Messenger of the Lord

The key points of the vision were:

It was God’s will that they went to Dansville, for otherwise they could not have learned what had to be known “in so short a time.” MOL 302.9

The Dansville home is the “best health institution in the United States ... yet, the leaders there are but men, and their judgment is not always correct.” MOL 302.10

When people who have suffered much “are relieved by an intelligent system of treatment ... they are often led to conclude” that their physicians who treat them are also “right in matters of religious faith, or at least cannot greatly err from the truth.” MOL 302.11

God could not glorify His name by answering the prayers of His people for the Whites while at Dansville, for “the physicians there would have taken the glory which should be given to God.” MOL 303.1

Through this experience God was “fitting up” James to be a stronger leader in health reform, in that he and others could speak more effectively regarding the “relation which eating, working, resting, and dressing sustain to health.” MOL 303.2

“God requires all ... to place themselves in the best possible condition of bodily health” to attain a “healthy religious experience,” and that the Lord will not “do for them that which He requires them to do for themselves.” MOL 303.3

James had let fear and anxiety overwhelm his faith and that, by the power of his will and trusting in God’s power, he would regain his health. MOL 303.4

Church members had been “negligent in acting upon the light which God has given in regard to the health reform“: that such work “had scarcely” begun. MOL 303.5

“Few ... understand how much their habits of diet have to do with their health, their characters, their usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny.” MOL 303.6

“God’s people are not prepared for the loud cry of the third angel. They have a work to do for themselves which they should not leave for God to do for them.” MOL 303.7

Seventh-day Adventists must develop their own health institution. This institution would be “the means of introducing our faith in new places and raising the standard of truth where it would have been impossible to gain access had not prejudice been first removed.” MOL 303.8

This health institution should provide a home for (1) “the afflicted,” and (2) for those “who wish to learn how to take care of their bodies that they may prevent sickness.” MOL 303.9

This institution must be financially independent, not to be “embarrassed by a constant expenditure of means without realizing any returns.” MOL 303.10

“The great object” of this institution “is not only health, but perfection and the spirit of holiness, which cannot be attained with diseased bodies and minds.” MOL 303.11

The sick are to be taught that “it is wrong to suspend all physical labor in order to regain health.” MOL 303.12

“The greatest danger” would be for the managers to depart “from the spirit of the present truth, and from that simplicity which should ever characterize the disciples of Christ ... in order to help the feelings of unbelievers, and thus secure their patronage.” ¹⁹ MOL 303.13