Manuscript Releases, vol. 21 [Nos. 1501-1598]

MR No. 1514—Obtaining and Using Funds for Buildings and Publications; Strong Areas of God's Work to Help Weaker Ones

(Written February 19, 1899, from “Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, to J. N. Loughborough.)

I have received and read your letter. I was very thankful for the loan you sent in the same mail. We received one hundred dollars from a sister in St. Louis, Missouri. This money will help us a great deal just now. Last Thursday we received a cable message from Dr. Kellogg saying that within sixty days he could raise five thousand dollars. We were just then planning how we could obtain means to complete the school building which is partly erected. W.C.W. went to Newcastle to try to borrow some money. He was disappointed there, and went at once to Sydney. On Thursday the telegram came from Dr. Kellogg. We wrote at once to Elder Daniells and W. C. White, to set their minds at rest. 21MR 74.1

The interest in Newcastle is wonderful. The Sabbath has been presented to the people, and one week from today twenty-five will be baptized. I shall speak in Newcastle next Sabbath and Sunday. 21MR 74.2

We are trying to raise money enough to purchase an old stone church in Wallsend, ten miles from Newcastle. The roof is gone, the floor is partly gone, and the windows are smashed, but the location is excellent. I shall go to see it. We think we can obtain some means from the new believers. If so, we shall not have to use the five hundred dollars you sent, but can let the sanitarium have it to obtain some facilities for the branch office in Newcastle. 21MR 74.3

The medical missionary work has taken well with the people in Newcastle. Some of the leading men in the city are enthusiastic over the subject. Both Dr. Caro and Dr. Rand will spend some time in Newcastle. Dr. Caro gives health lectures there once a week. People from outside are calling for a cooking class. I think this will be held in the tent. I wish we had a cook who could do justice to the work by showing the people how to make good bread and other simple articles of food. Instruction in medical missionary lines is just what the people in Australia appreciate. In every place where camp meetings have been held, this subject has created intense interest. It is allied to the third angel's message as surely as the right arm is joined to the body. 21MR 74.4

I said that twenty-five had taken their stand. As many more are convinced, but business prospects hold them back. The work has extended from Newcastle to Maitland, and in the towns between Cooranbong and Newcastle there are many interested ones. 21MR 74.5

Some weeks ago I received some money from California, and you cannot tell how glad I was to get it. I sent one hundred pounds to Brisbane that they might make a start on their meetinghouse there. The weather was so rough that they could no longer hold meetings in the tent without imperiling the lives of those who attended. Those who had newly come to the faith helped by purchasing the land. They are all poor people, but they did what they could. If we could have obtained money from any source by borrowing, we would have done so, but there was no money to be had. The building is now going up, and we are so thankful for the sake of the people and the workers there. I had pledged five pounds toward this building, not knowing how I could raise that much. My workers have not been paid for last year's work. I can let them have only what they need for their actual necessities, and no more. 21MR 75.1

The second one hundred pounds of the money I received from California I placed in the hands of Elder Daniells, to be used in building bathrooms for the sanitarium. John Wessels wrote me from Africa for counsel regarding his future movements. I said in reply, Come to Australia, for the way is open for our work. I told him to telegraph us at once regarding this matter, that we might know what to do. If he can come soon, we shall not invest our money in building bathrooms which will have to be moved, but will secure a site for a sanitarium. The house now used for a sanitarium is in no way appropriate. 21MR 75.2

A new tent had to be purchased for the work in Newcastle, and I gave toward this ten pounds of the money from California. There is now only a little left, which I shall invest in putting a fence around our church here. It stands in a large open pasture. 21MR 75.3

Not one dollar of this money have I invested for my own personal use. I would not at that time have called for the money invested in the mission school in Chicago had it not been necessary. But while in Illinois we came to a deadlock. I was led out to pledge one thousand dollars. I had to hire this money and pay seven percent interest for two years. Just at that point his satanic majesty was in the management of my books published at the Review and Herald office. Those at the head of the publishing work there would handle neither Great Controversy nor Patriarchs and Prophets, the very books God had signified the people must have at once. 21MR 75.4

They promised me faithfully that after certain months they would handle these books, but they failed to keep their word. When the Great Controversy should have been circulated everywhere, it was lying dead in the Review and Herald office and Pacific Press. Brother Jones urged me to accept less and less royalty on these books, promising solemnly that they would push them to the very limit of their capability, but they did no such thing. The word of men was not as they will some day realize the word of God is. 21MR 75.5

