Manuscript Releases, vol. 11 [Nos. 851-920]

MR No. 861—Counsels to Frederick Griggs

The Need to Become Christlike—I was much pleased to receive a letter from you yesterday. I thank the Lord that He has enlightened you by His Holy Spirit, and I beg of you to walk circumspectly. The reason there is so great a dearth of means in Battle Creek at the present time is that the root of selfishness has been so long cherished that it has become a prevailing power to tarnish and corrupt the soul. There are occasional revivals, when the sword of truth, cutting both ways, cuts off the top of the plant of selfishness, but it is not taken out by the roots, and when anything is favorable for its growth, it springs up and flourishes, and thereby many are defiled. 11MR 40.1

This is the great evil which proves a curse to individuals, to families, to all our institutions, and to the church. We need not merely to talk about the Holy Spirit, but to open the door of our hearts and let Him come in. Then there will be a molding and fashioning of the character. Prayers are offered in the family circle, in the church, in the publishing house, and in our educational institutions, for the Lord to guide and direct, but when temptations come, the root of selfishness springs up, and the precious talents of reason and voice are placed on the enemy's side.... 11MR 40.2

The Lord has a controversy with parents, because they have permitted their children to follow their own pernicious ways, by which the way of truth is evil spoken of. Education should be commanded in the home at the dawn of reason, and is to be carried forward in the fear and love of God. The reason that children do not become godly is because they are allowed too much freedom. Their will and inclination is indulged. Parental neglect in restraining children is the cause of so much evil in the world today. Oh, what sad things the judgment will reveal. Many prodigal sons become such because of indulgence in the home, because their parents have not been doers of the Word. The mind and purpose are to be sustained by firm, undeviating, sanctified principles. Consistency and affection are to be enforced by a lovely and consistent example. 11MR 40.3

The Lord is watching the course of action of every youth and parent. Human nature is to be educated, disciplined, and characters are to become changed, elevated, ennobled, Christlike. The youth must be educated to respect themselves because they are bought with a price.... 11MR 41.1

We are to teach the youth to value themselves. We owe God obedience to the specifications of the moral law. We are to love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. The work must be wrought in God. This will impress the children who manifest opposition, stubborn unbelief, and a sullen will. Let cheerfulness, hope, and happiness be seen in the deportment of teachers. Try to please the students, but do not indulge them.—Letter 117, 1898, pp. 1, 4, 5. (To Frederick Griggs, December 1, 1898.) 11MR 41.2

SDA Institutions Should Scatter Out, Not Centralize—I have received your letter of August 18. Yesterday I sent you a telegram, in which I told you to publish in the Review and Herald the article you have written regarding the reopening of the Battle Creek College. I felt that I could not but consent to the publication of this article. The light given me by the Lord—that our youth should not collect in Battle Creek to receive their education—has in no particular been changed. The fact that the sanitarium has been rebuilt in Battle Creek does not change the light. All that in the past made Battle Creek a place unsuitable for our youth exists today so far as influence is concerned. 11MR 41.3

Word has come to me that letters have been sent out to our churches in the different States offering our youth special inducements to connect with the Battle Creek Sanitarium. The leading men in our conferences are requested to send their most promising young men and young women to the Battle Creek Sanitarium to be educated and trained as nurses. This is an effort to counterwork the counsel of the Lord. Those who present these inducements are walking contrary to the will of the Lord. 11MR 42.1

Had the sanitarium been re-established in accordance with the Lord's design, it would not now be in Battle Creek. The Lord permitted the sanitarium to be destroyed by fire, to take away the objection raised to moving out of Battle Creek. It was His design, not that one large building should be erected, but that plants should be made in several places. These smaller sanitariums were to be established where they could have the benefit and advantage of land for agricultural purposes. It is God's plan that agriculture shall be carried on in connection with our sanitariums and schools. Our youth need the education to be gained from this line of work. It is well, and more than well—it is essential—that efforts be made to carry out the Lord's plan in this respect. 11MR 42.2

When the call came to move out of Battle Creek, the plea was made, “We are here, and all settled. It would be an impossibility to move without enormous expense.” 11MR 43.1

The Lord permitted fire to consume the sanitarium building, and thus removed the greatest objection to fulfilling His purpose. Then a large building, different in design, but capable of accommodating as many patients, was erected on the same site as the old building. Since the opening of this institution a very large number of people have come to it. Some of these are patients, but some are merely tourists. But the large number at the sanitarium is no evidence that it is the will of God that such a condition of things should be. Our sanitariums were not designed to be boarding places for rich people of the world. 11MR 43.2

The care of the large number of guests at the sanitarium requires a large number of youth, and those in charge of our churches are asked to send in to our sanitarium the names of the most promising young men and young women in the church, that these youth may be communicated with by the manager of the sanitarium and invited to come to the sanitarium to take the nurses’ course. 11MR 43.3

