Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 22 (1907)

Ms 184, 1907

Talk/Address to Students

Loma Linda, California

May 14, 1907

Previously unpublished.

Matthew 25:14, 15. So we see there are different minds that are worked by the Lord. Yet those that have less capability are to impart it. They have opportunity to impart it. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 1

Verses 15-20. What a satisfaction it was to him and to others that were interested in the matter. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 2

Verses 20, 21. “I knew thee”—the very thing he did not know—“that thou art hard man.” Verse 24. That is the lesson for us to understand. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 3

Verses 25, 26. He repeats his words, not that they were true, for they were false. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 4

Verses 27-30. Here is the lesson again. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 5

Verses 31-40. This lesson is a very important one. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 6

Verses 41-46. Now, here is a lesson. It is our privilege to be educating ourselves, every one of us, that we may meet the expectation of our Lord. How? Here was the world lying in sin, corruption, and Satan was having things after his own way, and here he was taking possession of the hearts and souls of the people, and the bodies, and Christ saw that it was time for Him to reveal Himself. And Christ the royal priest of heaven, the royal King, laid aside His royal robe, laid off His royal crown, and clothed His divinity with humanity. He came here as a humble child in this world, and was a child of poverty. Why? So that no sinner should say, He does not know that temptations I have passed through. They have suffered poverty. “He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.” [Hebrews 4:15.] He did not yield to the temptations of sin. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 7

Now the Lord Jesus in His great mercy has brought this beautiful institution where we might possibly reach it, and that this would be a means to bring the light of truth before the large cities that are all around us. And what is our work as we accept of Christ? Our work is to trade upon our talents. Well, you may think, I have but one talent, and I will hide it. Will that gain anything? Not at all. What we want is to understand how to make application of the truth to our own hearts, and in our own hearts begin the work of obedience toward God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 8

Now, He possesses His divinity, but it is clothed with humanity. He was right with the disciples in their walks and in their labors; He was right by their side. His own relatives tried to get Christ to leave the suffering multitude that kept coming, coming, till He had no time to eat, no time to rest, and they were calling for Him, but He did not answer the call. His relatives wanted to get Him away. But Christ had an opportunity to sow the seed of the Word in the hearts of those who came, not knowing which should prosper, this or that. Nevertheless He would go through the process, just as we have to go though the process. We have to carry the truth to every place where we can find entrance. Now it is the duty of every soul here to improve your talents to the very best of your ability. There can be gatherings at different places while attending the school, and you can meet with people, and you can take the Word, and you can read the simple Word of God to them, and it will have an influence. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 9

I read in a paper a little notice. “Garibaldi,” said he, “are all the sheep in? There is one sheep lost, and I cannot find it.” Said he, “Hunt for that sheep till you find it.” That is what Christ says. Find it, if you can. But they hunted and hunted, and they could not find the sheep. In the morning they went to wake up Garibaldi; but where was he? He was doing a thing that was not natural to him; he was sleeping late in the morning, and he was an early riser; therefore they came to see what was the trouble. Well, he aroused himself, and they said, “We cannot find the sheep that was lost.” He laid down the clothing, and there was the sheep right by his side. He had hunted through the night in every place until he found it, and there he had the sheep right there by his side. Now that is a wonderful incident. We want every one of us to so keep Christ in view, to bring back to His name the glory of our salvation, and more than that, He wants you to arouse and waken others to their souls’ interest, that they also may see the preciousness of Christ, and what He has done in their behalf. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 10

The children in this age of the world are generally left to come up without proper instruction. Mercantile business, buying and selling, increasing lands and losing lands, all of these things come in that take the time of the father and mother, who should instruct their children from their babyhood to be children of God. Educate, educate, educate, this point, that point, but never, never strike a child in anger in the place of curing. When you do that, let me tell you, you are encouraging stubbornness, which it seems that the grace of God can scarcely reach. Now, you want to learn; educate yourselves. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 11

I asked a Methodist minister, “Tell me where you obtained the voice that you have that reaches and makes a reality of everything you try to explain in the Scriptures?” I never shall forget it, never. I was then quite young. “Well,” said he, “I will tell you if you will come outside.” He was in my father’s house. He showed me the trees; he showed me the things all around. I knew what was there before he said, but I went out of the house. “They said you never can preach a discourse, you have not a good tone of voice, and you will just as surely miss it if you attempt to be a preacher,” said he. “I preached to the stumps, to the trees, and there nobody was to find fault with me, and there I educated myself from point to point, until I made an acceptable minister.” I never forgot that. I did not have to do that, but I never forgot it. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 12

