Table of Contents

The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 79 (1902)

January 14, 1902

"The Bible and Health" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 2 , p. 21.

March 4, 1902

"Combination of the Evangelical and the Medical Missionary Work" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 9 pp. 130, 131 . 1

April 1, 1902

"The Pacific Union Conference" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 13 , p. 202.

May 6, 1902

"Reorganization" 1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 18 , pp. 10, 11.

May 13, 1902

"Reorganization" 1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 19 , pp. 9, 10.

May 20, 1902

"Reorganization" 1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 20 , pp. 8, 9.

May 27, 1902

"Self-Government Means Self-Support" 1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 21 , pp. 9, 10.

June 3, 1902

"Self-Government Means Self-Support. (Continued)" 1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 22 , pp. 8-10.

June 10, 1902

"Self-Government Means Self-Support. (Concluded)" 1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 23 , pp. 9, 10.

July 22, 1902

"The Petaluma (California) Camp Meeting" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 29 , pp. 17, 18.

August 5, 1902

"Denominational Finances" 1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 31 , pp. 8, 9.

August 12, 1902

"Denominational Finances. (Concluded.)" 1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 32 , pp. 10, 11.

February 10, 1903

"An Interesting Dedicatory Service" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 6 , p. 13.

February 24, 1903

"Principles of Organization of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary Association" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 8 , pp. 9, 10.

The Principles of Organization of the Medical Missionary Work

March 3, 1903

"Principles of Organization of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary Association. (Concluded.)" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 9 , pp. 9, 10.

June 23, 1903

"Dedication of the Madison Sanitarium" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 25 , pp. 18, 19.

"Convention of the Educational Department of the General Conference" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 25 , p. 19.

August 4, 1903

"A Surprising Announcement Concerning Battle Creek College" The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 30 , p. 4.

August 11, 1903

"California Young People's Conventions" The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 32 , p. 21.

August 25, 1903

"The Educational Work in Battle Creek" The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 34 , pp. 11, 12.

October 29, 1903

"To the Seventh Day Adventist Denomination" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 43 , p. 3.

A Statement Relative to the Battle Creek College Property and the Missionary Acre Fund

The Ownership of the Battle Creek College Property

International Medical Missionary Training School Association

The Contract with the American Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association

The Purpose for Which the Property is Now Being Used

The Ultimate Ownership of the Battle Creek College Property

The Missionary Acre Fund

August 11, 1904

"LaGrave" The Advent Review And Sabbath Herald 81, 32 , p. 23.

September 1, 1904

"The Missionary Acre Fund" The Advent Review And Sabbath Herald 81, 35 , p. 5.

September 8, 1904

"The Missionary Acre Fund" The Advent Review And Sabbath Herald 81, 36 , pp. 22, 23.

September 15, 1904

"The Missionary Acre Fund" The Advent Review And Sabbath Herald 81, 37 , pp. 22, 23.

Footnotes

The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 79 (1902)

January 14, 1902

"The Bible and Health" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 2 , p. 21.

WITHOUT the Bible the true principles of health and temperance can no more be taught than can the true principles of anything else that pertains to man's greatest good.

God has made man that He may be glorified. He made man in His own image. He made him to be immortal, in body as well as in spirit. he has promised that the bodies of those who trust Him shall be brought from the dead, or, if living when He comes in His glory, they shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and made immortal, even like the glorious body of the Son of God. "Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." Phil. 3:20, 21.

Christ has bought us bodily. His salvation is a salvation of the whole man. We do not believe in that religion that looks only to the salvation of the soul separated from the body, and even at the expense of the body. In the early monasticism it was thought most meritorious to despise, to neglect, to degrade the body. He who would do this was regarded the greatest saint, because it was evidence of the supremacy of the soul. The hair went uncombed, the nails untrimmed, the body unwashed, made as filthy as possible, and tortured in different ways. All this was the way to saintship, and to the exaltation and salvation of the soul, But such is not the way of the follower of Christ; for He says, "Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

In harmony with this view, another scripture says, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." God does not want anybody to be weak and sickly; He does not want any one to be sick, even. No; He wishes "above all things" that we may "be in health." But above all things, temperance is most conducive to health–not temperance in the generally accepted meaning of the term, not simply abstinence from strong drink. There are thousands of people who might be considered strictly temperant so far as strong drink is concerned, but who at the same time are sadly intemperate in other things. There are thousands of intemperate temperance people. That sort of temperance which is most conducive to health is temperance in all things; and this is the temperance that the Bible demands. The Lord's wish that we may be in health is supported by the Lord's command to be temperate in all things. The Bible doctrine of health goes hand in hand with the Bible doctrine of temperance. We cannot have either without the other.

The Bible is ahead of the world on the subject of health and temperance, as it is on every other subject; and it always will be ahead. Every genuine advance that the science of temperance, hygiene, or medicine shall ever make will only be to approach nearer to the principles of health and temperance laid down in the Bible. We know that some may think this a hard saying, and herpahs may not be prepared to believe it, but it is the truth, whether or not anybody believes it. God made man, and He knows what is best for him; and in the Bible God has told man what is best for him. The closer man conforms to the directions laid down in the Bible, the more nearly he acts in accordance with his own best interests, whether moral, physical, spiritual, or intellectual.

A. T. JONES.

March 4, 1902

"Combination of the Evangelical and the Medical Missionary Work" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 9 pp. 130, 131 . [1]1

A. T. JONES

THE medical missionary work and the evangelical missionary work are the same thing. The preachers are to have all they can possibly get of the principles of health and temperance–the medical missionary work; and the physicians, nurses, etc., are to have all they can possibly get of the gospel–the evangelical work. So now please let every conference worker make an actual study of everything that is presented in this convention, so that he will know what to do when he goes out into the field; for we, as ministers of the gospel, are to teach to the people the gospel of complete health, the complete gospel of health.

