Battle Creek Letters

Re-copied July 15, 1928 K—204—99 V. E. R.

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, N. S. W.

December 12, 1899

Dr. J. H. Kellogg:

Dear Brother,

I would help if I could, but I do not know how to help you. 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, to 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 above every other work independent of the Conference. But this plan was not right. You were tempted by the enemy, and I hasten 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. BCL 28.1

You needed the counsel of others than your colleagues. Fresh new ideas were needed in your councils; for all your ideas did not bear the divine credentials. You had been swaying the minds of those connected with the medical missionary work, until you and others were becoming like men lost in a fog of uncertainty. BCL 28.2

You had your work, to which God appointed you. 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 has given 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.... BCL 28.3

Never, never should a sanitarium be established to become an interest independent of the church. Genuine medical missionary work is in no case to become divorced from the gospel ministry. The cross is the center of all religious institutions. These institutions are to be under the control of the Spirit of God, and no one man is to be the sole head in these institutions. The divine mind has men for every place. BCL 28.4