I ask you, Is the kingdom of God within you? God’s people are to be minutemen, always ready, always composed in Jesus Christ. The time is come now when one moment we may be on solid earth, the next the earth may be heaving beneath our feet. Earthquakes will take place when least expected.
Christianity has a much broader meaning than many have hitherto given it. It is not a creed. It is the word of Him who liveth and abideth forever. It is a living, animating principle that takes possession of mind, heart, motives, and the entire man. Christianity—O that all might experience its operations! It is a vital, personal experience that elevates, purifies, ennobles the whole man. Every man is responsible to God, who has made provision for all to receive this blessing. But many do not receive it, although Christ has purchased it for them at infinite cost. They have not grasped the blessing with in reach, and therefore they have retained their objectionable traits of character, and sin lieth at the door. While they profess piety, Satan had made them his agents to pull down and confuse where he thought best. They exert an influence deleterious to the souls of many who need an example that would help them heavenward.
Who are the subjects of the kingdom of God? All these who do His will. They have righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. The members of Christ’s kingdom are the sons of God, partners in His great firm. The elect of god are a chosen generation, a peculiar people, a holy nation, to show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. They are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. They are living stones, a royal priesthood. They are in co-partnership with Jesus Christ. These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
How shall we follow Him to learn of Him who is our teacher? We can search His Word, and become acquainted with His life and His works. His words we are to receive as bread for our souls. In every sphere where man shall be placed, the Lord Jesus has left us His footprints. We do well to follow Him. The Spirit by which He spake we must cherish; we are to present the truth as it is in Jesus. We are to follow Him especially in heart-purity, in love. Self must be hid with Christ in God; then when Christ who is our life shall appear, we also shall appear with Him in glory.
What can I say more than I have said? The Old Testament should be studied most diligently. The New Testament does not present a lower standard than the Old. In His sermon on the mount Jesus set forth the very principles that same from His lips to Moses, to be given to the children of Israel. Christ delineated the duties of man to God and to his fellow men is much stronger lines, because through disobedient men had been confused in regard to God’s claims. Read carefully the sermon on the mount.
By the inspiration of the Spirit of God, Paul the apostle wrote that “Whatsoever ye do,” even the natural set of eating or drinking, should be done, not to gratify a perverted appetite, but under a sense of responsibility. “Do all to the glory of God.” [1 Corinthians 10:31.] Every part of the man is to be guarded; we are to beware lest that which is taken into the stomach shall banish from the mind high and holy thoughts.
“May I not do as I please with myself?” ask some, as if we were seeking to deprive them of a great good when we present before them the necessity of eating intelligently and conforming all their habits to the laws God has established. There are rights which belong to every individual. We have an individuality and an identity that is our own. He one can submerge his identity in that of any other. All must act for themselves, according to the dictates of their own conscience. As regards our responsibility and influence, we are amenable to God as deriving our life from Him. This we do not obtain from humanity, but from God only. We are His by creation and by redemption. Our very bodies are not our own, to treat as we please, to cripple by habits that lead to decay, making it impossible to render to God perfect services. Our lives and all our faculties belong to Him. He is caring for us every moment; He keeps the living machinery in action; if we were left to run it for one moment, we should die. We are absolutely dependent upon God.
A great lesson is learned when we understand our relation to God, and His relation to us. The words, “Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price,” should be hung in memory’s hall, that we may ever recognize God’s right to our talents, our property, our influence, our individual selves. [1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.] We are to learn how to treat this gift of God, in mind, in soul, in body, that as Christ’s purchased possession, we may do Him healthful, savory service.
Why did Daniel and his companions refuse to eat at the king’s table? Why did they refuse his meats and wines? Because they had been taught that this class of food would keep the mind or the physical structure in the very best condition of health to do God’s service. These youth urged most earnestly that the one who had charge of their food should not compel them to partake the king’s luxuries set before [them]. They begged him to try them ten days only, and then examine them, and decide by their physical appearance whether their abstemious diet would be to their disadvantage. When they came in for examination, the result was decidedly in their favor. It was otherwise with the youth who had eaten of the luxuries of the king’s table, and drank of his wine. The clear sparkle of the eye was gone, the ruddy healthful glow had disappeared from the countenance.
The four Hebrew captives were thereafter permitted to have the diet they had chosen. What effect did it have upon mind and character? They had conscientiously refused the stimulus of flesh and of wine. They obeyed God’s will in self-denial, and He showed His approval. He desired His servants to honor Him by their adherence to steadfast principle in all their habits of life. Their countenances would be a certificate of physical soundness and moral purity.
“And as for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all earning and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.” [Daniel 1:17.] These youth had the Lord as their educator. The golden links of the chain of heaven connected the finite with the infinite. They were partakers of the divine nature. They were very careful to keep themselves in touch with God. They prayed and studied and brought into their practical life strictly conscientious, humble minds. They walked with God as did Enoch. The Word of the Lord was their meat and their drink. “And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better then all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.” [Verse 20.]
In the light of this scripture history, all the testimony of man as to the advantages of a meat diet, or of a great variety of food, should not have the least weight with any human being. When the children of faith shall with earnest prayer dedicate themselves to God without reserve, the Lord will honor their faith, and will bless them with a clear mind. These who at every step are murmuring and complaining, ambitious for more power and greater responsibility, show that they cannot carry responsibilities; and the Lord has been pleased to tell them this. They have thought it all a mistake, and have been determined to show the Lord that they could be managers of the first class. But God’s Word never returns to Him void, and when He reveals the deep and secret things, He makes no mistake. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him. The Lord has said, Those that honor Me, I will honor.
The very flesh in which the soul tabernacles, and through which it works is the Lord’s. We have no right to neglect any art of the living machinery. Every portion of the living organism is the Lord’s. The knowledge of our own physical organism should teach us that every member is to do God’s services, as an instrument of righteousness.
None but God can subdue the pride of man’s heart. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot regenerate ourselves. In the heavenly courts there will be no song sung, “To me that loved myself, and washed myself, and redeemed myself, unto me by glory and honor, blessing and praise.” But this is the keynote of the song that is sung by many here in this world. They do not know what it means to be meek and lowly in heart, and they do not mean to know this if they can avoid it. The whole Gospel is comprised in learning of Christ His meekness and lowliness.
