Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 14 (1899)
Lt 3, 1899
Kellogg, J. H.
NP
January 5, 1899
Portions of this letter are published in 2MR 239; 9MR 81. +Note
[Dr. J. H. Kellogg:]
“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work; (as it is written, He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) being enriched in everything to all bountifulness which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgiving unto God; whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men; and by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” [2 Corinthians 9:6-15.] 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 1
The work should be established in this place, and will be; for thus the Lord saith. We might be years in advance if our brethren in America had stood unflinchingly [at] their post of duty to hear and obey the Word of the Lord. Let no more time be lost. You that have so many advantages, do your work unselfishly. It is God’s work we are doing, and you will not find the work in your hands restricted if you follow the will and Word of God. Share your advantages with us in this field, that the work may stand on a true basis, and have the influence and character it should possess. Your minds may not now be prepared to see the importance of surrendering yourselves to do what ought to have been done when we were appointed to come to this field. You may not be able to see at the first all the particulars involved in this request of God to impart. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 2
It is the very essence of all right faith to do the right thing at the right time. The special work has been laid out, and you are called to do your God-given duty in our onward march in this country, by furnishing us with facilities, that we may work. Christ’s dignity and office work is in imparting such conditions as He pleases. The followers of Christ are to become more and more a power in the proclamation of the truth as they draw nearer to the perfection of faith and of love for their brethren. I am assured that God has provided for our work in this field His divine assistance for all the emergencies to which our human resources are unequal. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 3
He gives the Holy Spirit to help in every strait, to strengthen our hope and assurance, to illuminate our minds and purify our hearts. He means that all-sufficient facilities shall be provided for the working out of His plans in this field. Our work is reformative, and it is God’s purpose that the excellence of the work in all educational lines shall be as an object lesson to the people of Australia, for the consummation of the last glorious work to be done in our fallen world to save the perishing. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 4
The Lord would have you no longer confine to a few places all the great facilities that concern the moral and spiritual advancement of His work in this field. The word of command is, Go forward. You to whom I have given much are called upon to impart. Place your means where it will help in giving light to darkened nations and to the islands of the sea. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. This means: Put on the armor of righteousness. Christ must become to you, and also to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We must no longer wear our own citizen’s dress, but put on the wedding garment. Thus we shall be prepared to sit at the table as friends of Christ. We must wear the livery of heaven, and conduct the warfare at His charges, under His bloodstained banner. Our dignity, our defense, and our exceeding great reward must be found in obeying the orders of our General. There is to be no reservation. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 5
The word of the Lord came to me saying, “I have spared your life to do My work, and wherever I send you, go, and I will send mine angel with you. In no case should you be feeble in your request for the advantage of means. Wherever I send you, go, and speak My word, and I will be thy mind, I will be thy judgment. All the advantages are Mine. The means and facilities are Mine, and there should be no withholding. But selfishness, a desire to control, has kept the advantages in one place, so that everything is overbalanced. Call for the means God designed you to have long ago. Hold up My work. Give honor to no human instrumentality, but to God, that My name may be a praise in the earth. The Lord He is God, and before Him there is no other. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 6
“My work in this portion of the world has been greatly hindered. Money has been used unwisely, and that when there is great distress for means to build up the work in new places. Go not forth in hesitancy. I will be with thee. Ask of My people the means that should have gone to advance the work in the Australian field. Those who stand in responsible places in the work need wisdom in regard to the best methods of proclaiming the last message of mercy to the world. I have a work to be done in Victoria, in New South Wales, in all the Australian field. Call for the means which ought to have been flowing where there are no facilities to build up My kingdom, where it will tell the most in magnifying My name.” 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 7
I have withheld this from you, for I did not feel worthy of any such trust or commission, but now when I see such a necessity for means, I must speak. The money in God’s treasury is not to be expended capriciously in a single instance, for the Lord has a place for all the blessings He has given you in the sanitarium. There should be less close dealing with helpers. Give a just compensation to those who are worthy. Let them take the responsibility of using the Lord’s money. Let them impart it where they shall see there is need. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 8
