Earlier text: THE FIRST PATIENTS AT THE PARADISE VALLEY SANITARIUM.THE LOMA LINDA SANITARIUM.
By Ellen G. White.
I wish to present before our people the blessing that the Lord has placed within our reach by enabling us to obtain possession of the beautiful sanitarium property known as Loma Linda. This property lies sixty miles east of Los Angeles, on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railway. Its name, Loma Linda—“beautiful hill”—describes the place. Of the sixty acres comprised in the property, about thirty-five form a beautiful hill, which rises one hundred and twenty-five feet above the valley. Upon this hill the sanitarium building is situated. The main building is a well-planned structure of sixty-four rooms, having three stories and a basement. It is completely furnished, heated by steam, and lighted by electricity. It is surrounded with large pepper trees and other shade trees. About ten rods away and on the highest part of the hill there is a group of fine cottages. The central cottage has nine beautiful living rooms and two bath rooms. In the basement is a heating plant for the five cottages. Prettily grouped around this larger cottage are four smaller ones, having four rooms each, with bath and toilet. An interesting feature of three of these cottages is that each room has its veranda, with broad windows running to the floor, so that the beds can be wheeled right out onto the veranda, and the patients can sleep in the open air. Between these cottages and the main building there is a recreation building, which can be used as a gymnasium, and for class rooms and meetings. In all, there are ninety rooms. The buildings are furnished throughout and are ready for use. There is a post-office in the main building, and most of the trains stop at the railway station, about forty rods from the sanitarium. The seventy-six acres of hill and valley land is well cultivated, and will furnish much fruit and many vegetables for the institution. Fifteen acres of the valley land is in alfalfa hay. Eight acres of the hill are in apricots, plums, and almonds. Ten acres are in good bearing orange orchard. Many acres of land round the cottages and the main building are laid out in lawns, drives, and walks. There are horses and carriages, cows and poultry, farming implements and wagons. The buildings and grounds are abundantly supplied with excellent water. This property is now in our possession. It cost the company from whom we purchased it about $140,000. They erected the buildings, and ran the place for a time as a sanitarium. Then they tried to operate it as a tourist hotel. But this plan did not succeed, and they decided to sell. It was closed last April, and as the stockholders became more anxious to sell, it was offered to us for $40,000, and for this amount our brethren have purchased it. We must now secure money with which to complete the payments. Ten thousand dollars have already been paid. Ten thousand more must be paid in September and December, and the remaining twenty thousand at the end of two years. Until our recent visit, I had never before seen such a place as this with my natural eyes, but four years ago just such a place was presented before me as one of those that would come into our possession if we moved wisely. It is a wonderful place in which to work for the sick, and in which to begin our work for Redlands and Riverside. We must make decided efforts to secure helpers who will do most faithful medical missionary work. If Christ will bless the treatment given and let His healing power be felt, a great work will be accomplished. We shall need to secure competent physicians and nurses,—men and women who are true160 and faithful, and who can be relied on; men and women who live in constant dependence upon the great Healer; men and women who humble their hearts before God and believe His Word, keeping their eyes fixed on their leader and counselor, the Lord Jesus Christ. O, how I long to see the sick and suffering coming to this institution! It is one of the most perfect places for a sanitarium that I have ever seen, and I thank our heavenly Father for giving us such a place. It is provided with almost everything necessary for sanitarium work, and is the very place in which sanitarium work can be carried forward on right lines by faithful physicians and managers. The buildings are all ready, and work must be begun in them as soon as we can secure the necessary physicians and nurses. I am anxious to see the work started. For some time I have been looking for just such a property as this, with good buildings all ready for occupancy, surrounded by shade trees and orchards. When I saw Loma Linda, I said, Thank the Lord. This is the very place we have been hoping to find. The character of the buildings, the terraced hill, covered by graceful pepper trees, the profusion of flowers and shrubs, the tall shade trees, the orchards and fields,—all combine to make this place meet fully the descriptions that I have given in the past of the place presented to me as the most perfect for sanitarium work. Everything at Loma Linda is fresh, wholesome, and attractive. The patients could live out of doors a large part of the time. The land will serve as a school for the education of patients. By outdoor exercise and working in the soil, men and women will regain their health. Rational