What is justification by faith? It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself. When men see their own nothingness, they are prepared to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ. When they begin to praise and exalt God all the day long, then by beholding, they are becoming changed into the same image. What is regeneration? It is revealing to man what is his own real nature, that in himself he is worthless. These lessons you have never learned. O, that you could realize the value of the human soul.
When you understand physiology in its truest sense, your drug bills will be very much smaller, and finally you will cease to deal out drugs at all. The physician who depends upon drug medication in his practice, shows that he does not understand the delicate machinery of the human organism. He is introducing into the system a seed that will never lose its destroying properties throughout the lifetime. I tell you this because I dare not withheld it. Christ paid too much for man’s redemption to have his body so ruthlessly treated as it has been by drug medication. Years ago the Lord revealed to me that institutions should be established for treating the sick without drugs. Man is God’s property, and the ruin that has been made of the living habitation, the suffering caused by the seeds of death sown in the human system are an offense is God.
Men may understand this if they will study deeply. Pray for the Holy Spirit to melt and subdue the proud, self-sufficient heart. If you ever shed tears, weep now, for Christ’s sake weep over your self-sufficient estimate of your own capabilities. When you come to God in lowliness of mind, with heart renewed and cleansed, you will bless and glorify Him that you have learned of Jesus His mercy, the truth, which so many have had to learn through His judgments. These who walk in pride and self-sufficiency God is able to abase. Man will learn that the heavens do rule, and how mighty is our wonderworking God. He will surely control matters after His order and will, if you will only place yourselves under His rule.
I might say much more, but I forbear. You are not prepared to receive even this. The Lord will indite plans and methods for all who will seek Him with the whole heart. I ask you to pray to God with humble hearts, seek Him without delay, make a business of seeking Him, and do not let go until you know yourselves much better than you new do, and have a knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
The counsels given me of God for the Health Retreat have never been followed. There has been a departure from the ways of God, as you will see by the copy of letters which I send. If I had time I could copy much more of like character. I am in deep earnest that you should come where you can in all things do the will and work of God.
Letter 73a, 1896
Maxson, Brother and Sister
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
August 30, 1896
Dear Brother and Sister:
I must apologize for not answering your letter before. I have had work so piled up before me that I could not give time to the subject.
You have the light which the Lord has given our people and kept before them for many years. The Lord does not say Yea and Nay to His people, but Yea and Amen. I will send you testimonies given to others upon the subject of health reform. This is a large subject. I am now revising the book entitled Christian Temperance.
I was somewhat surprised at your argument as to why a meat diet kept you in strength, for if you put self out of the question, your own reason will teach you that a meat diet is not of such advantage to you as you suppose. You know how you would answer the tobacco devotee if he urged as a plea for the use of tobacco the arguments you have advanced as a reason why you should continue to use the flesh of dead animals as food.
In California there is an abundance for the table, in the shape of fresh fruit, vegetables, and grains, and there is no necessity that meat be sued. The weakness you experience without the use of meat is one of the strongest arguments I could present to you as a reason why you should discontinue its use. Those who eat meat feel stimulated after eating this food, and they suppose that they are made stronger. After [one] discontinues the use of meat, he may for a time feel a weakness, but when his system is cleansed from the effects of this diet, he no longer feels the weakness, and will cease to wish for that which he have pleaded as essential to strengthen him.
I have a large family, which often numbers sixteen. In it there are men who work at the plough, and who fell trees. These have most vigorous exercise, but not a particle of the flesh of animals is placed on our table. Meat has not been used by us since the Brighton camp meeting. It was not my purpose to have it on my table at any time, but urgent pleas were made that such a one was unable to eat this or that, and that his stomach could take care of meat better than it could anything else. Thus I was enticed to place it on my table. The use of cheese also began to creep in, because some liked cheese; but I soon controlled that. But when the selfishness of taking the lives of animals to gratify a perverted taste was presented to me by a Catholic woman, kneeling at my feet, I felt ashamed and distressed. I saw it in a new light, and I said, I will no longer patronize the butchers. I will not have the flesh of corpses on my table.
You have told me what advantage a meat diet is to you. I must tell you what a non-flesh diet has done for me. Ever since the stone was thrown in my face, when I was nine years old, I have had difficulty. At that time I nearly lost my life through loss of blood. Dropsy set in, and since then I have suffered much from kidney affliction.
After a long siege of eleven months of malarial fever and rheumatism, I was not able to ride without the most easy spring seat. Even when this was made as easy as possible with spring cushions, it was torture to my hips and the lower part of the spine to ride.
I prayed much over this matter. I sought the Lord during the night hours, and He heard me. Some months ago a new spring seat was made for me. One day I said, Take that spring seat out, and put it in the store room; I shall not need it any more. This was done by faith, and never since have I needed it. The difficulty which made it agony for me to sit in meeting or in a carriage was taken away. After I had suffered for years, the Lord healed me. My hip continues to trouble me, but I think it is better than it has been all through my lifetime. I prayed much in regard to the affliction of the kidneys, and I am healed of that trouble, also. Some for years I was dependent on the use of a syringe in order to have a movement of the bowels, but after the lower part of my spine was healed, I had no need to resort to artificial means.
I eat only two meals, and cannot eat vegetables or grains. I do not use meat. I cannot go back to this. When tomatoes, raised on my own land, were placed on the table, I tried using them, uncooked and seasoned with a little salt or sugar. These I found agree with me very well, and from last February until June, they formed the greater part of my diet. With them I ate crackers, here called biscuits. I eat no dessert but plain pumpkin pie. At my meals I often eat nothing but a few crackers and a piece of pumpkin pie. I use a little boiled milk in my simple home-made coffee, but discard cream and butter, and strictly adhere to a limited amount of food. I am scarcely ever hungry, and never know what it is to have a feverish, disagreeable feeling in my stomach. I have no bad taste in my mouth.
All who come to my table are welcome, but I place before them no meat. Grains, vegetables, and fresh and canned fruit constitute our table fare. At present we have plenty of the best oranges, and plenty of lemons. This is the only fresh fruit we can get at this season of the year. We ride about five miles into the country to get this fruit, for which we pay three pence per dozen, six cents in American money. We enjoy picking the large golden fruit from the trees. Lemons are two pence per dozen. If I could obtain some of the apples you have in California, I should enjoy them far more than I do the oranges. I manage to keep a box of apples for my own use, but they are inferior to the apples we get in America. I pay one dollar and seventy-five cents at this time of the year for a box of apples holding less than a bushel.
