MR No. 695—Evangelistic Methods to which Seventh-day Adventists Are Not Called
The gospel wagon is an absorbing of money and of time. And what does it leave behind? Experience will show that the results are not proportionate to the expenditure. Camp meetings, large and small, are needed, to give the proper kind of education in religious exercises. They give also the discipline of organization and order.
(9MR 81.1)
There is such a thing as conducting gospel work in a way that does harm to the workers. This is not the way to accomplish the work that must be done for our world. We are not to follow the methods of the Salvation Army. Preach the truth, then pray the truth. Have more camp meetings to bring the truth before the people in its very simplicity. Do as we have done: Help the people to go to the camp meetings. Provide food and lodging for them. Let the meetings continue one or two weeks....
(9MR 81.2)
A very limited amount of good may possibly be done with the gospel wagon. But if the workers have a real love for souls, they may find more effective ways of working....
(9MR 81.3)
I am troubled when I see so many ways devised to expend means which, from the light God has been pleased to give me, will result in very little advancement unto eternal life. I know that other methods could be devised that would be less expensive and would leave a much better after-influence.—Letter 3, 1899, pp. 12, 13, (To J. H. Kellogg, January 5, 1899.)
(9MR 81.4)
Medical Missionary Work Not to Absorb Too Much
The Lord designs that the proclamation of the third angel’s message shall be the highest, greatest work carried on in our world at this time....
(9MR 82.1)
It was God’s purpose that the missionaries, teachers, and physicians in the [Battle Creek] Sanitarium should become acquainted with the third angel’s message, which embraces so much. Angels of God were to be your strength in the work that was to be done in order that the Battle Creek Sanitarium might be known as an institution under the special supervision of God. The missionary feeling and the sympathy that prevailed in this institution was a result of the work of invisible heavenly agencies there....
(9MR 82.2)
Dr. Kellogg, you have not in all things been following the Lord’s plan. The medical missionary work should be as the right arm of the body of truth, but this work has been made to absorb so much that to all intents and purposes it has become the body. God did not design that this work should eclipse the work of the third angel’s message. This message is the gospel message for these last days, and in no case is it to be overshadowed by other interests, and made to appear an unessential consideration....
(9MR 82.3)
The gospel is the means ordained by God to restore His moral image in man, and to stem the tide of hostility against His law. It is His remedy for universal disorganization; it is the power which draws men together in unity....
(9MR 82.4)
Of himself, what can man accomplish in the great work set forth by the infinite God? Christ says, “Without Me ye can do nothing.” He came to our world to show men how to do the work given them by God, and He says to us, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Why is Christ’s yoke easy and His burden 83light? Because He bore the weight of it upon the cross of Calvary.—Letter 206, 1899, pp. 2-5. (To J. H. Kellogg, December 10, 1899.)
(9MR 82.5)
A Disproportionate Work in Chicago Slums
Means must not be drawn away from the [Battle Creek] Sanitarium to erect buildings for the care of people who can never be relied on to fill places in the ministry or on councils. They have not a knowledge of the work of character-building, and they cannot be relied on as men of forethought. They have ruined their mental powers and nearly destroyed their spiritual discernment by the indulgence of appetite and passion, and this makes them weak. They are fickle and changeable....
(9MR 83.1)
I have been instructed to say that you [Dr. J. H. Kellogg] have drawn your time and strength and money away from enterprises which, if they had been advanced, would have done tenfold more good than the enterprises that you have carried forward. Invention after invention has taken your time and means. Your money has been used in a way which has done more harm than good. The setting of men to work in various ways in what is called medical missionary work has consumed much time and money, but has produced next to nothing. The Lord entrusted capital to you, to be used in advancing His kingdom in our world, and if you misuse this capital, you must settle with him.
(9MR 83.2)
Investments have been made without sitting down and counting the cost, without finding out whether there was enough money to carry forward the work started. A shortsightedness has been shown. Men have failed to see that the Lord’s vineyard embraces the world....