Each one of us–each one of the canvassers, wherever he goes; each preacher, each licentiate–who goes out into the field, is to do that. And this phase of the work is to receive its share of consideration in our convention. I cannot make any distinction between health and gospel. In truth, the gospel is health; and true health is the gospel. For this reason, truly the gospel of health is all the gospel there is. I want you to see this. The other day I had an opportunity to trace the meaning of the word "health," and I do not know that I can do better than to call your attention to it, so that you may see for yourselves that there is nothing but the gospel of health,–that the gospel is health, and that health is the gospel.

The word "health" is an abstract noun, from "whole," not from "heal." The real meaning of the word "whole" is "hale, sound, entire, complete." The original sense of the word "whole" is "hale," which signifies "in sound health." This is confirmed by that verse of Scripture: "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick."

The original form of the present word "hale" is "hal." And its descent is "hal, hol, hool, hole, hwole, whole." Thus the spelling, "h-a-l-e" is only a later Scandinavian form of the word "whole." The present Norwegian word for "whole" is "hel." Indeed, the "w" in the word "whole" has been in use only about four hundred years; and the English Philological Society has recommended the dropping of the "w," so as to restore the word to its connection with its related words, "holy," "heal," "health;" etc.

Thus the descent of our word "whole," in that line, from the original "hal," shows it to mean "in sound health."

This word has another line of descent, which presents an additional and very important idea. It runs thus: hal, hol, hool, hole, holy, hole-ness, holy-ness, holi-ness; for our present word "holy" is "nothing but Middle English 'hool' (now spelled w-h-o-l-e), with suffix 'y.'" The Anglo-Saxon runs the same: "hal," with suffix "ig," forming "halig." This suffix "ig" corresponds exactly to our modern English "y," so that the Anglo-Saxon "halig" is precisely our modern word "holy." Corresponding to the Anglo-Saxon "halig" is the German "heilig," which also corresponds precisely to our present word "holy." And that German word "heilig" is from the word "heil," which signifies "health, happiness, safety, salvation." The descent and family of the word in German is this:–

Heil, signifying hale, whole, healthy.

Heiland, signifying the Saviour, from "old present participle–the healing or saving One."

Heilig, signifying (healthful, bringing the highest welfare; hence) holy, sacred.

Heiligkeit, signifying holiness.

Heiliglich, signifying holy-like, holily, in a holy manner.

Heiligthum, signifying holy place.

Heiligen, signifying to make holy, hallow, sanctify.

Heilsam, signifying wholesome, healing.

The German of Isa. 12:2 is, "Siehe, Gott ist mein Heil. . . . Gott der Herr ist meine St‚rke und mein Psalm, und ist mein Heil."

The Scandinavian languages–indeed, the whole Teutonic family of languages–tell the same story. And that story is that in the true conception of health, both holiness and its resultant–salvation–are comprehended.

Then health is wholeness, and true wholeness is holiness. The preacher cannot teach true holiness without teaching true health; neither can the doctor teach true health without teaching holiness. In what, then, does the work of the preacher differ from that of the doctor? How can the work of the medical missionary be one thing, and that of the minister in the field preaching the gospel be another thing?

By the way, we have been told that the medical missionary work and the preaching should be combined. How shall they be combined? Shall it be by sending out a preacher and a doctor to work together? Will that truly combine these two things, unless these two things are combined in each of the two men?–Plainly not. Therefore the only true way to combine the medical missionary work with all the other work of the Third Angel's Message, is to have these all combined in each individual. In the very language in which we speak in our own native and ancestral Anglo-Saxon, this combination already exists. In the words in which we speak on the subject these two things are combined. Then, not to have them combined in our work demonstrates that we do not truly know the language in which we speak, that we do not comprehend the meaning of the very words which we se when we speak on the subject.

The Bible says this same thing. In it, as in our language itself, these two things are combined in a single verse and in the same words. In 2 Cor. 7:1 we read, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

But what is "holiness"?–Only another form of the word "health." "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." And health, wholeness, holiness, is salvation. The physician or the nurse who fails to preach salvation, fails to preach true health; and the minister or the Bible worker who fails to preach health, fails to preach true salvation. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Let us read it, "Without health no man shall see the Lord;" for that expresses the same thought. The people who see the Lord while they stand alive on the earth, are going to be holy; they are going to be sound, whole, healthy; they are going to have salvation, holiness; they are going to be sanctified wholly–body, soul, and spirit preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord. And so it is written: "I am the Lord that health thee." God has yet much truth for you and me on the subject of salvation, holiness, health.

Where our further-back mother tongue says "heil," our immediate mother tongue says "salvation." Now our own English Bible says that same thing–that health and salvation are the same thing. In Ps. 67:1, 2, we read: "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us; that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations." What kind of health?–Saving. Then what is connected with true health, God's health?–Salvation. Health means salvation. It means holiness; and salvation because of holiness.

"That thy way may be known upon earth." What is His "way"?–"Thy saving health;" salvation. Then there is salvation in health, is there? Is there salvation in the health that you preach and teach? And there is health in salvation, is there? Is there health in the salvation that you preach? In studying the Bible, watch the parallels of expression, and catch the thought that is conveyed in the parallel, and you will find worlds upon worlds opening up to you.

"That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health unto all nations." Turn back to Ps. 42:5: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance." The Hebrew words in English letters says, "For His presence is salvation." There is salvation in His presence. But what is salvation?–Health. What is the difference between saving health and salvation?–They are the same.

Now the eleventh verse: "I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." The help of His countenance is the health of my countenance. His presence is salvation, and His presence is health. Then by the Scriptures, true salvation is health, and true health is salvation. See also Ps. 43:5.