methods for the cure of disease will be used in a variety of ways. Drugs will be discarded. Out of the cities, has been my constant advice. But it has taken years for our people to become aroused to an understanding of the situation. It has taken years for them to realize that the Lord would have them leave the cities and do their work in the quiet of the country, away from the161 turmoil and noise and confusion. We are thankful to God for Loma Linda. It is one of the best locations for sanitarium work that I have ever seen. At this place the sick can be given every natural advantage for regaining health and strength. Forty years ago the Lord began to give us instruction in regard to the establishment of sanitariums, as one of His chosen ways for proclaiming the third angel’s message. Men and women bring disease upon themselves by transgressing the laws of God. The laws of nature, as truly as the precepts of the decalogue, are divine, and only in obedience to them can health be recovered or preserved. Many are suffering as the result of hurtful practices, who might be restored to health if they would do what they might for their own restoration. They need to be taught that every practice which destroys the physical, mental, or moral energies is sin, and that health is to be secured through obedience to the laws that God has established for the good of all mankind. Our sanitariums are to be schools in which people of all classes shall be taught the way of salvation. In them the sick are to be taught to overcome the appetite for tea, coffee, flesh meat, tobacco, and intoxicating liquor of all kinds. In every one of our medical institutions the sick and suffering are to be pointed to the Saviour as their only hope. In the Christian life there is strength and joy and courage. Turning away from the injurious fashions of this degenerate age brings peace of mind and the assurance of the love and friendship of the heavenly Father. Receiving the Lord in simplicity and sincerity places men and women where they know the meaning of the words, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” Out of the cities, is my message. Those who have had the light, but have neglected to follow the instruction that the Lord has given regarding the location of our health institutions and schools, will one day see the folly of clinging to the cities. They will realize how kind the Lord was to point out the right way. Let your schools, the high and the lowly, be out of the cities. If you desire to live a heavenly life in this world, place yourselves in right relation to God. Let your aspirations be Christlike. Christ lived much in contact with nature. God’s missionaries are to form their lives after the divine similitude. They are to have a close connection with Christ. His life is to be their example. For the past twenty years the Lord has been giving the message that plants are to be made in many places. He will greatly bless us as we endeavor to carry out His will. Out of the city into the country is the word that has been given, and this word is to be obeyed. Our sanitariums are to be established in the most healthful surroundings. We have tried to follow closely the Lord’s directions in this matter, and He has let light shine on our pathway, as we have endeavored to establish sanitariums where sin-sick souls may be led to the great Healer. God declared that we should find buildings suitable for our work, and that these buildings would be offered to us at a very low price. Has not our recent experience in Southern California proved this true? I could not but weep for joy as I saw how plainly the providence of God had been revealed in our selection of places for sanitarium work in San Diego, Los Angeles, and the Redlands and Riverside district. Money is needed with which to establish the work in places outside of the cities, from which the cities can be worked. We must have means with which to meet the payments on Loma Linda. I ask our brethren who have means to awake to the responsibilities resting upon them, and to do what they can to help us. Those who have the Lord’s money in trust should regard it as a privilege to give of their means to help to pay for a place so well adapted to sanitarium work. Gifts, and loans at a low rate of interest, will be gladly received. My brethren, it is the Lord’s money that you are handling, and you can not invest it better than by putting it into the Lord’s work. Thus you will lay up treasure in heaven. I beseech you, by the mercies of God, “that ye163 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 conformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” I have had much to write in regard to the shortness of time. Our work is soon to close, and we are now to place ourselves in working order in God’s way. We are not to link ourselves up with those who are not wise to discern what is the will of God. We are to come out from among them, and be separate. The end of all things is at hand, and the message of warning must be given. A spirit of anger is stirring the nations, and it will soon be too late to work for the Lord. Every conceivable deception will be brought in, and the enemy will work with masterly power. Stronger and stronger will be his efforts, until in heaven it shall be said, “It is finished.”
ELLEN G. WHITE. ELDER IRWIN’S DESCRIPTION OF LOMA LINDA PROPERTY.
