Name: Youth Going to Battle Creek to Obtain an Education - Pamphlet
Author: Ellen G. White

Youth Going to Battle Creek to Obtain an Education - Pamphlet

Ellen G. White

1905

WHY STUDENTS SHOULD NOT GO TO BATTLE CREEK.

I am continually receiving letters from our people, asking in regard to their children going to Battle Creek to work in the Sanitarium. For years God has been calling our people out of Battle Creek, and the instruction given me is that he will never counsel them to make Battle Creek an educational center. This is contrary to his plan. The whole field needs to be worked; and the calling of our youth from all parts of the field to the Battle Creek Sanitarium, robs the field of its workers.

We have no message to advise students to go to Battle Creek, to be leavened by the insinuations that have been and are still being introduced to weaken confidence in our ministers and message. There are those who, whenever they can get an opportunity, are sowing the seeds of evil insinuations. And when temptations come, those in whose minds these seeds have been sown will be wrought upon to divert others from the truths that God has been urging us to bear to the world. ELLEN G. WHITE.

THE BURNING OF THE SANITARIUM.

St. Helena, Cal., Feb. 20, 1902.

TO-DAY we received the sad news of the burning of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. For many weeks I have had a heartache that has made my nights very restless. I would at this time speak words of wisdom, but what can I say? We are afflicted with those whose life interests are bound up in this institution. Let us pray that this calamity shall work together for good to these, who must feel it very deeply. We can indeed weep with those that weep.

Our heavenly Father does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. He has his purpose in the whirlwind and in the storm, in the fire and in the flood. The Lord permits calamities to come to his people to save them from greater dangers. He desires every one to examine his own heart closely and carefully, and then draw near to God, that God may draw near to him. Our life is in the hands of God. He sees dangers threatening us that we can not see. He is the giver of all our blessings; the provider of all our mercies; the orderer of all our experiences. He sees the perils that we can not see. He may permit to come upon his people that which fills their hearts with sadness, because he sees that they need to make straight paths for their feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. He knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust. Even the very hairs of our head are numbered. He works

through natural causes to lead his people to remember that he has not forgotten them, but that he desires them to forsake the way which, if they were permitted to follow unchecked and unreproved, would lead them into great peril.

Trials come to us all to lead us to investigate our hearts, to see if they are purified from all that defiles. Constantly the Lord is working to our present and eternal good. Things occur which seem unexplainable, but if we trust in the Lord, humbling our hearts before him, he will not permit the enemy to triumph.

The Lord will save his own people in his own way, by such means and instrumentalities that the glory will be returned to him. To him alone belongs the praise. Let us beware how we give to human beings the credit for their success. It is the abundant grace of Christ that makes the feeble among his disciples strong and the strong mighty. It is from him that we receive the endowments that enable us to offer him acceptable service. If we are fully consecrated to him, we shall return to God all the glory. We shall make him our entire dependence.

Every soul that is saved must be a partaker with Christ of his sufferings, that he may be a partaker with him of his glory. How few understand why God subjects them to trial. It is by the trial of our faith that we gain spiritual strength. The Lord seeks to educate his people to lean wholly upon him. He desires them, through the lessons that he teaches them, to become more and more spiritualized. If his word is followed in all humility and weakness, he brings to them experiences which, if rightly received, will help to prepare them for the work to be

done in his name. God desires to reveal his power in a marked manner through the lives of his people.

I am instructed to say, let no one attempt to give a reason for the burning of the institution that we have so highly appreciated. Let no one attempt to say why this calamity was permitted to come. Let every one examine his own course of action. Let every one ask himself whether he is meeting the standard that God has placed before him. Can we say from the heart, I lay aside my own will. “I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is written within my heart”? Do we ask daily, “Lord, what is thy will concerning me?”

Let no one try to explain this mysterious providence. Let us thank God that there was not a great loss of life. In this we see God’s merciful hand.

HAVE WE VALUED THE SANITARIUM AS WE SHOULD?

