Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 14 (1899)

Lt 215, 1899

Kellogg, J. H.

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

December 12, 1899

See also Lt 206, 1899 and Lt 215b, 1899. This letter is published in entirety in KC 87-94 (8T 180-191). +^Note

My Dear Brother:

You speak as though you had no friends. But God is your Friend, and Sister White is your friend. You have thought that I had lost confidence in you; but, my dear brother, as I have before written to you, I know that the Lord has placed you in a very responsible position, standing as you do, as the greatest physician in our world, a man to whom the Lord has given understanding and knowledge, that you may do justice and judgment, and reveal the true missionary spirit in the institution which is to represent truth in contrast with error. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 1

My brother, the Lord has not left you to go on a warfare at your own charges. He has given you wisdom, and favor with God and man. He has been your helper. He has chosen you as His agency to exalt the truth in the Battle Creek Sanitarium, as it is not represented in other medical institutions. The Battle Creek Sanitarium was to be known as an institution where the Lord was daily acknowledged as the monarch of the universe. “He doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven, and also among the inhabitants of earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” [Daniel 4:35.] 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 2

The Lord designs that the proclamation of the third angel’s message shall be the highest, greatest work carried on in our world at this time. He honored you by placing you in a very responsible position. You were not to separate your influence from the ministry of the gospel. In every line of your work you were to understand and practice the truth. You were to make God first and ever obey His Word. In this would be your strength. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 3

You were to be a faithful physician of the souls as well as of the bodies of those under your charge. Had you fulfilled this responsibility with all the keen talent God gave you in trust, you would not have worked alone. One who never makes a mistake was presiding. Only the Holy Spirit’s power can keep your spirit sweet and fragrant, soft and subdued, ever trusting in God, ever speaking the right words at the right time. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 4

You were not faultless. Often you lost control of yourself. Then your words were not what they should have been. At times you were arbitrary and exacting. But you were striving for the mastery over self, and angels of God co-operated with you, because, through you, God was to work to exalt His truth and cause it to receive honored recognition in the world. God gave you wisdom, not that your name should be magnified, but that those coming to the sanitarium in Battle Creek might carry away with them favorable impressions of Seventh-day Adventists. The honor given you did not come to you because you were righteous above all men, but because God desired to use you as His instrument. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 5

In His providence the Lord has drawn many to the Sanitarium, that they may become acquainted with the truth, and be converted, and then carry away with them the evidence of the miraculous power of God on body and soul. This has stirred the ire of Satan. It does not please him that it should be shown that God is working to magnify the truth. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 6

It was God’s purpose that, in the Sanitarium, missionaries, teachers, and physicians should become acquainted with the third angel’s message, which embraces so much. Angels of God were to be your strength in the work that was to be done in order that the Battle Creek Sanitarium might be known as an institution under the special supervision of God. The missionary feeling and sympathy that prevailed in this institution was a result of the work of invisible heavenly agencies there. God said, “I thought it good to show signs and wonders. In My might I wrought to glorify My name.” Many have gone away from the Sanitarium with new hearts. The change has been decided. Those, returning to their homes, have been as lights in the world. Their voices have been heard saying, “Come, all ye that fear God, and I will make known to you what He hath done for my soul. I have seen His greatness; I have tasted His goodness.” 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 7

The Lord has appointed the physicians in the sanitarium to stand me faithful sentinels. Through them God desires to do the work that must be done. Through them impressions are to be made in regard is the work of relieving suffering humanity. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 8

But you needed the counsel of others than your colleagues. Fresh, new ideas were needed in your councils, for not all your ideas bore the divine credentials. You have been swaying the minds of those connected with the medical missionary work, until you and others became like men lost in the fog of uncertainty. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 9

The dangers of your plan of operation in connection with the conference held in South Lancaster were presented before me. I saw that you could not plan and devise as you had been doing, or carry out your ideas, without injury to yourself and to the cause of God. I was instructed by the Lord that your temptation would be to make your medical missionary work stand independent of the conference. But this plan was not right. You were tempted by the enemy, and I hastened to write to you. I sent a copy of the letter to Elder Irwin, for it was necessary that some one besides yourself should know your danger, that efforts might be made to save you from the course of action you had premeditated. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 10