(9MR 83.3)
My brother, you have not as much firmness and assurance as you have had. You have the most critical cases to handle, and at times a dread comes upon you. To perform these difficult duties, you know that rapid work must be done, 84that no false moves must be made. Again and again you have had to pass swiftly from task to task. Who has been by your side during these critical operations? Who has kept you calm and self-possessed in the crisis, giving you quick, sharp discernment, clear eyesight, steady nerves, and skillful precision? The Lord Jesus has sent His angel to your side to tell you what to do. A hand has been laid upon your hand. Jesus, and not you, has guided the movements of your hand. At times you have realized this, and a wonderful calmness has come over you. You dared not hurry, and yet you worked rapidly, knowing that there was not a second to waste. The Lord has greatly blessed you. Others, who knew not of the presiding Presence working with you, gave you, J. H. Kellogg, all the glory. Eminent physicians have witnessed your operations and praised your skill. This has been pleasant to you. You have not always been able to endure the seeing of the Invisible by faith. You have been under divine guidance. You have been greatly honored by God, that His name, and not yours, should be magnified....
(9MR 83.4)
The Lord has not laid upon you the burdens you have been carrying. The result of your carrying these burdens is felt all through the vineyard of the Lord. God has not called His people to ignore present truth for these last days, and take up a work that so absorbs workers and means that the Lord is not represented as He would otherwise be. Never would a rival sanitarium have been, through Satan’s devising, planted close to the Lord’s institution, if you had kept at your work for the class of people whom the Lord desires to become, through the Sanitarium, acquainted with present truth, with the message God has given to those who follow Him, to be communicated to the world. The Sanitarium in Battle Creek was to bring the chosen people of God before men of high standing, to represent the ways, and works, and power of God. 85It was to be His witness in behalf of truth—elevated, satisfying truth. The Lord made you, my brother, His honored instrument. He has never required from you one task that would crowd out your work in connection with the institution that was to stand for the truth, to do a certain work for God, flashing light upon the pathway of thousands.
(9MR 84.1)
The Lord would have kept the Sanitarium pure and true, to represent the truth for these last days. But the very ones who could have helped you to do this work, you despised and turned from as unworthy of your notice. God sees that His work is being lowered into the slums, as Satan wants it to be; that the elevated sanctification of the truth will become so mingled with tares that its peculiar, holy character will sink out of sight. The Lord saw how this would be, and He has been sending you warnings. Yet you are tempted to go right on in your own way and pick flaws in the message, just as others have done before you.—Letter 215, 1899, pp. 6, 7, 12, 15, 16. (To J. H. Kellogg, December 12, 1899.)
(9MR 85.1)
Other Work Neglected
It is not the work God has appointed you. It is not your means you are using so abundantly, as you have been doing for years. The poverty of the missions in Africa has recently been opened before me. Missionaries were sent from America to the natives of Africa, and no provisions made for them to find support. They have suffered, and are still suffering for the necessities of life. Think of it! God’s missionaries, ready to suffer the greatest inconveniences in order that the message of mercy might be carried to those sitting in darkness in heathen lands, are not sustained in their work. The means that should have been put into the work in Africa, in sending supplies to the sufferers in Africa has not been sent....
(9MR 85.2)
Our camp meetings are God’s instrumentalities. The people of all denominations come out to hear, and the truth is proclaimed. God bids us to give the people Bible truth for this time. Revelation means just what it expresses—revelation—truths revealed—and the blessing is pronounced on all who give heed to the things written in this book. (See Revelation 1:1-3.) The truths contained in the Revelation are to be taught, and we are all to learn the lessons of the fearful import of the things to transpire in these last days of this earth’s history. You have lost sight of these things. Other things introduced by you have not come in under the instruction of God. You need to be converted. You need to bear in mind that your mind and your judgment is not the great whole. God is the teacher. He has exalted you to be a wise man, to stand at your appointed post of duty. Our work we are trying to carry out just as the Lord has outlined it, years ago, and repeated it over again and again.
(9MR 86.1)
The camp meetings are to be conducted as the gospel ministry of the word of the living God to the people. They are beguiled by heresies and false doctrines. Men are glorified and humanity exalted as if erring man were God. Preach the truth....
(9MR 86.2)
This work requires money and workers. The tent remains two or three weeks, and then the camp is broken up to do work in other places. A tent must still be left, a mission home secured, Bible workers employed to go from home to home to those who become awakened, convicted, and converted. All classes of people should be labored for, the drunkard, and the tobacco devotee, and the tea drinker, and the coffee user, and all are to be educated in matters of temperance, and from the Word instructed in the law of God. This is the work that God’s treasury must sustain. In this work sheaves will be gathered, 87souls converted and baptized and added to the church as in the days of the apostles. No one is to be neglected.
