Earlier text: THE SANITARIUM.HOW SHALL OUR YOUTH BE TRAINED?
September, 1903. As I consider the state of things in Battle Creek, I tremble for our youth who go there. The light given me by the Lord,— that our youth should not collect in Battle Creek to receive332 their education,— has in no particular changed. The fact that the Sanitarium has been rebuilt does not change the light. That which in the past has made Battle Creek a place unsuitable for the education of our youth makes it unsuitable to-day, so far as influence is concerned. When the call came to move out of Battle Creek, the plea was, “We are here, and all settled. It would be an impossibility to move without enormous expense.” The Lord permitted fire to consume the principal buildings of the Review and Herald and the Sanitarium, and thus removed the greatest objection urged against moving out of Battle Creek. It was his design that instead of rebuilding the one large Sanitarium, our people should make plants in several places. These smaller sanitariums should have been established where land could be secured for agricultural purposes. It is God’s plan that agriculture shall be connected with the work of our sanitariums and schools. Our youth need the education to be gained from this line of work. It is well—and more than well, it is essential—that efforts be made to carry out the Lord’s plan in this respect. Shall we encourage our most promising young men and women to go to Battle Creek to obtain their training for service where they will be surrounded with so many influences that tend to lead astray? The Lord has revealed to me some of the dangers that the youth connected with so large a sanitarium will have to meet. Many of the wealthy, worldly men and women who patronize this institution will be a source of temptation to the helpers. Some of these helpers will become the favorites of wealthy333 patients, and will be offered strong inducements to enter their employ. Through the influence of the worldly display of some who have been guests at the Sanitarium, tares have already been sown in the hearts of young men and women employed as helpers and nurses. This is the way in which Satan is working. Because the Sanitarium is where it ought not to be, shall the word of the Lord regarding the education of our youth be of no account? Shall we allow the most intelligent of our youth in the churches throughout our conferences to be placed where some of them will be robbed of their simplicity through contact with men and women who have not the fear of God in their hearts? Will those in charge of our conferences allow our youth who in the schools for Christian workers could be fitted for the Lord’s service, to be drawn to a place from which for years the Lord has been calling upon his people to move? We desire our youth to be so trained that they will exert a saving influence in our churches, working for greater unity and deeper piety. Men may not see the necessity for the call to families to leave Battle Creek, and settle in places where they can do gospel medical missionary work. But the Lord has spoken. Shall we question his word? — “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VIII, pp. 227–229. THE BUILDING OF MAMMOTH INSTITUTIONS.
It is that thirsting souls may be led to the living water that we plead for sanitariums, not extensive, mammoth sanitariums, but homelike institutions in pleasant places. Never, never build mammoth institutions. Let these institutions be small, and let there be more of them, that the work of winning souls to Christ may be accomplished. . . . The sick are to be reached, not by massive buildings, but by the establishment of small sanitariums, which are to be as lights shining in a dark place. Those who are engaged in this work are to reflect the sunlight of Christ’s face. They are to be as salt that has not lost its savor. By sanitarium work properly conducted, the influence of true, pure religion will be extended to many souls. I have been instructed to tell our people that they are not to erect such large buildings for sanitariums. The medical institution in Battle Creek would better have been divided into at least seven different plants, so that other places would have had proper facilities for the care of the sick. There are many places in Europe and in America where medical missionary work should be begun; but these openings have been neglected in order to build up a great institution in Battle Creek, while nothing is as yet established in London and other places in Europe; nothing in many cities in our own country. The centering of so much in Battle Creek leads many of our people to drift in there, and this congested condition often destroys their piety and unfits them for the Master’s service. A MESSAGE OF BIBLE TRUTH NEEDED.