I would help you if I could, but I do not know how to help you. I write to you as a mother would to her son. I would go to see you if I could feel it my duty to leave the work here, but I dare not do this. You have built up hopes and nurtured plans without due consideration of how the tower is to be finished and supported. As one who knows, as one who has been permitted to have an insight into the future and results of the work you have taken upon you, I call upon you to stop and consider. God knows your frame. He knows that you are but dust, even the small dust of the balance. You will certainly need the counsel, not of those who have permitted you to go on in the work which you deem so important, but the counsel of men who at the present time are able to see more clearly than you do the results that will follow various undertakings. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 11

I wish to state, Dr. Kellogg, that if you will receive the messages of warning given you, it will same you from great trial and mortification, and will be to the saving of your soul. Cast not behind you as of no consequence the warnings which as yet you do not understand. I tell you plainly that you are carrying forward that which you call missionary work according to misconceived judgment and opinions. The sanitarium will suffer because you have given yourself up to do a work for which God will call you into account. I have been instructed that you have been doing a work which the Lord never appointed you to do. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 12

Means <must not be> drawn <away> from the Sanitarium to erect buildings for the care of people who can never be relied on to fill places in the ministry or on councils. They have not a knowledge of the work of character building, and they cannot be relied on as men of forethought. They have ruined their mental powers and nearly destroyed their spiritual discernment by the indulgence of appetite and passion, and this makes them weak. They are fickle and changeable. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 13

The Lord has shown me that if the enemy can by any means divert the work into wrong channels, and thus hinder its advancement, he will do so. The place assigned you by the Lord was under Him in the divine Theocracy. You were to learn of Jesus, the great Teacher. You were to be and do after His character and example. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 14

I have been forced to inquire why several of our canvassers in this field, who were canvassing for The Home Hand-Book, have left the field having only paid their expenses. Some did not even do this. They stated that when the time came for them to deliver their books, they could not obtain copies to deliver. They were themselves greatly disappointed, and the people who were expecting the book were also disappointed. What shall we do about this? I have talked to the men in the Echo office about it, and they say that they cannot obtain copies of The Home Hand-Book. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 15

At every camp meeting we make special efforts to get before the people the light upon health reform as contained in your publications. But while you have been consuming, you have not been producing. Never was there a time when a greater interest was shown in regard to questions relating to health. What is it that hinders your books from being supplied to our offices, to be furnished to the canvassers? Shall this delay continue? Shall the people still be disappointed? 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 16

I have been instructed to say that you have drawn your time and strength and money away from enterprises which, if they had been advanced, would have done tenfold more good than the enterprises that you have carried forward. Invention after invention has taken your time and means. Your money has been used in a way which has done more harm than good. The setting of men to work in various ways in what is called medical missionary work has consumed much time and money, but has produced next to nothing. The Lord entrusted capital to you, to be used in advancing His kingdom in our world, and if you misuse this capital, you must settle with Him. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 17

Investments have been made without sitting down and counting the cost, without finding out whether there was enough money to carry forward the work started. A shortsightedness has been shown. Men have failed to see that the Lord’s vineyard embraces the world. There is such a thing as investing money in that which it is hard to say is not a good work, because explanation cannot always be made to the one whose brain has been constantly at work to create and invent, but who has not the income to sustain the enterprises started. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 18

The income of the sanitariums that have been established must not be drawn upon to sustain the work called medical missionary work. The means that has been used to sustain this large and ever-increasing work should, by the Lord’s order, have been used in making plants in other countries, where the light of health reform has not shone. Sanitariums, less costly than the large ones erected in America, should have been built. Thus plants would have been made which would have produced fruit and, when strong, would have established plants in other localities. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 19