I have written this to give you some idea of how we live. I never enjoyed better health than I do at the present time, and never did more writing. I rise at three in the morning, and do not sleep during the day. I am often up at one o’clock, and when my mind is especially burdened, I rise at twelve o’clock to write out matter that has been urged upon my mind. I praise the Lord with heart and soul and voice for His great mercy toward me.
I have felt urged by the Spirit of God to set before several the fact that their sufferings are caused by a disregard of the light given them upon health reform. I have shown them that their meat diet, which was supposed to be essential, was not essential, but that as they were composed of what they ate, brain, bone, and muscle was in an unhealthy condition because they live on the flesh of dead animals.
Their blood was being corrupted by this improper diet, and their perception was clouded. The flesh which they ate was diseased, and their entire system was becoming gross and corrupted. More than this, I set before them the fact that by placing several kinds of food in the stomach at one meal, they were causing disease which was not attributed to the food eaten. I told them that they would realize much benefit if they would eat only two meals a day.
There is an alarming lethargy shown on the subject of unconscious sensualism. It is customary to eat the flesh of dead animals. This stimulates the lower passions of the human organism. The human family is under the despotism of custom and false education, of hereditary and cultivated habits. Appetite reigns as a king over the mind and reason. The animal propensities are allowed to become a controlling power, and proportionately as Nature’s laws are transgressed, mind and will become enfeebled.
If appetite, which should be strictly guarded and controlled, is indulged to the injury of the body, the penalty of transgression will surely be the result. When Nature’s laws are transgressed, physical suffering and disease of every stripe and type is seen, for every transgression of the laws of physical life is a transgression of the laws of God.
Christians should regard a transgression of these laws as a sin against God, to be accounted for in the day of judgment, when every case shall come in review before God.
The world today is full of pain and suffering and agony. Is it the will of God that such a condition should exist? No; God, the Creator of our bodies, has arranged every fiber and nerve and sinew and muscle, and has pledged Himself to keep the machinery in order if the human agent will co-operate with Him, and refuse to work contrary to the laws which govern the physical system.
God’s law is written by His own finger upon every nerve, every muscle, every faculty, which has been entrusted to man. These gifts were bestowed upon Him, not to be abused, corrupted, and abased, but to be used to His honor and glory. Every misuse of any part of our organism is a violation of the law which God designs shall govern in these matters, and by violating this law, human beings corrupt themselves. Sickness, disease of every kind, ruined constitutions, premature decay, untimely deaths—these are the results of a violation of nature’s laws.
The living organism is God’s property. It belongs to Him by creation and by redemption; and by a misuse of any of our powers, we rob God of the honor due to Him.
The need of healthful habits is a part of the gospel which must be presented to the people by those who hold forth the Word of life. The importance of the health of the body is to be taught as a Bible requirement. “I beseech you, therefore, brethren,” writes Paul, “that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” [Romans 12:1-5.]
This is a sermon which needs to be presented to the people. The question of health reform is not agitated as it must and will be. A simple diet, and the entire absence of drugs, leaving nature free to recuperate the wasted energies of the body, would make our sanitariums more effectual in restoring the sick to health. The intellectual and moral energies of Christians need to be awakened. Far less money and time should be given to the table, and more to the advancement of missionary work in our land. Cooks should be thought of, and their strength saved as much as possible, for they have souls to save. The may dishes usually prepared for desert should be dispensed with.
Every minister who preaches the gospel to the people should study the laws of physical health. He should carefully consider what effect eating and drinking have upon the health of the soul. By precept and example, by a life of obedience to nature’s laws, he can present the truth upon this subject in a forcible manner. The teachers and workers in our sanitariums should not only preach, but practice abstinence from food which stimulates the fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.
“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.” [1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.] Nearly all the members of the human family eat more than the system requires. This excess decays, and becomes a putrid mass. Catarrhal difficulties, kidney diseases, headache, and heart troubles, are the result of immoderate eating. Even so-called health reform needs reforming on this point. When men and women cease to indulge their appetites by eating too largely of food of a questionable character, when they treat the stomach as respectfully as it deserves to be treated, when they relieve it of one-half or two-thirds of the laborious task they now require it to perform, when nature is more respected than perverted appetite, there will be a change for the better in health and morals.
If more food, even of a simple quality, is placed in the stomach, than the living machinery requires, this surplus becomes a burden. The system makes desperate efforts to dispose of it, and this extra work causes a tired, weary feeling. Some who are continually eating call this all-gone feeling hunger, but it is caused by the overworked condition of the digestive organs.
At too many tables, when the stomach has received all it requires to properly carry on its work of nourishing the system, another course, consisting of pies, puddings, and highly flavored sauces, is placed upon the table. Society has sought out many inventions, and she has decreed that the food be placed on the table in different courses. Not knowing what is coming next, one may partake of a sufficiency of food which perhaps is not the best suited to him. Then the last course is brought on. This may be composed of articles of food, which, if they had been placed on the table at the first, would have added much to his enjoyment of the food. Many, though they have already eaten enough, will overstep the bounds and eat the tempting dessert, which, however, proves anything but good to them.
The custom of placing different courses of food upon the table better never have been invented. Let that which is provided for the meal be placed upon the table at the beginning, and then let each one eat that which will be the most healthful for him. Let each have an opportunity to choose what shall compose his meal. If the extras which are provided for dessert were dispensed with altogether, it would be a blessing.
Another custom, which has been instituted, is that which requires all to keep their places at the table till the last one has finished. But this makes eating a burden to those who eat no more than they feel that their stomachs can properly care for. Health reformers need not observe these inventions of fashion. If you are where those who eat to excess continue to pass tempting dishes, it is well to break human rules, and pass quietly from the table.
Eating merely to please the appetite is a transgression of nature’s laws. Often this intemperance is felt at once in the form of headache, indigestion, and colic. A load has been placed upon the stomach that it cannot care for, and a feeling of oppression comes. The head is confused, the stomach is in rebellion. But these results do not always follow over-eating. In some cases the stomach is paralyzed. No sensation of pain is felt, but the digestive organs lose their vital force. The foundation of the human machinery is gradually undermined, and life is rendered very unpleasant.
By indulging in a wrong course of action in eating and drinking, thousands upon thousands are ruining their health. And not only is their health ruined, but their morals are corrupted, because diseased blood flows through their veins.