Now another verse (Isa. 33:24): "The inhabitant shall not say: I am sick." Why?–Because "the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." What, then, is the root of sickness?–Iniquity. What is the true way to cure sickness?–Get rid of iniquity. Then if I am a preacher, and a sick person calls me to pray for his recovery, what is to be done for him?–His sin must be forgiven, his iniquity must be put away. But suppose I am a doctor or a medical missionary, not a preacher. A sick person calls me, and wishes me to cure him. How am I to do it?–In the same way. Does not that text apply to the doctor as well as to the preacher? Can it be said that the preacher's work is to get the people's sins forgiven, and that he has nothing to do with sickness?–No; for healing and forgiveness are inseparably blended in the Bible. Can it be said that the doctor's work is to teach the principles of health, and that he has nothing to do with salvation?–Not if he be a Christian; for Christianity is the inseparable blending of these two things. Therefore when the preacher goes out to preach forgiveness of sins, does he do that properly unless he teaches the people that iniquity is the root of sickness, and that forgiveness of iniquity is the way to health?

When I have told people that iniquity lies at the root of sickness, and that forgiveness of iniquity is the only true way to true health, does it necessarily follow that he who accepts forgiveness of iniquity should expect, or should be expected, to walk off in perfect health without any further thought as to health?–No. Then would it be proper for him, yes, would it be proper to teach him, to make the proper application of those Christianly rational treatments, etc., that might be necessary to help him physically up to health and strength, even after his sins are forgiven, as a way to health?–Yes. Would that be proper for a preacher?–Yes. But suppose I am a doctor. If a person is sick, and I am called to tell him how to get well, and to help him get well, am I doing my duty when I make only the Christianly rational, physical, medicinal applications?–No; for the forgiveness of sins lies at the foundation of the true cure of the sickness that I am treating.

But when the doctor has made the proper Christianly rational applications, is he contradicting himself, undermining his profession, and going contrary to scientific principles, if he says to his patient: "This will relieve you, but you can never have true health until you get rid of sin, the root of all sickness. You have called me in as a physician; but there is a Physician greater than I. It is He who taught me all the medicine that I know. There is a part of your disease that I cannot reach; that is iniquity. But the Great Physician can cure that as well as all the rest.

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I make these applications; but it is He alone who gives even to these all their virtue; it is He alone who heals. Yet with all this there is still a part of this difficulty that I cannot touch at all; I cannot forgive your sins, and sin is the root of your disease, and of all disease. So if you wish to be truly cured, take from Him the forgiveness of sins just as you are taking from Him the cure of this physical part of your disease"?

Possibly the patient might say: "I did not call you to preach to me." But the true physician can reply: "You called me to prescribe for your disease. I have done it strictly within my profession. If you do not wish to take the medicine, you need not do it; but that is the only way to true health." Now all will admit that he does not contradict his profession, nor violate scientific principles, when he makes that combination, or rather, when he recognizes the combination which the Lord has already made. Then is the preacher going contrary to his profession? is he undermining all faith, or throwing away the true science of salvation, when he teaches the forgiveness of sins, and then recommends or applies Christianly rational treatments?–No. If the preacher separates these things, he fails to preach true holiness; if the doctor separates them, he does not teach true health. If the preacher separates them, he has not true holiness; if the doctor separates them, he has not true health. So the preacher lacks the very thing that he professes to preach, and the doctor lacks the very thing that he professes to practice, if either separates health and holiness.

This is Christianity, and should be possessed by each person. Whether we be preachers, doctors, or only plain Christians, pure, simple Christianity requires that we "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

What is filthiness of the flesh?–It is tobacco using; opium eating; tea, coffee, beer, or whisky drinking; eating unclean and unwholesome food; unclean habits of living. From all such things the Christian cleanses himself. But when that is done, only half of the man is reached. He must also cleanse himself from "all filthiness of the Spirit." The man must do both to attain to true holiness, haleness, health, salvation. And what God has so joined together, how can any man do well in putting asunder?

April 1, 1902

"The Pacific Union Conference" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 13 , p. 202.

THE Pacific Union Conference was held at Portland, Ore., February 28 to March 9. The conference was appointed to meet February 27, but owing to storms and floods there was a delay of one day in opening.

There were full delegations from all the Conferences, institutions, and mission fields on the Pacific Coast, and Elder A. G. Daniells, Elder W. C. White, and E. R. Palmer, of the General Conference Committee, were present. There was also a good attendance of the brethren of Portland and its vicinity. It was one of the best meetings, conference or any other, that I ever attended; and the best conference that I ever attended.

The organization of the Pacific Union Conference was completed. A board was elected by the Conference, to have charge of the medical missionary work, and also a board to have charge of the educational work, in the territory of the Pacific Union Conference. There are now thirteen medical missionary institutions, three vegetarian restaurants, three health-food factories, and four health-food stores in the territory of the Pacific Union Conference; and all these departments are rapidly growing. Under the care of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary Board, all this work will be unified and made stronger. There are two colleges, one inter-mediate school, and nearly fifty church schools, with an attendance of about thirteen hundred in all, in the territory of the Pacific Union Conference. And under the care of the Pacific Union Educational Board all this work will be unified, strengthened, and made to grow, in the way of Christian education. The Sabbath-school and the young people's work were also put under the charge of the Educational Board, since it is all, in truth, only work of Christian education.

It was recommended that the North Pacific Conference be divided into two, on the natural line of the Columbia River; and that British Columbia, Utah, and Arizona be organized into Conferences. This will all doubtless be perfected at the annual meetings soon to be held in these respective fields.

Elder W. T. Knox was re-elected President of the Pacific Union Conference; J. J. Ireland, Secretary; H. H. Hall, Missionary Secretary; S. C. Osborne, General Agent; and the Executive. Committee is composed of the presidents of the Conferences that make up the Pacific Union Conference.

ALONZO T. JONES.

May 6, 1902

"Reorganization" [2]1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 18 , pp. 10, 11.

REORGANIZATION has been begun. It is going on; and we are in it. But what really is it? In what does this reorganization consist? Let us study it.

This reorganization began in the General Conference a year ago. The General Conference pushed back to the union conferences all that was possible of the work that was formerly done by the General Conference. But it does not stop there. That is only the first step toward reorganization; for the union conferences just as truly push back to the State conferences all that can possibly be done by the State conferences. And it does not stop there; the State conferences must push back to the churches all that can possibly be done by the churches. And it does not stop there; the churches must push back to each individual all that can possibly be done by each individual. And it does not stop there; the individual must push back to God all that can be done by God.

