Health, Philanthropic, and Medical Missionary Work

Faithfulness in the Work

The helpers should take Jesus with them in every department of their labor. Whatever is done should be done with that exactness and thoroughness which will bear inspection. The heart should be in the work. Faithfulness is as essential in washing dishes, sweeping the floors, and doing chamber work, as in caring for the sick or administering baths. Some may receive the idea that their work is not ennobling; but this is just as they choose to make it. They alone are capable of degrading or elevating their employment. Would that every drone might be compelled to toil for his daily bread; for work is a blessing, not a curse. Diligent labor will keep us from many of the snares of Satan, who ever finds some mischief for idle hands to do. PH066 21.2

None of us should be ashamed of work, however small and servile it may appear. Labor is ennobling. All who toil with head or hands are working men and women; and all are doing their duty and honoring their religion as much while working in the laundry or washing dishes, as they are in going to meeting. While the hands are engaged in the most common labor, the mind may be elevated and ennobled by pure and holy thoughts. When any of the workers manifest a lack of respect for religious things, they should be separated from the work. Let none feel that the institution is dependent upon them. PH066 22.1

Helpers who have been longest at our Sanitarium should now be responsible workers, reliable in every place, faithful to duty as the compass to the pole. Had they rightly improved their opportunities, they might now have had symmetrical characters and a deep, living experience in religious things. But many of these workers have separated from God. Religion is laid aside. It is not an inwrought principle, carefully cherished wherever they go, into whatever society they are thrown, proving as an anchor to the soul. I wish all the workers carefully to consider that success in this life, and success in gaining the future life, depends largely upon faithfulness in performing the duties just where God has placed them. PH066 22.2

The perfection of God's work is as clearly seen in the tiniest insect as in the king of beasts. The soul of the little child who believes in Christ is as precious in his sight as are the angels about his throne. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” As God is perfect in his sphere, so may man be perfect in his sphere. Whatever the hand finds to do should be done with thoroughness and despatch. Faithfulness and integrity in little things, the performance of little duties, and little deeds of kindness will cheer and gladden the pathway of life; and when our work on earth is ended, every one of the little duties performed with fidelity will be treasured as a precious gem before God. PH066 22.3

1879.

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If this institution is what God designed it should be, as his instrumentality it will not copy any institution in our land in its practises or moral standing. It will stand as a peculiar institution, governed and controlled after the Bible standard. No motive will be of sufficient force to move those engaged here from the straight line of duty. It will be reformatory in all its teachings and practise. There will be no uniting in closer harmony with the world in order to receive worldly patronage. If Jesus presides in the Sanitarium, there will be a greater and more distinct separation from the world. Pleasure can not entice from the way of justice. Those who are under the control of the Spirit of God will not be found seeking their own pleasure or amusement. They will answer the injunction, Come out from among them and be separate, touching not the unclean, and in no wise partaking of sin. They will aim to reach the high, pure, noble, elevated standard erected by our Lord Jesus Christ. The world, in its practises, and ways, and manners, will have no attractions to entice from duty. PH066 23.1