Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 19 (1904)

Lt 177, 1904

Medical Men at Battle Creek

Berrien Springs, Michigan

May 21, 1904

This letter is published in entirety in BCL 106-107.

To our medical men at Battle Creek

Dear Brethren,—

God is testing us by blessings bestowed and blessings removed. Shall we learn the lesson He would teach us? Will we bear His test and proving? God has worked for His people by His Holy Spirit. By the bestowal of wonderful blessings, He has striven to awaken in them a desire to impart the light entrusted to them. “I have come to you in love,” He says, “I have come to you in mercy and judgment; yet you would not learn the lesson I sought to teach. My Spirit has been grieved by your failure to respond to My love.” To those who claim to be His servants and yet depart from His way, He says, “If thou art destroyed, thou thyself art responsible. Ye would not come unto Me, that ye might have life.” [See John 5:40.] 19LtMs, Lt 177, 1904, par. 1

Who will at this time make most earnest decisions to be wholly for the Lord God of Israel? Shall the Lord again cause the idols of your choice—beautiful buildings—to be consumed by fire? Shall the reason be taken away because the God-given powers of the mind have been exercised in strange devising? By their unsanctified projects, men have burdened themselves and retarded the progress of the cause of God, till it is years behind where it should be. Our cities are still unwarned. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ... how often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but ye would not.” [Matthew 23:37.] Satan prepares the way for the doing of many things that God has not commanded. If all had used their powers to the glory of God, the knowledge of the truth would have been more widely extended than it is. 19LtMs, Lt 177, 1904, par. 2

It is the weaving into the web of so many figures that are not in the pattern that spoils the fabric. Have we not had enough of this? The Lord calls for a proclamation of the truth in new territory. This has been the burden of my message for the last twenty years. The Lord calls for greater simplicity; for people are woefully ignorant. Saith the great Teacher, “Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” [Matthew 11:29, 30.] 19LtMs, Lt 177, 1904, par. 3

As from the Mount of Olives Christ looked down upon the doomed, guilty city, He exclaimed with heartbroken anguish and with tears running down His face, “O that thou hadst known, even thou in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace.” Then He paused, unwilling to pronounce the irrevocable sentence, “But now they are hid from thine eyes.” [Luke 19:42.] 19LtMs, Lt 177, 1904, par. 4

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A strict examination should be made in regard to the business that has been transacted in Battle Creek. This will show the standing of the institution. This examination should have been made long ago. The business standing of all our medical institutions is to be carefully and correctly presented before our people, that they may know the real situation of the medical work—where it stands, what it is doing, whether or not it is producing as well as consuming. 19LtMs, Lt 177, 1904, par. 5