Earlier text: **THE NEED OF BROADER PLANS.**THE CAUSE OF DEARTH IN THE CHURCH.
He who is appointed to act a part in the work for this time should feel the solemn responsibility resting upon him. We are working for eternity. If we eat of the bread which came from heaven, we shall be Christ-like in spirit and character. We are living in an age when there is to be no spiritual idleness. Every soul is to be charged with the heavenly current of life. The question is often asked, “What is the cause of the dearth of spiritual power in the church?” The answer comes, “The members allow their minds to be drawn away from the word of God.” We are built up physically from that which we eat, and in like manner the character of our spirituality is determined by the food given to the mind. We are to give the mind and heart proper nourishment by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. Christ declares: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. . . . I170 am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. . . . Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath 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.” John 6:47-57. We must abide in Christ, and Christ must abide in us; for we are “laborers together with God.” The work of the Christian is an individual work. Let God’s workers cease to find fault, for this is sin. Let them improve themselves as they think that their fellow workers should improve. It is their privilege to live in Christ by eating the bread of life. Those who do this will have a healthy, growing experience, and the righteousness of God will go before them as they do the work specified in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. Every branch of the work of God is to have recognition. “He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Eph. 4:11, 12. This scripture shows that there are to be different workers, different instrumentalities. Each has a different work. No one is required to lay hold of another’s work, and, though untrained, try to do it. God has given to each according to his ability. One man may think that his position gives him authority to dictate to other workers, but this is not so. Ignorant of their work, he would enlarge where he should retrench, and retrench where he should enlarge, because he can see only the part of the vineyard where he is working. Live for God. Make the Saviour’s teaching a part of your life. Your pathway will be brightened by clear, shining light. You will have the heavenly anointing, and will be kept from making grave blunders. Do not be so intent upon the work you are doing in one portion of the Lord’s vineyard that you can not appreciate the work that others are doing in other parts of the vineyard. They may be faithfully cultivating their talents, so that they can return them, doubled, to their God. Let every man look well to his own work, making sure that it is complete, without spot or wrinkle to mar its perfection. Then leave it with God to say, “Well done, 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.” Matt. 25:23. COORANBONG, N. S. W., April 17, 1899. To a Physician in Perplexity—
My Dear Brother: I have a deep interest in you and your work, and I pray that the Lord will guide my pen as I write to you. The Lord has made you a man of His appointment, and angels of God have been your helpers. The Lord has placed you in the position that you occupy, not because you are infallible, but because He desires to guide your mind by His Holy Spirit. He desires you to impart to those with whom you come in contact a knowledge of present truth. Grave responsibilities have been entrusted to you, and on no account should you allow yourself to be entangled in work that will weaken your influence with Seventh-day Adventists. The Lord has chosen you to fill a place of His appointment, to stand before the medical profession, not to be moulded by worldly influences, but to mould minds. Every day you are to be under the supervision of God. He is your Maker, your Redeemer. He has a work for you to do, not separated from Seventh-day Adventists, but united with them. You are to be a great blessing to your brethren by giving them the knowledge that He has given you. Through you God has worked, and desires still to work, honoring you by entrusting to you important responsibilities. “We are laborers together with God.” 1 Cor. 3:9. He will use you and me and each human being who enters His service, if we will submit to His guidance. Each one is to stand in his watchtower, listening attentively to that which the Spirit has to say to him, remembering that his every word and act makes an impression, not only on his own character, but on the characters of those with whom he is connected. “Ye are God’s husbandry; ye are God’s building.” 1 Cor. 3:9. This figure represents human character, which is to be wrought upon, point by point. Each day God works with His building, stroke upon stroke, to perfect the structure, that it may become a holy temple for Him. Man is to co-operate with God. Each worker is to become just what God designs him to be, building his life with pure, noble deeds, that in the end his character may be a symmetrical structure, a fair temple, honored by God and man. There is to be no flaw in the building, for it is the Lord’s. Every stone must be perfectly laid, that it may endure the pressure placed upon it. One stone laid wrong will affect the whole building. To you and to every other worker God gives the warning: “Take heed how you build, that your building may stand the test of storm and tempest, because it is founded on the eternal Rock. Place the stone on the sure foundation, that you may make ready for the day of test and trial, when all will be seen just as they are.” A TEMPLE OF LIVING STONES.
