Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 14 (1899)

Lt 129, 1899

Kellogg, J. H.

August 29, 1899

Portions of this letter are published in 11MR 308.

Dear Brother:

I will write you a few lines acknowledging your letters. I thank you for them. I signed my name to the papers transferring my property to the purchasers. I did not design doing this or sending the papers until I had heard from you, but our need of money to get the Health Retreat finished and in running order was so great that I could not retain the place. I consented to take the price you offered me, but why three hundred dollars should be cut off, I cannot understand, unless it be that the men doing the business supposed, as has been the case many times during my connection with the work, that in dealing with Sister White, they need not be just and fair. If ever we needed money, it is at the present time. This is why I offered my place for sale. I have repeated over and over again that in Battle Creek you have one thousand facilities where we have one. 14LtMs, Lt 129, 1899, par. 1

The one thousand dollars you sent me I place on my books to your credit, to be transferred to you again. We did not expect a donation from you personally or from your brother Willie. I thank you for your endeavor to help us from your own purse, but we cannot accept it. We will use the money in our emergency at the present time, but it is yours, and thus it will stand on my books. 14LtMs, Lt 129, 1899, par. 2

I pledged one hundred pounds for the sanitarium, knowing that this was all I could do. Our wish was to see and converse with you, but my letters seem to be misunderstood, and therefore I cannot feel freedom in writing. The warnings that have come to our people, you well know, are unheeded, and it may be that they are considered untrue. From henceforth I will only write to our responsible men when I dare not keep silent, lest I create a sorrow which does not lead to change and reform. 14LtMs, Lt 129, 1899, par. 3

I am in good health for me. I am writing much, and the Lord gives me strength and grace. He has assured me that when at any time I have written to you in plainness, it has been to save you from making mistakes, and to place you under the leading of the Holy Spirit. Here I must leave the matter. Nothing has been overstated in regard to the dangers which threaten you. This I must say, because I will not testify to a lie. I did not write to you to plunge you in despair, but to save you from being brought into that position. May the Lord relieve the situation, is my prayer. 14LtMs, Lt 129, 1899, par. 4