Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 21 (1906)

Ms 137, 1906

Relieving the Debt of Our Schools

1906

Previously unpublished.

The Lord has not designed that the president of any conference should draw upon the churches to settle school debts that are in our midst. God has provided for every school to obtain the privilege of handling books that have been prepared to be handled by the students in the schools; and these books, if studied, will be as a constant teacher, a constant sermon, to those who handle them; and in becoming familiar with Ministry of Healing and Christ’s Object Lessons, they are qualifying themselves for a more definite understanding of the truth. 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 1

Our conferences are not to expend thousands of dollars gathered up for the school debts of students, many of which need not have been. The means are not to be thus applied. 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 2

The Lord calls for the students in the schools to use these books. He never appointed any man in the ministry to tie up thousands of dollars of the Lord’s money in liquidating these debts. There must be lessons learned that there is a revenue to prepare now to enter cities that have never been worked. Let the presidents of conferences not make taxing work for themselves to liquidate debts of students. Let the very means that God has provided be used in presenting the precious light—line upon line, precept upon precept—before the people, and recommended to them to purchase. This is the very work every student for the ministry, for the physician’s work, should have to minister the precious light contained in these books. 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 3

When I see that the Lord’s plan is not being worked out to give to our schools the very phase of education to save these debts, I am distressed at the indifference. Where are the teachers in our schools? What are they planning and doing, to handle the very books the Lord has specified should be handled to give a right mold to these students? Wake up the churches! is the message that comes to me. Commercialism today is holding men from the very work that every fiber of their being should be enlisted in to give the last message to the world. Here is the opportunity for students in our schools to obtain the means to support themselves in the obtaining of an all-around education. We now need to make this matter plain. 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 4

These books were prepared to be sold by myself to release me from a heavy debt. But a word came from the Lord, pointing out how these books should be presented to be read and understood in families, and then, on every occasion, where there are meetings or gatherings to which these tourists are traveling. Present the books, and tell them that they are a gift to be handled by the students to obtain the money to become educated as missionaries in home and foreign fields. 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 5

Many lessons may be learned. The tact of approaching people courteously, and all the lessons the students will obtain if they place themselves under the direction of God, will accomplish much in their education in presentation of the message of the Word, in missionary fields. Knowledge of these books you yourselves need. Every word is to be appreciated, for the messages in these books are from the light God has given as to what is truth. 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 6

I have worked on these for hours while the household has been asleep. I have not appropriated the purchase money to myself, not one penny. I have often made gifts of the books to the poor who had no means to obtain them. This I am free to do. But the students in our schools are to be educated by their teachers, and in their own selves are to become acquainted with every word contained in these books. And the leaders of the churches should advise and counsel the youth that if their parents cannot pay for their schooling, then let the students devise to do it themselves. 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 7

Never let the debts accumulate to thousands of dollars. But work it out in doing the very best kind of missionary work in offering these precious books to the notice of the people. These books are light from the Lord. I have been awakened to the most precious truths, and at all hours of the night. I have presented them with my pen. Thus precious light and words have come to the people. And yet such indifference exists to make the uttermost of this light by selling the books, which has not been done but by a few. 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 8

There are ways the Lord has prepared; but when the ministers or presidents of conferences have worked so diligently—to burden themselves in withdrawing means that are needed in the conference for various advancements of the work that will always arise, and to support the various interests that come to every conference—to have the means applied to a certain school that will place it out of debt, what have the students gained? What lesson have they learned? 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 9

I want our people to arouse and reason from cause to effect. There are foreign fields that need to be visited, where hard, earnest, self-sacrificing labor has to be done, and the truth carried under difficulties in foreign countries. We would now say, Proper means should be used to help the students take right hold of the missionary work to be done in disposing of these books, which contain the very light for the people of God. These students at the proper times need to take advantage of gatherings where they can sow the most precious seeds of truth in selling these books. 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 10

As this school that is now held in Loma Linda is to be united with the ministry of healing, obtain the books, Christ’s Object Lessons and Ministry of Healing. On occasions when it is possible, do missionary work to present these books for sale. God will open the way for you. Tell the simple story that the books were a gift to the schools, to be sold for the purpose of obtaining support so that schools should not pile up a debt for somebody to settle out of the funds of the conference, for the Lord forbids it. Wake up, brethren and sisters, for Christ’s sake, Wake up, to understand the very best school lessons you can have in the things I have laid out before you, which is to do canvassing. The school is not to draw upon the conference funds, for the Lord has made His own plans in this matter. 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 11

The school in Fernando is to obtain lessons in education of strictest economy, and to learn that in this country, where opportunities are offered in working lines, they are to improve these opportunities. It is neither a blessing to the parents nor to their children to be indifferent in regard to the expense of their children’s schooling. There is to be no low-graded school, either for the older or the younger, in which an education runs up term after term a debt of thousands of dollars. 21LtMs, Ms 137, 1906, par. 12