This warning God presents to me as especially necessary for your welfare. He loves you with a love that is immeasurable. He loves your brethren in the faith, and He works with them to the same end as that to which He works with you. His church on earth is to assume divine proportions before the world, as a temple built of living stones, each one reflecting light. It is to be the light of the world, as a city set on a hill, which can not be hid. It is built of stones laid close together, stone fitting to stone, making a firm, solid building. Not all the stones are of the same form or shape. Some are large, some are small, but each has its own place to fill. And the value of each stone is determined by the light that it reflects. This is God’s174 plan. He desires all His workers to fill their appointed places in the work for this time. We are living amidst the perils of the last days. We are wisely to cultivate every mental and physical power; for all are needed to make the church a building that will represent the wisdom of the great Designer. The talents given us by God are His gifts, and they are to be used in their right relation to one another, so as to make a perfect whole. God gives the talents, the powers of the mind; man forms the character. DIFFERENT INSTRUMENTALITIES.
The Lord has wrought with you, enabling you to act your part as His workman; but there are other workmen also who are to act their part as His instrumentalities. These help to compose the whole body. All are to be united as parts of one great organism. The Lord’s church is composed of living, working agencies, who derive their power to act from the author and finisher of their faith. They are to carry forward in harmony the great work resting on them. God has given you your work. But He has other instrumentalities, and to them He has given their work, that all may become, through sanctification of the truth, members of Christ’s body, of His flesh and of His bones. Representing Christ, we act for time and for eternity; and men, even worldly men, take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him. God’s people are not to be in confusion, lacking order and harmony, consistency and beauty. The Lord is greatly dishonored when disunion exists among His people. Truth is a unit. The unity that God requires must be cultivated day by day, if we would answer the prayer of Christ. The disunion that is striving for existence among those who profess to believe the last175 message of mercy to be given to the world, must find no place; for it would be a fearful hindrance to the advancement of God’s work. His servants are to be one, as Christ is one with the Father; their powers, illuminated, inspired, and sanctified, must be united to make a complete whole. Those who love God and keep His commandments are not to draw apart; they are to press together. The Lord does not forsake His faithful workmen. Bear in mind that our life in this world is but a pilgrimage, that heaven is the home to which we are going. Have faith in God. If my words have wounded and bruised your soul, I am sorry; I am wounded and bruised also. Our work, a strange work, a great work, given us by God, links us heart and soul together. You dare not throw off your armor. You must wear it till the end. When the Lord releases you, it will be time for you to lay your armor at His feet. You have enlisted in His army to serve till the close of the battle, and you would not disgrace yourself and dishonor God by deserting. May the Lord open to you many matters that He has opened to me. Satan is watching his opportunity to dishonor the cause of God. I have been shown your peril, and I have also been shown your guardian angel preserving you again and again from yourself, keeping you from making shipwreck of faith. My brother, lift up the standard, lift it up, and be not faint-hearted or discouraged. I have given the leading men in the General Conference and the Mission Board the light given me by God,—that you and they should counsel together; that, instead of holding themselves aloof, they should be your fellow helpers; that you had been ordained by God to stand in a position of trust, and you needed help instead of censure. help instead of condemnation. In the intensity of my desire that you should make176 straight paths for your feet, I have written earnest words to you, but never, never, to denounce or condemn you. O that God would make you understand that my deep interest in you has not changed in the least. I have a most earnest desire that you shall stand fast in God, firm, tried, and true. I know that the Lord wants you to have the crown of victory. “When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. . . . And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” Eph. 4:8-16. CHRIST THE MEDIUM OF PRAYER AND BLESSING.
