Manuscript Releases, vol. 1 [Nos. 19-96]

Head Physician not Qualified to Manage

In the Sanitarium here we see the great danger of the head physician supposing that he must be superintendent and manager of everything in the institution. We see the results of this here, although within the last twenty years the Lord has sent message after message to correct this supposition. It is not according to the Lord's order to lay so many responsibilities upon one man. God has a work for the physician. He is to work under His supervision, and is in no case to suppose that a physician is qualified to be superintendent and manager, and to make a success of this extra burden-bearing, at the same time doing the work that he should do as a physician.... 1MR 72.1

There is a special work committed to the managers of the Sanitarium. The physicians have a serious responsibility resting upon them, and should have connected with them men of experience, men of prayer who are faithful to the trust which is given them, whatever that trust may be. They are to be subject to one another. All things that are questioned they are to take to the Lord in prayer. They are to treat with deference and respect those whom God shall appoint to unite with them in their work, just as they would like to be treated. Let superintendent, physician, manager, and matron be up and doing their appointed work; for soon their opportunities will be past, and the recompense will follow. Letter 136, 1900, pp. 3, 11, 12. (To Brethren Sharp, Caro, and Kellogg, October 29, 1900.) 1MR 72.2