You, Dr. Kellogg, hold too much power in your own hands. Ways and means are found for you to do almost anything you set your heart to do. You ought to have seen that facilities should have been provided for this field with the workers. But you have had scarcely a thought of this. The Lord has set these things before you again and again, yet you have not seen our necessity. You are a man of thought, and where did you expect us to obtain means to take the work from the very beginning and carry it to the point where God’s workmen can work to advantage before this people? The sanitarium we have tried to establish here is not nearly as well equipped as the one in the old house where we began the work in Battle Creek. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 9
Everything was new then; the A B C was to be learned. That was the day of small things. But through God’s blessing on the donations of His people and the wisdom and understanding He has given you and others who work with you, the sanitarium has become a praise in all the earth; yet you send us your students without advantages to carry on any enterprise, as though we here in Australia were on the same footing with yourselves. God demanded more than this of you. Not that you yourself, individually, were [not] willing to do [more], just where you are, in your line; but God required far more than this of you in such a field as this, among English-speaking people, [who] could be reached without an interpreter. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 10
I now break the trammels that have bound me. I am no longer to hold my peace. I am told to cry aloud and spare not. We must have a sanitarium. I want you to offer my house and all I possess in Battle Creek for sale. The sanitarium can use this property if they need this building. Let me have every dollar that can be obtained from my property, and I will invest it here. I will make this offering to the work and cause of God in Australia. But tell our people not to put it down to the very lowest figure. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 11
I have had an idea which I now relinquish, that sometime I might again live in Battle Creek. But no; I can do better work here. And I will not meet the criticism, the envy, the jealousy, and the strife of tongues in Battle Creek. I hoped that sometime I might have the chair that my husband used so long in his editorial work, that I might have the old sofa that I prized so highly. But it costs money to transport these things. I make this last surrender of all I possess in Battle Creek. Surely it will be no harder to raise the means for buying this property than to raise money to invest in gospel wagons. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 12
Dr. Kellogg, you have been a true friend to me since my husband’s death, and I now ask you to take my property in Battle Creek, and realize as much from it for me as possible. If you have, in the sanitarium, facilities that are second to the very best you are now using, we would make an exchange. Send us the facilities which you know we have not. We want a printing press, and everything needed for an outfit for the sanitarium. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 13
I place this matter before you. I have just appropriated two hundred pounds of the three hundred that came to me from the Pacific Press. I placed this means in the hands of the Union Conference of Australasia, with advice to send to Elder Haskell fifty pounds to use in building a meetinghouse in Brisbane, and to use one hundred pounds for laying the foundation of bath rooms for the sanitarium at Summer Hill. But every dollar is to be invested in the work where there is distressing necessity. The rest of the means goes for the buildings in Cooranbong. We can do very little of that which ought to be done, for we have simply nothing to do with. And you must know this, for we have laid it before you again and again. But now the Lord has brought the matter before me in such a way, and His will has been made known so plainly, that I must speak. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 14
When God sends me to any field all should understand that He [has] a work to be done in that field under His own direction. It is robbery of God to withhold the means which He required to be used in that field. We are now years behind, and I have worked and struggled in every way to advance, to uplift, and to broaden the work in this field. My own means I have used freely. Then we have donations from Africa. These were timely. I thank God for the means that helped us in our emergency. But the means needed at that very time should have come from America. The Lord has now made clear my duty, and I call to you for help. My Husband’s influence and my own were exerted to establish a sanitarium at Battle Creek; and now that a similar work is to be done in this new field, we want you to show for us here the same interest that was shown for you. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 15
We cannot afford to be handicapped any longer. We see that meetinghouses must be built in every place where the truth is carried. One of the very first things to be done here is the building of a church. Great things have been done in Cooranbong, and as soon as camp meeting is over, we must make a beginning on a hospital, that our sick shall not have to be taken to Sydney or to Newcastle. A branch office will be established in Newcastle. There is a wonderful interest in the medical missionary work to be done in this city, and already persons are consulting Dr. Caro about going to Summer Hill for treatment. The Doctor says, I hope they will not come, for the condition of things at the sanitarium would make no favorable impression upon them. It would belittle us in their eyes. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 16
