Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 19 (1904)
Lt 384, 1904
Kellogg, J. H.
NP
1904
Previously unpublished.
Dr. Kellogg
Dear Brother,—
I am in great sadness of heart because I see the danger you are in of spoiling your future record so that you cannot meet it with joy, but with grief. You say, Write me the things you have. I have treated the matter in rather a general way and fear sometimes you do not receive all I do write. If you place your own construction upon these communications, and walk right on in the same course as you have done, you will walk in that darkness which comprehendeth not the light. 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 1
When you received the light and walked in the light, the things that I would write were received and made a blessing to you. But when the warnings and the cautions and reproof came to you, and you said, “It is not true,” did you mean it? If you did, will you not place all the afterlight given you of God beside the same that you refuse? 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 2
The Lord is in earnest with you. There will be with you a sense of want, of utter helplessness in yourself. When this time comes, I have decided things to say. Until then, you would misunderstand the truth and call it misjudging you, and say, “It is not true.” When you are emptied of self and do not place J. H. Kellogg first and the Lord second, then you will give credit to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the testimony of His Spirit. Be not afraid to trust yourself in the hands of God, and humble your heart before Him. Then you can be “accepted in the beloved.” [Ephesians 1:6.] 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 3
In turning away from self and submitting to wear the yoke of Christ, you will be eager to learn of Christ and will not look upon the regard your works of righteousness that you have done in altogether the same light in which you now regard them. You have virtually cut yourself away from the Lord’s appointed agencies. You will not heed His instruction. Those with whom you should have been united, in all your counsels in regard to your plans and movements, you have turned away from. And whom did you accept? 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 4
You linked your arm in the arm of A. R. Henry, to make him your ally and your strong force, to create things in Boulder that need not be created because other parts of the vineyard were in a much more needy condition. You would take a man disconnected from God, one who has in various ways done greater injury to the work of God than any other man that has been connected with Seventh-day Adventists. He has betrayed the cause of God to enemies of our faith, to belittle, to cast reflections, to betray the people of God and place them in a false and disgusting light before those who are men of the world. Then your own course of influence has led them astray. 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 5
The Lord has presented some matters before me. In many things you have walked in your own counsel. You have created things that He gave no light and charge to create: you have absorbed the resources of the sanitarium to do a work as a large whole which brought all the means available into that which was to be only a branch and not a river, an arm and not a body. You have hedged up the work so that foreign missions could not go forward in the Lord’s own appointed way. The matter has placed itself before your imagination in such strong proportions that it overshadows every other work, even the gospel ministry. Your idea of the gospel is that it is to be submerged largely in the medical missionary work. 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 6
You are off the track, and God is not leading you in this path. Your feeling toward the gospel ministers is erroneous. And what if you could bring them all to regard the work, and to become absorbed in it, as you have done? Where are the people who are to be regarded as the nation whom God has chosen, who are to bear the sign of God and to stand distinct and separate from all nations upon the face of the earth? Will God have no church? 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 7
The Lord sees where these things are tending, and He gave me cautions and instruction to give to you. You know very well how you took that instruction. In the place of feeling thankful that the Lord had oversight of you, as you have in the past, you felt more and more aggrieved, until your mind was really unbalanced and not capable of looking upon anything in a true, considerate light. Had you linked up with your ministering brethren who are—many of them—just as precious in the sight of the Lord, and are doing His work as verily as yourself, you would have taken a different course. 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 8
Those who really credit the work of the gospel ministry, when they have entangled themselves and poured into one portion of the work the resources which should be most wisely used for the sustenance of the whole body, will find resources if they will be humble and willing to see and correct their error. If this had been done, thousands of dollars which have been misapplied in that work, which will amount to little in lasting results, might have been used to produce facilities to advance with equity the whole work. Something must be done to keep vitality and strength to work all parts of the Lord’s moral vineyard. God’s people are to labor to be one. 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 9
Your work is to be of a different order. A most solemn, substantial work is to be done in the whole world. The last message of warning is to be given. You are appointed to carry the banner as God’s sentinel, not only among the lowest class, but the highest as well. Upon this banner is inscribed the third angel’s message. Hold the banner firm. Bear it high. Let no one take it from your hand. If you would triumph with the third angel’s message, you are to be a representative for the truth for this time. Your rest and peace and prosperity, your triumph at last, depend upon your holding the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end. Hebrews 3:5, 6. 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 10
Where are you going, John? Who is leading you? Where are your steps tending? God will hold your hand firmly if you will let Him. Chap. 2:10-13; 1 Corinthians 2:14-16. 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 11
All the profession of faith will not save one soul unless he continues in the faith. Matthew 10:16, 17. We have had demonstrated how much confidence can be placed in men, even men who have occupied positions of trust, if they are not under the sanctification of the Spirit of God. Verse 18. These chapters we had better consider. The Lord has signified He will be with us as long as we will be with Him. Colossians 1:21, 23-29. 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 12
The ministry is to be respected, and nothing is to be entertained that shall separate any missionary work, to exalt it above the ministry of the Word. Hebrews 5:7-10. We see that the Lord respects and honors His servants who bear the message of mercy to our world. Hebrews 10:19, 25, 35, 39. Do not pass over these things with your criticism and with condemnation. 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 13
You have a work to do, and that work is for you to be just what the Lord designed you should be. We are to be “A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, ... a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9. 19LtMs, Lt 384, 1904, par. 14