I thought if he could wrestle with difficulties like that, then those that think that they have not a right speech: learn it, learn it. It is just as large an education as you can obtain to learn to speak correctly. Every word in a sentence or every sentence is to be pronounced correctly. And if you do that, let me tell you, you will be in a place where you can communicate intelligently. I was listening to a minister, one that we highly esteemed, but he never seemed, or seldom seemed, to ripen off the work. Said I, What is the matter? 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 13

The answer came to me: He lets the last sentence run down, right into a hole. You cannot tell what he says. Now, the very last sentence and word is to stand right out clear and distinct, and so is every sentence. Now I want to tell you this, because you may gain a great deal by educating yourself, and we want to do this, and we want you to do it. We want every scholar to educate himself, that if they are called to minister or to read a chapter in the Word, they will put the right emphasis on every word and they will bring it out in such a way that it will touch hearts. Now, you are improving your talent in doing that. You are improving your talent of speech. I have heard so many essays read when I could hear words, but I could not distinguish them. They would run it together so I could not distinguish clearly. It lost its force—one-half of it lost its force. Now, that was not as it should be. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 14

A physician as he comes to his patient, and as he talks with that patient, wants to put his words so that every word is distinct and impressive. Why? Because it is God’s Word, the truth of the Bible, and he is handling the truth, the Word. He wants to make the impressive, and he can do it by educating his voice. You can take a song and educate you voice so as to put emphasis and power in the voice. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 15

Another thing that you can educate is—here are younger ones all around you—you want to speak to them just as tenderly and kindly and sympathetically so that, if you should speak in the pulpit, you will have a sympathetic tone, that you can speak tenderly, and that your heart will be so that you can reach out for souls. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 16

Well, here is a man that had five talents. Now, he went right to work with that five talents, and what was the talent? It was to represent the very talents that God has given us, that we shall make improvement to gather souls. Every one of us is accountable for the souls that are around us. Speak a word in season. Read the Word and then live up to it. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 17

The truths amount to but very little if [something missing here about dress.] Why? because it costs money. Then what? Then they have not the talent of means to lay out to educate some child and bring him into the school and educate that child. Why? Because they have spent their money in this way, therefore it was not in the soul-saving line. Now, the Lord wants every one of us to do our very utmost to save the souls of those that are around us. He wants us to use the talents that God has given to us and improve them, so that these souls shall become as we want the little children to become—we want them to become perfect in language, perfect in influence. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 18

It is the duty of every parent to look after their children as a faithful priest over the household, and He wants the mother to guide, like a queen in the house, and yet so that these little children shall respect her. Teach them how to do this job, and that work, and the other operation. Begin soon in an early period of their life to teach them usefulness, to use the hands for some purpose. But now it is to play, play, or to go out in companionship with boys where they learn evil. Evil companions corrupt good manners, so you must keep you children under your supervision, a great deal more in their younger days than is now given them. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 19

I told my children, “Now you ask me if you can go to such a house and see the members of such a family. You may be surprised that I tell you that in the evenings I want my children in my own house. You may invite these children; you may have your parlor; you may have music there, and you may interest your young friends in that way, but to go out, to get up a great time of it, of mischief making, and one thing and another, I forbid it. It shall not be.” 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 20

Well, I want to say that to every youth God has given talents. You do not know how many, but He has given the talents that He expects to be multiplied. If it is one, He expects you to multiply that. It if is five, He expects you to multiply that. Let every one keep on the multiplying scale. “Add to your faith virtue ... Jesus Christ.” [2 Peter 1:5-8.] 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 21

Now, Christ has given His life for us, that we might be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. This is just the work and the education of the youth here. I am glad that there is union of the school, that it is one with the sanitarium. Why? Because the one can help the other all the way through, that is the way it is presented to me. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 22

What was Christ? He was the greatest Teacher that the world ever knew. He was the greatest Physician that the world ever knew. They were blended, and He wants us to study His life, and He wants us to be fitting up. Now here is an opportunity for us. I am so thankful for this sanitarium. I could see it all in the night season as it was presented to me, such a lot that could be done for Redlands, and Riverside, and the other places around here. It was a big work. It was a large work and it was not a work that would fall right before us. We had got to hunt it up, and we had got to bring ourselves in communication with our fellow beings, and read the Scriptures, be always kind, always tender, always sympathetic, and find place in their hearts. Why? Because we want them saved in the heavenly kingdom. We are preparing to become members of the royal family, to become children of the heavenly King, to have the gates of gold thrown open before us, and to be welcomed in. That is what we are striving for. We want to act properly here, that we may know that we shall have a place there. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 23