Last night, when Dr. Caro spoke in the large tent, it was packed with people who listened with the deepest interest. The doctor talked sensibly, and he has the confidence of the people. We are having a most wonderful time here in every line of our work. I think no less than two thousand people have attended some of the services. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 17
Now we must purchase a tent to take the place of the one we have hired. I pledge ten pounds to this tent. And yet I have only money enough left to settle my grocery bills at Newcastle. If people want to know how Sister White is getting rich, they can make us a visit, and they will find that her riches are laid up beside the throne of God, in the bank of heaven, by being invested to advance the work of God. We have no time to lose. We must make no delay. We must reach the people where they are. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 18
God would have us advance and in the sight of this pleasure-loving people reveal that we have an infallible teacher, and that we are under His teaching. The people say, We have no one here to explain the Scripture to us. We see that you have the Bible by heart, and we shall read the Bible now in altogether different light. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 19
Sara has just come from the campground to my room. She said there were fifteen hundred out last night to hear Dr. Caro’s lecture on the training of children and the necessity of observing the laws of health. After he ceased speaking, there was a storm of applause. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 20
An appointment was made for me to speak this afternoon, January 5, 1899, on the subject of religious training and Bible education. I have spoken several times to the crowd, five times in morning meeting, three times in committee meetings, and several times in council meetings. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 21
Just now is the time to deepen the impression made on the minds of the people. We must let them see that something permanent is to be established. A church must be erected at once. Wind and storms are frequent here. During our first few days’ experience of wind and tempest, the tents suffered severely, and some are now being repaired for the camp meeting in Ballarat. I am urged to attend his meeting, but I would like rest. I have yet to speak on the ground three times—Thursday, Sabbath, and Sunday—and then I must go home. I have been within twenty two miles of home, but have not been there once during the meeting. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 22
We have never seen so great an interest in any place as at this meeting, and it means much to us. If we have a church here in Newcastle, it will mean a great strength to the Avondale school. The Word of God is truth. We try to teach the people that many who read the Bible, many who attempt to teach the Bible, do not explain it correctly, because they do not read it with a converted heart. “He that converteth a sinner from the error of his ways, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” [James 5:20.] This converting power comes only through the Holy Spirit moving on the human mind, and it is that that enables men to understand what the truth of the Word comprehends. This is the light which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. This light shines upon every true student of prophecy, and the light that illuminates the Word shines beyond him who reads it, coming into his understanding, and shining forth from him. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 23
The pure light of the Holy Spirit’s application enables us to see all things clearly. This light is shining today upon the understanding of the people who hear the Word. Precious souls have embraced the truth in Awaba. They have borne a clear, decided testimony in the meetings here. Awaba is halfway between Newcastle and Cooranbong. Thus it is formed a link between Newcastle and Dora Creek, where meetings are held every week. Morisset is a station five miles farther on on the way to Sydney. And the towns and cities between Morisset and Sydney are to have the standard of truth uplifted. We find that Cooranbong has the best climate for health of any of these places, and it is indeed the place for a center. And here is Maitland, a thriving city only twenty-two miles from Newcastle, and beyond Newcastle is Seymour and many other towns on the line to Brisbane. You see we are located where we ought to be, and where our influence can go forth to these important places. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 24
The cities and their suburbs are to be entered and worked. The standard of truth is to be entered in all these places. We know that our school is just where it should be. If we had workers and sufficient tents, we should now go straight on to Maitland and open the work there. All these places have been worked by canvassers, but the rule not to enter into conversation when visiting has been a barrier to our workers. God has given the voice, the power of speech, and words should be spoken and the seeds of truth sown, and the great work done. We have a great work to do. The light given me is [this:] The Lord hath sent you to take hold of this work, and those who understand what you have done in planting the standard of truth, and building up and extending the work should know that you need to be supplied with means required for the work. You have been too slow to call for the means which is essential. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 25
In this English-speaking country there is no difference of language as an obstacle to our reaching the people. And the truth has not been presented and rejected. There are thousands of honest souls praying for light. The Word of God is to be presented as it is in Jesus. It is not enough to present the Bible as other books are presented. That it may be understood savingly, the Holy Spirit must work upon the heart of the receiver. The same Spirit that inspired the Word must inspire the readers of the Word. Then we shall hear the voice of heaven in all its harmony, and impressions will be made and an intelligent knowledge attained. “Thy word, O God, is truth,” will be the language of the soul. [See John 17:17.] 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 26
