Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 14 (1899)

Lt 205, 1899

Kellogg, J. H.

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

December 19, 1899

This letter is published in entirety in 20MR 249-255. +^Note

Dear Brother:

The Lord gave me special light in regard to the establishment of a health reform institution, where treatment of the sick could be carried on on altogether different lines from those existing in any institution in our world. It must be founded and conducted on Bible principles, and the institution must be the Lord’s instrumentality, not to cure with drugs, but to use nature’s remedies. Those who have any connection with this institution must be educated in health restoring principles. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 1

The human family is suffering because of the transgressions of the laws of God. Satan is constantly weaving in his principles, and thus seeking to counterwork the work of God. He is constantly representing the chosen people of God as a deluded people. He is an accuser of the brethren, and his power of accusing he is using constantly against those who work righteousness. The Lord would have His people stand out from the customs and practices of the world. Still greater truths are unfolding for this people as they near the end of time, and God designs that those see the light and believe the truth of the third angel’s message shall establish institutions where those who are in darkness in regard to the needs of the human organism may be educated, that they may in their turn lead others into the light of health reform. The blind leaders of the blind must learn the truth of healthful living as taught in the Scriptures. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 2

Every physician in our ranks should be a Christian. God says, There shall be an institution established under the supervision of men who have been healed through a belief in God’s Word, and who have overcome their defects of character. In the world all kinds of provisions have been made for the relief of suffering humanity, but the truth in its simplicity is also to be brought to these suffering ones through the agency of men and women who are loyal to the commandments of God. Therefore sanitariums are to be established all through our world, and managed by a people who are in harmony with God’s laws, a people who will co-operate with God in advocating the truth which determines the case of every soul for whom Christ has died. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 3

“God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16.] The institutions established must be conducted on lifesaving principles. The souls who are suffering because of transgression of the laws which govern their bodies are to be taught that transgression of the laws of nature is transgression of the laws of God. “If ye would enter into life,” He says, “keep the commandments. Live out the law as the apple of thine eye.” [Matthew 19:17; Proverbs 7:2.] 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 4

The Lord will work with the people who will honor Him. A power from God will go with the physician who is a physician not merely to heal the maladies of the body, but who seeks to heal the disorders of the soul. Physicians, nurses, and helpers are to work in harmony. The truth is to be lived out by everyone who has any connection with the work. All the light of the past, which shineth unto the present, and stretcheth forth into the future, as revealed in the Word of God, is for every soul who comes to these institutions. The Lord designs that the sanitariums established among Seventh-day Adventists shall be symbols of what can be done for the world, types of the saving power of the truth of the gospel. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 5

The God who gives mental capabilities, and who entrusts talents to the men and women who are His by creation and by redemption, expects that these talents and these capabilities will be increased by use. But when men glory in their capabilities and cause the praise of them to flow to finite beings, they dishonor God, and He will remove that in which they glory. When the physician is tempted to feel that he has methods which he can carry independent of the gospel of Christ, independent of the people for whom God has wrought that He might place them above every other people on the face of the earth, and he attempts to carry his plans, he will not meet with success. God establishes His instrumentalities among a people who recognize the laws of the divine government. The sick are to be healed through the combined efforts of the human and the divine. Every gift, every power, that Christ promised to His disciples, He bestows upon those who will serve Him faithfully. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 6

The style of a doctor’s dress, his equipage, his furniture, weigh not one jot with God. He says, “He that will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up the cross, and follow me.” [Mark 8:34.] The physicians who unite with the work of God are to co-operate with God as His appointed instrumentalities; they are to give all their power and efficiency to magnifying the work of God’s commandment-keeping people. But physicians have been led to suppose that their capabilities were their own individual property, and they have used the powers given them to do God’s work in branching out into lines of work to which God has not appointed them. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 7

These men are not to suppose that they can compass the world, for God has not set them to embrace so much with their own labors merely. The man who invests all his powers in many lines of work cannot take in hand the management of a sanitarium and do it justice. Satan is working every moment to find an opportunity to steal in. He tells the physician that his talents are too valuable to be bound up among Seventh-day Adventists, that if he were free he could do a very large work. But the Lord has bound the physician to this people whom He has commanded to be a light in the world, and his work is to give all that the Lord has given him—to give, not as one influence among many, but as the influence through God to make effective the truth for this time. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 8