January 2, 1903. My heart is filled with sorrow. For months I have had premonition of some coming disaster. I have seen what appeared to be a flaming sword of fire stretched over Battle Creek. Now a telegram has come from Battle Creek stating that the Review and Herald office has been destroyed by fire. For many years I have carried a heavy burden for our institutions. I have borne many messages from God. Yet I knew that those for whom these messages were intended were not heeding them. Sometimes I have thought I would attend no more large gatherings of our people, for my messages seem to leave little impression on the minds of our leading brethren after the meetings have closed, although I bear a heavy burden, and go from the meeting pressed down as a cart beneath sheaves. At this time when God’s people should be bearing a plain, clear message, filled with earnestness and power, many who have been appointed to preach the truth are departing from the faith. The enemy with his evil angels has come down in great power, bringing in delusions and false theories. He is working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness that he may, if possible, “deceive the very elect.” Our people are in danger of being drawn away from the important, definite truths for this time. A message of Bible truth is called for to-day, and should come from hearts imbued with the Holy Spirit, and lips that have been touched with live coals from the divine altar. THE WORK OF UNION CONFERENCE
TRAINING-SCHOOLS.
ALL our denominational colleges and training-schools should make provision to give their students the education essential for evangelists and for Christian business men. The youth and those more advanced in years who feel it their duty to fit themselves for work requiring the passing of certain legal tests should be able to secure at our Union Conference training-schools all that is essential, without having to go to Battle Creek for their preparatory education. Prayer will accomplish wonders for those who give themselves to prayer, watching thereunto. God desires us all to be in a waiting, hopeful position. What he has promised he will do, and if there are legal requirements making it necessary that medical students shall take a certain preparatory course of study, let our colleges teach the required additional studies in a manner consistent with Christian education. The Lord has signified his displeasure that so many of our people are drifting into Battle Creek; and since he does not want so many to go there, we should understand that he wants our schools in other places to have efficient teachers, and to do well the work that must be done. They should arrange to carry their students to the point of literary and scientific training that is necessary. Many of these requirements have been made because so much of the preparatory work done in ordinary schools is superficial. Let all our work be thorough, faithful, and true. In our training-schools the Bible is to be made the basis of all education. And in the required337 studies, it is not necessary for our teachers to bring in the objectionable books that the Lord has instructed us not to use in our schools. From the light that the Lord has given me, I know that our training-schools in various parts of the field should be placed in the most favorable position possible for qualifying our youth to meet the tests specified by State laws regarding medical students. To this end the very best teaching talent should be secured, that our schools may be brought up to the required standard. But let not the young men and young women in our churches be advised to go to Battle Creek in order to obtain a preparatory education. There is a congested state of things at Battle Creek that makes it an unfavorable place for the proper education of Christian workers. Because the warnings in regard to the work in that congested center have not been heeded, the Lord permitted two of our institutions to be consumed by fire. Even after this revealing of his signal displeasure his warnings were not heeded. The Sanitarium is still there. If it had been divided into several plants, and its work and influence given to several different places, how much more God would have been glorified! But now that the Sanitarium has been rebuilt, we must do our very best to help those who are there struggling with many difficulties. Let me repeat: It is not necessary for so many of our youth to study medicine. But for those who should take medical studies our Union Conference training-schools should make ample provision in facilities for preparatory education. Thus the youth of each Union Conference can be trained nearer home, and be spared the special temptations that attend the338 work in Battle Creek.—Review and Herald, 1903, No. 41. The Healdsburg School.