The Lord is not partial. But He has been misrepresented. The work that should have been done in the different parts of His vineyard has been hindered because men have failed to see how the work could be advanced in these parts of the vineyard. In some parts the work has been overdone. In this way money has been absorbed that should have been used to enable workers on other parts of the vineyard to move forward without hindrance in the work of elevation the standard of truth. Some portions of the vineyard are not to be robbed in order that the means may be absorbed in one spot. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 20

Man judges in accordance with his finite judgment. God looks at the character of the fruit borne and then judges the tree. In the name of the Lord, I call upon all to think of the work we are required to do and how this work is to be sustained. The world is the Lord’s vineyard, and it is to be worked. Suppose in every place where there is a large center, the work which has been done in America should be made the pattern. Where would be our memorials of truth, which are to make a proper impression on the world? 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 21

There are those who are in danger of bringing into the work the objectionable sentiments received in former education. They need to practice the principles laid down in the Word, else the work will be marred and spoiled by their preconceived ideas. When we work with all the sanctified ability God has given us, when we put aside our will for the will of God, when self is crucified day by day, then actual results are seen. We move forward in faith, knowing that our Lord has promised to undertake the work entrusted to Him, and that He will accomplish it, for He never makes a failure. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 22

The Lord’s servants are merely stewards. The Lord will work through them when they surrender themselves to Him to be worked by the Holy Spirit. When by faith men place themselves in the Lord’s hands, saying, “Here am I; send me” [Isaiah 6:8], He undertakes this work. But men must get out of the Lord’s way. They must not hinder His purposes by their devising. For years the Lord has had a controversy with His people, because they have followed their own judgment and have not relied on divine wisdom. If the workers get in God’s way, hindering the advancement of the work, thinking that their brain power is sufficient for the planning and carrying forward of the work, the Lord will correct their error. By His divine Spirit He enlightens and trains every worker. He shapes His own providences to carry forward His work according to His mind and judgment. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 23

If men would only humble themselves before God, if they would not exalt their judgment as the all-controlling influence, if they would make room for the Lord to plan and work, the Lord would use the qualifications He has given them in a way which would glorify His name. He will purify His workers from all selfishness, trimming down their superfluous plans, cutting off the branches that would entwine around this and that undesirable object, pruning the vine so that it will produce fruit. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 24

God is the great Husbandman. He will make everything in the lives of those who are laborers together with Jesus Christ subservient to His great purpose of growth and fruit-bearing. It is His plan, by conforming His servants day by day to the image of Christ, by making them partakers of the divine nature, to cause them to bear fruit abundantly. He desires His people, through actual experience in the truth of the gospel, to become true, solid, trustworthy, experimental missionaries. He would have them show results far higher, holier, and more definite than have been revealed in the last fifteen years. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 25

The potter takes the clay in his hands, and molds and fashions it according to his own will. He kneads it and works it. He tears it apart and then presses it together. He wets it and then dries it. He lets it lie for a while without touching it. When it is perfectly pliable, he continues the work of making from it a vessel. He forms it into shape, and on the wheel trims and polishes it. He dries it in the sun and bakes it in the oven. Thus it becomes a vessel unto honor, fit for his use. So the great Master desires to mold and fashion us. And as the clay is in the hands of the potter, so we are to be in His hands. We are not to try to do the work of the Potter. Our part is to yield ourselves to the molding of the Master-worker. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 26

It is not a great number of institutions, large buildings, and wonderful display that God requires, but the harmonious action of a peculiar people, a people chosen by God and precious, united with one another, their life hid with Christ in God. The Lord will never place one man as a controlling power over another man. Every man is to stand in his lot and in his place, exerting a right influence in thought, word, and judgment. When all God’s workers do this, and not till then, will the work by a complete, symmetrical whole. Individually we need a solid faith, which is in perfect harmony with the first declaration of the first, second, and third angels’ messages. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 27

The work that the gospel embraces as missionary work is a straightforward, substantial work, which will shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. God does not want the faith of His peculiar people to take on the features or appearance of the work now called medical missionary work. The means and talents of His people are not to be buried in the slums of New York or Chicago. God’s work is to be carried on in right lines. Self-denial, self-sacrifice, and the true missionary spirit are to be shown. We are to work as Christ worked, in simplicity and meekness, in lowliness and sanctified moral elevation. Thus we can do a work distinct from all other missionary work in our world. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 28