I have a suggestion to make to those who [have] moral courage and self-control enough to try it. If your work is sedentary, take exercise every day, and at each meal eat only two or three kinds of simple food, taking no more of these than will satisfy the demands of hunger. Make up your mind that this is all the food you will give your stomach. For a few days perseveringly carry out your determination to eat less than you have in the past. See how this will work. Strong, healthy men, who are engaged in active physical labor, can eat food which those of sedentary habits cannot eat without injury to their health. Those engaged in physical labor are not compelled to be so careful as to the quantity or quality of their food. But even these persons would have better health by practicing self-control in eating and drinking. But one stomach cannot be made the rule for measuring the diet for every one else.
It is the positive duty of physicians to educate, educate, educate, by pen and voice, all who have the responsibility of preparing food for the table. Teach them to bind about their ambitious desires to place before their family and before visitors a variety of tempting dishes. It would be much better to eat only two or three different kinds of food at a meal than to load the stomach with many varieties.
There are many kinds of intemperance in this world. Overeating is intemperance just as surely as is liquor drinking. Intemperate eating wears on the system, producing a morbid appetite which enslaves men and women. The stomach must have careful attention. It must not be kept in continual operation. Give this misused and much abused organ some peace and quiet and rest. After it has done its work for one meal, do not crowd more work upon it before it has had a chance to rest, and before a sufficient supply of gastric juice is provided by nature to care for more food. Five hours at least should elapse between each meal, and always bear in mind that if you would give it a trial, you would find that two meals are better than three.
“As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” [Matthew 24:37-39.] “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot: they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” [Luke 17:28-30.]
The sin of the Noachic world was intemperance, and today the sin exhibited by intemperance in eating and drinking is so marked that God will not always tolerate it. By eating and drinking we sustain life, and in themselves, if kept within the bounds of temperance, eating and drinking are of no harm, but a blessing. But when they carried to excess, they come under the head of intemperance. Man carries to excess that which is lawful, and his whole being suffers the result of the violation of the laws which the Lord has established.
Intemperance in eating and drinking is on the increase. Tables are spread with all kinds of food with which to satisfy the epicurean appetite. Suffering must follow this course of action. The vital force of the system cannot bear up under the tax placed on it, and it finally breaks down.
God is greatly dishonored by the way in which man treats his organism, and He will not work a miracle to counteract a perverse violation of the laws of health and life. The Lord Jesus purchased man, paying for him the infinite price of His own life. Man should estimate himself by the price which has been paid for him. When he places this value upon himself, he will not knowingly abuse one of his physical or mental faculties. It is an insult to the God of heaven for men to abuse his precious powers by placing himself under the control of satanic agencies, and besetting himself by indulging in that which is ruinous to health, to piety, and to spirituality. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” [1 Corinthians 3:16, 17.]
When man educates the appetite to desire the flesh of dead animals, and to love wine and strong drink, he becomes a body of corruption. Oh, how little God is honored by him; how little he is brought into the thoughts. Gluttony and strong drink degrade the beings who are God’s property by creation, His property because He gave His only begotten Son for their redemption. Look at that party of judges, lawyers, and ministers, who claim to be servants of God and co-workers with Jesus Christ, united at the festive board. Through the indulgence of perverted appetite, they have made of themselves a set of drivelling fools, bereft of reason. And these are men for whom Christ died to make it possible for them to live a life of usefulness, to wear Christ’s yoke, and show their loyalty to God.
Satan is the destroyer; God is the Restorer. He calls upon us to co-operate with Him by doing our utmost by precept and example to restore the moral image of God in man. It is our duty to engage in the work of helping our fellow men to stand in their God-given freedom, men of self-control, vessels unto honor. We can show ourselves of much value as co-laborers with God by elevating the standard of temperance, by trying to raise our brethren from their degradation, so that Christ shall not have died in vain. Thus we show our nobility as sons of God and joint-heirs with Christ, and manifest our fitness for the immortal inheritance, which Christ has gone to prepare for us. All this we may be and do if we will submit to the control of God.
But, oh, how fast the world is rushing on in its madness, hastening to the day of retribution. “As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” [Matthew 24:37.] Each day man is forming his own destiny. Each day his account is recorded by the heavenly Watcher in the books of heaven. The time will come when each one will meet the history of his life. But how much of the money which God has given man, the money which should be used to restore the obliterated image of Jesus, is used to gratify appetite and ambition, to prepare extravagant festivals, and to build and furnish grand houses.
One soul saved for Jesus is of more value than the whole world. Then how God would be honored if He could see that the physical, mental, and moral powers of men and women were kept free from every unnatural appetite, every wrong practice, every species of intemperance, tobacco using, liquor drinking, and gluttony. Let man and women obey the Word of God, and they will bring heaven very near to earth.
I feel deeply over the existing state of things. It is today “as it was in the days of Noe.” [Luke 17:26.] Then they ate and drink, and planted and builded, stirred with an enthusiasm from beneath. This made them intensely active to follow the evil imagination of their own hearts, and that continually. There was violence in the land. What do we see now, in 1896? Men working in the same manner as in Noah’s day, forgetful of God, education themselves in habit and practice to corrupt soul and body. We see terrible calamities coming upon this world because of iniquity. Thousands are being killed by floods, by terrible tornadoes, by earthquakes. Ships that are upon the great deep perish in the angry billows. Yet in spite of this, men continue to act in opposition to God.
My brother, there is need that economy be practiced in every line of our work. There is need of prayer, earnest, heartfelt, sincere prayer. There is need that temperance in eating, drinking, and building be practiced. There is need to educate the people in right habits of living. Put no confidence in drug medicine. If every particle of it were buried in the great ocean, I would say, Amen, for physicians are not working on a right plan. A reform is needed which will go deeper, and be more thorough. Meat-eating is doing its work, for the meat is diseased. We may not long be able to use even milk. The very earth is groaning under the corrupted inhabitants. We need to consider closely our habits and practices, and banish our sinful, darling self-indulgences. I have had light from God on this subject, and I have been endeavoring to give the light to our people in this country.
I could write you pages upon pages upon this, but I feel so deeply over these things that I scarcely dare take my pen in my hand. I tell you, my brother and sister, we are living in the Laodicean state of the church. If ever a people needed to fall upon the Rock and be broken, it is the people in California, and all through our churches in America. We need to arouse and act as one man. We need to be earnest and alive. Horrors upon horrors are following in the destruction of human life, yet those things receive only a few remarks. The world will not be warned. But the day of the Lord is coming, unawares, as a thief in the night.