BALACLAVA, Victoria, Australia,
March 25, 1898. To a Sanitarium Physician— MY DEAR BROTHER: I have just received your letters. I see that you are having a close battle financially. I am so glad that you can heed the encouragement in the words, “Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.” Isa. 27:5. Let us have faith in God. Let us put our trust in Him. He understands all about the situation in which we are placed, and He will work in our behalf. He is honored when we trust in Him, bringing to Him all our perplexities. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name,” Christ says, “that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14: 13. God’s appointments and grants in our behalf are without limit. The throne of grace itself is occupied by One who permits us to call Him Father. “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. Jehovah did not deem the plan of salvation complete while invested only with His love. He has placed at His altar an Advocate clothed in our nature. As our intercessor, Christ’s office-work is to introduce us to God as His sons and daughters. He intercedes in behalf of those who receive Him. With His own blood He has paid their ransom. By virtue of His merits, He gives them power to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. And the Father demonstrates His infinite love for Christ by receiving and welcoming Christ’s friends as His friends. He is satisfied178 with the atonement made. He is glorified by the incarnation, the life, death, and mediation of His Son. In Christ’s name our petitions ascend to the Father. He intercedes in our behalf, and the Father lays open all the treasures of His grace for our appropriation, for us to enjoy and impart to others. “Ask in My name,” Christ says. “I do not say that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loveth you. Make use of My name. This will give your prayers efficiency, and the Father will give you the riches of His grace. Wherefore ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” Christ is the connecting link between God and man. He has promised His personal intercession. He places the whole virtue of His righteousness on the side of the suppliant. He pleads for man, and man, in need of divine help, pleads for himself in the presence of God, using the influence of the One who gave His life for the life of the world. As we acknowledge before God our appreciation of Christ’s merits, fragrance is given to our intercessions. As we approach God through the virtue of the Redeemer’s merits, Christ places us close by His side, encircling us with His human arm, while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Infinite. He puts His merits, as sweet incense, in the censer in our hands, in order to encourage our petitions. He promises to hear and answer our supplications. Yes; Christ has become the medium of prayer between man and God. He has also become the medium of blessing between God and man. He has united divinity with humanity. Men are to co-operate with Him for the salvation of their own souls, and then make earnest, persevering efforts to save those who are ready to die. We must all work now, while the day lasts; for the night cometh, in which no man can work. I am of good179 courage in the Lord. There are times when I am shown distinctly that there exists in our churches a state of things that will not help but hinder souls. Then I have hours, and sometimes days, of intense anguish. Many of those who have a knowledge of the truth do not obey the words of God. Their influence is no better than the influence of worldlings. They talk like the world and act like the world. O, how my heart aches as I think of how the Saviour is put to shame by their unchristlike behavior! But after the agony is past, I feel like working harder than ever to restore the poor souls, that they may reveal the image of God. Pray, yes, pray with unshaken faith and trust. The Angel of the Covenant, even our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Mediator who secures the acceptance of the prayers of His believing ones. COORANBONG, N. S. W., Dec. 12, 1899. To the Medical Superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium— - My Dear Brother: You speak as if you had no friends. But God is your friend, and Sister White is your friend. You have thought that I had lost confidence in you; but, my dear brother, as I have before written you, I know that the Lord has placed you in a very responsible position, standing as you do as a physician to whom the Lord has given knowledge and understanding, that you may do justice and judgment, and reveal a true missionary spirit in the institution established to present truth in contrast with error.