My brother, you have not as much firmness and assurance as you have had. You have the most critical cases to handle, and at times a dread comes upon you. To perform these difficult duties, you know that rapid work must be done, that no false moves must be made. Again and again you have had to pass swiftly from task to task. Who has been by your side during these critical operations? Who has kept you calm and self-possessed in the crisis, giving you quick, sharp discernment, clear eyesight, steady nerves, and skillful precision? The Lord Jesus has sent His angel to your side to tell you what to do. A hand has been laid upon your hand. Jesus, and not you, has guided the movements of your hand. At times you have realized this, and a wonderful calmness has come over you. You dared not hurry, and yet you worked rapidly, knowing that there was not a second to waste. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 29

The Lord has greatly blessed you. Others who knew not of the presiding Presence working with you gave you, <Dr. Kellogg,> all the glory. Eminent physicians have witnessed your operations and praised your skill. This has been pleasant to you. You have not always been able to endure the seeing of the Invisible by faith. You have been under divine guidance. You have been greatly honored by God, that His name, and not yours, should be magnified. But you have had a great desire to distinguish yourself. You have not placed your entire dependence upon God. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 30

You have not been willing to heed the counsel of the Lord’s servants. With your own brain you have planned many things. The Lord would have you respect the gospel ministry. At the very time you needed discerning eyes, that you might see, not only one side of the work, but all sides, you chose for counsellors men under the reproof of God, as did Elder Olsen. If they would second your propositions, you would link up with them, to start enterprises that the Lord placed no burden on you to start. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 31

The Lord gave you your work, not to be done in a rush, but in a calm, considerate manner. The Lord never compels hurried, complicated movements. But you have gathered to yourself responsibilities that the Lord, the merciful Father, did not place upon you. Duties He has never ordained chase each other wildly. Never are His servants to leave one given duty marred or incomplete in order to seize hold of another. He who labors in the calmness of the fear of God does not work in a haphazard manner, for fear something will hinder an anticipated plan. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 32

Praying and seeking the Lord, the surrender of yourself to the guidance of God, would have prevented the creating of many things which have been born, not of the will of God, but of the will of man. You were given your appointed work. But you have neglected things of great importance to take up, with impulsive spirit, unadvised of the Lord or by your brethren, things of minor importance. Your brethren could have given you counsel, but you despised any word that interfered with your schemes, which have placed you in an intricate position. Had you done your appointed work, God would have made you more and more a laborer together with Him. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 33

The Lord wants your mind to blend with other minds. His servants have sometimes attempted to differ with you. This was the very thing God required them to do. But you treated their advice in such a way that they remained silent when they should have spoken. God desires those He has placed in positions of trust as stewards not to use your brains, but the talents He has given them personally. They are to do justice and judgment in all wisdom. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 34

You do not allow men to think and act on their individual responsibility. You and Brother Haskell and Brother Butler saw the difficulties in Elder James White and the necessity of uniting together to remove responsibilities from him. If he needed this, you have come to the place where you need it tenfold more. And yet no one associated with you dares to tell you this truth. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 35

If you are determined to carry on the same kind of warfare that you have been carrying on, straining nerve, brain, and muscle to come out ahead and prove that the message the Lord sent was not true, you will find that your plans will be counterworked by Him who for years has been giving you warnings. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 36

The Lord has not laid upon you the burden you have been carrying. The result of your carrying these burdens is felt all through the vineyard of the Lord. God has not called His people to ignore present truth for these last days, and take up a work that so absorbs workers and means that the Lord is not represented as He would otherwise be. Never would a rival sanitarium have been, through Satan’s devising, planted close to the Lord’s institution, if you had kept at your work for the class of people whom the Lord desires to become, through the Sanitarium, acquainted with present truth, with the message God has given to those who follow Him, to be communicated to the world. The Sanitarium in Battle Creek was to bring the chosen people of God before men of high standing, to represent the ways, and works, and power of God. It was to be His witness in behalf of truth, elevated, sanctifying truth. The Lord made you, my brother, His honored instrument. He has never required from you one task that would crowd out your work in connection with the institution that was to stand for the truth, to do a certain work for God, flashing light upon the pathway of thousands. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 37