Brother Burden and I spent three hours looking over the grounds of the Loma Linda property, and I must say it is a beautiful place, one of the prettiest places that I have ever seen for a sanitarium site and location. The place is sixty-two miles east of Los Angeles, and four miles west of Redlands, and it lies along the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad from Los Angeles to New Orleans. The railroad company have built a nice little station for the accommodation of the institution, and quite a number of their trains stop there by flagging. The significance of the name “Loma Linda” is “beautiful hill,” and the main building is located at the top of this hill, which lies back from the railroad about thirty rods. The hill is one hundred and twenty-five feet high. There is a broad drive from the station up to the grounds, on either side of which is a row of large pepper trees, shading a cement164 walk. When you come to the rising ground there is a broad stairway made of planks. You first go up quite a number of steps, until you come to a broad landing. Going out from this landing, both to the right and to the left, is a nice walk that goes around the whole of the grounds. From this first landing you go up another flight of stairs until you come to a second landing; from this also there is a walk leading around the grounds. The third landing brings you up to the building, and this landing intercepts a carriage drive that goes around the building. A few more steps bring you up to the rotunda, which is a large room enclosed all around with glass windows. This is really the first story of the building. The building is three stories high, besides a basement, and it contains sixty-four rooms. Going out from the back of the building or around to the back from the front way, you strike a cement walk that runs in a winding direction perhaps ten rods to the highest point of the hill. On either side of this walk there are beautiful flowers, and out from this are little patches of lawn, neatly kept, and small shrubs so interspersed as to make the grounds very attractive At the end of the walk you come to five cottages, four of which have four rooms each, with electric lights, bath, and closets. Each room has a veranda, and the window is so constructed that it can be raised up on hinges, and is wide enough to admit of running the bed right out onto the veranda. These rooms are all carpeted, and with all the necessary furnishings for occupancy. The other cottage is much larger, and contains nine nice rooms, with two bath rooms, two closets, electric lights, and telephone, and all other appliances necessary for the accommodation of guests. At a distance of about four rods there is another building made on the rustic style. This building is only one story high, but it covers quite a good deal of space. I would call it an exercise building. It would make a nice gymnasium. Two or three rods from this building there is a water tower165 and tank. There is a large tank on top of the building and cement reservoir at the base. This could be used as a tool house. The people who owned the place have shares in two water companies, and these shares go with the property. In addition to this, there is an artesian well, with a tower and tank and also a cement reservoir at the base. There is an eighteen-horsepower gasoline engine for pumping water from this well. Taking the main building with the cottages that I have described, there are ninety rooms in all. In addition to these buildings, there is, on another part of the ground, a six-room cottage for the accommodation of farm hands and workmen. There is also a good stable and carriage house combined. In the carriage house there are two three-seated surreys in good condition; two buggies, somewhat worn; two wagons in the same condition, with mowing machine and other implements sufficient to carry on the work of a farm. There are five good horses that go with the place. There is also a good cow barn and four good cows. Beyond the cow barn there is quite a large fowl yard, nicely fenced in and containing the necessary buildings. There are one hundred thirty-five chickens, thirty-five turkeys, and some hogs. All of these buildings are practically new and in good repair, except a small portion of the main building which was there when the company bought the grounds and put up the buildings. In fact, all of the buildings, except this part, are only four years old. The bedsteads, bedding, carpets, rugs, chairs, piano, silverware, table furnishings, and, in fact, everything necessary to go right ahead with sanitarium work and the reception of patients, goes with the purchase price. There are seventy-six acres of land connected with the estate, divided as follows: Twelve acres of orange trees, I should judge they are about eight years old, just a nice size to be in good bearing condition, and they bear the finest oranges that I have ever tasted in my life. There are eight166 acres of plums, apricots, lemons, and grape fruit. There are twenty-three acres of ornamental grounds surroundings the buildings. The balance of the land is devoted to garden, alfalfa, and pasture. From the main building or from any of the cottages, there is a magnificent view overlooking the San Bernardino Valley, which is said to be one of the most beautiful in California. Three cities, Colton, Redlands, and Riverside, are in sight from the grounds. The institution was built by a company of one hundred and fifty men, seventy of whom were physicians. It was built as a sanitarium, but having limited experience and differing as to their ideas of how it should be run, they have made a failure in their endeavor to operate the plant, and have run behind each year. It is said that the institution cost them in all $150,000, and rather than lose more money and have to be assessed, they decided to sell it, and came down and down, until finally they offered it for $40,000 as their bedrock price, on the following conditions: $5,000 down; $5,000 the twenty-sixth of July; $5,000 the twenty-sixth of August; $5,000 the twenty-sixth of December, and the balance in three years at six per cent interest. TESTIMONIES FOR THE CHURCH
REGARDING THE
SPIRIT OF UNITY
That Should be Maintained in
The International Publishing Association
and among
Laborers of All Nationalities in the
Lord’s Harvest Field
“Holy Father, keep through Thine own name, those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are one.” PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CAL.