If we have not valued the great blessing that the Lord has given us in sending us the light on health reform, if we have not felt honored by having the Battle Creek Sanitarium among us for thirty-five years, if we have not diligently garnered up the benefits and advantages to be gained from such an institution, shall we be surprised when something comes to arouse us?

The Sanitarium has been a blessing the influence of which has extended to all parts of the world. Through it many have received the light of truth. Eternity alone will reveal how many have been relieved of physical suffering by the skill of the physicians. The great Physician, mighty to save to the uttermost, will hear the earnest prayers that are

offered for suffering humanity. His presence and his skill have just as surely stayed the hand of the destroyer in the Battle Creek Sanitarium as when he was on this earth in human form. In that institution angels of God have worked with human beings to save life. God gave skill and understanding to the workers at the time of the fire, enabling them to get the sick and suffering out of the reach of the quickly spreading flames.

We know something of the great good that such an institution has been to us as a people. We know how many times the Lord has spoken of this institution as his helping hand. He has declared that in it men and women were to be trained as competent physicians and nurses, some to act as educators in the home field, and others to go to far-off fields. Have we valued this institution as we should?

WHAT OUR SANITARIUM WORKERS SHOULD BE.

God desires the workers in the Sanitarium—physicians, managers, and nurses—to examine themselves closely to see if they have adhered strictly to right principles. It was for the proclamation of these principles that our sanitariums were established. The workers are to stand firm on the platform of eternal truth. Have those connected with the Sanitarium realized that the Lord designs that our medical institutions should stand in this world as memorials for him, to reveal the gracious purposes of Him who is the physician of the body as well as of the soul?

Our sanitariums are not to conform in any respect to worldly policy or worldly practise. They are to stand forth as memorials for God, free from any

tarnish of worldliness or evil working. The workers in these institutions are to be the Lord’s peculiar people, daily seeking for that perfection of character that will give them a fitness to enter the heavenly city. Constantly they are to reach higher and still higher, as workers together with God. They are to reach a high spiritual standard. Let them study Christ’s lessons in the New Testament, that they may better understand his lessons in the Old Testament. The New Testament is the key that unlocks the Old Testament.

A SOLEMN CAUTION.

A solemn responsibility rests upon those who have had charge of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Will they build up in Battle Creek a mammoth institution, or will they carry out the purpose of God by making plants in many places? I pray God that a work may be done that will be for the best interests of the work and cause of God. I know that the plea will be made, Should the Sanitarium be established in some other place, it would not receive the patronage that it would receive were it rebuilt in Battle Creek. But the question has been asked by One of authority, What has been accomplished by this large patronage, to win souls to the truth?

Light has been given me that a great reformation must take place in the lives of the managers of the Sanitarium before the institution can be conducted wholly as God desires it to be. For some time it has been deteriorating. Little burden is felt by many to make it a medical missionary center, a place where the truth shall be clearly and distinctly proclaimed.

The half-hearted service offered to Christ by so many is not accepted by him. We need to be more in earnest. The Lord uses only vessels that are cleansed from defilement. Christ can not put his Spirit into impure, unsanctified hearts. He calls upon us to put away the unchristlike traits of character that we have cherished.

Wake up, my brethren and sisters. We have no time to spend in wringing our hands and in mourning that the Sanitarium has been destroyed. A wider outlook has been given us. Let us inquire of the Lord his mind and will. Will not the managers of the institution make thorough self-examination? Attempt after attempt has been made to burn the Sanitarium. Do not these things speak to the managers, telling them to look back at the way in which they have carried out their plans? Again and again reproof has come to them from God, but these messages have not led them to take heed. Message after message has been sent that plants shall be made in many places. A most solemn review should now be made. God has been speaking, sometimes by unacknowledged mercies, oftentimes by threatened judgments. By blessings bestowed and blessings removed he has sought to bring about the needed change of action. Well may he say, “What could have been done more in my vineyard that I have not done in it?” Shall the word be spoken, “Ye would none of my counsel, ye despised all my reproofs. Ye would not come unto me that ye might have life”? ELLEN G. WHITE.

