Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 15 (1900)

Lt 170, 1900

Irwin, G. A.

January 1900

Portions of this letter are published in 4Bio 400.

Dear Brother Irwin:

I send you this copy. Please keep still about it, and see what the Doctor will say or do in regard to the matter. You can be armed if he misstates; you can see what is written, and can make things straight. I wish you to see the medical faculty together, for they have not been true to Dr. Kellogg. They say one thing to his face, and another thing to others. God is not pleased with middlemen. The Lord never designed that one man should be mind and judgment for other men who have reasoning faculties to put to use. And it has been an unfaithful business all around. This kind of double-dealing will just as surely bring the confusion that always comes of such work. 15LtMs, Lt 170, 1900, par. 1

The Lord is testing and proving His people, and He designs that we shall be true and faithful witnesses for God. Our Brother Kellogg is in great peril of making shipwreck of faith. O, it would be dreadful to him and to the cause. But I am sorely afraid that if he does not come into line, then the Lord will be unable to use him to His name’s glory. And so it will be with every institution. If the leaders are not under control to God, they will be under control to the powers of darkness. 15LtMs, Lt 170, 1900, par. 2

I send this to you. Give no one a copy of it. You can read it to such ones as you choose; but do not, I entreat of you, give him occasion to think I am his enemy. This is a terrible crisis we have to meet. He is writing Dr. Caro letters which declare he is going to give up and separate from Seventh-day Adventists. This is the result of his getting himself overloaded and so crowded with financial embarrassments he does not know what to say or to do to extricate himself. 15LtMs, Lt 170, 1900, par. 3

I am so sorry that things are as they are; but Satan has played his cards well, and the game is falling into Satan’s hands unless something can be done to save Dr. Kellogg. He sees there is no money for him to obtain. He has, therefore, difficulties that make me feel deep pity for him. I send you this to have you try to save him if possible. 15LtMs, Lt 170, 1900, par. 4