A work of reformation is to be carried on in our institutions. Physicians, workers, nurses, are to realize that they are on probation, on trial for their present life, and for that life which measures with the life of God. We are to put to the stretch every faculty, every nerve and muscle, to bring saving truths to the attention of suffering human beings. This work must be carried on in connection with the work of restoring the sick. Then the work will stand forth before the world in the strength which God designs it shall have. The truth will be magnified through the influence of sanctified workers. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 9

Our physicians are to unite with the work of the ministry of the gospel. Souls are to be saved, that the name of God may be magnified, and the physician is not the feel, when brought in contact with the higher classes of society, that he must hide the peculiar characteristics which sanctification through the truth give him. The greatest respect will ever be shown to the physician who reveals that he takes his orders from God. Therefore he is not to take himself into his own hands, but be in every respect a representative of Christ. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 10

Physicians in our institutions should not engage in numerous enterprises, and thus allow the work, which should stand upon right principles and exert a worldwide influence, to flag. God has not set His co-laborers to embrace so many things, to make such large plans, that they fail to accomplish the great good He expects them to do in diffusing light to the world, in drawing men and women to where He is leading by His supreme wisdom. Men of wealth and talent are to be turned from the cheapness of material things to lay hold on eternal realities. Every medical practitioner may through faith in Christ have in his possession a cure of the highest value—a remedy for the sinsick soul. The physician who is converted and sanctified through the truth is registered in heaven as a laborer together with God, a follower of Jesus Christ. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 11

Through the sanctification of the truth, God makes physicians and nurses skillful in a knowledge of how to treat the sick, and this work is opening the fast-closed doors of many hearts. Men and women are led to see and understand the truth which is needed to save the soul as well as the body. This is an element that give character to the work for this time. The medical missionary work is as the right hand and arm to the third angel’s message which must be proclaimed to a fallen world, and physicians, managers, and workers in any line, in acting faithfully their part, are doing the work of the message. From them the sound of the truth will go forth to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. In this work the heavenly angels bear a part. They awaken spiritual joy and melody in the hearts of those who have been freed from suffering, and joy and thanksgiving to God arise from many hearts that have received the precious truth. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 12

The enemy has determined to counterwork the designs of God to benefit humanity by revealing to them what constitutes true medical missionary work. So many interests have been brought in that the workers cannot do all things according to the pattern shown them in the mount. I have been shown that the work God has appointed to physicians is enough for them to do, and what the Lord required of them was to link up closely with the gospel missionaries and do their work with faithfulness. He did not ask Dr. Kellogg, or any another physician to embrace so much. He has not made it the special work of Dr. Kellogg to go into the worst dens of iniquity in the large cities. The Lord does not require impossibilities of men. He gives to every man his work. The work which He gave to Dr. Kellogg was to symbolize to the world the ministry of the gospel in medical missionary work. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 13

The Lord does not lay upon His people the largeness of the work of laboring for a class that cannot be benefited themselves or benefit others by their professed belief of the truth. Today the <nominal> churches are full of every foul spirit, the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. The work is becoming confusing because the converted and the unconverted have united in them. If there are men who will take up the work of laboring for the most degraded, men upon whom God has laid the burden to labor for the masses in a variety of ways, let these converted ones go forth and gather from the world the means required to do this work. Let them not depend on the means which God intends shall sustain the work of the gospel. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 14

The sanitarium in Battle Creek needs the brains and heart of which it is being robbed by another line of work. Misunderstandings have arisen because the ministerial branch of the work did not give its whole strength to other work. Everything that Satan can do he will do to multiply the responsibilities of Dr. Kellogg; for he knows that this means weakness instead of strength to the institution. Great consideration must be exercised. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 15

There are other institutions to take the babies and <abandoned women to> care for them. This work is being done by <other parties.> There is a special work to be done for the children more advanced in years. Let families <of our faith in the churches> who can do so adopt these little ones, and they will receive a blessing in so doing. But there is a higher and more important work to engage the attention of educated physicians in teaching those who have grown up with deformed characters. The principles of health reform must be brought before parents. They must be converted, that they may work as missionaries in their own homes. This work Dr. Kellogg has done and can still do, if he will not sacrifice himself by carrying large responsibilities. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 16