THE WORK BEFORE US.

I have been carrying a very heavy burden. For the last three nights I have slept very little. Many scenes are presented before me. I feel an intense interest in the advancement of the work of God, and I say to our leading brethren, As you consider the questions that shall come before you, you are to look beneath the surface. You are to give careful consideration to every question discussed.

There is need of means in foreign missionary work, and in missionary work in America. It is a painful fact that although we have had a special message for the world for so many years, there are many, many cities in which we have done nothing to proclaim this message. In the calamities that have befallen our institutions in Battle Creek, we have had —

AN ADMONITION FROM GOD.

Let us not pass this admonition carelessly by without trying to understand its meaning. . . . Why did the Lord permit Jerusalem to be destroyed by fire the first time? Why did he permit his people to be overcome by their enemies, and carried into heathen lands? — It was because they had failed to be his missionaries, and had built walls of division between themselves and the people round about them. The Lord scattered them, that the knowledge of his truth

might be carried to the world. If they were loyal and true and submissive, God would bring them again into their own land. . . .

OUR MEANS NOT TO BE TIED UP IN BONDS.

A proposition has been made that our people purchase Sanitarium bonds, but light has been given me that means is not to be thus drawn from our people. Last night place after place that is still unworked was presented before me. These places are all ripe for the harvest. They are calling for workers, and the means of our people is not to be tied up so that it can not be used in this work. . . .

Regarding investment in bonds, I am instructed to say further that if no voice were raised against this arrangement, if our people should tie up their money in such investment, when it became necessary to call for means for aggressive missionary work, it would be found that there was a greater dearth of means among us than there is now. Plans may be started that at the beginning seem very promising, but often the foresight would be much more pleasant than the aftersight, were these plans carried out. I have been commissioned to instruct our people to be economical, and always ready to give of their means to the Lord’s work. If you have a thousand dollars to spare, God wants it; it belongs to him. If you have twenty dollars to spare, God wants it. His vineyard is waiting to be worked.

The light that God has given me is that there are proper ways that the Conference shall devise to help the Sanitarium in Battle Creek. I wish that a portion of the work of this institution had been taken

elsewhere. But the Sanitarium has been erected in Battle Creek, and it must be helped. God will institute ways and means by which it can be helped. But he does not wish his people to invest their money in bonds.

There is a great field to be worked. God wants us to labor intelligently. We are not to grasp every advantage that we can for the part of the field in which we are laboring. We are to do for those working in hard, needy fields just what we would like our brethren to do for us were we placed in similar circumstances. There are small sanitariums to be established in various places. Medical missionary work is the helping hand of God. This work must be done. It is needed in new fields and in fields where work was started years ago. Since this work is the helping hand of God and the entering wedge of the gospel, we want you to understand that you are to have a part in it. It is not to be divorced from the gospel. Every soul before me this morning should be filled with the true medical missionary spirit.

UNITY OF EFFORT.

God does not design that the Sanitarium that has been erected in Battle Creek shall be in vain. He wants his people to understand this. He wants this institution to be placed on vantage ground. He does not want his people to be looked upon by the enemy as a people that is going out of sight.

We are now to make another effort to place our institution on solid ground. Let no one say, because there is a debt on the Sanitarium in Battle Creek, “We will have nothing more to do in helping to build up that institution.” The people of God must build that institution up, in the name of the Lord. It is to be placed where its work can be carried on intelligently. One man is not to stand at its head alone. Dr. Kellogg has carried the burden until it has almost killed him. God wants his servants to stand united in carrying that work forward. Because one man is one-sided and another man is one-sided, this does not show that the work of God should be one-sided.

God’s people are to place the Sanitarium in Battle Creek on vantage ground. How is this to be done? — I can not tell you. But I know that just as soon as the Holy Spirit shall come upon hearts, there will

be unity in voice and understanding, and wisdom will be given us.