This briefly sketches the course which reorganization takes, and discovers the point at which it culminates. And the principle of reorganization is seen to be simply the principle of self-government. The General Conference used to conduct practically the whole thing. That was not self-government. Now, when that is all thrown off, and is distributed, by the steps here stated, back to the individual, and the individual alone with God, that is self-government.

And self-government is an essential of the third angel's message. It is an essential of the gospel. You cannot have the gospel without it. That you may see how entirely self-government is an essential of the third angel's message, you need but to recall that instance, yes, and that illustration, in the book of Acts, where, "when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ." And Paul, in presenting to him the faith in Christ, "reasoned of righteousness, self-government, and judgment to come;" for that word translated "temperance" is simply self-government, or self-control; and self-control is but self-government. So then, "the faith in Christ" consists of righteousness, self-government, and judgment to come. That is what it consisted of in that day. Now it consists of a little variation–righteousness, self-government, and judgment come; for the message of the everlasting gospel now is, "The hour of his judgment is come: . . . here are they that keep the commandments of God [that is, righteousness], and the faith of Jesus [that is self-government]." That is exactly what Paul preached–righteousness (that is, the keeping of the commandments of God, the life of God manifested in the flesh) and self-government (that is of the faith in Christ). And Paul spoke of judgment then to come; now it is judgment come. Thus self-government is an essential of the everlasting gospel, which is the third angel's message to-day.

Since, then, reorganization consists of self-government, let us study that principle of self-government. Self-government is the government of self; and there are two sides to that in this world; there are two phases in which we may look at it.

First of all, let us ask why self needs to be governed. I think no one will have any difficulty in telling why he himself needs to be governed. And if any one should have any difficulty, the Scripture will make it clear, so that he will have no difficulty.

Jesus said, in Mark 7:21-23: "From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these things come from within, and defile the man." And in the third chapter of Romans we have the same truth somewhat more fully stated, beginning with the nineth verse:–

"Are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes."

That is why it is that we, that is why it is that mankind, need to be governed; they are so bad.

But now, look at it. To talk to such a crowd as that of self-government; to call those people, such as you and I are, to self-government,–can we call such as these really to govern themselves? How are they going to do it, when the very impulse, the very inception of all things that come forth from the heart, out of which are the issues of life itself, are evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, and so on?

I read that "they are all under sin." All are under the dominion, the power, the rulership of sin. They are "all in subjection to sin." And how fully this is so can be seen by Rom. 7:24 and 6:6: "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" "Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." Why is it a body of death?–Because it is a body of sin.

How much of me does it take to compose my body as I stand here?–The whole of me, to the finger tips. Yes; that is the body. And what is it?–"The body of sin." That expression again, "They are all in subjection to sin." And "know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" We are in subjection to what?–To sin. And here comes to us the call to govern ourselves! And this message, this third angel's message, which is righteousness and self-government, in view of the judgment present, and going on day by day as we walk about,–this message is to all the world, calling upon men to govern themselves.

Then, what is the first step to self-government?–To get rid of sin, that is all. This is described fully for us, you will remember, in the seventh of Romans, beginning with the thirteenth verse: "Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." We are in subjection to sin, and that thing is spoken of as itself exceeding, intensely, sinful. But what is sin?–The transgression of the law of God; lawlessness. Men are in subject to sin, that thing which itself is lawlessness. And that sin to which we are in subjection is declared itself to be intensely sinful.

"We know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I."

That is the experience of every man in the world, until he finds the better one.

"If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. . . . I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."

There is the description of mankind as we are in ourselves. Now, is mankind governing itself? [Voices: "No."] Another question: Can mankind govern itself? [Voices: "No."] Why?–Because mankind is already governed. Then, since mankind is already governed, and governed in the very worst possible way, let us ask the same question again, What is the first essential to self-government? [Voices: "Get rid of the governor that one has."] Assuredly! He must get rid of that governor that is governing him to evil.

This is stated in other words: "With the mind I myself serve the law of God." When the law of God is served at all, it is with the mind. But in men's minds as they are, the law of God is not served. Then, in the mind is the seat of this whole thing–whether for right or for wrong. And "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

Then there is this other governor, this other government, this power that is governing man against his better

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wishes, against his better self, against his entire sense of right. This power that is governing him is a power that is not merely at enmity, but is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, and cannot be subject to the law of God. That power therefore is not self-governing.

Let me state that again: Here am I, a body of sin, governed by a power that is not subject to the law of God, and that is not self-governing. You said that the only way to reach self-governing is to get rid of that thing, get rid of that self, get rid of that power. But how can I get rid of that self and that power by myself? [Voices: "I can't do it."] What is the only way in which any human being could ever by himself becomes free from that thing? There is a way, and I want you to see it. [Voice: "He must die."] Precisely! Here is a call for us to govern ourselves, and we are governed by this power of lawlessness. The first thing for us to do is to get rid of that power. How can we ever by ourselves get away from that power? It is the power of sin, and has whelmed the whole man.

Do you not see that the only possible way for me, solely by myself, to get away from that thing is to get out of existence? for my existence is that. The body is the body of what?–Sin. And out of the heart, where the real man lives, all these wicked things come that defile the man. The man is made up of that, and the only possible way for the man ever to get away from it is to get out of existence.

I want you to see what is involved in self-government, brethren. When you see what is involved in that, then you will understand what reorganization means. Then it is certainly true that out of existence is the only way that a man can, solely by himself, ever get away from that power. But God does not want the man to get entirely out of existence; God wants us still to exist. But there is no way for the man by himself to go out of existence and still exist.

Out of existence is annihilation; and that is the only end to that system of things; and yet that is the only way to self-government. And we are called to self-government. Now, let me ask you, Shall we go back, retrace our steps from the point which we have reached, or shall we go on? [Voices: "Go on."] Then shall we say that annihilation of self is the only way to self-government? [Voices: "Yes!"] How many of you say Yes? [Voices: "Amen!"] Good! We are well on the right way, then.