1905 There are many hundreds and thousands of people in the United States whose native language is not the English, and who, if warned of the things that are soon coming upon the world, must be warned in their own language. How to carry forward the work for all the foreign-speaking people in America is a great problem. At the General Conference, recently held in Washington, D. C., it was urged by some that the organization of German, Swedish, and Danish Conferences, and the separation of the work of these three nationalities, carried on by the International Publishing Association, would be beneficial. The consideration of this question was to be a prominent feature of the council called at College View, September 6 to 8, 1905. At this meeting Elder Irwin read to those assembled the following testimonies regarding unity of effort, and as many who were not at the meeting ask for copies, we now send them forth in this little tract.
W. C. W. UNITY AMONG DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES.
“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.”
“Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 7: 37; 4:14. If, with these promises before us, we choose to remain parched and withered for want of the water of life, it is our own fault. If we would come to Christ with the simplicity of a child coming to its earthly parents, and ask for the things that He has promised, believing that we receive them, we should have them. If all of us had exercised the faith we should, we would have been blessed with far more of the Spirit of God in our meetings than we have yet received. I am glad that a few days of the meeting still remain. Now the question is, Will we come to the fountain and drink? Will the teachers of truth set the example? God will do great things for us, if we by faith take Him at His word. Oh that we might see here a general humbling of the heart before God. Since these meetings began, I have felt urged to dwell much upon love and faith. This is because you need this testimony. Some who have entered these missionary fields have said, “You do not understand the French people; you do not understand the Germans. They have to be met in just such a way.” But, I inquire, does not God understand them? Is it not He who gives His servants a message for the171 people? He knows just what they need; and if the message comes directly from Him through His servants to the people it will accomplish the work whereunto it is sent; it will make all one in Christ. Though some are decidedly French, others decidedly German, and others decidedly American, they will be just as decidedly Christlike. The Jewish temple was built of hewn stones quarried out of the mountains; and every stone was fitted for its place in the temple, hewed, polished, and tested, before it was brought to Jerusalem. And when all were brought to the ground, the building went together without the sound of ax or hammer. This building represents God’s spiritual temple, which is composed of material gathered out of every nation, and tongue, and people of all grades, high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. These are not dead substances, to be fitted by hammer and chisel. They are living stones, quarried out from the world by the truth; and the great Master builder, the Lord of the temple, is now hewing and polishing them, and fitting them for their respective places in the spiritual temple. When completed, this temple will be perfect in all its parts, the admiration of angels and of men; for its Builder and Maker is God. Let no one think that there need not be a stroke placed upon him. There is no person, no nation, that is perfect in every habit and thought. One must learn of another. Therefore God wants the different nationalities to mingle together, to be one in judgment, one in purpose. Then the union that there is in Christ will be exemplified. I was almost afraid to come to this country, because I heard so many say that the different nationalities172 of Europe were peculiar, and had to be reached in a certain way. But the wisdom of God is promised to those who feel their need, and who ask for it. God can bring the people where they will receive the truth. Let the Lord take possession of the mind, and mold it as the clay is molded in the hands of the potter, and these differences will not exist. Look to Jesus, brethren; copy His manners and spirit, and you will have no trouble in reaching these different classes. We have not six patterns to follow, nor five; we have only one, and that is Christ Jesus. If the Italian brethren, the French brethren, and the German brethren, try to be like Him, they will plant their feet upon the same foundation of truth; the same spirit that dwells in one will dwell in the other,—Christ in them, the hope of glory. I warn you, brethren and sisters, not to build up a wall of partition between different nationalities. On the contrary, seek to break it down wherever it exists. We should endeavor to bring all into the harmony that there is in Jesus, laboring for the one object,—the salvation of our fellow men. Will you, my ministering brethren, grasp the rich promises of God? Will you put self out of sight, and let Jesus appear? Self must die before God can work through you. I feel alarmed as I see self cropping out in one and another here and