Selections from Testimonies to the Managers and Workers in our Institutions

To the Men in Responsible Positions in Battle Creek

Granville, N. S. W.,

September, 1895.

Dear Brethren,...

Consolidation means that all institutions are to be merged into the Battle Creek institutions. For years something of this kind has been proposed by one and another. But according to the light I have had, the plan is wrong, decidedly wrong. Let every institution stand in its own individuality, doing its respective work in its own locality.... PH149 18.2

The Pacific Press should stand in its own moral independence, carrying on its work beyond the Rocky Mountains, in a little world of its own. [See later testimony, page 25.] Its managers are responsible to God to do their work as in full view of the universe of heaven. PH149 18.3

Men are coming to trust in men, and to make flesh their arm; and when that arm is not linked in the arm of Christ, they will find that they are leaning upon a broken reed. PH149 18.4

The publishing houses were established in America in the counsel of God, under His direction and supervision, and they should stand in their own individuality, as sister institutions. Never should they be so related to each other that one shall have power to control the running of the other. If one institution shall adopt a policy which the other does not sanction, the other institution is not to be corrupted, but is to stand in its God-given responsibility, true to the principles that were expressed in its establishment, and carrying forward the work in harmony with those principles.... PH149 18.5

Every institution should work in harmony with the other institutions, but farther than this they should not go toward confederacy or merging into one. Already there are men who supposing themselves wise, are trying to shape matters according to their ideas. Things may for a time appear to prosper in their hands, but the result will be that which they do not now anticipate.... PH149 19.1

When every institution is merged into the one that is greatest,—that is, measured by her power of control,—that one will indeed be a ruling power, and if the principles of action in the most powerful institution are corrupted, as is now the case, and as has been in the history of the past, every other institution must follow the same path, else a determined influence will be brought to bear against it. The difficulty is not in the institution, but in the members. PH149 19.2

This position to press men into hard places if you can not bring them to your ideas, is not according to God's order. Those who do this when it suits them, are bringing souls into unbelief and temptation, and driving them on Satan's battlefield. They forget that God will deal with them as they deal with their fellow men. God's cause is not to be molded by one man, or half a dozen men.... PH149 19.3

God's instrumentalities are not chosen of men, or under their jurisdiction. They are to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord.... By no sharp dealing or underhand advantage is the Lord to be glorified or His truth served. Money acquired in this way to supply the treasury will benefit no one; for God will not serve with the sins of oppression and selfishness. PH149 20.1

It should be written on the conscience as with a pen of iron upon a rock, that no man can achieve true success while violating the eternal principles of right. There must be a cleansing of the institutions similar to Christ's cleansing of the temple of old. “It is written,” saith the Lord, “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” There are in our institutions today, transactions similar to those that took place in the temple court in Christ's time; and all heaven is looking on.... PH149 20.2

The publishing houses were brought into existence in a spirit of sacrifice, and no persons should have been permitted to hold a responsible position in the work, who desired to work according to the world's policy. The consecration and purity of the worker will be evidenced by the principles manifested in his attitude toward every child of God. The publishing house was established for the purpose of doing business upon the principles of justice and equity, judging every case without partiality and without hypocrisy. In our institutions the spirit of Christ was to be a witness to the world of the character of God, a living epistle, known and read of all men.... PH149 20.3

God requires every man to be punctual, just, and without guile in his lips or in his heart. Be righteous in all dealings with your fellow men if you would have not only the name but the character of a Christian. Those who depart from Bible principles, and vindicate their defects as righteous, have never received the true knowledge of Christ or the experience of being in truth doers of the Word. There is nothing in the Word of God that glosses over or excuses one phase of selfishness, one approach to overreaching or dishonesty.... PH149 21.1