Now, brethren, that is true. Never compromise on that a hairbreadth, and never dodge it. Stand right there–that annihilation of self is the only way to self-government for men in this world. And when you wed yourselves to that, you will never flinch, nor complain, nor gall under anything that tends to annihilate self.

[Voice: "Are you going to tell us how to annihilate self, and we still survive?"]

We are coming to how that is done. Now, note: We have found that self of itself cannot do that, because we ourselves are finite. A finite person cannot undo himself and yet remain. For a finite one to annihilate self is only complete undoing forever. But there is a way to do it and survive.

Think! In the nature of things we are compelled to look back of ourselves, and beyond ourselves, to find that power that is governing us for the bad. Is not that so? [Voice: "Yes."] For we have found that we are obliged, by sin that dwells in us, to do the thing that we hate, to go against our true wishes. We are held in captivity to that which we hate.

Since we each are drawn by our own heart's experience beyond ourselves, to find the power that is governing us against ourselves, then is it not only the plainest A B C of common sense that we should be willing to be drawn beyond ourselves to find the power that will enable us to govern ourselves; and that will govern ourselves?

We have found that this wicked power that rules us is anarchy, sin. But is sin a personality? Is sin itself a person?–No; sin comes from a person. The thing does not end at sin itself. It goes a step further back to him–not to it–by whom sin came. We all know who that is. Then, in searching for the source of the power by which men are held and ruled to lawlessness, we are drawn directly beyond ourselves to the originator of sin, who is Satan. And upon that I say that it is only the plainest A B C of common sense, that men should be willing to be drawn beyond themselves in search of the power that will govern themselves in righteousness. And since in the search for the power that rules men to lawlessness, we are brought not merely to power in the abstract, but to power in a person; so in the search for power that will rule man to righteousness, we are also brought not merely to power in the abstract, but power in a Person; in a Person who is the origin of righteousness. And that Person is–let us all say it together–God in Jesus Christ.

May 13, 1902

"Reorganization" [3]1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 19 , pp. 9, 10.

THE only way, then, to self-government is to reach beyond ourselves toward righteousness, to find the power of righteousness reigning in us, to govern ourselves and hold us in the way of righteousness. And that leads inevitably to a Person who is the source of righteousness, and that is God. Then where alone does self-government lie?–In God in Jesus Christ. Now, do not forget that. It is literally true. Self-government for man lies alone in God, as man, in Jesus Christ in the flesh.

Therefore, self-government is not simply a divine principle. It is that, and it is more than that; it is a divine attribute. As certainly then as ever you or I, or any other man under heaven or in heaven, shall ever attain to self-government, it must be by being a partaker of the divine nature; that there shall abide in us the divine attribute of self-government from divinity himself. There are no two ways about that; and there is no stopping short of it.

You can see that by a thought. Who alone in this universe has the power, of himself, perfectly to govern himself, without any reference to any other person or thing?–Only God. Then do you not see that it is settled and manifested to the whole universe, both in principle and in practice, that there is nobody in this universe who is of himself capable of perfectly governing himself–nobody but God? Then do you not see that truly self-government is a divine attribute, not simply a principle? It is divinity itself. And the only way that you and I can expect self-government, unto which by the third angel's message we are called, is by constantly partaking of the divine nature, by having God manifest in our flesh.

Reorganization, we have found, pushes back power from the General Conference to the union conferences, and does not stop at the union conferences, nor at the State conferences, nor at the churches, nor at the individual; it stops only at God and in God. And that is where it belongs. Then you can see that, in a word, reorganization in the cause of God, in the third angel's message, means that God alone shall be all and in all to every soul that has named the name of Christ. And so it is written: "I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; . . . and the head of Christ is God."

Now let us look at self-government from the other side. Let us begin with the beginning, with man with God, and look at it from that side. God made the man, and put him in the garden–not to manage himself, nor to run things himself, apart from God; for we read, "I have created him for my glory." "He shall glorify me." Man is created to glorify God. Now what is it to glorify God? Jesus has defined that thing, and made it perfectly plain: "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself,"–not that he shall not talk about himself, but he shall not set himself forth and speak from himself apart from God, "but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me." The Holy Spirit is sent into the world to glorify Christ.

In whatever way it is that the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ, in that we have the illustration and the example of how we are to glorify God. There is given the divine example as to how to glorify God. He tells us: "He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you." Then the Holy Spirit receives that which is Christ's, shows it to us, causes us to see Christ. And what also is in that?–The Father. Then the Holy Spirit is sent into this world to glorify God in Jesus Christ–and so are you and I. We are sent to glorify God; we are created to glorify God. Then as certainly as the Holy Spirit glorifies God in Christ by taking the things that are God's in Christ and causing us to see them, so man, created to glorify God, was created to receive the things of God, and cause all others to see them. Then man was made to make God manifest. And this was to be, and is to be, at the man's own choice.

Here comes in now the secret of self-government in himself. When God made the man, he put him in the garden of Eden, and put there all the trees pleasing to the eye and good for food, and also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the man had perfect free access to all. Man had just as free access to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as to any other tree in the garden. The Lord told him not to eat of it, that is true; but he did not set a fence around it, he did not shut it away from the man. Then when God fixed things that way, and made

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the man to glorify God, to have God appear in the man, is it not plain that he made the man to have God appear, at the man's own choice?

Man was left perfectly free to choose God's way, and to have God appear in him; or to refuse God's way, and choose another way. Then where does self-government lie?–In the choice. Do not forget that. The principle, the idea, of self-government lies in the freedom of choice. The power of self-government lies in God in Jesus Christ.

As to who shall govern him depends upon the man's choice, whether it shall be the power of sin, which is the annihilation of all government, or whether it shall be the power of righteousness, which is the essence of all government. Whether it shall be self-government or annihilation for man depends upon the power with which the man allies himself by his choice.

