Your ShelfYour Projects

A Word of Caution

20%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 9, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 32.

Read the full edition

A Word of Caution

By Editor

The management of the Battle Creek Sanitarium has sent out to each member of the constituency of the Michigan Sanitarium and Benevolent Association a letter calling attention to the declaration of principles, “the signing and supporting of which are essential to membership.” An extraordinary, but under certain circumstances very useful, provision in this declaration of principles makes it possible for a two-thirds’ majority of the members attending a meeting at which trustees are to be elected, “prior to said election,” to expel from membership, or to suspend from all membership rights for an indefinite period, any person who “in their judgment” is “not in harmony with the principles of the work of the association.” The time seems to have arrived when the management deem it advisable to avail themselves of whatever advantage this remarkable provision confers, and a pledge of renewed loyalty to the principles and of future co-operation “with the officers of the association in the promulgation of these principles and the carrying forward of the work connected therewith,” to be executed in due form before a witness, is now expected of each member who desires to retain his membership in the association. And it is plainly declared that if such pledge is not received “on or before Aug. 21, 1906,” the date of the next annual meeting of the constituency, the question of the standing of each member failing to make such a pledge “may be made subject to inquiry and action.”
Those who are acquainted with the course of our denominational history for the past four years will hardly need to read between the lines in order to satisfy their own minds concerning the real purpose of this communication to the members of the Michigan Sanitarium and Benevolent Association. The absolute power conferred upon those present at a legal meeting of the constituency to expel members who in the judgment of a two-thirds’ majority are “not in harmony” (an expression of great latitude) with their interpretation of “the principles” opens the way to remove from the roll of membership those who are in harmony with the rational principles of health and hygiene, but who are “not in harmony” with some of the principles which have been advocated at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, or with some of the methods which have been pursued by the management. The significance of bringing forward and emphasizing at this particular juncture the possibility and probability of the loss of membership by those “not in harmony” with the association does not need to be pointed out in order to be appreciated.
Furthermore, it should not escape notice that before the election of the officers, members who desire to retain their standing are asked to pledge that they “will co-operate with the officers of the association in the promulgation of these principles and the carrying forward of the work connected therewith.” Under ordinary circumstances this demand might not mean so much, but when we remember that a large majority of the members of this association are Seventh-day Adventists, and that the present management of the association has been very plainly reproved through the spirit of prophecy, the pledge required becomes equivalent to a promise to approve of a management which now stands under the reproof of the spirit of prophecy. We are not called upon to affirm that this is the real intent of the pledge, but we simply point out the fact.
In view of these circumstances, and of the further fact that all present members of the association have already given evidence that they are in harmony with the original principles of the organization by signing the Declaration of Principles once, we feel free to advise readers of the REVIEW who may be members of the Michigan Sanitarium and Benevolent Association to make no response whatever to the communication which they have received from Battle Creek, and to leave the question of their future membership in the association to be “made subject to inquiry and action,” if such a course is deemed to be advisable at the coming meeting of the association. “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.”