Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 18 (1903)

Lt 58, 1903

Brethren in Council at Battle Creek

St. Helena, California

April 17, 1903

This letter is published in entirety in SpM 303-304. +^Note

To our brethren in council at Battle Creek,—

Some way must be devised in which our medical institutions shall be helped. According to the light given me, the Lord will institute ways and means by which the Battle Creek Sanitarium can be helped. When our watchmen shall recover from their blindness and reason from cause to effect, God will help them to devise ways and means for the relief of our medical institutions. 18LtMs, Lt 58, 1903, par. 1

If we put our trust in the Lord, if we walk in His ways, the Battle Creek Sanitarium can be placed on vantage ground. When the Sanitarium is placed on its proper foundation; when our people can see that it stands as when first established; when they can understand that the institution belongs to the work of the Lord, and can see that no one man is to have control of everything in it; then God will help them all to take hold with courage to build it up. 18LtMs, Lt 58, 1903, par. 2

Our leading brethren, the men in leading positions, are to examine the standing of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, to see whether the God of heaven can take control of it. When, by faithful guardians, it is placed in a position where He can control it, let me tell you that God will see that it is sustained. 18LtMs, Lt 58, 1903, par. 3

God wants His people to place their feet on the eternal Rock. The money that we have is the Lord’s money; and the buildings that we erect with this money, for His work, are to stand as His property. He calls upon those who have received the truth not to quarrel with their brethren, but to stand shoulder to shoulder, to build up, not to destroy. 18LtMs, Lt 58, 1903, par. 4

The light that God has given me is that there are proper ways that the Conference shall devise to help the Sanitarium in Battle Creek. I wish that a portion of the work of this institution had been taken elsewhere. But the Sanitarium has been erected in Battle Creek, and it must be helped. God will institute ways and means by which it can be helped. But He does not wish His people to invest their money in bonds. 18LtMs, Lt 58, 1903, par. 5

One night it seemed to me that we were assembled in council with the leaders of the medical work at Battle Creek. One of authority rose and holding up a long paper read from it many things that perplexed me. Neither I nor many others could discern the meaning of that which He read. Then He who read from this paper said: “These are men who have allowed this paper to pass as a legal piece of business, as a security for the issuing of bonds to secure money. That long list of conditions is not necessary, but they show unsafety for those who invest their means.” 18LtMs, Lt 58, 1903, par. 6

This is not the kind of work that should be placed before those who have the utmost confidence in the men bearing responsibilities, supposing them to be faithful, intelligent guardians of the people. Many things will be managed after this same order unless a reorganization shall take place. 18LtMs, Lt 58, 1903, par. 7

There are those who will have nothing to do with the bonds issued, but there are many who will accept them without criticism, because they have confidence in the medical missionary association as being loyal to the high principles that it advocates. They will not question the things that they cannot understand, because they have faith in the original Seventh-day Adventist Medical Missionary Association. 18LtMs, Lt 58, 1903, par. 8

No document should be accepted which is so worded as to make it possible for the medical missionary workers in office so to manage affairs that injustice will be done to those putting confidence in the Medical Missionary Association. These matters must be carefully examined into by the men in position of responsibility in the Medical Missionary Association and the General Conference. There is a snare in these documents, and I am to say, Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The standing of the Sanitarium and its relation to the cause of God is to be ascertained. Everything regarding its organization is to be closely examined, that Seventh-day Adventists may know the true standing of the institution. 18LtMs, Lt 58, 1903, par. 9