A little further: the man was made to stand with God, and to govern himself by the power of God, at his own choice. And the man was just as free to choose some other governor, and to attempt to govern himself in some other way. And he did choose the other way. Yet when he chose that other way, it was Satan's way that the man chose.

Adam did choose that other way. The choice was his, but the way was Satan's. He chose the way of Satan; he accepted the word of Satan. In accepting that word of Satan's,–words express thoughts,–he accepted the thought of Satan. That thought was an expression of the mind which produced the thought. When Adam accepted that thought, he partook of the mind which produced the thought that was expressed in the word that he accepted. And that word, that thought, that mind, was Satan's. And that is how it is that the natural mind, the carnal mind, is "enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

And that is why it is that even God cannot make that mind subject to his law. It is Satan's mind, and that mind is confirmed, and absolutely hardened against God, in the way of sin and self.

Was not Satan invited to return from his wrong course? He refused; and when he refused, he simply, with those who chose with him to refuse, confirmed himself in a darkness of sin that is simply impenetrable. There is no ray of light from God that can ever penetrate the realm of sin where Satan and his angels have chosen to abide.

That being so, you see that the natural mind is the very mind of Satan, which has confirmed itself against God, against all government, against all righteousness, and abides in the confirmed enmity against God which Lucifer and his company chose for themselves. That is why it is that that mind cannot be subject to the law of God.

Then that being so, what is essential in order that we shall become ourselves subject to the law of God?–Another mind. But in order to have another mind, which is subject to the law of God, what is essential as to this mind that is enmity against God, which is not subject to the law of God, and cannot be subject to the law of God?–Nothing short of annihilation.

In reading of this false government, which is anarchy, we read two or three expressions which show us that we are enslaved, enslaved to sin, and in captivity to the law of sin. There is the difference: God's service, God's government, is absolute freedom; the other government, which is anarchy, is absolute slavery.

God made the man to choose. He made the man to be happy with God and in God, at the man's own choice alone. Now in order for that to be, in order for you and me to be happy all the time, even with God, we must be free to choose all the time to be happy with God. Then it comes to this, that God will not hold you and me this minute to the choice which we made the previous minute to serve him. You and I choose this minute to serve God. We are just as free the next minute to choose not to serve him. And when we, being free that next minute to choose not to serve God, instead of choosing not to serve him, just as freely of our own choice choose to serve God, and we do that each moment, moment by moment as the breath we take,–that is freedom. That is perfect freedom.

Then also you see that the man who lives that way can always do just what he pleases. He is perfectly free to do just as he pleases; and the only thing that pleases him, the only thing with which he is or can be at all pleased, is the service of God. And he chooses that, just as he gathers his breath, just as gladly as he gathers his breath, just as he takes in the air by which he is surrounded. Just as he takes that into his lungs, so gladly he gathers up his choice, and throws it on the side of God. That is perfect freedom.

[Question: "Why should he not be free from the consciousness and the fact of sin?"]

Thank God, he should be free from it. There is no reason why he should not be. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." That is, free from sin and sinning.

That is God, and that is God's way, the way of perfect freedom. Now the Lord will not take even his way with us, without our choice. And Satan cannot take his way with us without our choice. But when a man has once chosen,–there is the mischief with him,–he will hold him, he will hold the soul in bondage to that choice forever; and nothing but the power of God can ever break off the bondage that Satan puts upon a soul by means of that one single choice. Satan cannot do anything with you and me without our choice, and he will spend a lifetime to get you and me to choose only once. That is all he wants. And when you and I have chosen the things of Satan only once, then he puts on the clamps; he binds about and confirms that bondage, that slavery, which we have chosen, and of his own will he will never let up nor loosen that power, to all eternity. But, thank the Lord, there is One who has come in, who can break off that cruel power of sin and Satan, and who will say to all around, Loose this soul, and let him go–as he did of Lazarus, who was bound hand and foot. Think of it. The record is not read closely many times.

Lazarus was there in the grave. They rolled away the stone. Then Jesus said, "Lazarus, come forth." And the record is, Lazarus came forth "bound hand and foot" with the graveclothes. And after Lazarus had come forth,–I do not know how, we cannot tell how, except that it was by the power of God, we know that much,–when Lazarus had come forth by the power of God, "bound hand and foot" with the graveclothes, then it was that Jesus said, "Loose him, and let him go." And that is the very power that goes with you and me in the preaching of this gospel of reorganization, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the third angel's message. To any soul in this world, bound hand and foot with the bondage and the ligaments of Satan all round about, there is a power that goes with you and me, a power which by the gospel of Jesus Christ is given to you and me, to say to that man, Come forth, and he will come forth. Though bound hand and foot, he will come forth, for that power of the gospel can cause him to come forth. And then that same blessed word which brings the power can say to all, to Satan with all his crowd, "Loose him, and let him go." And there he stands a new man, loosed from his bonds, and free in God through Christ Jesus our Lord. That is self-government, thank the Lord.

Now one more thing that goes with that. I want you to see how it all comes. Jesus Christ bought this right to loose men from the power of Satan. He put himself where we are, just as we are, and by human experience–divine-human, of course–he worked it out, and in that way he bought the right. He himself became subject to all that flesh is heir to. God made him to be sin. In all things like as we are, he met this governor, this anarchist, in his own territory, on his own ground, and put himself, finally, dead, into the power of him that had the power of death itself. And being there, dead, he broke the power of him that had the power of death. And when he, dead, can break the power of him who had the power of death, what can he not do since he is alive forevermore?

May 20, 1902

"Reorganization" [4]1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 20 , pp. 8, 9.