(9MR 86.3)
Our workers find intelligent mothers of families who know not how to read. They take that as a part of their mission, and instruct them as they would little children, not in ABC’s, but give them lessons from the Bible, and several in Maitland have become able to read the Scriptures for themselves. Hard cases, very hard cases, have been convicted and converted, and those who know them say that the change wrought is a living miracle....
(9MR 87.1)
The wicked are not to be supported and God’s chosen passed by, and the Lord does not give into the hands of Sabbathkeepers the work of supporting the disobedient and transgressors of His law, while the needy, suffering ones of God’s people are left without provision because of wrong conceptions of duty. We are not called upon to make it a special business to reward the disobedient and transgressors of God’s law who continue in sin, and who are educated to look for help to those who will sustain them. We shall find a rich blessing when we do our duty to the Lord’s suffering, needy ones. We should not pass them by and reward the unholy and sinful, as it has been represented to me has been done, and is being done, in Chicago. God’s work is a high and important work, one above every other work, and it is to be carried to all parts of the world.
(9MR 87.2)
Foreign mission fields have been neglected and the work of God hindered from accomplishing the purpose God the Lord designed. His people are not to be left to suffer for the words of truth and to die in want and need because means is placed where God has not ordered. His name is not honored or glorified. But whenever a church is established we are to do the very work that should be done for the needy believers, and the church should look after and relieve 88the sufferings of believers and unbelievers, irrespective of their faith, and some will embrace the truth as the result....
(9MR 87.3)
There are many places where the means should have been appropriated to make aggressive warfare in cities and towns in connection with tent efforts, and raise up churches which should be as memorials of truth and righteousness. Every stroke should tell for God and His holy Sabbath. That is to stand out in all our work distinctly and pronounced, to be a witness that the seventh day is the sign, the seal of God.
(9MR 88.1)
The Sabbath is to be exalted and made prominent more than is done now. Again the churches, the plants of the Lord, must take up experimental religious work, not only for the church members but for those whom their experience may benefit in personal labor....They are to work for their neighbors whether believers or unbelievers. They may obtain the confidence of the suffering ones, and in offering prayer in their behalf, should pray that they may feel their accountability to God to serve Him who died to redeem them. The patient self-sacrifice of these church members should carry out the instruction of Christ to His disciples.
(9MR 88.2)
Christ ordained the twelve to preach the gospel of His kingdom. It was in the same line as giving Bible readings. “As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 10:7). Read the chapter. “And into whatsoever city ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into an house salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you” (verses 11-13King James VersionAmerican Standard VersionWebster’s BibleAmerican King James VersionDarby BibleWorld English BibleYoung’s Literal Translation). There must be peace in the houses where their call is given. Their labor was not to be lost, producing no good results. They must use judgment and discrimination as to whether the master 89of the house was of those to whom they should give their labor, and not waste their precious strength and time. They were not to remunerate all they visited, but to be provided for by the houses they visited, and this was to be the test as to where they should give time and instruction. “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues” (verses 14-17King James VersionAmerican Standard VersionWebster’s BibleAmerican King James VersionDarby BibleWorld English BibleYoung’s Literal Translation). This would be experienced in the fullest sense....
(9MR 88.3)
This building up of institutions to feed the people was not God’s devised plan. When churches were raised up through the preaching of the gospel, the members were not to have this personal work done by proxy and not come close to the sick and visiting them and showing their love and care for the Lord’s property by ministering to them, and not lavish upon them the means from the Lord’s treasury.
(9MR 89.1)
The church should have certain wise men and women chosen to look after the poor, and then report and counsel as to what should be done. They should not be encouraged to think they can have their eating, drinking, and sleeping in a place provided for them all free, as if there were an inexhaustible fund to provide for them. Men of God should be appointed, men of discernment and wisdom and care, to look after the wants of the saints of God, the household of faith, first. The Lord commands that His commandment-keeping people shall have relief first, and then every case is to be examined, and not 90teach them that a work is to be done for them free, or nearly so.
(9MR 89.2)
Many will depend as long as they have anything to depend on, and God knows better than short-sighted mortals what is best for the creatures He has created. He would not have transgressors and the worst kind of humanity consuming the revenue He has appointed to sustain those who shall be refused work because they keep the law of God.—Letter 45, 1900, pp. 2, 8-10, 14, 16-18. (To J. H. Kellogg, March 12, 1900.)
(9MR 90.1)