I have given you these thoughts as suggestions, trusting that they will have some influence upon you in your councils and in the movements that you may make. It is not only for that little corner in Battle Creek that we are laboring. We must stand on vantage ground before our own people and before the world. . . .

Because men have made mistakes, they are not to be uprooted. The blessing of God heals; it does not destroy. The mighty healer, the great medical missionary, will be in the midst of us, to heal and to bless, if we will receive him. John said of him, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” He is waiting to come to us, to take away our sins, and fill us with his Spirit.

A mighty host is arrayed against us. But God is on our side, and he has all power. He has separated us from the world for himself, and he declares that we are a peculiar people, an holy nation, a royal priesthood. He tells us not to rely upon men, but to put our trust in the Lord God of Israel. Then we shall gain the victory.

THE WORK TO BE DONE IN BATTLE CREEK.

HEALDSBURG, CAL., Aug. 22, 1903.

To the Officers of the Union Conference, and the Managers of the Sanitarium.

Dear Brethren: My mind has been much troubled in regard to our youth being drawn to Battle Creek. Many helpers will be needed to care for the large number of patients coming to the Sanitarium. These helpers will meet with worldly influences. What can be done to save them from backsliding?

I am instructed to say that we are to do all in our power to guard the employees of the Sanitarium and the medical students from the temptations and snares of the enemy. As faithful watchmen, we must guard the sheep and lambs, lest they be led astray. We must improve every opportunity to present the true situation of our work before those who do not understand the dangers that beset us on every hand.

When the Lord warned His people against making Battle Creek a Jerusalem center, and said that plants should be made in many places, He meant just what He said. The large patronage of the Sanitarium is no sign that this institution should have been built up in its present magnificence. Even though it had many more patients, this would be no evidence in this matter.

It is God with whom we have to deal, and we are not to move in accordance with human policy or with man’s short-sighted wisdom. The Lord is in earnest

with us. He means what He has said, and for us to build up in Battle Creek something to draw our youth there, and to give the families already there an excuse for staying, is working contrary to the light he has given.

Had our brethren been humbly studying the light which has been given in regard to the scattering of our forces, the new Sanitarium in Battle Creek would have been established in some other place, even though apparently strong reasons called for its rebuilding in Battle Creek.

The Lord presented to us the reasons for removing the College from Battle Creek. This instruction should now be searched out and studied by those who desire to see the former College re-established there. Let the light already given shine forth in its purity and beauty, that God’s name may be glorified. It is not wise to plan to maintain such a school in a place where worldly influences prevail to so great an extent as to counterwork that which the Lord has outlined should be done for the youth in our educational institutions.

Many youth should not be brought to Battle Creek. Let no plans be laid for enlarging the work at Battle Creek. But the question remains, What shall be done for those who are there? It is certainly our plain duty to guard the young men and young women who are serving those who know not the Lord. Knowing that those who are trying to obey God will be brought into close connection with those who know not the truth, let faithful pastors and teachers work zealously to save the souls of both helpers and patients.

There is special need of faithful watchmen in

Battle Creek,—watchmen who will keep guard resolutely, determinedly; who will not be found sleeping at their post of duty. There is need that the managers of the Sanitarium, realizing the difficulties and dangers of the situation, shall bring into the institution men and women of mature years, who have a good Christian experience, and who will make an earnest, faithful effort to be a help to the youth and a blessing to all in the institution.

The young helpers must not be left to be led away from the truth by the unbelievers with whom they are brought in contact. Faithful watchmen are needed in Battle Creek, to sound forth the warning, giving the trumpet a certain sound. We are not to stand by passively, seeing souls exposed to temptation, without doing anything to help them. There is a work to be done for believers and unbelievers, that those who will listen to the truth may have an opportunity to hear and understand. Those who go to Battle Creek, for whatever reason, are souls for whom the Lord gave his only begotten Son.