Christ said: “Woe, woe unto thee, Bethsaida.” [Matthew 11:21.] Why, they had had the great work of preaching done in them, and they had not repented. They had heard it, but not repented. Now the work for us is to correct our defects of character. Why? We are educating for the higher school. Our education does not cease here, altogether. There are things we cannot understand in the Bible, that cannot be understood. We can guess at it, but He will take us, He will read it to us, so that we may know it is the truth. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 24

Revelation 21:1, 2. Now, that is a representation of what was to be. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 25

Verse 3. Now they have done their best in the work of overcoming. They lived on the plan of addition, as I have repeated. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 26

Verse 5. Now we have it. He told him to write it, and here it is written for us. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 27

Verses 6, 7. We want to remember this is why Christ has given His life to humiliation, to sacrifice, to suffering, to a cruel death by torture, hanging on the cross in order to bring this to pass. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 28

Verse 8. That is a terrible thing, for the world now is full of corruption. I have seen it, I have been in San Francisco. I have spoken there several times in the meetinghouse that my husband and I and a few other united in building. The flames came to just a little ways from it, all but to it, and then they stopped, and there is their meetinghouse. I thank God. But wickedness still prevails there—saloons, liquor saloons, liquor drinking—and the liquor is poisoned; it makes man mad that take it, so that they know nothing of what they do. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 29

But we will not cease to warn them here. We have workers right around all the time that are working in the wicked city, and we want that every one of us here that have such a favorable opportunity will try to reach somebody else. Take your talent of truth; teach others how to take hold of it of the truth to believe it. You want to be missionaries for God, and this is the education that we hope will be carried forward. The students of this school, while they are in the school, should not merely stop with this, but they should be circulating the light of the knowledge of the truth of God to those that are outside. I pity our people. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 30

They tell me I am eighty years old. I thought I was less, but here I am, I have just come from a working tour, and the blessing of the Lord has rested upon me, as I have been. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 31

But here is this sanitarium, here are these buildings. And we had all these things prepared. I am so thankful that there is a chance here for a school, and I am thankful that you have an addition for rooms, where you can take baths properly. And I am thankful that the Lord has made it possible, that we could take these advantages and make the very best possible use of them. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 32

We do not want anything that we have to be spent foolishly. We cannot afford that. We want the means that you have. If it is a penny, put it in a box. That is what we have in the South; we have to do it. The Lord presented it to me when I was talking, asking, What can we do? And it was the presentation of boxes in houses where the poor families could drop in a penny, or perhaps a silver bit, and let it be in every house and then when the collecting day came, that money should be sent to educate the southern people. They need educating. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 33

There is a whole world for us to work for. Make the most of your opportunity here; for Christ’s sake appreciate it. Put your mind to the tax, and it is Christ who will give you the memory. It is Christ who will strengthen every effort that you make in the right direction, and the Lord will let His blessing rest upon you. But every penny is God’s. Every dollar that you handle is the Lord’s property. Therefore we must act a self-denying part. And we must seek in every way possible to bring the truth in before the people. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 34

I have been working at this point for many years. Thousands and thousands of dollars of royalty from my books, I do not handle a penny of them that are in the foreign countries. Brother Conradi has the work in hand. They wrote to me a while ago, “Here is a thousand dollars of your royalty, and I suppose you need it, but cannot you let us have part of it?” I wrote right back, said I, and tears dropped from my eyes, “I will not take a penny of royalty, nor have I taken a penny for all the books that have been circulated in the foreign countries.” I have said, “Multiply them, multiply them, and then circulate the books I have given them.” 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 35

And I want to tell you, it becomes us to appreciate anything of the order that we have here to educate students, and to have a place for the sick to be cured. I say, dear friends, I am so thankful that there is a place where we shall learn more than we have learned now. “He that overcometh shall inherit all things.” Revelation 21:7. You just think of that. We are so glorified, imitating His life and character, that we are enabled to see His face, and His name shall be in our foreheads. Thank God. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 36

Verse 5. Now, if everlasting life not worth a trial, then tell me so. It is worth a trial of every nerve, of every sinew, of every muscle, of every brain power. It is for us to try to reach the highest standard possible, and the Lord of heaven will perform the rest. And He will lead us to the tree of life, all the time talking with us, as we go along, of this Word that we do not understand. God bless you, every one of you, that you may see His face. 22LtMs, Ms 184, 1907, par. 37