The physician will find that it is for his present and eternal good to follow the Lord’s way with suffering humanity. The mind that God has made, He can mold without the power of man, but He honors men by asking them to co-operate with Him in this great work. When the spirit of God works on the mind of the afflicted one, and he inquires for truth, let the physician work for the precious soul as Christ would work for it. Do not urge upon them any special doctrine, but point them to Jesus as a sin-pardoning Saviour. Angels of God will make impressions on the human mind. Some will refuse to be illuminated by the light which God would let shine into the chambers of the mind and into the soul temple, but many will respond to the light, and from these minds every form of deception and error will be swept away. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 17

The head physician in any institution holds a difficult position, and he should keep himself free from smaller responsibilities, for these leave him no time for rest. He must not gather to himself work that he should not do. He should have sufficient reliable help, for he has trying work to perform. He must bow in prayer with the suffering ones and lead his patients to the great Physician. If as a humble suppliant he seeks his God for wisdom to deal with each case, his strength and influence will be greatly increased. With a sense of God’s pure truth in his heart and mind, he is better qualified to perform critical operations, which mean life or death to the afflicted ones. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 18

A personal religion is essential for every physician if he would be successful in watching the diseased. He needs a power greater than his own intuition and skill. God would have physicians link up with Him, and know that every soul is precious in His sight. He who depends upon God, realizing that He alone who made man knows how to direct, will not fail as a healer of bodily infirmities. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 19

A physician who bears these heavy responsibilities needs the prayers of the gospel minister, and he should be linked soul, mind, and body, with the truth of God. Then he can speak a word in season to the afflicted, he can watch for souls as one who must give an account. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life to him. The Scriptures come clearly to his mind, and he speaks as one who understands the value of the soul with whom he is dealing. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 20

Never should familiarity with suffering make the physician careless or unsympathetic. When the crisis is over, and success is apparent, be he believer or unbeliever, spend a few moments in prayer with the patient. Give expression to your thankfulness for the life that has been spared. The physician who follows such a course as this carries his patient to the One upon whom he is dependent for life. Words of gratitude may flow from the patient to the physician, for through God he has bound this life up with his own. But let the praise and thanksgiving be given to God as to One who is present, though invisible. The afflicted one is at the mercy of the Physician. He looks to that physician as his only hope, and the physician should ever point the trembling soul to One greater than himself, even the Son of God, who gave His life to save him from death, who pities the sufferer, and who by His divine power will give skill and wisdom to all who will ask Him. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 21

In sickness, when the patient knows not how his case will be decided, is the time for the physician to impress the human mind. He should not do this with the desire to distinguish himself, but that he may point the soul to Christ as a personal Saviour. The physician who loves and fears God will not need to make any outward display in order to distinguish himself, for the Sun of Righteousness is shining in his heart and is revealed in his life, and this distinguishes him. If the life is spared, there is a soul for that physician to watch for. The patient feels as though his physician were the very life of his life. And to what purpose should all this weight of confidence be employed? Always to win a soul to Christ and magnify the power of God. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 22

Let not the physicians who are connected with the work of God follow the example of worldlings. Strict justice and judgment must appear <in every line of the work> on every record book in our institutions. Men and angels must see that we are representatives of the principles of the gospel of Christ. Let no advantage be taken of any man, for we are laborers together with God. Christ’s character must be seen in every line of work, every hospital, every sanitarium. The physician who has a love for souls will present an example to the world that he will not be ashamed to meet at the judgment bar of God. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 23

Often an exorbitant price is charged for small services, because physicians are supposed to charge according to the charges of the worldly physicians. My Teacher said, “The institution that shall depend upon God and receive His co-operation must ever work according to the principles of the law of God. To charge a large sum for a few moments’ work is not just and right. Physicians who are under the discipline of the greatest Physician the world ever knew must let the principles of the gospel regulate every fee. Let mercy and the love of God be written on every dollar received.” 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 24

When our sanitariums are conducted as they should be, a large medical missionary work will be done. Every worker will do his work with such exactitude that he will shine as a light in the world. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 25

The Lord will do wondrous things for the truth’s sake, and that His name may be glorified. But He requires that the people who engage in His service shall keep their minds ever directed to Him. Every day they should have time for prayer, for every officer and soldier under the command of the God of Israel needs time in which to consult with God, and seek His blessing. If the worker allows himself to be drawn away from this, he will lose his spiritual power. Individually we are to walk and talk with God; then the sacred influence of the gospel of Christ will appear in all its preciousness, and the truth will go forth as a lamp that burneth. 14LtMs, Lt 205, 1899, par. 26