—It is important that in our school at Healdsburg all the instruction shall be as thorough as it is in any similar school. If the laws of the land require that youth preparing for a medical course shall study some branches which you do not now teach, you should provide instruction in these required branches. Which is worse, to send our youth to Battle Creek to gain this required knowledge, or to give it to them in our schools in the various Union Conferences where they are living? If it is right for this instruction to be given, we are to provide facilities for giving it in every training-school in our land. Thus we shall be able to avoid the necessity of sending our youth to Battle Creek, or, as has been done in the past, to some worldly institution,—to Ann Arbor or some other school of the world. Students should not be crowded into Battle Creek to receive an education in medical missionary lines. It is not best to encourage the gathering together in one institution of so large a company of people as have been gathered together in the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Let medical missionary plants be made in many places. The youth who desire to become medical missionaries should not be brought in large numbers to Battle Creek. Provision should be made that they may receive an education out of and away from Battle Creek,339 in places where there is a different religious atmosphere. By fire the Lord removed the great argument in favor of gathering many students to Battle Creek. He swept away the Sanitarium to prevent the carrying out of the idea that Battle Creek was to be the great center for the training of medical students. To carry out this idea would be out of harmony with the work for these last days and with the plans of the Lord.) The light given me is that we shall be tested and proved, that Satan will come to us as he came to Christ,—as an angel of light. The heavenly universe is looking upon us with intense interest. We have been regarded as a people moving under God’s guidance, and enjoying a remarkable record of success and prosperity. But a new chapter has been opened. There are among us those who are binding up with the world. They are not standing out in moral independence, trusting to the Lord to carry his work to completion. I have been instructed to place before our people the instruction given by the Lord to Israel to keep them separate from the world. . . . It is not the Lord’s plan that sanitariums as large as the one in Battle Creek shall be erected. When so large a number of patients are gathered together, it is impossible to give them the religious instruction that God designs the patients in our sanitariums to have. And the erection of so large an institution340 centers in one place a work that should be distributed to several places. The nearer we approach the end of this earth’s history, the stronger and more numerous will be Satan’s temptations. He will work “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness,” that, if it were possible, he might deceive the very elect. He will bring in every device to hinder our preparation for that which is to come upon the earth. In order to fulfill God’s purpose for us, we must be taught by the Holy Spirit. Those who have not been taught by the Spirit, however great may have been their advantages in other respects, can not discern spiritual things. They are ignorant, whereas, if they were worked by the Spirit, they would be wise, able to understand the things of God. These things can be understood by those only who are partakers of the divine nature, those who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God, receiving and obeying his word.—Extract from letters to a Conference President, April 22, 1902. CHARACTER OF WORKERS NEEDED FOR THIS TIME.
We are living in the last days of this earth’s history, and God calls upon those who have an understanding of the truth for this time to pray, to believe, to stand fast in the faith, proclaiming the message of mercy to be given to the world. . . . There are those who to-day are standing in perilous places, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.341 From this time on, Satan will bring in deceptive influences of every kind. True, stanch, whole-hearted believers are needed; men who are not fashioned after a worldly mold, but who see and realize that it is at this time that Satan’s power will be exercised through believers who have not kept the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end. Workers are needed who understand that the warnings given in the word of God are appropriate for this time. Shall we not pray, and watch unto prayer, and see that we need to be reconverted? God’s purpose for us is that we shall be constantly “increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.” At this time we need men who are as true as steel to principle. We need the help of every one who has had an experience in the giving of the first and second angels’ messages. There are those who have so linked themselves with the world that they have lost the knowledge of God, and are departing from the faith. . . . The warning comes, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” Amidst the temptations that abound in these days, some will depart from the faith. Those who have been trying to quench their thirst at broken cisterns, which can hold no water, will have a misleading message to proclaim. They will speak smooth things. It is now, just now, that genuine gospel medical missionary work is to be done by men who acknowledge Christ as their master; who realize, as did Elijah and Jeremiah, that they hold their commission from God, and that they are accountable to God for the use made of the talents entrusted to them. God’s workers are to acknowledge no earthly master. One higher than men, even Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, is their Master. Men are needed who can speak intelligently of the sacredness and the importance of the truth; men who can point their fellow-men to the needs of the present hour; men who have an inspiring message to bear