there. I tell you, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, your wills must die; they must become as God’s will. He wants to melt you over, and cleanse you from every defilement. There is a great work to be done for you before you can be filled with the power of God. I beseech you to draw nigh to Him that you may realize His rich blessing before this meeting closes. There are those here upon whom great light in warnings and reproofs has shone.173 Whenever reproofs are given, the enemy seeks to create in those reproved a desire for human sympathy. Therefore I would warn you to beware lest in appealing to the sympathy of others, and going back over your past trials, you again err on the same points in seeking to build yourselves up. The Lord brings His erring children over the same ground again and again; but if they continually fail to heed the admonitions of His Spirit, if they fail to reform on every point where they have erred, He will finally leave them to their own weakness. I entreat you, brethren, to come to Christ and drink; drink freely of the water of salvation. Do not appeal to your own feelings. Do not think that sentimentalism is religion. Shake yourselves from every human prop, and lean heavily upon Christ. You need a new fitting up before you are prepared to engage in the work of saving souls. Your words, your actions, have an influence upon others, and you must meet that influence in the day of God. Jesus says, “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” Rev. 3:8. Light is shining from that door, and it is our privilege to receive it if we will. Let us direct our eyes within that open door, and try to receive all that Christ is willing to bestow. Each one will have a close struggle to overcome sin in his own heart. This is at times a very painful and discouraging work; because, as we see the deformities in our character we keep looking at them when we should look to Jesus, and put on the robe of His righteousness. Every one who enters the pearly gates of the city of God will enter there as a conqueror, and his greatest conquest will have been over self. “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of174 our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Eph. 3:14-19. As workers together for God, brethren and sisters, lean heavily upon the arm of the Mighty One. Labor for unity, labor for love, and you may become a power in the world. GOD’S PURPOSE IN OUR PUBLISHING HOUSES.
Solemn is the responsibility that rests upon our houses of publication. Those who conduct these institutions, those who edit the periodicals and prepare the books, standing as they do in the light of God’s purpose, and called to give warning to the world, are held by God accountable for the souls of their fellow men. To them, as well as to the ministers of the word, applies the message given by God to His prophet of old: “Son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at My mouth, and warn them from Me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” Eze. 33:7, 8. In all our work, even in mechanical lines, God desires that the perfection of His character shall appear.175 The exactness, skill, tact, wisdom, and perfection which He required in the building of the earthly tabernacle, He desires to have brought into everything that shall be done in His service. Every transaction entered into by His servants is to be as pure and precious in His sight as were the gold and frankincense and myrrh which in sincere, uncorrupted faith the wise men from the East brought to the infant Saviour. Thus in their business life Christ’s followers are to be light-bearers to the world. God does not ask them to make an effort to shine. He approves of no self-satisfied attempt to display superior goodness. He desires that their souls shall be imbued with the principles of heaven, and then, as they come in contact with the world, they will reveal the light that is in them. Their honesty, uprightness, and steadfast fidelity in every act of life will be a means of illumination. The kingdom of God comes not with outward show. It comes through the gentleness of the inspiration of His word, through the inward working of His Spirit, the fellowship of the soul with Him who is its life. The greatest manifestation of its power is seen in human nature brought to the perfection of the character of Christ. An appearance of wealth or position, expensive architecture or furnishings, are not essential to the advancement of the work of God; neither are achievements that win applause from men and administer to vanity. Worldly display, however imposing, is of no value with God. While it is our duty to seek for perfection in outward things, it should be ever kept in mind that this aim is not to be made supreme. It must be held subordinate176 to higher interests. Above the seen and transitory, God values the unseen and eternal. The former is of worth only as it expresses the latter. The choicest productions of art possess no beauty that can compare with the beauty of character which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s working in the soul. When God gave His Son to the world, He endowed human beings with imperishable riches,—riches compared with which the treasured wealth of man since the world began is nothingness. Christ came to the earth and stood