Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 14 (1899)

Lt 209, 1899

Daniells, A. G.; Farnsworth, Brother

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

December 19, 1899

Portions of this letter are published in VSS 329-330; Ev 230; 3MR 344; 8MR 191-192.

Dear Brethren Daniells and Farnsworth:

I wrote a few lines to send to you by the Wellington boat, but Maggie said that you would not receive it any sooner than if I waited till now. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 1

This morning we sent off the American mail, and I make a resolution that my letter-writing will not continue. I am now fully determined to give myself to the work of completing my books, which are ever in the process of coming out, but never appear. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 2

I write this letter to say a few things to my ministering brethren. When you have a congregation before you for only two weeks, do not defer the presentation of the Sabbath question, the real genuine matter, until everything else is presented, supposing that you are paving the way for it. Thus a mistake was made at Ballarat and at Maitland. The Sabbath was touched upon, but was not made the great question, the test for this time. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 3

Lift up the standard—the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Make this everything, and then by your strong arguments wall it in, and make it of still greater force. We are, as a people, in danger of giving the third angel’s message in such an indefinite manner that it does not impress the people. It is our privilege to expect large things, even the demonstration of the Spirit of God. This is a power which will convict and convert the soul. Our message is a life and death message, and we must let this message appear as it is—the great power of God. Then the Lord will make it effectual. We are to present it in all its telling force. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 4

The first and second angels’ messages are bound up with the third angel’s message. The power of the proclamation of the first and second angels’ messages are to be concentrated in the third. We read, “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” [Revelation 14:9, 10.] 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 5

“After these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice in heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” [Revelation 18:1-5.] 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 6

Dwell more on the Revelation. Read, explain, and enforce its teachings. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 7

Our warfare is aggressive. But at the very time when the third angel’s message should be given with power, so many other interests are brought in that the very messages which should be proclaimed become tame and voiceless. Tremendous issues are before us, yea, and right upon us. Let our prayers ascend to God that the four angels shall be commissioned to hold the four winds, that they may not blow to injure or destroy. The call is to be made. The truth for this time is to do its work of separating from the churches a people who will take their position upon the platform of eternal truth. A great work is to be done. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 8

Our sanitariums are to be planted in suitable places, and then the physicians, imbued with the Spirit of God, are to show their faith by their works. There is to be nothing in any of our institutions that will lessen the force of the truth for this time. Present truth is to be our burden. Those who have charge of our sanitarium in this country are not to gather in their arms burdens which the Lord has not given them, so that the very work to which they are appointed cannot be done solidly and perfectly. The sanitarium is God’s instrumentality, and it is to stand out firmly in defense of the truth, till its weight of influence enables it to do its important work. It is to be as the living demonstration of the gospel. The power is to be placed in the sanitarium itself. Make it that which it should be in God’s great plan—elevated, pure, holy, carrying forward the work of God in reformative lines. If the physician will give his talents to the work so essential to be done in the institution, if he will labor for the saving of the soul as well as of the body, the power of God will be manifested. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 9

There is to be an impression made upon all who shall come to the sanitarium that Christianity, under a large communication of the Holy Spirit, is doing its work in the highways as well as in the hedges. This is a work of the highest importance, because it reaches a class of people who have an opportunity to see the influence of the truth upon human minds. All connected with the sanitarium, physicians, managers, helpers, nurses, are to be living channels of light. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 10

How strong is the need for intense diligence and entire consecration on the part of physicians and managers! Nothing will work so powerfully for the advancement of God’s instrumentality as a standing, as faithful servants of God on the part of those connected with it. Never let the idea be entertained that it is essential to put on an appearance of being wealthy. God cannot work by His Holy Spirit with those who ape other physicians in dress or in display. God recognizes every physician who practices the self-denial and self-sacrifice which He has enjoined upon them. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 11

I am instructed to say that efforts made to put on an appearance, with the thought that this will give influence, will have just the opposite effect. There must be no conformity to the world. All who dishonor God by lifting up themselves set an example to others that is misleading. Physicians are to understand that their power lies in their meekness and lowliness of heart. God will work with those who make Him their dependence. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 12

The physicians who connect with the sanitarium should feel that as physicians they can do nothing without the help of the great Master-worker. They are to practice the truth for this time, binding up their work with the gospel ministry. God has given His physicians the work of drawing the people to Christ through the various influences by which they are brought in contact with the great and testing truth for this time. Let no physician suppose that his influence would increase if he should separate himself from this work. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 13

It is the Lord’s plan that men and women of wealth and influence shall feel a safety in a sanitarium where prayer is offered up to God. They are to see that there is a people in the world having talent and knowledge who are not vain and self-exalted, who follow the pattern Christ has given. Seventh-day Adventists are to be represented in our world by the advanced principles of health reform which God has given to us. In all places the work is to be in harmony with the meekness and lowliness of Christ. Truth is refining, cleansing, sanctifying in its work, and those who believe the truth will not be like a steam engine working at low pressure. The breath of God, the Holy Spirit, will be upon the workers. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 14