The Lord will not permit his truth to be extinguished, and those who love and serve him distressed and afflicted. There are men who must be on the ground at Battle Creek, to do their best to hunt and fish for souls, to uphold the truth before the multitudes. Let us take the very best view possible of the situation, and work for souls as they that must give an account. We must call strong men to Battle Creek, men who will clearly and distinctly outline our position from a Bible standpoint, and who will present straight, plain Bible truth, men who have not been receiving popular, poisonous errors. Every opportunity to teach the truth to worldlings is to be

improved. And among the patients there will be true-hearted Christians to reach. These, as well as our medical missionary students, must be helped.

In all that we do we are to labor together with God. Let us work intelligently, that those who are working as medical missionaries in Battle Creek may not be ensnared. The Lord of heaven will help us to do his work in a way that will be recognized of heaven. Ellen G. White

THE WORK THAT CAN BE DONE IN BATTLE CREEK.

The work that the believers in Battle Creek can do is at their hand. Let them distribute our literature. Let them make the most of every opportunity offered them to arrest the attention of unbelievers. Let those who have been reproved for serving self rather than Christ arouse themselves, and zealously repent. Let them put literature into every hand that will receive it, and let no one say, “Why do ye so?” In different ways a warning message is to be borne to high and low. Let all put on the gospel armor, and stand firm for the truth.

My brethren and sisters, there will come into your city many who have never heard the truth for this time. These men and women may come from cities which through your neglect have never been warned. As they come to where you are, neglect not your duty. By wise, Christlike movements, disappoint the enemy. Now is your opportunity, just now, to tell them of what is coming upon the world. In great wisdom present the truth as it is in Jesus.

During the summer let a large tent be pitched in the most favorable location, and let a series of meetings be held. In behalf of those who come to Battle Creek, let everything in our power be done to magnify the law, and make it honorable. Let the God of Israel be exalted as the great Medical Missionary. ELLEN G. WHITE.

WORDS OF WARNING.

We are living in a time of special peril to the youth. Satan knows that the end of the world is soon to come, and he is determined to improve every opportunity for pressing young men and women into his service. He will devise many specious deceptions to lead them astray. We need to consider carefully the words of warning given by the apostle Paul:—

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.” 2 Cor. 6:14-18.

Special light has been given me in regard to why we may accomplish much more for the Master by the establishment of many small sanitariums, than by the building up of a few large medical institutions. In large institutions there would be gathered together many who are not very sick, but who, like tourists, are seeking rest and pleasure. These will have to be waited on by nurses and helpers. Young men and

young women, who from their earliest years have been shielded from worldly associations, would thus be brought in contact with worldlings of all classes, and to a greater or less degree would be influenced by what they see and hear. They would become like those with whom they associate, losing the simplicity and modesty that Christian fathers and mothers have guarded and cherished by careful instruction and earnest prayer.

We are living amid the perils of the last days. Something decisive must be said to warn our people against the danger of permitting children who need parental care and instruction, to leave their homes to go to places where they will be brought in contact with pleasure-loving, irreligious worldlings.

In many homes, the father and mother have allowed the children to rule. Such children are in far greater danger, when brought in contact with influences opposed to godliness than those who have learned to obey. Not having received the necessary training, they think they can do as they please. A knowledge of how to obey would have strengthened them to resist temptation, but this knowledge their parents have not given them. When these undisciplined youth enter an immense institution, where there are many influences opposed to spirituality, they are in grave peril, and often their stay in the institution is an injury to themselves and to the institution.

I am instructed to warn parents whose children have not firmness of principle or clear Christian experience not to send them away from home to distant places, to be absent for many months, and perhaps for years, and it may be to have sown in their minds the

seeds of unbelief and infidelity. It is safer and far better to send such youth to the schools and sanitariums nearest their homes. Let the youth who are forming character be kept away from places where they would have to mingle with a great company of unbelievers, and where the forces of the enemy are strongly entrenched.