THE mind that men naturally have, the carnal, which is not subject to the law of God, is the mind of Satan. You said that that mind has to be annihilated before we can be brought into right relation to God, and stand subject to the law of God. All right, then. Here is the word that says it: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery [a thing to be seized upon, and held fast] to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation ["emptied himself," R.V.; "annihilated himself," the French Version]." And that is precisely correct. He emptied himself, he annihilated himself, "and took upon him the form of a servant, . . . and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Then you see the only way to self-government is annihilation of self. Jesus Christ set the example; he showed the way. Divinity can empty self, and still abide. Divinity can do it; infinity can do it; the finite cannot do it. We cannot comprehend it, because we are finite; but the Infinite can comprehend it, and can accomplish it. Yea, he has accomplished it.

Well then, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who annihilated himself. Then what does that say to you and me?–Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus, who annihilated himself. Very good. And when he emptied himself, when he annihilated himself, who appeared?–God–man on one side, and God on the other side, in the man. Then when you and I to-day choose the mind of Jesus Christ, which annihilates self, who will appear?–God, God manifest in the flesh–God on the one side, and the man, clothed and in his right mind, on the other side; and these two, God and the man, made one in Christ Jesus the Lord. As it is written, "He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition, . . . having abolished [annihilated] in his flesh the enmity, . . . for to make in himself of twain [God and man] one new man, so making peace." Glory to God: that is true, and that is the only true self-government; and this is the only way to it.

God on the one side, and a man on the other, made one in Christ Jesus,–that is the ideal man, the divine-ideal man, the man of God, the God-man. This is accomplished through letting in the mind that is in Christ, which empties, annihilates self. When that mind is in us, self is emptied, self is annihilated, and the man, the true man, whom God created and set in this world to be better than he has always been, to be the expression of the mind of God,–that true man will appear. In man there is a true self, and there is the false self. The true self always empties self; the false self always exalts self. Think! when the prodigal son was off there herding the swine, and was so hungry that he was wiling to pick up the husks from which the swine had sucked the juice, and see if he could not wring out some more, he "came to himself." Aha! The divine word is, "He came to himself." Always there is the true man in a man. There is a true self in a man,–the personality, the individuality, that God has created every man to be, to glorify him; for every soul that ever came into this world is in the design of God. And the divine destiny that God has set for every soul that ever comes into this universe, is that he shall be conformed to the image of God's Son. There is a divine design in and for each soul. And in that lies man's better self, the true self. But this other, the false, the selfish self, has taken the precedence. This other, the false, the selfish self, which is of Satan, has usurped the throne in man, and is reigning there against the man's better self always, compelling the better self to drag along in the bondage and slavery of the evil self.

But, thank the Lord, men can be brought to the point where they will come to themselves, to their real, their better selves. Do not forget that when that man, sitting there watching the swine, "came to himself," the first thing that he said was, "I will arise and go to my father." Do not forget that the Father is the One whom the true man, that better self in man, will always recognize instantly as soon as ever he awakes, and opens his eyes, and comes "to himself." So God sends you and me with the message of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to bring men to themselves.

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And in the doing of this, by whatever means of ministration it may be that we can bring a man face to face with himself, and get him to come to himself,–O, we can always be sure that when that blessed moment comes, there is in his heart that blessed word, "I will arise and go to my Father." So then, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who is the manifestation of that true self that annihilates that other selfish self.

Now I want you to see the end of all this: that annihilation is what must come anyway for that which is evil. As we were studying a while ago that subject of this so-called government which is not government at all, but only lawlessness, one brother spoke of it as anarchy. There is much professional anarchy abroad nowadays. Men are boasting of anarchy. What is it?–Opposition to government; destruction of government. And so they start out to destroy government by killing the man in position, the president, or the king, or whoever he may be. But all nations have made provision for another one to take the position of ruler as soon as one ruler has passed away.

Well; then, this man starting out to destroy government, begins by killing the head man of the government. Another one instantly succeeds, and there is government still. Then the anarchist must kill him. But another one instantly succeeds. Where will it stop?–He must kill the whole of mankind. Then he himself is left. Here he is, himself, alone. And he is opposed to government. Then, in order to be logical, he must repudiate government of himself; and to carry our his "principle" he must destroy himself. And he is the last one. He destroys himself. And that is annihilation. And that is what anarchy means. And that is just what opposition to government means. And by this it is perfectly plain that opposition to government is simply, and in the last analysis, opposition to self-government. And so the whole story is simply self-government or annihilation. And that is the story for the whole universe. I want you to see that.

Look: go back to the beginning. It was Lucifer who started this scheme of government by himself, without God. Just think of this. Lucifer started on that tack. What he intended is shown on the cross; for on the cross it was demonstrated that in his purpose in the beginning there was wrapped up the thought that he must be in the place of God, with God out of existence. We all know that he was to be like the Most High. "I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; . . . I will be like the Most High." But he intended to be like the Most High, not by sitting there alongside of the Most High; but he would be like the Most High, in the place of the Most High. And it was not intended either that the Most High should step down and occupy an inferior place; but that the Most High should simply be set aside utterly, be put out of existence. The cross of Christ demonstrates this; for this is what Satan did on the cross. Thus the cross was in the depths of eternity, as well as on Calvary.

Now, suppose that Lucifer had had his way yonder in the beginning of this course of his. Conceive God out of existence, and Lucifer reigning supreme in the place of God. How would he exist? He is not self-existent; he argues it, of course; but it is not so. God is the sole source of his existence. Then when he had put God out of existence to exalt himself, he would have simply put himself out of existence. And that would have been annihilation, the annihilation of the universe.

Then don't you see that self–the self that chooses self and exalts self–means nothing at all but annihilation. Then the question is, for you and me and everybody else in this world, Shall we choose that self shall be annihilated, and we find our true selves, and our true place, and true self-government, in God? or shall we refuse to have self-annihilated and then be ourselves annihilated? Which shall we choose? Since we are wrapped up in evil, it is annihilation anyhow. If we do not choose it, we get it anyway. Ah, it is more than that; if we do not choose annihilation of self, we do choose annihilation of ourselves; for not to choose, is to choose. No man can get away from choice as long as his intelligence abides. And to refuse to choose is to choose to refuse to choose; and that is to choose. You see you cannot escape it. Then here we are.

