Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 23 (1908)

Ms 85, 1908

Co-operation Between Schools and Sanitariums

St. Helena, California

June 30, 1908

This manuscript is published in entirety in 10MR 259-264.

In company with Dr. Rand, Elder Knox, Bro. George Manuel, and W. C. White, I have just visited a place that is for sale about two miles from our home. The road to this place is rough and will need to be improved if a school is established there. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 1

The question has been asked if it would be well to establish our college so near to the St. Helena Sanitarium. Recently I have written much regarding the advantages of our schools being established close to our health institutions, that the older students may have the benefits of the united instruction in the work of ministry and the care of the sick. Our schools should be near our sanitariums, but not so close as to interfere with their work. If the instruction that has been given regarding this matter is followed, the students will reap great advantages. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 2

The students in our schools should have the advantage of learning how to care for the sick, for many of them will be called to engage in just this kind of work as they take up missionary labor in the fields to which they shall go. Then, too, for their own welfare, the students should have wise instruction regarding the principles of healthful living. This should be considered an important part of their education, even though they never expect to go out as missionaries. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 3

In the primary schools the children should be taught to form habits that will keep them in health. All should have an intelligent knowledge of how to preserve health, for thus much suffering may be avoided. These are some of the reasons why our schools should be located in easy access of our sanitariums. Students are to be taught how to keep in health, and free from the ills that are prevalent, but which, by the exercise of care and wisdom, may be avoided. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 4

Some of the meetings held in the sanitariums for the instruction of the patients may be made occasions of valuable instruction to the students. Many benefits will accrue by our sanitariums and schools being closely related. Both should blend, each helping the other as far as it is possible. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 5

I have written in regard to the Madison school, that this should be the plan of the work there, the educational work to blend with the medical. The interest of each institution in the other will prove a great blessing to each, a blessing which it is not possible to define clearly. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 6

The time has come when every advantage to be gained for the furtherance of the work should be recognized; for we need all the strength we can obtain. Christ is soon coming, and Satan knows that his time is short. As we draw near to the close of time, the cities will become more and more corrupt, and more and more objectionable as places for establishing centers of our work. The dangers of travel will increase, confusion and drunkenness will abound; and if there can be found places in retired mountain regions, where it would be difficult for the evils of the cities to enter, let our people secure such places for our sanitariums and advanced schools. The two institutions may be far enough apart so that there need be no confusion. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 7

Let parents understand that the training of their children is an important work in the saving of souls. In country places abundant, useful exercise will be found in doing those things that need to be done, and which will give physical health by developing nerve and muscle. “Out of the cities” is my message for the education of our children. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 8

God gave to our first parents the means of true education when He instructed them to till the soil and care for their garden home. After sin came in, through disobedience to the Lord’s requirements, the work to be done in cultivating the ground was greatly multiplied; for the earth, because of the curse, brought forth weeds and thistles. But the employment itself was not given because of sin. The great Master Himself blessed the work of tilling the soil. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 9

It is Satan’s purpose to attract men and women to the cities, and to gain his object he invents every kind of novelty and amusement, every kind of excitement. And the cities of the earth today are becoming as were the cities before the flood. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 10

We should carry a continual burden as we see the fulfilment of the words of Christ, “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” [Matthew 24:37.] In the days before the flood, every kind of amusement was invented to lead men and women to forgetfulness and sin. Today, in 1908, Satan is working with intensity, that the same conditions of evil shall prevail. And the earth is becoming corrupt. Religious liberty will be little respected by professing Christians, for many of them have no understanding of spiritual things. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 11

We cannot fail to see that the end of the world is soon to come. Satan is working upon the minds of men and women, and many seem filled with a desire for amusement and excitement. As it was in the days of Noah, every kind of evil is on the increase. Divorce and marriage is the order of the time. At such a time as this, the people who are seeking to keep the commandments of God should look for retired places away from the cities. Some must remain in the cities to give the last note of warning, but this will become more and more dangerous to do. Yet the truth for today must come to the world—truth as spoken by the lips of Him who understood the end from the beginning; “Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” [Luke 13:24.] “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” [Matthew 7:13, 14.] 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 12

As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of man be revealed. In the days of Noah the majority of the people were opposed to truth, because truth restricted their licentiousness and their violence and crime. The majority were opposed to righteousness and to the observance of the law of God. Truth found no place in mind or heart or works. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 13

Christ is coming. We are charged with this message: Christ is coming to judge the world for her iniquity; and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. Then the great multitude will be without God and without hope in the world. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 14

One of the marked features of Noah’s day was the intense worldliness that prevailed. Eating and drinking and dressing, buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage marked all classes, high and low. It is not sinful to supply the necessities of life. This is a duty. But when eating and drinking and dressing are made the supreme objects of life, then they become sin. God has provided food with which to supply hunger; but when eating and drinking are carried to excess, they become gluttony and drunkenness, and this is sin. That which was primarily a duty is in our day carried to excess; and the results of gluttony and drunkenness are theft, murder, lust, and the gratification of every base passion, and indulgence in every kind of satanic cruelty. Many even of those who have their names in church books are a great dishonor to the One whose name they profess. The Son of God gave His precious life, that He might redeem all who would be converted and forsake their unrighteous ways. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 15

Who will be warned? We say again, Out of the cities. Do not consider it a great deprivation, that you must go into the hills and mountains, but seek for that retirement where you can be alone with God, to learn His will and way. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 16

In the movement of 1844, when we believed the coming of Christ was at hand, night after night, when bidding goodnight to those of like faith, we would grasp their hands, feeling that we might not clasp them again until we should meet in the kingdom of glory. Thus it will be again as we draw near to the close of time. I urge our people to make it their life work to seek for spirituality. Christ is at the door. This is why I say to our people, Do not consider it a privation when you are called to leave the cities and move out into country places. Here there await rich blessings for those who will grasp them. By beholding the scenes of nature, the works of the Creator, by studying God’s handiwork, imperceptibly you will be changed into the same image. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 17

I have been given a decided message to bear regarding this matter. I am bidden to say to our people. Prepare to meet thy God. “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.] Will you take hold of the hope set before you in the gospel? Will you humble your proud hearts before the Lord, and become one with Christ? 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 18

The Lord gave to Jacob, the lonely traveler wandering in a dreary wilderness, a wonderful dream. Jacob lay down to rest at night with a stone for his pillow; and there the Lord gave to him a glorious vision. He saw a ladder, the base of which rested firmly on the earth, and its top reaching to the very heavens. It was a ladder of shining brightness, for God stood at the top, and His glory streamed from heaven to earth. This was a symbol of the ladder which all who love God will ascend, round after round, heavenward. That night Jacob, the petted son of his mother, experienced the new birth and became a child of God. In his discouraged state the light that came to him was regarded as most precious, and the hard stone on which his head rested the most desirable on which his head had ever rested. 23LtMs, Ms 85, 1908, par. 19