Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 15 (1900)

Lt 102, 1900

Brethren

July 13, 1900 [typed]

This letter is published in entirety in KC 43-44.

My Dear Brethren:

I wish you to understand me correctly. The Lord has given special light that you must not pattern after Dr. Kellogg in doing the line of work he is doing, for God has not given you that work to do. Neither has He given to Dr. Kellogg the work in which he has spent much time and money, to the robbery of fields that were destitute of means and destitute of helpers. He is bringing in an accumulating burden, by which he is creating not producers, but consumers. God has not called upon us to use the treasures of His house thus, to set His money flowing in a stream which call for such an outlay of time, money, and workers. 15LtMs, Lt 102, 1900, par. 1

God has given direction as to how the work is to be done. In our camp meetings we meet all classes of people, high and low, rich and poor. None are excluded. It is the Lord’s desire that the very best of medical missionary physicians shall hold themselves in readiness to co-operate with the ministers of the gospel. They are to be one with Christ, men through whom God can work. The Lord desires His work to advance in reformatory lines. During our camp meetings genuine medical missionary work is to be done. 15LtMs, Lt 102, 1900, par. 2

No line is to be drawn between the genuine medical missionary work and the gospel ministry. These two must blend. They are not to stand apart as separate lines of work. They are to be joined in an inseparable union, even as the hand is joined to the body. Those in our institutions are to give evidence that they understand their part in the genuine gospel medical missionary work. A solemn dignity is to characterize genuine medical missionaries. They are to be men who understand and know God and the power of His grace. 15LtMs, Lt 102, 1900, par. 3

Whatever may be our ingathering or increase, the conference is to be kept free from every thread of selfishness. So also should the medical missionary work be stripped of all selfishness, and carried forward after the order of God. The different lines of work are to sustain one another, but not in the way Dr. Kellogg had planned, for this is not God’s way. Dr. Kellogg has misappropriated the Lord’s money, investing it in a way he had no moral right to do. 15LtMs, Lt 102, 1900, par. 4

The work of preparing a people to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent is to go forward. This is the highest and most important work that it is possible for mortals to do. God desires medical missionary work to be represented in a way altogether different from the way in which it has been represented in Chicago. The work in Chicago has been a great hindrance to the harmonious action of the work God designs shall be done in unity with the gospel ministry in the carrying of the first, second, and third angels’ messages to all parts of our world. 15LtMs, Lt 102, 1900, par. 5

The work in Australia is not to be a second edition of the work in Chicago. My heart is sore and grieved because the money which God designed to flow in currents of gifts and offerings to Australia, England, and other missionary fields has been obstructed by human devising and human planning. This must not be repeated in this country or in any other country, for it is not God’s way to leave fields nigh and afar off without help. Thus the work of the gospel ministry is retarded. The last message of mercy is to be given to the world, to prepare a people for the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in power and great glory. 15LtMs, Lt 102, 1900, par. 6

The establishment of sanitariums where they should be—in every new field that is opened—will require means. God’s money is not to be diverted into uncertain channels, but is to be used to accomplish a work, which if done in the true order of God, will accomplish a hundredfold more in making new plants in different localities. 15LtMs, Lt 102, 1900, par. 7