Letter 74, 1896
To the Managers and Workers in our Institutions
[January 1893] [Copied June 9, 1896]
To the Managers and Workers in our Institutions:
In the providence of God we have institutions established among us to advance the promulgation of the truth, but they do not reach the efficiency that they might if the workers were wholly consecrated to God. The Lord has made every provision that these institutions may reach a high standard, that they may attain to a larger growth and wider usefulness, and that those employed in them may possess Christian virtues and graces. But those connected with these instrumentalities are not all devout and spiritual. They do not represent the spirit and character of Christ. They are not ensamples to those connected with them, because they do not live in communion with God, earnestly seeking by faith and fervent prayer to know His will that they may do it.
These instrumentalities are missionary institutions. The Lord designed that they should be a power for good; and if all who are connected with them are consecrated, if they are meek and lowly in heart, Christ will give them most precious lessons in His school. In our health institutions, our publishing houses, our schools, all should work harmoniously to carry out the purpose of God, and everything connected with the institutions should tend toward reform. The managers and helpers should have the true missionary spirit as a daily, abiding principle, for they are in a field that requires the highest kind of missionary work. Our institutions, properly conducted, will exert a far-reaching influence, and if the managers and the workers are Christians, they will be as shining lights. They will educate those connected with them in the principles of truth.
A responsibility to spread the knowledge of right principles rests upon all who have received the light. This responsibility should be felt by every man and woman who claims to be a Seventh-day Adventist, and much more by those who are connected with our institutions. All should realize that these institutions are an important part of the Lord’s great work for the salvation of souls. Let it be the aim of all to be laborers together with God for the uplifting of humanity. All should be educators by precept and example. They should feel a personal responsibility to send forth men and women as fully instructed as possible, prepared to exert a direct and saving influence in the homes, the communities, and the churches to which they may go. This would be the very best recommendation that any of our institutions could have. Wisdom is needed in the selection of managers in the various departments. It is impossible for one to control others until he learns to control himself. The superintendent should be a man who loves and fears God. He should sacredly guard his reputation, giving no occasion for any one to reproach the cause of God. He should not be narrow-minded, a man of one idea. One who is changeable, now indulgent, then cold and unapproachable, or critical, exacting, and domineering, is not fitted for this position, nor is he who will cherish suspicion, jealousy, passion, or stubbornness. These traits are not pleasing to God, and will not be manifested by any who take Jesus for their Pattern and Counselor.
The superintendent must manifest the spirit of Christ, yet he should be firm to restrain evil. A neglect of this duty shows him to be unfit for his position. God requires of a steward that he be found faithful. A manager must be a growing man in order to meet the difficulties as well as the opportunities that are constantly arising. He should be quick to discern what needs to be done, and take active measures to accomplish the work at the right time. There are many rules made, many resolutions passed, that fall dead because they are not carried into effect. Time is spent in board meetings, councils, and business meetings; matters are discussed and resolutions made; and then, if these resolutions die a natural death, things are left in a worse state than if no action had been taken.
If those who hold positions of trust are persons who love and fear God, they will realize that a sacred responsibility is theirs because of the measure of authority and the consequent influence which their position gives them. They are dealing with varied minds, and they should move discreetly, they are representatives of the institution. They should be kind and courteous, manifesting Christian politeness toward all with whom they are brought in contact, both believers and unbelievers. Brethren, you are to represent the family of the heavenly King. You are to watch for souls as they that must give an account. We should never forget that Jesus, in the infinite sacrifice that He has made, has proved His love for every man, woman, and child; He has shown what value He places upon every soul. All have been purchased by the price of His own blood.
Let your influence be persuasive, binding people to your hearts because you love Jesus and these souls are His purchased possession. This is a great work. If by your Christlike words and actions you make impressions that will create in their hearts a hungering and thirsting after righteousness and truth, you are a co-laborer with Christ. Those who have a leading influence in the institutions should be men and women who possess devotion and piety, who are not narrow and selfish in any matter, but conscientious, self-denying, and self-sacrificing, ever dealing with the workers as they would wish to be dealt with, having an eye single to the glory of God. Men of such a character will keep the way of the Lord. The workers should seek to make it as easy as possible for those who bear the burden of responsibility, and have many cares and perplexities to engage their attention.
All need to have right principles placed before them in a judicious manner. Men of investigating minds will thus receive the key of knowledge, and will bring out treasures of thought for the enriching of other minds—thought that will result in the saving of souls. Circumstances will call forth words and decisions in favor of the right, and any will thus be swayed to the right direction. Words and works flowing from the heart imbued with the love and fear of God become a wide-spread blessing—a blessing that is carried into the highways and byways of life.
There are words spoken that are not Christlike, bitter, harsh, wicked words. This should not be. Men who like Enoch are walking in the light of Christ, will exercise self-control, even under temptation and provocation. Although sorely tried by the perversity and obstinacy of others who are associated with them, they dare not let impulse bear sway. All who are walking in the light will give evidence of divine power combined with human effort; they will make it manifest that they are led and taught of God. They will feel that the holy Watcher is by their side, taking knowledge of their words.
Leaders in our institutions have many and weighty responsibilities. Their only safety is in keeping their thoughts and impulses under the control of the great Teacher. They have golden opportunities for doing good; they can speak words in season that will guide and mold the many and varied minds with which they are brought in contact. Daily they should take their stand for God as though it were the last day they should serve in his capacity. Show men and women connected with the institutions how pure and noble they may become. Let them see that you have firm confidence in God, and that He is your source of strength, that you are resting wholly upon His promises. Fulfill your duty with promptness, while claiming your heavenly’s Father help in overcoming all weakness of character. With the hand of faith grasping the arm of Infinite Power, put your whole being into your work.
Ever keep a winning, courteous, kind spirit, and every room may be transformed into a Bethel. Angels of God will work with your efforts. If our publishing houses, our health institutions, our colleges and missions are conducted on right principles the unbelievers who visit them will be favorably impressed, and will be more inclined to accept the truth.
O for faithful Calebs in this age of the world! We want men and women who have self-control, who have moral worth, who love and fear God; men and women who possess personal piety and firm religious principle. God is dishonored by the lack of moral stamina in many who profess to be Christians. They seem to be only half converted.
God demands of us more than we are willing to give Him. None are to be forward or obtrusive, but we are quietly to live out our religion, with an eye single to the glory of God. “Learn of me,” says Christ; “for I am meek and lowly of heart.” [Matthew 11:29.] Then we shall shine as lights in the world, without noise or friction.
