Manuscript Releases, vol. 17 [Nos. 1236-1300]

MR No. 1252—Safety in Counseling Together

(Written January 3, 1901, from St. Helena, California, to Dr. E. R. Caro, in Sydney, Australia.)

I have before me a letter expressing the same opinion that you have expressed that the Newcastle Bath business should not be taken over by the Cooranbong Retreat, but should remain under the control of the Sydney Sanitarium. 17MR 87.1

In saying that the Retreat should take over the Newcastle work I have followed the light given me. The proposition that the Sydney Sanitarium should control the Newcastle work is not in the order of God. Were this proposition followed the work in Newcastle would be bound about. You should not seek to take this extra responsibility. You have not been appointed to act as a manager, but as a physician. You are not to feel that you are qualified to manage all the Sanitariums which may be established in Australia. This is not in the order of God. You are to counsel with the officers of the Union Conference. 17MR 87.2

You should not feel authorized to follow your own judgment alone in choosing persons to fill positions in the Retreat or the Sanitarium, for you are not the best judge. You fail to read character aright. 17MR 87.3

You have asked me in regard to your mother coming to New South Wales to take part in the work. I respect and love your mother too well to advise her to do this. She cannot read character or deal safely with human minds. 17MR 87.4

You cannot be depended on as a safe judge of people. You would suppose certain persons fitted to fill certain positions, when older and more experienced men would read beneath the surface and see that if these persons should be placed in these positions they would either prove inefficient, or would influence others in a way that would bring about results difficult to counteract. 17MR 87.5

In your trips through the Colonies you see certain persons whom you suppose to be just the ones for certain positions. But do not call any such person to fill a position until you have talked the matter over with experienced counselors. The Lord has men who have an understanding of the work, and with these you should counsel. 17MR 88.1

Lay your plans before the men who have carried responsibilities in the work in Australia. This will bring you peace and rest. You and Brother Sharp need to counsel with those who have had an experience in cultivation of land and in dealing with human minds, who can better judge of people and their qualifications than it is possible for you to do. Be cautious, Dr. Caro. Do not feel at liberty to move independently, as you have sometimes done in the past, to your own hurt and to the injury of the cause of God. There is safety in counseling together. 17MR 88.2

I think that this has been presented to you again and again. Again I am instructed to repeat to you: A wrong order to things must not be brought into the institutions erected at so great a cost of money, anxiety and care. In no case is the work in medical missionary lines which God has outlined to be done in Australia to be left for you to manage, for you have not the qualifications which would fit you for this work. The work of a physician is enough for any man to carry. 17MR 88.3

God has given us men who are fitted to act as managers who have had experience in this line and who are men of prayer, men who study the Word and who will, when given a chance, do the work that God has appointed them. Those who are appointed to act as managers in our institutions must be men who will consult their brethren. The very evidence given that one man or two men feel that all the responsibility devolves on them is the sure sign they are not qualified for the work and cannot discern how much is pending. They must be men who will watch unto prayer. God will use men who walk humbly before Him, who keep His fear before them, and who tremble at His word. But self-confidence, if encouraged, will lead to disastrous results. 17MR 88.4

Christ's prayer for His disciples, “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” [John 17:19] has been left on record for us. You need to realize that you have much to learn, that you need a higher, holier sanctification of soul, body, and spirit before you can be a leader. There is great need for you to walk in humility of mind. Do not lay plans in accordance with your own wisdom. Thus you will imperil the cause and hinder its advancement. 17MR 89.1

He who assumes the grave responsibilities of a physician needs to take counsel with God and with his older and more experienced brethren. Unless he walks in the light, keeping his soul purified, elevated, and ennobled through the truth, he will reap the consequence of failing to understand his own strength and his need of gaining his reputation by the sanctifying, glorious power of the truth. 17MR 89.2

No one can transgress God's laws without suffering the consequence. God calls upon physicians to walk before Him in truth and righteousness. He will cooperate with all who do this. But when a physician trusts in his own sharpness, Satan leads him into strange paths, where the footsteps of Christ are not seen. 17MR 89.3

God will work with every Christian physician. And to Him the physician is to give the honor and glory for the success that attends his work. The only safety for physicians is in walking and working in humility and faith. The physician who does not put his trust in God will use his profession to hide many unrighteous deeds. 17MR 90.1

You must not suppose that because the patients at the Sanitarium have your instruction in regard to present truth they do not need the help of God's delegated ministers, whom the Lord has used and will still use to do His work. You have not as deep a knowledge of the Scriptures as you should have because you have not made the work of God your first consideration. If the work of ripening off the people of God were left in your hands many would bear the impress of half-done, superficial work. 17MR 90.2

You are wholly dependent upon the great Physician for the ability and power to do good work. Cling to Jesus. He will give you sharpness of intellect to discern with readiness, and steadiness of nerve to execute with precision. 17MR 90.3

I write you this but I have not liberty, at the present time, to say all that I might say. Will you read the article entitled, “Responsibilities of Physicians,” found in Testimony No. 32, p. 195? Read this through carefully and follow the instruction it contains. 17MR 90.4