Divine power is needed to give force and intensity to the living agencies who are to be representatives of the great Worker. Christ calls for unequaled growth in spiritual power, that Satan shall not work his will to mold men and women after his similitude. He is already sowing his tares among the wheat. By selfishness, pride, and self-indulgence people will testify that he has sown his seed in their hearts. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 15

Diversions from the straightforward path marked out by Christ have and will turn aside the current that is set flowing earthward for the purpose of accomplishing a work that no other people outside of Seventh-day Adventists can do. But these reactions need not be. God will not give mental strength and physical power to those who gather burdens that He has not appointed. They try to do a work which they have not sufficient force to carry. They spoil God’s great plan by gathering so many responsibilities that they cannot do their appointed work. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 16

God wants those who preach the gospel to show to the world a pattern of a Christlike life. He calls for men who can act as physicians of the soul as well as of the body. But men set God aside as not sufficient for them. They must resort to worldly men for recognition. They think that by the influence gained from the world they will do some great thing. But they make a mistake. By leaning on the arm of the world instead of on the arm of the Lord, they turn aside the work God desires to accomplish through His chosen people. Those who try to destroy the peculiarities of God’s people by their human ideas will lose their spiritual life, and will be no more upheld by God. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 17

We are either standing under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel or under the black banner of Satan. Whom will we choose? Truth as it is in Jesus will distinguish us from worldly policies. Have we not a strength from above? Need we plan how we can bind ourselves up with worldly confederacies? The Lord does not require of finite men the work which God must do. He asks that each shall do his appointed work. “We are laborers together with God; ye are God’s husbandry; ye are God’s building.” [1 Corinthians 3:9.] Man is not to work the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is to work man. The Word made heaven and earth and all things that are therein; and the Word will do its cleansing work with human beings, sanctifying them through Christ. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 18

We cannot put confidence in any man, however learned, however elevated he may be, unless he holds the beginning of his confidence firm unto the end. What must have been the power of the enemy upon Solomon, a man whom God has thrice called the beloved of God, and to whom He committed the great work of building the temple. In that very work Solomon made an alliance with idolatrous nations. He bound himself up with women of heathen education, and forsook the temple of God to erect groves to their idols. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 19

Men suppose they know how to fix up matters, and they arrange things after their own minds, thinking to bring about wonderful results. But if they would depend on God, and not on themselves, if they would feel that the time spent in prayer is not lost, but is uniting the human agency with the divine, they would receive heavenly wisdom. Those who are so engrossed in their work that they cannot find time to press themselves to the throne of grace and obtain divine counsel, will sway the work in wrong channels. Men need to pray more, to lean upon God, else self, which cannot be depended upon, will become all sufficient. Let this fact be ever before the mind. The Lord He is God, and beside Him there is none else. He reads every motive of the mind, and knows every impulse of the human heart. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 20

When the Lord signified that there should be medical missionary institutions in our ranks, He designed that these institutions should stand as witnesses to the truth, to give character to the work which must be carried forward in these last days in restoring man through a reformation in the habits, appetites, and passions. All the reformatory work is to be connected with the message of salvation which is to prepare a people to stand in this day of trial and temptation. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 21

Under the supposed wisdom of men, nature is placed where she becomes a destructive agency. The good things which were given to man only to bless him are converted into a curse. By the use of wine and liquor men become slaves to appetite. God does not interpose and work a miracle to convert evil into good, for He has laid all nature under His eternal laws. Let there be no peace to the wicked, He says. Let everything be at war with him. And nature responds, “There shall be none.” [Ezekiel 7:25.] If man takes himself in his own hands, to do with himself as he pleases, if he works against God and nature, his indulgences will become to him the instruments of death. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 22

Under the hand of God, nature ministers against the transgressors of God’s law. She holds her destructive elements in her bosom till the time when they shall break forth to destroy man and purify the earth. When Pharaoh defied God through Moses and Aaron, saying, “Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” [Exodus 5:2], nature expressed her sympathy with her injured Maker, and co-operated with God to avenge the insult to Jehovah. All Egypt was laid desolate because of the stubborn resistance of Pharaoh. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 23

Herod exalted himself as a god, and denied not the adulation given him when the admiring throng declared, “It is the voice of a god and not of a man.” [Acts 12:22.] But an avenging angel, jealous of Jehovah’s honor, smote the blasphemous king, and he was eaten of worms while life was in him. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” the Lord declares. [Exodus 20:3.] 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 24

The Lord has a special message for us to bear to the world, even the third angel’s message. “Lift up thy voice like a trumpet,” He says, “and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.” [Isaiah 58:1.] The trumpet is to give a certain sound. While the churches profess to believe in Christ, they are violating the law of God, which Christ proclaimed from Sinai. Our condition through sin has become preternatural, and the wisdom which must restore to man that which he has lost must be supernatural, else it is a physician of no account. Said Christ, “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.” [John 17:25.] “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.” [Verse 6.] This is our work in the world. We are to reveal Christ in spirit and action. The knowledge of God is the peculiar gift of Jesus Christ, and this gift He gives to His followers, to be communicated by them to the world. 14LtMs, Lt 209, 1899, par. 25