Let a decided effort be made by the managers of our large sanitariums to employ older persons as helpers in these institutions. In the vision of the night I was in a large assembly, where this matter was up for consideration. To those who were planning to send their undisciplined children to Battle Creek, One of authority said:—

“Dare you make this experiment? The salvation of your children is worth more than the education they will receive in this place, where they are constantly exposed to the influence of unbelievers. Many who come to this institution are unconverted. They are filled with pride, and have not through faith a connection with God. Many of the young men and women who wait on these worldlings have had but little Christian experience, and they easily become entangled in the snares that are laid for their feet.”

“What can be done to remedy this evil?” some one present asked. The Speaker answered, “Since you have placed yourselves in this position of peril, let Christian men and women of mature years and established character be brought into the institution to exert a counter influence for the right. The carrying out of such a plan would increase the running expenses of the Sanitarium, but it may be an effective means of guarding the fort, and of shielding

the youth in the institution from the contaminating influences to which they are now exposed.

“Parents, guardians, place your children in training-schools where the influences are similar to those of a rightly conducted home school; schools in which the teachers will carry them forward from point to point, and in which the spiritual atmosphere is a savor of life unto life.”

The words of warning and instruction that I have written in regard to the sending of our youth to Battle Creek to receive a training for service in the Lord’s cause, are not idle words. Some God-fearing youth will stand the test, but it is not safe for us to leave even the most conscientious ones without our best care and protection. Whether or not our youth who have received wise instruction from godly parents will continue to be sanctified through the truth, depends largely upon the influence that, after leaving their homes, they meet among those to whom they look for Christian instruction.—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VIII, pp. 223–226.

THE REBUILDING OF THE BATTLE CREEK SANITARIUM.

The Battle Creek Sanitarium was erected against the expressed will of God. Presidents of Conferences and others were consulted, it is true, and they assented to the plans presented, because they did not desire to differ with the leader of the medical work when they could possibly agree with him. And besides, they had not received all the messages that he had received. Those who had not seen the testimonies that the leaders in the medical work had seen, were not responsible for what they did not know.

The experience that we have passed through since the Conference of 1901 has been a complicated one, and thus our experience will continue to be. Just as long as the managers of the Sanitarium try to make Battle Creek a great center, so long will they call for men and women and ministers to do the work which they can not do. How can we encourage the plans to gather our youth into Battle Creek, when our heavenly Father has said that this place is not to be made a great center for educational work? Those educated there have not been receiving a training that will rightly prepare them to engage in the work of God. Seeds of doubt and of opposition to the Testimonies have been sown. Better far would it have been for the future of our work if those who have received their education in Battle Creek had been educated where the spiritual atmosphere is purer.—Letter written in 1904.

When the Lord swept the large Sanitarium out of the way at Battle Creek, he did not design that it should ever be built there again. But in their blindness men went ahead and rebuilt the institution where it now stands. Years ago message after message was given, pointing out that the Sanitarium in Battle Creek was too large, that plants should be made in different places, that memorials should be established in many places, so that the light of present truth might shine forth. Had this counsel been heeded, the heavy responsibilities connected with the Battle Creek Sanitarium would not now exist. These responsibilities are a terrible burden. This institution should have been divided into several parts. But the light that had been given regarding this was not followed.

What are we to do in regard to this institution? We do not want to tear things to pieces. We must make the best of the situation. And the best thing for every one to do is to humble his soul before God. Let those who had no part in this movement unite with those who did act a part in it, in seeking the Lord’s guidance. To those who took the responsibility on their own shoulders, we want to say, “God in his mercy, for the sake of his cause, for his name’s glory, will pardon your transgressions and your mistakes, if you will be converted, if you will humble your hearts before him.” But to their associates who stand ready to plaster up the breach that has been made, by daubing it with untempered mortar, we say, Get out of the way; let God work upon your hearts; strive with all your might to bring the light of heaven upon your own souls.—Written in 1904.

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