My much-beloved brother, you need to realize that in some respects your ideas are contrary to the lessons God has given in His Word. Our Saviour has left us all an example of self-denial and self-sacrifice. But this lesson you have not learned by experience. You have carried out your own ideas and plans, to the injury of the work. This God has opened before me and I dare not withhold. 17MR 90.5

During your experience in Sydney as a physician your example has not always been correct. You established yourself in an expensive house. Why? To make such a display that people would think you a wonderfully successful, popular physician. Having started in this way, everything else must correspond. 17MR 91.1

While you were at Ann Arbor you gained wrong ideas in this respect. It would have been better if those sent from our schools to Ann Arbor had never had any connection with that institution. The education in drug medication and the false religious theories have brought forth a class of practitioners who need to unlearn much they have learned. They need to obtain an altogether different experience before they can say in word and in deed, We are medical missionaries. Till they obtain such an experience, the great Physician does not acknowledge them as medical missionaries. They come onto the platform of action unprepared for the high and holy work which needs to be done at this time. 17MR 91.2

The Lord has placed you in a position where you can bear responsibilities, if you have that wisdom gained from on high by most earnest prayer and humility of soul. God will hear your supplications if you will seek Him earnestly. You have at times made some excellent movements. But again, you are in danger, by your impressions and prejudices, of creating difficulties hard to remedy. Link up with men older and more experienced than yourself, men who can give you advice and counsel, even if you are a physician. Do not feel that it is your work to manage the sanitariums which may be established in Australia. When you reveal by your life and influence that you consider, that you ask wisdom of God, that you have gained an experience different from the experience which you have had in the past, you will be a man who can be depended on in emergencies. 17MR 91.3

I am very anxious that you shall not feel that God has given you the work of a director. You are a physician, not a manager. It is possible for a physician to assume far more responsibility than he should. Do not cast aside my words as of no consequence, as some physicians have done. Remember that a refusal to receive light does not alter facts. The truth will stand and will be vindicated. I hope and pray that you will link up with your brethren. Never feel that it is your prerogative to disparage the ministers of the gospel and exalt physicians as infallible. This has been done repeatedly. God help you to avoid this fatal mistake. 17MR 91.4

The words that some have spoken against the chosen ministers of God have been spoken against Christ. The sarcastic references made by physicians to those ministers who did not entertain the same ideas as they themselves with reference to the so-called medical missionary work, have had their influence. God will work in His own time and His own way to counteract the leaven that has thus been introduced; but at what a cost has this influence been exerted! The effect of this influence will not be fully known until the judgment sits and the books are opened. Then it will be seen that souls who might have stood firm as overcomers were confused and led into crooked paths by physicians. 17MR 92.1

The sacred truth for this time has been covered with disrespectful statements. Principles have been presented which are entirely contrary to the teaching of Christ. Statements have been made which have confused minds with regard to the truth of God's word, and some will never disentangle themselves from the seductive error into which they have fallen. They will never see the true bearing of the last closing message. Their influence is lost to the cause at the very time that it is most needed. 17MR 92.2

God has given His people talents to use and improve. He desires them, by cooperation with Him, to grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. Through the testimonies which He has been given to His people, He has presented truth line upon line. Many rejoiced in the light, but Satan came in, and working through the mis-named medical missionary work, he led them to cast under their feet the work of presenting the truth as it is in Jesus. 17MR 92.3

The work of God is a great work. Wise men are needed to keep Bible principles free from a particle of worldly policy. Every worker is being tested. Paul speaks of those who bring to the foundation wood, hay, and stubble. This represents those who bring in as truth that which is not truth, even their own suppositions and fabrications. If these souls are saved it will be as by fire, because they conscientiously thought they were working in harmony with the Word. They will only be as brands snatched out of the burning. 17MR 93.1

The work which might have been pure, elevated, and noble, has been mingled with fallacies brought in by men. Thus the beauty of the truth has been marred. Nothing stands forth untainted by selfishness. The mingling of these fallacies with the work of God makes that which should stand out clearly and distinctly before the world a jumble of conflicting principles in its practical working. 17MR 93.2

Oh, how many there are who have yet to learn to manifest Christlike patience and forbearance in the home and in the church! What is the lesson that should be learned by those connected with our schools, our publishing houses, our sanitariums? “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” [Philippians 2:3]. “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another” [Romans 12:10]. 17MR 93.3

My brother, when will you learn this lesson! It is not houses, lands, carriages, expensive furniture, outward display, which make a man stand high in the sight of a holy God and the ministering angels. God looks at the heart. He reads every purpose of the mind. He knows the motives which prompt to action. He reads between every line of writing sent out. He can distinguish between the true and the false. He places His seal upon the deeds that are done and the books that are written in humility and contrition of heart. He values sincerity and purity of principle above everything else.—Letter 3, 1901. 17MR 93.4

Ellen G. White Estate

Washington, D. C.,

May 7, 1987.

Entire Letter.