Then the word came to me from the Lord, Take your books into your own hands. I tried to hire money, but could not; and the light given by God for the people was hidden in the printing office. The inward working of this matter was presented to me. The men who told me to my face that the canvassers would not handle my books were themselves arranging matters so that they should not handle them. They told me falsehoods, and I was in such distress of mind that it was impossible for me to sleep. 21MR 76.1

For two years I stood thus, trying to counterwork those who were working at cross-purposes with God. From the time that their double-dealing was presented before me, I had no confidence in the men who composed the book committee. They were a fraud, and their endeavor was to get all they could from authors by underhand schemes. 21MR 76.2

You may ask, Will the investigation now being made reveal this matter? No; it will never be revealed as it was. We cannot now see the injustice, the swerving from right, the intriguing methods, the overbearing, dictatorial tone assumed by these men to those who were their superiors in intellect and moral worth. 21MR 76.3

I had to stand and see men triumphing in their evil work. The Lord said, I will punish for these things. Then came the word of the Lord to me, “Make no large concessions. There are those who will not appreciate any sacrifice you might make. You must maintain principle. Take your books out of the hands of those who are not right with God; for they will harass and perplex you and grieve your soul. The Lord desires you to be a steward of means; He will be your counsellor. Trust not in man nor in the word of man, for they will fail you. The Lord would not have you brought in strait places, as you now are; for this will prevent you from doing the work I have commanded you to do as My messenger. You are not to be placed in the position where those who are reproved will be greatly gratified by your supposed dependence. You are to lead out; you are not to be led into poverty and left there, for the word of the Lord is to be proclaimed more decidedly in the future than in the past.” 21MR 76.4

The Lord is a sufficiency. I do not want means to gratify myself, but that I may lead out, that I may have something to invest in the work that should be started in new places, and that I may help those who are cast down and oppressed, who need to be helped to help themselves. This we have done in many cases, and the Lord has made us a blessing. 21MR 76.5

In regard to the one thousand dollars, as things are I do not want it. I thought that should I make this donation, it would open the way for others to give. And a large sum was donated by a man and his wife who the leading men thought had nothing. So that one donation meant several hundred dollars. Then others pledged. 21MR 77.1

When the mission house was sold, and I was casting about in my mind if I could get some money, I thought, Why could not those in Illinois transfer that donation to this new field—I might say, new world—and help us here as I helped them at great inconvenience and expense to myself? We certainly needed help from some quarter; that was plain to me. We were in the ABC of our pioneer work in a new field, and those in America had buildings and facilities and more than was wise for them to have. 21MR 77.2

This is my explanation. Had I not understood by your letter that the board agreed to the proposition, I should not have called for the means in as urgent a manner as I did. I have been instructed that after, in a place, the work essential for the advancement of the work has been done, after by self-sacrifice and urgent labor facilities have been gathered, and the Lord has prospered the work, those in that place should give of their means to help God's servants who have been sent to new fields to go over the same ground, beginning at the ABC of the work. Those living where the work has been placed on a good foundation should feel themselves bound, even at considerable self-sacrifice and self-denial, to help by transferring to those in need a portion of the means once invested in their behalf. Thus the Lord designs that His work shall increase. The talents given to His servants are to be doubled by being put out at interest in gifts and offerings and influence. 21MR 77.3

This is the law of restitution on right lines. One portion of the Lord's vineyard is worked, and brings in fruit. Then another portion is taken up. It is the Lord's plan that the unworked part shall receive help from the part which has been worked. This should be done with cheerfulness. Thus the work in every part becomes a success. When the principles of the law of God are practiced, the work moves forward solidly and with double strength. Then the workers are enabled with great power to proclaim the third angel's message and the second appearing with power and great glory of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 21MR 77.4

P. S. Brother Loughborough: This letter was mislaid and forgotten and it has just come to the front again. Elder Irwin is here, and we are very busy in council. The Avondale Health Retreat is prospering well. The frame is up and soon the roof will be on and the building enclosed. We shall hope to have a printed prospectus to send you soon. We are all busy preparing for the soon coming meeting of the Australasian Union Conference.—Letter 35, 1899. 21MR 77.5

Ellen G. White Estate

Silver Spring, Maryland,

September 13, 1990.

Entire Letter.