None need fail, for One is with them who is wise in counsel, excellent in working, and mighty to accomplish His designs. He works through His agents, seen and unseen, human and divine. This work is a grand work, and will be carried forward to the glory of God, if all who are connected with it will make their works correspond to their profession of faith. Purity of thought must be cherished as indispensable to the work of influencing others. The soul must be surrounded by a pure, holy atmosphere—an atmosphere that will tend to quicken the spiritual life of all who inhale it.
Jesus is honored or dishonored by the words and deportment of His professed followers. The heart must be kept pure and holy, for out of it are the issues of life. If the heart is purified through obedience to the truth, there will be no selfish preferences, no corrupt motives. There will be no partiality, no hypocrisy, lovesick sentimentalism will not be developed. Strict guard must be kept, that this curse shall not poison or corrupt our institutions.
In the present state of society, with the lax morals of not only youth but those of age and experience, there is great danger of becoming careless, and giving especial attention to favorites, and thus creating, envy, jealousy, and evil surmisings. But few realize that they drive away the Spirit of God with their selfish thoughts and feelings, their foolish, trifling talk. When admonished, they say, “I meant no harm.” What do these frivolous ones mean? Do they forget that that which they sow, they shall also reap? This silly, nonsensical conversation reveals a weak character, and is an offense to God.
If the grace of Christ were planted in their hearts and striking its roots down deep into good soil, they would bear fruit of an altogether different character. They would be acquiring moral stamina, that strength of purpose and solidity of character which is essential for the great and good work that ought to be done. Others would feel their influence, and would take knowledge of them that they were led and taught by Jesus.
Many of these trifling, frivolous ones make a profession of religion, and this hollow form of godliness has been so long tolerated that it has pervaded our institutions and extends to our churches. The standard of piety is lowered into the dust.
Careful attention should be given to the moral standing and influence of every one employed in our institutions. If the workers are in any way impure in heart or life, it will be revealed in their words and their actions, notwithstanding their efforts to conceal the truth. If they are not strictly moral, there is danger in employing them, for they will be in a position where they can mislead those who desire to reform, and can confirm them in unholy, defiling practices. Such men and women, unless converted, will be not only a curse to themselves, but a curse wherever they go. The converting power of God is alone sufficient to establish pure principles in the heart, so that the wicked one may find nothing to assail.
Our probation is short at best we have no time to spend in erratic movements. The familiarity of married men with married women, and with young girls, is disgusting in the sight of God and holy angels. The forwardness of young girls in placing themselves in the company of young men, hanging around where they are at work, entering into conversation with them, talking common, idle talk, is belittling to womanhood. It lowers them, even in the estimation of those who indulge in such things. There is a positive necessity for reform. All frivolity, all undue attention of men to women, or women to men, must be condemned and discontinued. These things have produced great evil in the world.
The first appearance of irregularity in conduct should receive attention; the young should be taught to be frank yet modest in all their associations. They should be taught to respect just rules and authority. If they refuse to do this, after the right kind of labor has been bestowed upon them let them be dismissed, whatever position the occupy, for they will demoralize others.
Those who labor in our institutions are there for the purpose of promoting the intellectual and spiritual welfare of those under their care. They must make their work a matter of earnest prayer and study, that they may know how to deal with human minds and accomplish the object before them. Their first work is to carefully scrutinize their own habits, for there are those who have not put away childish things. They are in need of transforming grace, or they will not meet the Bible standard of Christianity. Then when they are compelled to deal with those who are meeting a low standard, they will know what words to speak to them, and will not be harsh, domineering, or arbitrary toward them. They must be chaste, and so free from the taint of defilement, that they can correct these evils and bring these poor souls up to the Bible standard of purity.
Those who believe unpopular truth have much prejudice to meet everywhere in the world, and if Bible truth is to control our institutions, those employed in them must exemplify it in their own life. If they wish that the physical, intellectual, and moral standing of the institution shall be of the highest order, their own deportment must give evidence of this fact. They must plan and work constantly, and in the strength of Jesus seek so to elevate the character of the institution that it may receive the approval of heaven.
Every Christian home should have rules; and parents should, in their words and in their deportment toward each other, give to the children a precious living example of what they desire them to be. Purity in speech, and true Christian courtesy should be constantly practiced. Let there be no encouragement of sin, no evil surmising or evil speaking.
Teach the children and youth to respect themselves, to be true to God, true to principle; teach them to respect and obey the law of God. Then these principles will control their lives, and will be carried out in their association with others. They will love their neighbor as themselves. They will create a pure atmosphere, one that will have an influence to encourage weak souls in the path that leads to holiness and heaven. Let every lesson be of an elevating, ennobling character, and the records made in the books of heaven will such as you will not be ashamed to meet in the judgment.
Children who receive this kind of instruction will not be a burden, a cause of anxiety, in our institutions; but they will be a strength, a support, to those who bear responsibility. They will be prepared to fill places of trust, and by precept and example will be constantly aiding others to do right. Those whose moral sensibilities have not been blunted will appreciate right principles, and will practice them. They will put a right estimate upon their endowments, and will make the best use of their physical, mental, and moral powers. Such souls are constantly fortified against temptation; they are surrounded by a wall not easily broken down. All such characters are, with the blessing of God, light-bearers; their influence tends to elevate others for a practical Christian life.
The mind may be so elevated that divine thoughts and contemplations come to be as natural as the breath. All the faculties of the soul are to be trained. We must do God’s work intelligently. We must know the truth; and to know this is to know God.
The evils of fashionable society have a tendency to corrupt, but every true follower of Christ, every one who has “This hope” in Him, will purify himself even as He is pure, so that not a taint of defilement will be found in his thoughts or upon his lips, in his heart or in his character. [1 John 3:3.] There must be a coming up to a higher, holier standard. A decided warfare should be waged against the evils, not only in the world, but also among those who claim to believe the truth for this time. These evils, if not put away, will result in spiritual death. The Lord bids us, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” [Matthew 5:16.] There must be a waking up. Concentrated effort must be put forth, that will tell powerfully against every form of evil.
