Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 18 (1903)

Lt 189, 1903

Griggs, F.

“Elmshaven,” St. Helena, California

August 26, 1903

This letter is published in entirety in 11MR 41-47; KC 11-12. +^Note

Dear Brother Griggs,—

I have received your letter of August 18. Yesterday I sent you a telegram, in which I told you to publish in the Review and Herald the article you have written regarding the reopening of the Battle Creek College. I felt that I could not but consent to the publication of this article. The light given me by the Lord—that our youth should not collect in Battle Creek to receive their education—has in no particular been changed. The fact that the Sanitarium has been rebuilt in Battle Creek does not change the light. All that in the past made Battle Creek a place unsuitable for our youth exists today, so far as influence is concerned. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 1

Word has come to me that letters have been sent out to our churches in the different states offering our youth special inducements to connect with the Battle Creek Sanitarium. The leading men in our conferences are requested to send their most promising young men and young women to the Battle Creek Sanitarium to be educated and trained as nurses. This is an effort to counterwork the counsel of the Lord. Those who present these inducements are walking contrary to the will of the Lord. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 2

Had the Sanitarium been reestablished in accordance with the Lord’s design, it would not now be in Battle Creek. The Lord permitted the Sanitarium to be destroyed by fire, to take away the objection raised to moving out of Battle Creek. It was His design, not that one large building should be erected, but that plants should be made in several places. These smaller sanitariums were to be established where they could have the benefit and advantage of land for agricultural purposes. It is God’s plan that agriculture shall be carried on in connection with our sanitariums and schools. Our youth need the education to be gained from this line of work. It is well, and more than well—it is essential—that efforts be made to carry out the Lord’s plan in this respect. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 3

When the call came to move out of Battle Creek, the plea was made, “We are here, and all settled. It would be an impossibility to move without enormous expense.” 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 4

The Lord permitted fire to consume the Sanitarium building and thus removed the greatest objection to fulfilling His purpose. Then a large building, different in design, but capable of accommodating as many patients, was erected on the same site as the old building. Since the opening of this institution, a very large number of people have come to it. Some of these are patients, but some are merely tourists. But the large numbers at the Sanitarium is no evidence that it is the will of God that such a condition of things should be. Our sanitariums were not designed to be boarding places for rich people of the world. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 5

The care of the large number of guests at the Sanitarium requires a large number of youth, and those in charge of our churches are asked to send in to our sanitariums the names of the most promising young men and young women in the church, that these youth may be communicated with by the managers of the Sanitarium and invited to come to the Sanitarium to take the nurses’ course. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 6

I would say, Be careful what moves are made. It is not God’s design that our youth should be called to Battle Creek. Calling them to this place, and associating them with worldly people of all grades, high and low, is like Lot’s taking his family into Sodom. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 7

The Lord said, It is for the interest of our youth to be educated in some place other than Battle Creek. He declared it to be His will for the Battle Creek College to be removed to some place in the country. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 8

At this time there was a heavy burden of debt on our schools. I prayed that some way might be opened whereby these debts could be lifted. Christ heard my prayers, and the prayers of many others, and a way was opened. I was instructed to give the manuscript of the book Christ’s Object Lessons to our schools. Our publishing houses were to share in the gift by giving the work of printing and binding the book, and our people were to sell it and give their time. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 9

The Lord has blessed the effort put forth to relieve our schools from debt, and I am told that three hundred thousand dollars have been raised toward lifting the debt. While engaged in selling Christ’s Object Lessons, students and church members have obtained an excellent experience. As they have taken up this work disinterestedly, great blessing has come to them. Many have gained a knowledge of how to handle our large books. The Lord Himself has co-operated in this work. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 10

It was about the time the light was given regarding Christ’s Object Lessons that the Lord instructed me that the college in Battle Creek should be removed from that place and established in some other place. There were too many interests in Battle Creek. Smaller schools were to be established in different places away from the cities. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 11

The establishment of the school at Berrien Springs had the commendation of God. Those in charge of the school at that place have much to encourage them. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 12

Shall we now let the enemy manage for us? Because the Sanitarium is where it should not be, shall the word of the Lord be of no account? Shall we allow the most intelligent of our youth in the churches throughout our conferences to be called to Battle Creek, to become servants to worldlings, to be spoiled and robbed of their simplicity by being brought in contact with men and women of all grades of society—men and women who have not the fear of God in their hearts? Such men and women will come in large numbers to the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and a large number of helpers will be needed. Shall those in charge of our conferences allow our youth who, in the schools away from Battle Creek, could be fitted up for the Lord’s work, to be drawn to Battle Creek, when for many years the Lord has been calling upon His people to move away from Battle Creek? 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 13