We have a serious, solemn work to do, and we have no time to lose. You can help us; you must help us. I press the matter now as never before. If the Lord has sent His workers into these new fields where poverty abounds, He means that His work shall be sustained, that facilities shall be furnished to place His work above beggary. At every step we have had to struggle with poverty. Do the best we can, the work has had an appearance of cheapness that does not in any way correspond with the grand, uplifting truth we bring to the people. None should obtain the idea that money is very plentiful with Seventh-day Adventists, that we can even cast our pearls before swine. In this direction we may do a work that needs guarding. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 27
We should ever have the Spirit of Christ, and we are to do the same class of work that He did for a suffering humanity. This always ought to have been the fruit of the branch that abides in the true Vine. But there is danger of allowing one line of the work to absorb all the power and the means. There is danger of loading down everyone with this class of work, because of the intensity with which it is carried on. This work has no limit; it can never be got through with, and it must be treated sensibly, as a part of the great whole. It must not be allowed to consume the means that should sustain the ministry of the Word, that should open the work and lift the standard in the highways as verily as in the hedges. The gospel wagon is an absorbing of money, of time, and what does it leave behind? Experience will show that the results are not proportionate to the expenditure. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 28
Camp meetings, large and small, are needed, to give the proper kind of education in religious exercises. They give also the discipline of organization and order. There is such a thing as conducting gospel work in a way that does harm to the workers. This is not the way to accomplish the work which must be done for our world. We are not to follow the methods of the Salvation Army. Preach the truth, then pray the truth. Have more camp meetings to bring the truth before the people in its very simplicity. Do as we have done: Help the people to go to the camp meetings. Provide food and lodging for them. Let the meetings continue one or two weeks. This will require consecrated, self-denying, self-sacrificing labor. Much time should be spent in prayer and close searching of the Word, humbling the heart before God, searching the Scriptures, and not merely reading the Word. Let all obtain the real facts in their own souls through belief that the Holy Spirit will teach them because they have a true hungering and thirsting for righteousness. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 29
A very limited amount of good may possibly be done with the Gospel Wagon. But if the workers have a real love for souls, they may find more effective ways of working. Plans should be followed by which each working force may know and understand what kind of work it is doing, and may be able to gather up the sheaves. Never let them obtain an experience of a shifting, changing nature. Expend money in a work in which each worker may see something of the results, and know that God was with him. We want to have every day an individual experience in the things of God. We must have stern guardianship over our individual selves if we are kept by the power of God. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 30
I am troubled when I see so many ways devised to expend means which from the light God has been pleased to give me, will result in very little advancement unto eternal life. I know that other methods could be devised which would be less expensive, and would leave a much better after-influence. This experience would help the workers in gaining the preparation essential for every one to have—a humble, meek, and lowly spirit, that cares far less to make a show than to have an abiding Christ. The Lord has been working for His people; will they follow on to know the Lord, or will they try to find a more congenial way to work? God help us to plant our feet on the eternal Rock. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 31
My brethren in the Lord, I am writing some things that I cannot well refrain from writing. I want to say that I have been so pleased with the report Elder Tenney has brought of your spiritual zeal and devotion. But, my brethren, rest not; a great responsibility is upon you, and you are gathering more responsibilities than you or any of your associates can carry. 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 32
The Gospel—what a treasure house of knowledge! It is not as a pool that evaporates; not as a broken cistern that loses its treasure, leaving mud and decaying vegetation behind; not as a fountain that once sent forth a living, refreshing, cooling stream, but has ceased to send forth its cooling waters. Your life may be a living spring, that leaps from rock to rock, refreshing the weary, the thirsty, the heavy laden. But guard yourself that you do not take on all you can see to carry. Study carefully, “What shall I do that I may work the works of God?” [John 6:28.] 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 33
The religion that comes from God is the only religion that will lead to God. Christ said to the woman at the well, “If thou hadst known who it was that said to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. ... Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but 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 4:10, 13, 14.] 14LtMs, Lt 3, 1899, par. 34