Let the leaders in our institutions labor to show that their work is wrought in God, that they are workmen who need not to be ashamed, that their words and works are untainted with earthliness and sensualism. They should feel their solemn responsibility to give the youth a worthy example, one corresponding to their position of trust and their holy profession of faith. They are sowing seed which will blossom and bear fruit. All coarseness and trifling should be put away; it is the fruit borne upon a corrupt tree. Brethren and sisters you are educators. The lessons you give to believers and unbelievers by your words and your example will be a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death.
Men should be chosen to stand at the head of our institutions who have not only good, sound judgment, but a high moral tone; who will be circumspect in their deportment, pure in speech, remembering their high and holy calling, and that there is a Watcher, a true Witness to every word and act. Those who give evidence that their thoughts run in a low channel, whose conversation tends to corrupt rather than to elevate, should be removed at once from any connection with the institution, for they will surely demoralize others. Ever bear in mind that our institutions are missionary fields. God’s eye is upon them day and night. No one should feel at liberty to allow even the appearance of evil. Let all be circumspect, for the Lord will certainly judge you for any wrong influence exerted in any one of His instrumentalities.
Managers and workers, are your souls united to Christ as the branch is united to the living vine? If you have not been renewed in the spirit of your mind, for your souls’ sake make no delay to have your life hid with Christ in God. This is the first business of your life. When Christ is abiding in the heart, you will not be light, trifling, and immodest, but circumspect and reliable in every place, sending forth pure words, like streams from a pure fountain, refreshing all with whom you come in contact. If you decide to continue your idle talk and frivolous conduct, go to some other place, where your influence and example will not be so widely felt in contaminating others souls. What you all need is such a sense of the purity and holiness of Christ as will lead you to despise this pretense of religion, which blesses no one, gives no peace of conscience, no repose of faith.
Let all connected with these instrumentalities that God has ordained for the saving of souls seek divine wisdom, heavenly grace, that they may have an elevating influence upon others. Unless they are constantly receiving strength from Jesus, looking to Him, trusting in Him, by faith drawing from Him divine grace, they will become an easy prey to temptation.
It is time that we as Christians reach a much higher standard. God forbid that any institution that He has planted shall become a means of decoying souls, a place where iniquity is taught. Let all learn in the school of Christ, meekness, purity, [and] lowliness of heart. Let them hang their helpless souls on Jesus. Live in the light shining from the oracles of God. Educate mind and heart to pure, elevated, holy thoughts. “Be ye holy in all manner of conversation.” [1 Peter 1:15.] Whatever influence you have, direct it to exalting Jesus, and not self. Unless you do this, you are a false guide, leading souls away from the Truth, the Life, the Light of the world; and the more pleasing and attractive your manners, the greater the harm you do.
I tell you that every soul needs a genuine conversion. All your faculties need to be consecrated to God, that you may not encourage the evils prevailing in society, but may counteract them. Many have been cultivating habits that lead directly to earthly and sensual actions; and unless the power of God shall break the snare, souls will be lost in consequence. God has claims upon you that you do not realize, for you have not brought Christ into your lives. Great decision of character will now be necessary on your part to change this order of things. No weak efforts will accomplish the work. You cannot do it or yourselves; you must have the grace of Christ or you can never overcome. All your plans will prove a failure unless you are actuated by higher motives, and upheld by greater strength, than you can have in and of yourselves.
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” [Matthew 6:33.] There will be no relish for trifling conversation on the part of those who are looking to Jesus for strength, depending upon His righteousness for salvation. By faith they accept Christ as their personal Saviour, and become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
There should be no giving of special favors, or attentions, to a few, no preferring of one above another. This is displeasing to God.
Let all bear in mind the words of inspiration; “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” [James 3:17.] When you pass by one who is in need of your sympathy and kindly acts, and bestow your favors upon others simply because they are more pleasing to you, remember that Jesus is insulted in the person of His afflicted ones. He says, “I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.” [Matthew 25:42, 43.]
To the surprised inquiry, “Lord, when saw we [Thee] thus?” The answer is given, “In as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these (who were afflicted and needed your sympathy) ye did it not to me.” [Verses 44, 45.] “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” [Matthew 9:12.] The bruised and wounded, the lame of the flock, are among us, and these test the character of those who claim to be children of God.
The Lord will not excuse the wrong doer. He will never sanction partiality to the wealthy or oppression to the weak. He requires exact and impartial justice; more than this, He requires that His followers shall always have compassion for the suffering, pity and love for the erring.
Angels of God are watching the development of character, and are weighing moral worth. If you bestow your attention upon those who have no need, you are doing harm to the recipients, and you will yourself receive condemnation rather than reward. Remember that when by your trifling conversation, you descend to the level of frivolous characters, you are encouraging them in the path that leads to perdition. Your unwise attentions may prove the ruin of their souls. You degrade their conceptions of what constitutes Christian life and character. You confuse their ideas and make impressions that may never be effaced. They cannot harmonize your curse with the position you occupy, and they come to look upon even the officers of the church and the ministers, as no better than themselves. Then where is their example? The harm thus done to souls that need to be strengthened, refined, and ennobled is often a sin unto death.
God calls upon all who claim to be Christians to elevate the standard of righteousness, and to purify themselves even as Christ is pure. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on the things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.” [Colossians 3:1-6.]
“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ: as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance;” for you are to walk in the light while you have the light; “but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” [1 Peter 1:13-16.]
The question is, Shall we be Bible Christians? Will we disregard the plainest instruction given us in the word of life, and erect a false standard whereby to measure our characters? Is this a safe thing for us to do?
Christ has given us the signs by which we may distinguish the genuine Christian; no one need to be deceived by the pretentious claims of the hypocrite. “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their (profession? no, by their) fruits ye shall know them.” [Matthew 7:16-20.]
Let those who claim to be Bible believers act out their faith by obedience to all the requirements of God. Christ has invited you, “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” [Matthew 11:29.]
Let all who profess godliness heed the apostle’s admonition. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.” [1 Peter 2:11, 12.]
The apostle Paul under the influence of inspiration has spoken to us: “Ye are all the children of the light and of the day: we are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation.” [1 Thessalonians 5:5-8.]
“But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.” [Titus 2:1-8.]
There will be seasons of severe trial for those connected with our institutions, but of you know the source of you strength, you need not be overcome. Whatever influence God has given you, He requires you to throw on the side of truth, of godliness. In making men, women, and children better by pointing them to the cross of Calvary, you are doing the work He has given you to do. True Bible Christians will have an influence that will lead other minds. You, as Christians, have a weight of responsibility which no one can take from you. Said Christ, “To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.” [Luke 12:48.]