Human minds may not see the necessity for the call to families to leave Battle Creek and settle in places where they can do medical missionary evangelistic work. But the Lord has spoken. Shall we question His word? 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 14

Our youth are to be prepared to take charge of church schools, in which the children in our churches will be taught the first principles of education. This is a very nice work, demanding the highest ability and the most careful study. Our young men and young women should be preparing to advance this line of work. Then shall we allow our most promising youth to be called into a work that is not fulfilling the specifications of God? 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 15

The Family Firm

The truth, in all its important bearings, needs to have a much deeper hold on parents than it has heretofore had. Parents are to work for their own children, helping them while they are still in the home to gain a fitness to work as missionaries for Christ when they leave the home. They are to be taught to be faithful in labor. They are to learn to relieve the weary mother, sharing her burdens. The older children may greatly assist her by helping to care for the little ones. And the younger ones may learn to perform many of the simple duties of the home. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 16

Young men and young women should regard a training in the home duties as a most important part of their education. The family firm is a sacred social industry, in which each member is to act a part, each helping the other. The work of the household is to move smoothly, like the different parts of well-regulated machinery. The mother should be relieved of many burdens that the sons and daughters can take upon themselves. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 17

How important that fathers and mothers should give their children, from their very babyhood, the right instruction! They are to teach them to obey the command, “Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” [Exodus 20:11.] And the children, as they grow in years, are to appreciate the care that their parents have given them and should find their greatest pleasure in helping father and mother. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 18

Fathers and mothers should do all in their power to carry forward the work of the home in right lines. The law of God, with its holy principles and solemn injunctions, is ever to bear rule. The principles of the Bible are to be taught and practiced. The parents are to teach their children lessons from the Bible, making them so simple that they can readily be understood. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 19

The more closely the members of a family are united in their work in the home, the more uplifting and helpful will be the influence that father and mother and sons and daughters will exert outside the home. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 20

It is a serious matter to send children away from home, thus depriving them of the care of their parents. It is of the greatest importance that church schools shall be established, wherever there are parents, to which the children can be sent and still be under the watchcare of their mothers, and still have opportunity to learn the lessons of helpfulness that it is God’s design they shall learn in the home. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 21

In our larger schools provision should be made for the education of younger children. This line of work is to be managed wisely, in connection with the work of the more advanced students. The older students should be encouraged to take part in teaching the lower classes. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 22

These things are not trifles, unworthy of our consideration. I wish to state especially that very much more can be done to save and educate the children of those who at present cannot get away from the cities. Church schools are to be established in these cities, and in connection with these schools provision is to be made for the teaching of higher studies, where these are called for. These schools can be managed in such a way, part joining to part, that they will be a complete whole. The Lord has His methods and His plans. His wisdom is far-reaching. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 23

Our Forces to be Scattered

I am instructed to say to those professing to be medical missionary workers, Remember that the Lord has a very large vineyard, which He designs shall be cultivated. He saw that the Battle Creek Sanitarium was too large. The work was not being accomplished by physicians that God desired should be accomplished. There was not seen that unselfish purity of principle that marks true medical missionary work. Many things were done, many plans were made, by which the law of God was not honored. Plans were carried out and passed as medical missionary work that God refused to acknowledge—plans that greatly dishonored God. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 24

The truth of God is to regulate the life. But this it cannot do if left in the outer court. An occasional Christianity, an occasional generosity, an occasional doing of good deeds is not the Christianity that will accomplish the work for which God calls. Truth planted in the heart brings man into harmony with God. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 25

Letters of inquiry are coming to us, asking, “Has Sister White changed? Does she now favor the reestablishment of a College in Battle Creek?” In the past I have given the word of the Lord in regard to the removal of the school from Battle Creek, and I have not changed. If any one is determined to place himself in a position where he counterworks the work of God, we are to leave that one with the Lord. I am to have no controversy with him. But such a man must not be allowed to call the most promising young people away from positions that they can fill in the Lord’s work to a place from which the Lord has declared that His people are to move. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 26

In connection with every one of our sanitariums there is to be provision for the training of the youth as medical missionaries, so that our young men and women need not go to Battle Creek to receive an education in these lines. It is the intelligent and promising youth who are called for to come to Battle Creek, and these are the very ones that are needed in other places, in our schools, in our sanitariums. These young men and young women will be needed to do the work that must be done in different parts of the Lord’s vineyard. There are many lines of work to be carried forward, and many laborers are needed. We need one hundred laborers where now there is but one. Our forces are not to be centered in one place. They are to be scattered throughout the field. Plants are to be made in all parts of the Lord’s vineyard. We protest, in the name of the Lord God of Israel, against the calling of our youth into a place to which the Lord has declared they should not go. 18LtMs, Lt 189, 1903, par. 27