My brother, the Lord has not left you to go on a warfare at your own charges. He has given you wisdom, and favor with God and man. He has been your helper. He has chosen you as His agent, to exalt the truth in the Battle Creek Sanitarium, as it is not exalted in the medical institutions of the world. It was His purpose that the Battle Creek Sanitarium should be known as an institution where the Lord is daily acknowledged as the Monarch of the universe. “He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” Dan. 4:35. The Lord designs that the proclamation of the third angel’s message shall be the highest, greatest work carried on in our world at this time. He has honored you by placing you in a very responsible position in His work. You were not to separate your influence from the ministry of the gospel. Into every line of your work you were to bring an understanding of and obedience to the truth. The place assigned you by the Lord was under Him in the divine theocracy. You181 were to learn of Jesus, the great Teacher, planning and working in accordance with His example. You were to make God first, ever obeying His word. In this would be your strength. You were to be a faithful physician of the souls as well as of the bodies of those under your charge. Had you fulfilled this trust, using aright the talents God gave you, you would not have worked alone. One who never makes a mistake was presiding. Only the Holy Spirit’s power can keep the spirit sweet and fragrant, soft and subdued, enabling the worker to speak the right words at the right time. You have not been faultless. Often you lost control of yourself. Then your words were not what they should have been. At times you were arbitrary and exacting. But when you were striving for the mastery over self, angels of God co-operated with you, because through you God was working to exalt His truth, and cause it to receive honored recognition in the world. God gave you wisdom, not that your name should be magnified, but that those coming to the Sanitarium in Battle Creek should carry away with them favorable impressions regarding the work of Seventh-day Adventists, and respect for the principles that are the foundation of their work. The honor given you did not come to you because you were righteous above all men, but because God desired to use you as His instrument. GOD’S PURPOSE IN ESTABLISHING THE SANITARIUM.
It was God’s purpose that in the Sanitarium, missionaries, teachers, and physicians should become acquainted with the third angel’s message, which embraces so much. Angels of God were to be your strength in the work that was to be done in order that the Battle Creek Sanitarium might be known as an institution under the special supervision of God. The missionary feeling and the sympathy that prevailed in182 this institution was a result of the work of invisible heavenly agencies there. God said: “I thought it good to show signs and wonders. In My might I wrought to glorify My name.” Many have gone from the Sanitarium with new hearts. The change has been decided. These, returning to their homes, have been as lights in the world. Their voices have been heard, saying: “Come all ye that fear God, and I will make known to you what He hath done for my soul. I have seen His greatness; I have tasted His goodness.” The Lord has shown me that if the enemy can by any means divert the work into wrong channels, and thus hinder its advancement, he will do so. Many of our people have made investments without sitting down to count the cost, without finding out whether there was money enough to carry forward the work started. Shortsightedness has been shown. Men have failed to see that the Lord’s vineyard embraces the world. The income of the sanitariums that have been established is not to be drawn upon to sustain numerous lines of work for the lower classes in our wicked cities. Much of the means that has been used to sustain this large and ever-increasing work should, by the Lord’s order, have been used in making plants in other countries, where the light of health reform has not shone. Sanitariums, less costly than the large ones erected in America, should have been built in many lands. Thus plants would have been made which, when strong, would have assisted to make plants in other places. The Lord is not partial. But He has been misrepresented by His workmen. That which should have been done in many different parts of His vineyard has been greatly hindered, because men at the heart of the work have failed to see how the work could be advanced in more distant parts of the vineyard. In some183 parts of the field the work has been overdone. In this way money has been absorbed that should have been used to enable workers in other parts of the vineyard to move forward without hindrance in planting the standard of truth in new places. Some portions of the vineyard are not to be robbed in order that the means may be used freely in other portions of the field. Man judges in accordance with his finite judgment. God looks at the character of the fruit borne, and then judges the tree. In the name of the Lord I call upon all to think of the work that we are required to do, and how this work is to be sustained. The world is the Lord’s vineyard, and it is to be worked. It is not a great number of institutions, large buildings, and outward display, that God requires, but the harmonious action of a peculiar