against perverted principles; who watch for souls as they that must give an account, pointing souls to God’s standard of righteousness. Many who have known the truth, but who have not nourished its principles in their hearts, will become leavened with evil. This evil they do not discern. In word and act they say, “Speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” We are now to call things by their right name. No longer are we to look upon unrighteousness as righteousness. Let every one be prepared to lift up the standard of truth. We are to have no fellowship with the worldly practises that have perverted the faith of some who have enjoyed great privileges and who should now be standing on vantage ground. We are to respond to God’s call to take a decided343 stand for truth and righteousness. No longer are we to bind up with worldly elements. The leaders in God’s work are not to be men who do not know God, who have no experimental knowledge of God. They are to be men who love and fear God and Christ; otherwise, they must be relieved of their responsibilities. Satan is watching every opportunity to make of no account the old waymarks, the monuments that have been raised up along the way. We need the experience of the men who through evil report, as well as through good report, have been steadfast to the truth; men who have not built their house upon the sand, but upon the solid rock. Testimonies for the Church
Containing
Messages of Warning and Instruction to Seventh-day Adventists
Regarding Dangers Connected with the Medical Missionary Work
A WARNING AGAINST PRESENT DANGERS
SANITARIUM, CAL., Nov. 27, 1903. For months I have had little sleep, because my mind is intensely exercised regarding the work that is being done in Battle Creek. The results of this work are represented to me, and the word given me is that if the company of workers there were divided into several smaller companies, and sent into various localities, very much more good would be accomplished. Cause is always followed by effect. I am receiving instruction regarding the dependence that is to be placed in God. We are to depend far more on Him and far less on men, who, if they had opportunity and were left to themselves, would lead the flock of God into strange pastures. I am charged with a message to be given at different assemblies, because satanic agencies are linking arms with men who should stand free from all seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. The commission given me is, “Meet it, not always by being present in person, but with the written message. Watch, and when a crisis comes, meet it. There is no time to be lost.” Deceptive theories have been arrested in their development, but they have not been rooted up. Hearts are not changed. There are men who are blinded by Satan’s sophistry. They are not converted. The wrong theories which in the past have been met many times and in many places, are ready to spring into life, because the natural heart loves sin, and has been so deceived by Satan’s fascinating presentations that in the place of having sensitive consciences and eyes anointed with the heavenly eyesalve, able to detect the deceptive guise of Satan, men do not see the usefulness of sin, but have clothed sin with the beautiful garments of sanctification and purity. They retain the impression that the sin so hateful to God,347 is a wonderful advantage. The sanctification that they claim, is polluted by the most seductive sin, which in their estimation is righteousness. This corrupting, spiritualistic view of matters is blinding the spiritual eyesight. The religious faith is like an apple worm-eaten at the core. Men who are supposed to be helping have deficient spiritual eyesight. Some things may be said which appear to be excellent. The fruit may apparently be fair and beautiful, without a flaw, but break the apple open, and we see the work of destruction going on at the core. Those who have been in the wrong may be silent in regard to their ideas, but there is death at the core. Their wrong ideas are smothered, but not changed. At a favorable opportunity they will spring into life. Men may flatter themselves that there is seen the working of the Spirit of God in the company assembled at Battle Creek; but in reality there is a power prompting and advising and inspiring that has not the vital principle which comes from a pure “Thus saith the Lord.” My mind is weary with considering what to do next to meet the danger before us. I wish to proclaim, in the very simplest language, the truth for this time. I am exceedingly anxious to use words that will not give any one a chance to sustain erroneous sentiments. I must use words that will not be misconstrued and made to mean the opposite of that which they were designed to mean. Bible truth, received into the life, will make the heart pure and clean. It will lead to practises that elevate and ennoble the whole life. The thoughts must be kept free from all seductive, spiritualistic ideas that have been brought in by different ones. I am unable to see into the human heart. But there is One who knoweth the thoughts afar off, and who sees the outcome of these thoughts. When the necessary work is accomplished in the heart, when348 the mind is worked by the Holy Spirit, the life will bear the right kind of fruit. The promise will be fulfilled, “A new heart also will I give you.” This is what is needed now. Those who compose the company of workers