Chap. 4 - To Physicians and Ministers

Sanitarium, Cal., August 10, 1905.

To Our Ministers and Physicians in the Colorado Conference:

I bear a message to you from the Lord. Walk in all humility of mind, and do not in thought or word or act grieve the Saviour. Do not in any way misrepresent His character. The work that we are now to do has been laid out before me. We are to press together. We are to unify. We are to relieve if possible the embarrassments of the institutions that are laboring under a pressure of debt. Our sanitariums are to be helped. The Lord will be honored if you will use your zeal in lifting the burden of debt from the medical institutions already established. Thus you will give evidence that you desire to carry out the purposes of God. {SpTB05 32.1}

I have a message for the brethren who contemplate establishing a sanitarium at Canon City. The Lord forbids, at this time, any movement that would tend to draw to other enterprises the sympathy and support that are needed just now by the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium. {SpTB05 32.2}

This is a critical time for that institution. For years it has struggled under a heavy burden of debt, and recently special perplexities have attended its work. For a physician, formerly connected with the institution, to establish another sanitarium close by the one which for years has been struggling under a burden of debt is not the work of the Lord. It is unjust. A private sanitarium should not have been thus established in Boulder. {SpTB05 32.3}

The rival institution in Boulder has worked to the detriment of the Colorado Sanitarium, and has added to the burden of its managers. Those at the head of the Colorado Sanitarium had burdens enough to carry without being further hindered by this move. God forbid that this condition of things should continue; for unhappy circumstances will arise as long as the same annoying condition exists. {SpTB05 33.1}

I am not permitted to say, Dispose of the Colorado Sanitarium. This institution was established by our people for a special work. It has the right of way. The Lord requires equity and sound judgment to be exercised in all such matters. Let every effort be made to lift the debt resting on this institution. It is not by selling the sanitarium that the situation is to be relieved, but by paying the debt. {SpTB05 33.2}

All who carry the burden of the Lord's work must make an alliance with Christ. They must study His nobility, His manliness. The Saviour is our criterion of character. Connected with Him, we purify ourselves, even as He is pure. We are to grow into closer and still closer familiarity with Christ's way and with His spirit of nobility, with His singleness of purpose and His virtues of character. Consider His unselfish retirement from the field when there was a conflict between His disciples and the disciples of John. {SpTB05 33.3}

There is a crisis before us. I pray that the converting power of God shall come upon the men who are acting a prominent part in our sanitariums. It is on the point of self-abnegation that many a heaven-bound soul fails, and gradually turns away from following Christ. {SpTB05 33.4}

Let every man die to self. Let every man be converted. The whole manhood must be brought into the conflict for the victory over self. Obedience to Christ in heart, in mind, in soul, in strength, is now required. Obedience to all the commandments of God is our only assurance of success. I urge upon every one the necessity of learning of Christ. In every movement that is made, take heed how you hear and how you speak. There must be no unfitness in any soul who tries to win eternal life. {SpTB05 34.1}

I must speak most earnestly to our brethren and sisters in Colorado. The Lord would have you first carry out the plans that are sanctified by the approval of heaven. You are to stand continually on guard. Time is precious. Unify, unify. Christ is calling for oneness in labor, in and through His grace and strength. He calls for the whole being to be sanctified to one purpose --the doing of the commandments of God. Those who know the truth are to strive most earnestly to teach perishing souls how to win the race for eternal life, ever looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Paul tells us that there is a race to run. Every step to advance brings us nearer the winning of the race. Every one is to put forth an earnest effort, moving firmly and steadily forward with an unwavering purpose to run the race and win the prize. Let no one place himself where he will hinder any soul from running this race. {SpTB05 34.2}

Satan will work to bring in criticism and misstatements, and to lead men to want their own way. There is no safety for any one who retains his selfish habits. God calls upon every soul to take up the work of self-examination. If all will now take up the work God has given them, and be converted in the doing of that work they will grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. Satan will make every effort to create disunion, and unless the love of Christ fills the heart there will be divisions. But divisions always dishonor God, and a great deal of time is spent in an effort to set things right, when it ought not to be necessary to spend a moment in this way. God has a great work for His people to do. He will enable us to do this work if we will give ourselves into His keeping, and be led and guided by Him. {SpTB05 34.3}