people, a people chosen by God and precious, united with one another, their life hid with Christ in God. Every man is to stand in his lot and place, exerting a right influence in thought, word, and deed. When all God’s workers do this, and not till then, His work will be a complete, symmetrical whole. God desires His institutions and His chosen, adopted children to honor Him by revealing the attributes of Christian character. The work that the gospel embraces as missionary work is a straightforward, substantial work, which will shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. God does not want the faith of His people to take on the features or appearance of the humanitarian work now called medical missionary work. The means and talents of His people are not to be buried in the slums of New York or Chicago. God’s work is to be carried on in right lines. Self-denial and self-sacrifice are to be shown. We are to work as Christ worked, in simplicity and meekness, in lowliness and consecration. Thus we shall be184 enabled to do a work distinct from all other missionary work in our world. There are many of those who are supposed to be rescued from the pit into which they have fallen who can not be relied on as counselors, or trusted to engage in the work in these last days. The enemy is determined to mix error with truth. To do this he uses the opportunity given him by the debased class for whom so much labor and money are expended, the class whose appetites have been perverted through indulgence, whose souls have been abused, whose characters are misshapen and deformed, whose habits and desires are groveling, who think habitually upon evil. Such ones can be transformed in character; but how few there are with whom the work is thorough and lasting! Some will be sanctified through the truth; but many make a superficial change in their habits and practises, and then suppose that they are Christians. They are received into church fellowship, but they are a great trouble and a great care. Through them Satan tries to sow in the church the seeds of jealousy, dishonesty, criticism, and accusing. Thus he tries to corrupt the other members of the church. The disposition that has mastered them from childhood, that led them to break away from all restraint, and brought them down to degradation, still controls them. They are reported to be rescued, but too often time shows that the work done for them did not make them submissive children of God. At every supposed slight, resentful feelings rise. They cherish bitterness, wrath, malice. By their words and spirit they show that they have not been born again. Their tendencies are downward, tending to sensuality. They are untrustworthy, unthankful, unholy. Thus it is with all who have not been soundly converted. Every one of these marred characters, untransformed, becomes an efficient worker for Satan, creating dissension and strife. The Lord has marked out our way of working. As a185 people we are not to imitate and fall in with Salvation Army methods. This is not the work that the Lord has given us to do. Neither is it our work to condemn them and speak harsh words against them. There are precious, self-sacrificing souls in the Salvation Army. We are to treat them kindly. There are in the Army honest souls, who are sincerely serving the Lord, and who will see greater light, advancing to the acceptance of all truth. The Salvation Army workers are trying to save the neglected, down-trodden ones. Discourage them not. Let them do that class of work by their own methods, and in their own way. But the Lord has plainly pointed out the work that Seventh-day Adventists are to do. Camp-meetings and tent-meetings are to be held. The truth for this time is to be proclaimed. A decided testimony is to be borne. And the discourses are to be so simple that children can understand them. HELPING OR HINDERING THE LORD.
There are those entering the medical missionary work who are in danger of bringing into it the objectionable sentiments received in their former education. They need to practise the principles laid down in the word of God, else the work will be marred by their preconceived ideas. When we work with all the sanctified ability that God has given us, when we put aside our will for the will of God, when self is crucified day by day, then good results are seen. We move forward in faith, knowing that our Lord has promised to undertake the work entrusted to Him, and that He will accomplish it; for He never makes a mistake or a failure. The Lord’s servants are merely stewards. The Lord will work through them when they surrender themselves to Him to be worked by the Holy Spirit. When by faith men place themselves in the Lord’s hands, saying, “Here am I; send me,” He accepts them for186 service. But men must not hinder His plans by ambitious devisings. For years the Lord has had a controversy with His people because they have followed their own judgment, and have not relied on divine wisdom. Let the workers take heed lest they get in the Lord’s way, hindering the advancement of His work, thinking that their wisdom is sufficient for the successful planning and carrying forward of the work. If they do this, the Lord will correct their error. By His divine Spirit He enlightens and trains His workers. He shapes His own providences to carry forward His work according to His mind and will. GOD’S PURPOSE FOR HIS WORKERS.