The Lord would have kept the Sanitarium pure and true, to represent the truth for these last days. But the very ones who could have helped you do this work, you have despised and turned from as unworthy of your notice. God sees that His work is being lowered into the slums, as Satan wants it to be; that the elevated sanctification of the truth will become so mingled with tares that its peculiar, holy character will sink out of sight. The Lord saw how this would be, and He has been sending you warnings. Yet you are tempted to go right on in your own way and pick flaws in the message, just as others have done before you. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 38

You have a great and sacred work to do. If you hold faithfully to the work God has assigned you, through the skill given you you will be enabled to work swiftly, though never appearing to be in haste. When your eyes are opened, you will see too deep poverty of the mission fields. You will see that the workers there are hampered at every step, while the Lord’s money is being used to sustain other inventions and institutions, so that the message which should be given to the world, the first, second, and third angels’ message, are lost sight of. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 39

God impresses different men to be laborers together with Him. One man is not authorized to gather too many responsibilities upon himself. The Lord would have the physician, upon whom so much depends, so closely connected with Him that the spirit will not be stirred by little things. The Lord desires Dr. Kellogg to be one of the most efficient workers in the medical profession, slurring nothing, marring nothing, knowing that he has a Counsellor close by his side, to sustain, to strengthen, to impart a quietness and calm to the soul. Feverishness of spirit and uncertainty will make the hand unskillful. The touch of Christ upon the physician’s hand brings vitality, restfulness, confidence, and power. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 40

God desires His institutions and His chosen and adopted children to do Him honor by representing the attributes of Christian character. Many of those who are supposed to be rescued from the pit into which they have fallen cannot be relied upon as counsellors, as those who can be trusted to engage in the sacred work done in these last days. The enemy is determined to mix error with truth. To do this, he uses the opportunity given him by the debased class for whom so much money is expended, whose appetites have been perverted through indulgence, whose souls have been abused, whose characters are misshapen and deformed, and whose habits and desires are grovelling, who think habitually upon evil. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 41

Such ones can be transformed in character, but few ever are. Many make a superficial change in their habits and practices, and then suppose that they are Christians. They are received into church fellowship, but they are a great trouble and a great care. Through them Satan tries to sow in the church the seeds of jealousy, dishonesty, criticism, and accusing. Thus he tries to corrupt the other members of the church. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 42

The same disposition that mastered the man from childhood led him to break away from all restraint, and brought him into the place where he was found. He is reported to be rescued. But time shows that the work done for him did not make him a submissive child of God. Resentful feelings rise at every supposed slight. He cherishes bitterness, wrath, malice. By his words and spirit he shows that he has not been born again. His tendencies are downward, tending to sensuality. He is untrustworthy, unthankful, and unholy. Thus it is with all the debased who have not been soundly converted. Every one of these marred characters, untransformed, becomes an efficient worker for Satan, creating dissension and strife. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 43

The Lord has marked but His way of working. As a people we are not to imitate and fall in with the Salvation Army methods. This is not the work the Lord has given us to do. Neither is it our work to condemn them and speak harsh words against them. There are precious, self-sacrificing souls in the Salvation Army. We are to treat them kindly. There are in the [Salvation] Army honest souls, sincerely serving the Lord, who will see greater light, and advance to the acceptance of all truth. Those in the Salvation Army are trying to save the neglected, downtrodden ones. Discourage them not. Let them do that class of work by their own methods and in their own way. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 44

The Lord has plainly stated what Seventh-day Adventists are to do. Camp meetings are to be appointed and a series of tent meetings held. All who can should work in connection with the camp meeting. There should be no hesitancy in preaching the truth applicable for this time. A decided testimony is to be borne. The discourses given should be so simple that children can understand them. 14LtMs, Lt 215, 1899, par. 45