The converting power of God is needed every day. We must abide in Christ. “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” [John 15:4.] None of us can afford to sin; it is expensive business. Sin so blinds the eyes that men do not discern evil, and by their indiscreet practices they become instruments of unrighteousness, to scatter from Christ. The exhortation to Christians is, “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without” [Colossians 4:5]; for wise, discreet words and actions will be a power to draw others to Christ, where they will have fellowship with the saints. Are professed Christians walking in wisdom when they are vain and frivolous, and live so at variance with their profession of faith that those without cannot see in them the evidences of purity, of heavenly nobility?
We have the history of the antediluvians, and of the cities of the plain, whose course of conduct degenerated from lightness and frivolity to debasing sins that called down the wrath of God in a most dreadful destruction, in order to rid the earth of the curse of their contaminating influence. Inclination and passion bore sway over reason. Self was their god, and the knowledge of the Most High was nearly obliterated through the selfish indulgence of corrupt passions.
The words of Christ should ever be borne in mind: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank.” [Luke 17:26, 27.] Appetite bears away over mind and conscience in this age. Gluttony, winebibbing, liquor-drinking, tobacco using prevail, but Christ’s followers will be temperate in eating and drinking. They will not indulge appetite at the expense of health and spiritual growth.
“They married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” [Verse 27.] We see the same manifestation now in regard to marriage. Youth, and even men and women who ought to be wise and discerning, act as if bewitched upon this question. A satanic power seems to take possession of them. The most indiscreet marriages are formed. God is not consulted. Human feelings, desires, and passions, bear down everything before them, until the die is cast. Untold misery is the result of this state of things, and God is dishonored. The marriage vow covers every kind of lustful abomination. Shall there not be a decided change in reference to this matter?
“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.” [Verses 28, 29.] There is need that we eat and drink; but when men allow the gratification of appetite to occupy their thoughts and time to the neglect of their eternal interests, it is a sin for which God will punish them; for they abuse their bodies, destroy health, unbalance the mind, and strengthen the animal propensities. Then they are led by Satan to do the very things that awaken the sword of justice against them.
Christians are to seek those things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. All the warnings given, all the appeals made, do not seem to alarm those who indulge perverted appetite. They go on in sinful indulgence, and their conscience is seared as with a hot iron. They will put their own interpretation on their sinful course, saying, “I have done no moral wrong.” Clear discernment is needed—the spiritual eyesalve, which we can obtain only by becoming partakers of the divine nature.
Do those who claim to believe the Testimonies read and practice their teachings? All the light given in the living oracles and in the Testimonies, which all may read and apply, will condemn them in the day of God if they do not heed the instruction given. The new life from Christ must be implanted in the heart. God calls for the highest development of the principles of godliness. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, will be the rich clusters of fruit borne by the branches that are grafted into Christ, the parent stem. Wherever this fruit is manifest, the truth will possess power; its progress and growth will be extended.
Brethren, the days of our probation are nearly ended. It is time to awake out of sleep. You are in a position of great responsibility. You need to watch unto prayer. Watch against habits of sin. Keep a watch over the tongue. Watch for opportunities to do good and bless others, ever looking to Jesus, growing in grace and a knowledge of the truth. If you want the higher life, you must live the higher life in the lower life of this world. We are working for time and for eternity. A well-built life is formed by living upon the plan of addition, laying up one grace after another in good works, in faith, patience, temperance, benevolence, courage, [and] self-denial. “Ye are God’s husbandry. Ye are God’s building.” [1 Corinthians 3:9.] Learning of Christ, you will not be a jumble of opposites and inconsistencies, today sober and devout, tomorrow careless and frivolous.
Christ has made every provision that your character may be harmonious through the grace given you. Then build it harmoniously. Let the structure rise stone on stone. Catch the rays of divine light from Jesus, and let them shine upon the pathway of others who are in darkness. All the universe of God is looking upon us with intense interest.
Lt 96, 1896
Smith, Uriah
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales,
Australia
June 6, 1896
Dear
Brother:
The enclosed
pages present a few points which were opened to Sister White last night, and
which she wished sent to you. She has for some days been suffering from the
effects of cold and overwork, and is today unable to read or write. The matter
was written out as she presented it. We sent some copies of articles and
letters by the S. F. mail, which Sister White desired you to read; but as we
were not certain that you were in Battle Creek, they were addressed to Elder
Tenney, with directions that he read and forward to you.
Yours in the
work, [(signed) M. Davis]
“The law was
our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
[Galatians 3:24.] In this scripture, the Holy Spirit through the apostle is
speaking especially of the moral law. The law reveals sin to us, and causes us
to feel our need of Christ, and to flee unto Him for pardon and peace by
exercising repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
An
unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions, and to accept this truth, lay
at the foundation of a large share of the opposition manifested at Minneapolis
against the Lord’s message through Brethren Waggoner and Jones. By exciting
that opposition, Satan succeeded in shutting away from our people, in a great
measure, the special power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to impart to
them. The enemy prevented them from obtaining that efficiency which might have
been theirs in carrying the truth to the world, as the apostles proclaimed it
after the day of Pentecost. The light that is to lighten the whole earth with
its glory was resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a
great degree kept away from the world.
The law of
Ten Commandments is not to be looked upon as much from the prohibitory side, as
from the mercy side. Its prohibitions are the sure guarantee of happiness in
obedience. As received in Christ, it works in us the purity of character that
will bring joy to us through eternal ages. To the obedient it is a wall of
protection. We behold in it the goodness of God, who by revealing to men the
immutable principles of righteousness, seeks to shield them from the evils that
result from transgression.
We are not
to regard God as waiting to punish the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings
the punishment upon himself. His own actions start a train of circumstances
that bring the sure result. Every act of transgression reacts upon the sinner,
works in him a change of character, and makes it more easy for him to
transgress again. By choosing to sin, men separate themselves from God, cut
themselves off from the channel of blessing, and the sure result is ruin and
death.
The law is
an expression of God’s idea. When we receive it in Christ, it becomes our idea.
It lifts us above the power of natural desires and tendencies, above
temptations that lead to sin. “Great peace have they that love thy law; and
nothing shall offend them,”—cause them to stumble. [Psalm 119:165.]
There is no
peace in unrighteousness; the wicked are at war with God. But he who receives
the righteousness of the law in Christ is in harmony with heaven. “Mercy and
truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” [Psalm
85:10.]