before the children of men with the hoarded love of eternity, and this is the treasure that through our connection with Him we are to receive, to reveal, and to impart. Our institutions will give character to the work of God just according to the consecrated devotion of the workers,—by revealing the power of the grace of Christ to transform the life. We are to be distinguished from the world because God has placed His seal upon us, because He manifests in us His own character of love. Our Redeemer covers us with His righteousness. In choosing men and women for His service, God does not ask whether they possess learning or eloquence or worldly wealth. He asks, “Do they walk in such humility that I can teach them My way? Can I put My words into their lips? Will they represent Me?” God can use every person just in proportion as He can put His Spirit into the soul temple. The work that He will accept is the work that reflects His image. His followers are to bear, as their credentials to the world, the ineffaceable characteristics of His immortal principles. It is the glory of the gospel that it is founded upon the principle of restoring in the fallen race the divine177 image by a constant manifestation of beneficence. God will honor that principle wherever manifest. Those who follow Christ’s example of self-denial for the truth’s sake make a great impression on the world. Their example is convincing and contagious. Men see that there is among God’s professed people that faith which works by love and purifies the soul from selfishness. In the lives of those who obey God’s commandments, worldlings see convincing evidence that the law of God is a law of love to God and man. God’s work is ever to be a sign of His benevolence, and just as that sign is manifest in the working of our institutions, it will win the confidence of the people, and bring in resources for the advancement of His kingdom. The Lord will withdraw His blessing where selfish interests are indulged in any phase of the work; but He will put His people in possession of good throughout the whole world, if they will use it for the uplifting of humanity. The experience of apostolic days will come to us when we whole-heartedly accept God’s principle of benevolence,—consent in all things to obey the leadings of His Holy Spirit. TRAINING-SCHOOLS FOR WORKERS.
Our institutions should be missionary agencies in the highest sense, and true missionary work always begins with those nearest. In every institution there is missionary work to be done. From the manager to the humblest worker, all should feel a responsibility for the unconverted among their own number. They should put forth earnest effort to bring them to Christ. As the result of such effort, many will be won, and will become faithful and true in service to God. As our publishing houses take upon themselves a burden for missionary fields, they will see the necessity of providing for a broader and more thorough education of workers. They will realize the value of their facilities for this work, and will see the need of qualifying the workers, not merely to build up the work within their own borders, but to give efficient help to institutions in new fields. God designs that our publishing houses shall be successful educating schools, both in business and in spiritual lines. Managers and workers are ever to keep in mind that God requires perfection in all things connected with His service. Let all who enter our institutions to receive instruction understand this. Let opportunity be given for all to acquire the greatest possible efficiency. Let them become acquainted with different lines of work, so that, if called to other fields, they will have an all-round training, and thus be qualified to bear varied responsibilities. Apprentices should be so trained that, after the necessary time spent in the institution, they can go forth prepared to take up intelligently the different lines of printing work, giving momentum to the cause of God by the best use of their energies, and capable of imparting to others the knowledge they have received. All the workers should be impressed with the fact that they are not only to be educated in business lines, but to become qualified to bear spiritual responsibilities. Let every worker be impressed with the importance of a personal connection with Christ, a personal experience of His power to save. Let the workers be educated as were the youth in the schools of the prophets. Let their minds be molded by God through His appointed agencies. All should receive a training in Bible lines,179 should be rooted and grounded in the principles of truth, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. Let every effort be made to arouse and encourage the missionary spirit. Let the workers be impressed with a sense of the high privilege proffered them in this last work of salvation, to be used by God as His helping hand. Let each be taught to work for others, by practical labor for souls just where he is. Let all learn to look to the word of God for instruction in every line of missionary effort. Then, as the word of the Lord is communicated to them, it will supply their minds with suggestions for working the fields in such a way as to bring to God the best returns from all parts of His vineyard. Christ desires by the fulness of His power