If men will but humble themselves before God, if they will not exalt their judgment as the all-controlling influence, if they will make room for the Lord to plan and work, God will use the qualifications He has given them in a way that will glorify His name. He will purify His workers from all selfishness, cutting off the branches that would entwine around undesirable objects, pruning the vine so that it will produce fruit. God is the great Husbandman. He will make everything in the lives of those who are laborers together with Christ subservient to His great purpose of growth and fruit-bearing. It is His plan, by conforming His servants day by day to the image of Christ, by making them partakers of the divine nature, to cause them to bear fruit abundantly. He desires His people, through actual experience in the truth of the gospel, to become true, solid, trustworthy, experimental missionaries. He would have them show results far higher, holier, and more definite than in our day have yet been revealed. The potter takes the clay in his hands, and moulds and fashions it according to his own will. He kneads it and works it. He tears it apart, and then presses it together. He wets it, and then dries it. He lets it lie for a while without touching it.187 When it is perfectly pliable, he continues the work of making of it a vessel. He forms it into shape, and on the wheel trims and polishes it. He dries it in the sun, and bakes it in the oven. Thus it becomes a vessel fit for use. So the great Master-worker desires to mould and fashion us. And as the clay is in the hands of the potter, so are we to be in His hands. We are not to try to do the work of the potter. Our part is to yield ourselves to the moulding of the Master-worker. THE NEED OF WISE COUNSELORS.
The Lord has appointed the physicians in the Sanitarium to stand as faithful sentinels. Through them God desired to do the work that must be done in the institution. They were to be your helpers. Through them impressions were to be made in regard to the work of relieving suffering humanity. But you have needed the counsel of others besides your co-laborers. Fresh, new ideas were needed in your counsels; for not all your plans bore the divine credentials. You have been swaying the minds of those connected with you in the medical missionary work, until you and they were becoming like men lost in the fog of uncertainty. I was instructed by the Lord that your temptation would be to make your medical missionary work stand independent of the Conference. But this plan was not right. I saw that you could not plan as you had been doing, or carry out your ideas, without injury to yourself and to the cause of God. My brother, as a surgeon you have had the most critical cases to handle, and at times a dread has come upon you. To perform these difficult duties, you knew that rapid work must be done, and that no false moves must be made. Again and again you had to pass swiftly from task to task. Who has been by your side188 as you have performed these critical operations? Who has kept you calm and self-possessed in the crisis, giving you quick, sharp discernment, clear eyesight, steady nerves, and skilful precision? The Lord Jesus has sent His angel to your side to tell you what to do. A hand has been laid upon your hand. Jesus, and not you, has guided the movements of your instrument. At times you have realized this, and a wonderful calmness has come over you. You dared not hurry, and yet you worked rapidly, knowing that there was not a moment to lose. The Lord has greatly blessed you. You have been under the divine guidance. Others who knew not of the presiding Presence working with you, gave you all the glory. Eminent physicians have witnessed your operations and praised your skill. This has been pleasant to you. You have been greatly honored by God, that His name, not yours, should be magnified; but you have not always been able to endure the seeing of the Invisible. You have had a desire to distinguish yourself, and you have not at all times placed your entire dependence upon God. You have not been willing to heed the counsel of the Lord’s servants. In your own wisdom you have planned many things. The Lord would have you respect the gospel ministry. At the very time when you needed discernment, that you might see, not only one side of the work, but all sides, you chose for counselors men under the reproof of God. You were willing to link up with them if they would second your propositions. By prayer and consecration, by seeking the Lord for wisdom and surrendering yourself to His guidance, you would have been prevented from starting many enterprises that have been born, not of the will of God, but of the will of man. You were given your appointed work. But you have neglected things of great importance to take up, with impulsive spirit, unadvised by the Lord or your brethren, things of minor importance.189 Your brethren could have given you counsel, but you despised any word that interfered with your plans. This has placed you in a difficult position. Had you abode by your appointed work, God would have made you more and more a successful laborer together with Him. The Lord wants your mind to blend with other minds. Sometimes, when His servants have differed with you, this was the very thing that God required them to do. But you treated their advice in such a way that afterward they remained silent when they should have spoken. God desires those whom He has placed in positions of trust to do justice and judgment in all wisdom. BURDENS THAT THE LORD HAS NOT GIVEN.