We are to represent the truth as it is in Jesus, binding self under the cross of self-denial, and doing the work that is to distinguish us as the people of God. We are to do all in our power to release our sanitariums from debt. God will not sanction the establishment of another sanitarium in Colorado until the one already established shall be freed from its present financial embarrassment. {SpTB05 35.1}

Means are now needed to press forward to success in the work that has been begun in Colorado. And the work in other fields is also to be helped; for the coming of the Lord is near. {SpTB05 35.2}

The Lord's workmen are to use every power in completing the work already begun. Means and ability are needed to bind off the work in Washington and Nashville. My brethren, have you not seen the great necessities that are to be relieved? Do not use God's treasure of means to establish something that at the present time should wait. {SpTB05 35.3}

The field of work has been laid out before me. The work in Washington calls for talents of means and talents of men, to bring to completion that which is only half done. {SpTB05 35.4}

I am instructed that a sanitarium is to be built on the school grounds at Takoma Park. The work on this institution is to be begun even before the work on the school-buildings is finished. {SpTB05 35.5}

Nashville also must have financial aid, that the work there may be established. A sanitarium building must be put up near Nashville, because with the present facilities for doing medical missionary work in that city, the workers can not correctly represent the reformatory work that is to be carried forward in decided lines. This institution should be erected as soon as possible. For years the sanitarium work in that city has been carried forward in rented buildings not well adapted to the work, and the workers have been greatly hindered in their efforts. They have done the very best they could, but they have not been able to accomplish what they might had they been provided with needed facilities. {SpTB05 36.1}

My brethren of the Colorado Conference, will you not help in the establishment of a sanitarium in Takoma Park and in Nashville? Let all work harmoniously, and then the stamp of the Lord will be placed upon your efforts. He will acknowledge your singleness of purpose to glorify Him. {SpTB05 36.2}

The school at Huntsville is greatly in need of help, that young colored people may be prepared to go forth to work as teachers for their own race. This is a great need in the Southern field of an orphanage for colored children. At Huntsville a beginning has been made on a building for this purpose, but the work has stopped for lack of means. A small sanitarium is also needed at Huntsville. Let those who desire to work place their zeal and their efforts where they will tell in supplying a genuine necessity. {SpTB05 36.3}

To those who would now solicit means from our people for the establishment of a sanitarium in Canon City, I am bidden to say, stop where you are, and consider the necessities that have been laid before you. These necessities demand attention. Do not draw means from our people to establish something that is not a positive necessity. Let not your zeal abate, but do those things that the Lord would have you do. {SpTB05 36.4}

Let your ambition work for the institution already established, until it is free from debt. Let that institution receive all the help that can be given it. Do all in your power to stimulate the efforts that are being made in its behalf. Do not take for an enterprise which the Lord has not sanctioned the means that are needed in other fields. {SpTB05 37.1}

Every man is to work under the one great Designer. To every man is given his work. What will it profit for you now to link together to establish a large sanitarium, if the Lord does not plan with you or for you? The new enterprise that you have planned will not be carried out with the Lord as the designer. {SpTB05 37.2}

Stormy times are before us. Men, who suppose that by virtue of intellect and energy without the cooperation of God they can carry out large enterprises, will meet with disappointment. You overestimate the strength of the characters that you are linking up together. {SpTB05 37.3}

Nothing succeeds like character. Supposed capability may prove a failure and be contemptible in the sight of the Lord. Men have too high an estimate of men, even of themselves individually. I am instructed to say that God back of the workers is a power. He desires you to bring your conception of character up to His standard. You may think that He insists upon impossibilities, but He can impart power. Lay hold of the work that He presents and keeps before you. Do not branch out into some scheme which may look flattering, but which you would have to carry forward in your own wisdom. If the Lord has not marked out your course, stop where you are. {SpTB05 37.4}

It is not human wisdom that will reveal the fulness of the perfection of Christ to our world. It is perfect obedience to the commands of God--the doing of the work that God has planned for us to do. This will give us purity of sentiment, and will show that we are born of God. A pure wisdom can be developed only by men and women who have an acute sense of propriety in every action, and a true ideal of moral power, as shown in the right use of their talents. {SpTB05 38.1}

The man who is careful so to conduct his movements that the methods of a noble, holy life will appear, will be recognized and appreciated by those whose eyes have been anointed with the holy eye-salve. God's work calls for men of solid moral worth. Purity and holiness of action in every movement are as much required as is knowledge. {SpTB05 38.2}