Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 19 (1904)
Lt 21, 1904
Kellogg, J. H.
“Elmshaven,” St. Helena, California
January 2, 1904
This letter is published in entirety in SpM 344-345. +Note
Dr. J. H. Kellogg
Battle Creek, Michigan
My dear Brother,—
I have received your letter, and also a copy of a circular letter recently sent out by you. Thank you. I have ever had an intense desire to see you standing firm in God, working under the direction of the great head Physician. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 1
My brother, I ask you to remember that Christ is our Leader. The beings that He has purchased with His blood are to study the life that He lived in this world, in order to learn what path they are to follow. His voice is heard, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” [Matthew 16:24.] “So shall he be My disciple.” [See John 15:8.] He who supposes, like Nebuchadnezzar, that he can lift up or cast down, will find that he is reckoning without God. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 2
I ask you to consider Him who, though the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, took humanity upon Him and came to this world to show what those who serve Him may become. God has given you precious knowledge regarding the treatment of the sick. But you have not appreciated this knowledge as the gift of God. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 3
I am thankful that you see something of what has been lost by your consenting to take the heavy burden of business matters, and by your efforts to control the general work. Again and again your devisings have hindered the advancement of the work of God. Time has been lost during which victories might have been gained if you had stood out of the way. Your vision has been narrow. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 4
I am glad that you see the evil influence of division. Had you put yourself where you should have been, there would long ago have been a united company, and medical missionary work, in connection with the gospel ministry, would have had a far-reaching influence for good. This I know; for the truth has been presented to me too clearly for me to turn away from it. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 5
You have manifested altogether too much kingship in your work as a physician. For the last twenty years warnings in regard to this have been presented to me. I have been instructed that had you acted your part in giving recognition to men who were deserving of recognition, we should today have had men doing as good a work as yourself in some things—physicians qualified to fill important positions of trust. But there is a dearth of workers at a time when we so much need men who show all-around efficiency because they acknowledge God and Christ as supreme. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 6
Christ is your example. If you fall short of following the example that He came to our world to give, God could not safely admit you into the heavenly courts. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 7
Infinite possibilities are placed within the reach of every human being who in humility and contrition returns to his allegiance to God, as a little child acknowledging the authority of His law and obeying its precepts. The Father and the Son have provided for man great things, broad and high and deep and inexpressible. This they have done that man, becoming one with Christ in God, might trade on his talents to advance the kingdom of heaven in this world. But man, choosing the kingship, will, in pursuance of his object, reveal what self will do by its devising, setting aside the only One to whom belongs the kingship, who is the Alpha and Omega of all things, beside whom there is none else. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 8
God, the living, personal God, the author and ruler of nature, is above all science. He is acquainted with science that is inexplainable to the greatest minds in our world. In His sight the nations before Him are as a drop in the bucket. He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, or the beasts thereof for a burnt offering. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 9
How few have any knowledge of God! How few understand the greatness and majesty of our God! Human language cannot define Him. His ways are past finding out. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 10
God sees that the world is in need of cleansing. In the very near future, this cleansing will come. It will at first be done in a limited degree, and then with greater and still greater power, till men will see that God means to bring them to repentance. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 11
“Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for the Lord God hath spoken this word. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 12
“The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” [Isaiah 24:1-5.] 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 13
Notice the sure result of heaping indignity upon the laws of God’s kingdom: “Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth. They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. The city of confusion is broken down; every house is shut up, that no man may come in. There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.” [Verses 6-12.] 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 14
Then the scene changes. The prophet says: “When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done. They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea. Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord of Israel in the isles of the sea. ... 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 15
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days they shall be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously.” [Verses 13-15, 21-23.] 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 16
There are in the Word of God declarations so plain that those who take heed will be preserved from self-exaltation. Their lives will be such that through them the Lord will be revealed to the people. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 17
The twenty-fifth chapter of Isaiah shows what will be in the future, when the Lord shall have destroyed all pride and self-exaltation. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 18
“O Lord, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy name; for Thou hast done wonderful things; Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. For Thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin; it shall never be built. Therefore shall the strong people glorify Thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear Thee. For Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud; the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 19
“And in this mountain shall the Lord make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine in the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it. 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 20
“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under Him, even as the straw is trodden down for the dunghill. And He shall spread forth His hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim; and He shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. And the fortresses of the high fort of thy walls shall He bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.” [Verses 1-12.] 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 21
“In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee; because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.” [Isaiah 26:1-4.] 19LtMs, Lt 21, 1904, par. 22