I would say, Be careful what moves are made. It is not God's design that our youth should be called to Battle Creek. Calling them to this place and associating them with worldly people of all grades, high and low, is like Lot taking his family into Sodom. 11MR 43.4

The Lord said, It is for the interest of our youth to be educated in some place other than Battle Creek. He declared it to be His will for the Battle Creek College to be removed to some place in the country. 11MR 43.5

At this time there was a heavy burden of debt on our schools. I prayed that some way might be opened whereby these debts could be lifted. Christ heard my prayers, and the prayers of many others, and a way was opened. I was instructed to give the manuscript of the book Christ's Object Lessons to our schools. Our publishing houses were to share in the gift by giving the work of printing and binding the book, and our people were to sell it and give their time. 11MR 44.1

The Lord has blessed the effort put forth to relieve our schools from debt, and I am told that three hundred thousand dollars have been raised toward lifting the debt. While engaged in selling Christ's Object Lessons, students and church members have obtained an excellent experience. As they have taken up this work disinterestedly, great blessing has come to them. Many have gained a knowledge of how to handle our large books. The Lord Himself has cooperated in this work. 11MR 44.2

It was about the time the light was given regarding Christ's Object Lessons that the Lord instructed me that the college in Battle Creek should be removed from that place and established in some other place. There were too many interests in Battle Creek. Smaller schools were to be established in different places away from the cities. 11MR 44.3

The establishment of the school at Berrien Springs had the commendation of God. Those in charge of the school at that place have much to encourage them. 11MR 44.4

Shall we now let the enemy manage for us? Because the sanitarium is where it should not be, shall the word of the Lord be of no account? Shall we allow the most intelligent of our youth in the churches throughout our conferences to be called to Battle Creek, to become servants to worldlings, to be spoiled and robbed of their simplicity by being brought in contact with men and women of all grades of society—men and women who have not the fear of God in their hearts? Such men and women will come in large numbers to the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and a large number of helpers will be needed. Shall those in charge of our conferences allow our youth, who in the schools away from Battle Creek could be fitted up for the Lord's work, to be drawn to Battle Creek, when for many years the Lord has been calling upon His people to move away from Battle Creek? 11MR 44.5

Human minds may not see the necessity for the call to families to leave Battle Creek and settle in places where they can do medical-missionary work. But the Lord has spoken. Shall we question His word? 11MR 45.1

Our youth are to be prepared to take charge of church schools in which the children in our churches will be taught the first principles of education. This is a very nice work, demanding the highest ability and the most careful study. Our young men and young women should be preparing to advance this line of work. Then shall we allow our most promising youth to be called into a work that is not fulfilling the specifications of God? ... 11MR 45.2

I am instructed to say to those professing to be medical-missionary workers: Remember that the Lord has a very large vineyard which He designs shall be cultivated. He saw that the Battle Creek Sanitarium was too large. The work was not being accomplished by physicians that God desired should be accomplished. There was not seen that unselfish purity of principle that marks true medical-missionary work. Many things were done, many plans were made, by which the law of God was not honored. Plans were carried out, and passed as medical-missionary work that God refused to acknowledge—plans that greatly dishonored God. 11MR 45.3

The truth of God is to regulate the life. But this it cannot do if left in the outer court. An occasional Christianity, an occasional generosity, an occasional doing of good deeds, is not the Christianity that will accomplish the work for which God calls. Truth planted in the heart brings man into harmony with God. 11MR 46.1

Letters of inquiry are coming to us asking, “Has Sister White changed? Does she now favor the re-establishment of a college in Battle Creek?” In the past I have given the word of the Lord in regard to the removal of the school from Battle Creek, and I have not changed. If anyone is determined to place himself in a position where he counterworks the work of God, we are to leave that one with the Lord. I am to have no controversy with him. But such a man must not be allowed to call the most promising young people away from positions that they can fill in the Lord's work, to a place from which the Lord has declared that His people are to move. 11MR 46.2

In connection with every one of our sanitariums there is to be provision for the training of the youth as medical missionaries so that our young men and women need not go to Battle Creek to receive an education in these lines. It is the intelligent and promising youth who are called for, to come to Battle Creek, and these are the very ones that are needed in other places, in our schools, in our sanitariums. These young men and young women will be needed to do the work that must be done in different parts of the Lord's vineyard. There are many lines of work to be carried forward, and many laborers are needed. We need one hundred laborers where now there is but one. Our forces are not to be centered in one place. They are to be scattered throughout the field. Plants are to be made in all parts of the Lord's vineyard. We protest, in the name of the Lord God of Israel, against the calling of our youth into a place to which the Lord has declared they should not go.—Letter 189, 1903, pp. 1-4, 7, 8. (To Frederick Griggs, August 26, 1903.) 11MR 46.3

White Estate

Washington, D. C.,

May 28, 1981.