The Lord gave you your work, not to be done in a rush, but in a calm, considerate manner. The Lord never compels hurried, complicated movements. But you have gathered to yourself responsibilities that the Lord, the merciful Father, does not place upon you. Duties He never ordained that you should perform chase one another wildly. Never are His servants to leave one duty marred or incomplete in order to seize hold of another. He who labors in the calmness of the fear of God will not work in a haphazard manner, for fear that something will hinder an anticipated plan. Not all the burdens that you have been carrying have been laid upon you by the Lord. The result of your carrying these extra burdens is felt all through the field. If you had kept at your appointed work, laboring for the class of people whom the Lord desired, by means of the Sanitarium, to reach with present truth, with the message that God has given His people to give to the world, much more would have been accomplished to bring the chosen people of God before men of high standing. Much more would have been accomplished to show forth the ways and works and power of God.190 The Sanitarium was to be His witness in behalf of truth, elevated, sanctifying truth. The Lord made you, my brother, His honored instrument. He never required from you one task that would crowd out your work in connection with the institution that was to stand for the truth, to do a certain work for God, flashing light upon the pathway of thousands. You have a great and sacred work to do. If you hold faithfully to the part assigned you, through the skill given you, you will be enabled to work swiftly, though never appearing to be in a hurry. When your eyes are opened, you will see the deep poverty of the mission fields. You will see that the workers there are hampered at every step, while the Lord’s money is being used to sustain home enterprises and institutions, so that the message which should be given to the world is lost sight of. God impresses different men to be laborers together with Him. One man is not authorized to gather too many responsibilities upon himself. The Lord would have the physician upon whom so much depends so closely connected with Him, that his spirit will not be irritated by little things. The Lord desires you to be one of the most efficient workers in the medical profession, slighting nothing, marring nothing, knowing that you have a Counselor close by your side, to sustain and strengthen you, to impart quietness and calm to your soul. Feverishness of mind and uncertainty of spirit will make the hand unskilful. The touch of Christ upon the physician’s hand brings vitality, restfulness, confidence, and power. I write to you as a mother would write to her son. I would help you if I could. I would go to see you if I could feel it my duty to leave the work here in Australia; but I dare not do this. You have built up hopes and nurtured plans without due consideration of how the tower is to be completed. As one who knows, as one who has been permitted to see the results of the191 work that you have taken upon you, I call upon you to stop and consider. God knows your frame. He knows that you are but dust. You will certainly need the counsel, not only of those who have encouraged you to go on in the work which you deem so important, but the counsel of men who, at the present time, are able to see more clearly than you do the results that will follow certain undertakings. Cast not behind you as of no consequence the warnings that as yet you do not understand. If you receive the messages of warning sent you, you will be saved from great trial. Extract from letter, written in 1899, from Wellington, N. Z.—We are not to allow our perplexities and disappointments to eat into our souls, and make us fretful and impatient. Let there be no strife, no evil-thinking or evil-speaking, lest we offend God. My brother, if you open your heart to envy and evil-surmising, the Holy Spirit can not abide with you. Seek for the fulness that is in Christ. Labor in His lines. Let every thought and word and deed reveal Him. You need a daily baptism of the love that in the days of the apostles made them all of one accord. This love will bring health to body, mind, and soul. Surround your soul with an atmosphere that will strengthen spiritual life. Cultivate faith, hope, courage, and love. Let the peace of God rule in your heart. Then you will be enabled to discharge your responsibilities. The Holy Spirit will impart a divine efficiency, a calm, subdued dignity, to all your efforts to relieve suffering. You will testify that you have been with Jesus.