at Battle Creek are at a disadvantage in many ways. The time they spend in hearing principles and in studies of various kinds, would be of far more benefit to them if they had an altogether different spiritual atmosphere to breathe. The presentation is not good. The prompting of the students to give the most satisfactory reports of the school, is not the best lesson in education. They have had enough of this. Pretense is not the kind of education to give any one. The stimulus of such education does not come from Him who understands the deceitfulness of the human heart, and who never misleads. . . . My mind is sad beyond expression because the enemy has obtained victories over the minds and hearts and wills of those whom the Lord has been admonishing, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” God has been warning them for years, but they would not receive His words and take heed to them; they would not make their works perfect before Him. Some of those who claim to have been teaching the truth present before God a very ragged practise, which He does not accept. They determined to follow their own will and way, and they have been led by the enemy of all righteousness. Satan has been playing the game of life for their souls, and has been stealing away from them the Lord’s entrusted gifts, putting in their place his evil sentiments, to be worked out in scientific problems. He has blinded the spiritual eyesight, and deceptive, delusive imaginings are taking the place of the word of life and truth. Some in exalted positions of responsibility are sustaining error in the place of truth. Satan makes his delusions most attractive, clothing error in the garments of349 truth, so that it seems the most desirable thing to possess. The minds of many whom we would naturally suppose would see things clearly, are blinded as with a bewitching sophistry of error. If the terribly bewitching, fascinating story is not interrupted, those who are listening to it will become infidels in their belief. There is no safety in their present experience. They need to be convicted and converted by eating the word of God, believing it just as it reads, interpreting it correctly, not weaving the messages sent by God to save His people, into their own sophistries, making them speak in favor of fables that undermine the foundation established by the Lord for His commandment-keeping people. Satan will continue to bring in his erroneous theories and to claim that his sentiments are true. Seducing spirits are at work. I am to meet the danger positively, denying the right of any one to use my writings to serve the devil’s purpose to allure and deceive the people of God. God has spared my life that I may present the testimonies given me, to vindicate that which God vindicates, and to denounce every vestige of Satan’s sophistry. One thing will follow another in spiritual sophistry, to deceive if possible the very elect. NOVEMBER 29.—I awake about one o’clock, and ask the Lord to give me increased faith, that His cause and work shall become more and more manifestly the work of God. When it obtains entrance into the heart, it works with convincing power. Yes, the heart is the place for the truth to begin its work. Truth is to be a power in the life and character. If received and cherished in the heart, it will work as the leaves of a life-giving principle, changing the whole being. Truth has power to make the sayings of Christ spirit and life. If cherished and respected, it will cause the man to turn from his evil ways. Truth and error can not abide in the same heart. “He that350 is not with Me is against Me,” Christ declares, “and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad.” Wisdom, intellect, power,—these are not God. But God is the author of all wisdom, all grace, all power. God gave Lucifer his power and wisdom, yet this intelligence was not God himself. We are to know God as He is revealed in His marvelous works. Who by searching can find out God? This is not part of our work. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. God’s character is expressed in the ten commandments. To know God as He is,—this is the science of all goodness and truth and righteousness. We must obey every expression of His character as revealed in His law. God requires obedience, not for the purpose of showing His authority, but that we may become one with Him in character. We shall find in God the attributes of character needed to form characters after His likeness. We are to form characters that are in harmony with the Deity. Thus our natures become spiritualized in every faculty. We can not present any correct representation in words of God’s glory and majesty. It is beyond expression. But we can enjoy the contemplation of God, and the sense of His presence. We can know of Him all that human beings can bear. We can talk with Him in prayer. At times when our faith goes out to Him completely, we converse with Him, and by faith endure the seeing of the Invisible. Faith reveals Him, and we contemplate all that we can endure. When in times of trouble and perplexity we trust Him fully, we have a living sense of His cheering, all-pervading presence and power. We realize that the Lord is indeed our strength and our portion forever. We can be one with Christ in God. But let us never undertake to define God as an essence. Never, never, venture one step into the way of putting God in the place of the things of His creation.