so to strengthen His people that through them the whole world shall be encircled with an atmosphere of grace. When His people shall make a whole-hearted surrender of themselves to God, this purpose will be accomplished. The words of the Lord to those connected with His institutions are, “Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.” Isa. 52:11. In all our institutions let self-seeking give place to unselfish love and labor for souls nigh and afar off. Then the holy oil will be emptied from the two olive branches into the golden pipes, which will empty themselves into the vessels prepared to receive it. Then the lives of Christ’s workers will indeed be an exposition of the truths of His word. The love and fear of God, the sense of His goodness, His holiness, will circulate through every institution. An atmosphere of love and peace will pervade every department.180 Every word spoken, every work performed, will have an influence that corresponds to the influence of heaven. Christ will abide in humanity, and humanity will abide in Christ. In all the work will appear, not the character of finite man, but the character of the infinite God. The divine influence imparted by holy angels will impress the minds brought in contact with the workers; from these workers a fragrant influence will go forth. When called to enter new fields, workers thus trained will go forth as representatives of the Saviour, fitted for usefulness in His service, and capable of imparting to others, by precept and example, a knowledge of the truth for this time. The goodly fabric of character wrought out through divine power, will receive light and glory from heaven, and will stand before the world as a witness pointing to the throne of the living God. Then the work will move forward with solidity and redoubled strength. To the workers in every line will be imparted a new efficiency. The publications sent forth as God’s messengers will bear the signet of the Eternal. Rays of light from the sanctuary above will attend the precious truths they bear. As never before, they will have power to awaken in souls a conviction of sin, to create a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, to beget a lively solicitude for the things that will never pass away. Men will learn of the reconciliation for iniquity and of the everlasting righteousness which the Messiah has brought in through His sacrifice. Many will be brought to share the glorious liberty of the sons of God, and will stand with God’s people to welcome the soon coming, in power and glory, of our Lord and Saviour.—Testimony Vol. VII, pp. 140, 142–144, 146–149. SACREDNESS OF GOD’S INSTRUMENTALITIES.
There are many who recognize no distinction between a common business enterprise, as a workshop, factory, or corn field, and an institution established especially to advance the interests of the cause of God. But the same distinction exists that in ancient times God placed between the sacred and the common, the holy and the profane. This distinction He desires every worker in our institutions to discern and appreciate. Those who occupy a position in our publishing houses are highly honored. A sacred charge is upon them. They are called to be workers together with God. They should appreciate the opportunity of so close connection with the heavenly instrumentalities, and should feel that they are highly privileged in being permitted to give to the Lord’s institution their ability, their service, and their unwearying vigilance. They should have a vigorous purpose, a lofty aspiration, a zeal to make the publishing house just what God desires it to be,—a light in the world, a faithful witness for Him, a memorial of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Both the members of the church and the employees in the publishing house should feel that as workers together with God they have a part to act in guarding His institution. They should be faithful guardians of its interests in every line, seeking to shield it, not only from loss and disaster, but from all that could profane or contaminate. Never through act of theirs should its fair fame be tarnished, even by the breath of careless criticism or censure. God’s institutions182 should be regarded by them as a holy trust, to be guarded as jealously as the ark was guarded by ancient Israel. When the workers in the publishing house are educated to think of this great center as related to God, and under His supervision; when they realize that it is a channel through which light from heaven is to be communicated to the world, they will regard it with great respect and reverence. They will cherish the best thoughts and the noblest feelings, that in their work they may have the cooperation of the heavenly intelligences. As the workers realize that they are in the presence of angels, whose eyes are too pure to behold iniquity, a strong restraint will be placed on thoughts, words, and actions. They will be given moral strength, for the Lord says, “Them that honor Me I will honor.” 1 Sam. 2:30. Every worker will have a precious experience, and will possess faith and power that will rise superior to circumstances. All will be able to say, “The Lord is in this place.”—Testimony Vol. VII, pp. 191-193. THE PUBLISHING WORK AT HOME AND ABROAD.
Selections from published and unpublished Testimonies.