What is your choice–self annihilation, or annihilation of self? That is the thing. Ah, we know the way: Let this mind be in you that was in Christ, who annihilated himself, and took upon him the form of a servant. And do not forget that that is in it, brethren. To-day as you and I choose the mind of Christ that annihilates self, bear in mind that each of us takes upon him "the form of a servant." Let us thus humble ourselves, become obedient unto death, the death of Christ; crucified with Christ, nevertheless living, yet not we, but Christ living in us, and the life which we now live, live by the faith of him who loved us, and gave himself for us. He upon the throne, he in his rightful place, we in our right mind, come to our right self, choosing that the rightful One shall be upon his throne, and be the governor in our government, at our own free choice, constantly, freely chosen,–that is self-government, self-government with God–the choice ours, the power his; and the only governor, God, all and in all everywhere and forever.

May 27, 1902

"Self-Government Means Self-Support" [5]1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 21 , pp. 9, 10.

IN studying the message in general, we have found that self-government is an essential of it; that self-government is Christianity; that the power of it is divine; that it is a divine attribute made manifest in the flesh by divine power. There is another phase of our work that is wrapped up in that. You all agreed to-day that self-government is right; that it is Christianity. I am sure that to-night you all agree to that. And now, with that: just as certainly as self-government is the right thing, so certainly self-support goes right along with it. I am willing that you should think of that just as long as you choose, until you can all say, Amen.

I commit myself to the principle of self-government. How is that government going to be run financially? how is the government going to be supported materially? Since the government is self-government; and that government must be supported materially, there is no other way of support than self-support. Inevitably, the support must come from the same source as comes the government.

Then you see it is everlastingly fixed; we never can get away from it. As certainly as we believe in self-government, we stand flat-footed everlastingly upon the principle of self-support. Then every man who is a Christian will be a self-supporting worker; every man who is in the ministry will be self-supporting. We must all say Amen to that.

That is plain, just from the statement of the case. There are considerations that confirm it, that make it impossible for anybody ever to escape it with any face at all.

In our previous study we found that self-government does not end with the individual himself alone; but the individual finds only in God the power to govern himself; that the individual finds in God his sole, his infinite resource in everything that pertains to government. That is self-government. Then, what is the fountain of self-support?–The source of self-government is the source of self-support. We cannot escape that; and that source if God in Jesus Christ.

Is it not plain enough that any man who professes to be joined to God, who professes that God is his sole source of strength, who professes that God is his all in all,–what kind of a heart can the man have who will say that he cannot support himself with God? Is God stranded?–No; he can make his own way. Now, we are ministers of the gospel in the world. Whether a man is a minister of the gospel in the actual preaching of the gospel, set apart by the laying on of hands and the call of God, of whether he is a minister of the gospel simply because he has received the gospel as a plain, every-day Christian, it is all the ministry of the gospel. And "the gospel . . . is the power of God." As certainly, then, as any person receives the gospel, he receives the power of God.

Think of it. Here is a man who professes that he has received the gospel, professes that he has received the power of God, and yet cannot make his way! How do those things fit? You see, on the face of it, that what that man professes is a fraud. I do not mean to say that he is consciously practicing a fraud, that he is intentionally passing off a fraud, that he is a hypocrite–not that; but I do say that the man who professes to have received the gospel, the power of God, and then cannot make his way in the world, whoever he may be, whatever his calling is,–the man who professes to have received the power of God, and then cannot make his way in this world, has simply allowed himself to be defrauded with a mere figment, with a mere profession without the reality; with the mere form of godliness without the power. That is perfectly plain; for the power of God is substantial, there is something to it.

So entirely is this principle true that we may illustrate it thus: Suppose a man in this world living without God, as the world does; and that man cannot make his way, is always in debt, always behind, cannot plan, cannot execute, so as to keep himself clear, but is dependent on all around him. Suppose that he receives the gospel. He receives the power of God. And that power of God will make him a successful man in everything that he puts his hand to from that day forward. And if that be not so, then he has not truly received the gospel at all; he has received a mere form of things. He has taken upon himself a mere profession of things, an empty figment of things, without the reality, without the real power that he professes to have received.

That is so; there can be no two ways about it. Otherwise, if it is so, and if we acknowledge that it is so,–that a man the day after he professes the gospel can do no better than the day before he professed the gospel, and cannot make his way, but is always behind, and always depending on those around him to help him forward,–if we are to allow that the person who receives the gospel is no better able to make his way than before, then I want to know what the gospel is worth? and what is the use of preaching the gospel? If the gospel does not bring into my life something that was not there before, then it is nothing to me more than it was before: and that is nothing–a mere figment, a hollow sham.

But the gospel comes to the world as the power of God. And that is what is truly is. The man who truly receives the gospel receives the power of God. And it is everlastingly true that any man in this world clothed with the power of God is able to do what he never could do before.

But the gospel is not simply the power of God, it is also the wisdom of God. We preach Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. He is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Then in the gospel there is power to enable man to do

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what he never could do before, and there is wisdom to enable him to devise and to execute in a way that he never could before.

To say that a man has received from God power, and to say that God in Christ has become his wisdom and his knowledge, his instructor and his teacher, to show that man the way, to lead his mind in new paths and divine ways, is at the same time to say that that man can see a way to do better than he did before, to devise differently from what he ever was able to do before, to execute as he never was able to execute before, and has power to accomplish with all this what he never could accomplish before. And then to recognize, to allow for a moment, that that man cannot make his way in the world, is a disgrace to God and a fraud upon himself.

Shall I profess that the wisdom of God is given to me, that the knowledge of God is at my disposal, that the Spirit of God is put upon me to guide in wisdom's way, and that the power of God is given to me to reach forward in the accomplishment of divine things, and then actually give the impression by my actions in the world and by the fruits of those actions, that all that is not so? If I make all that profession, and then my work does not pay my way, if it does not bring results to the cause of God in any fair proportion for what I take out of the cause of God in wages and expenses, will those two things fit?–Those two things cannot possibly fit.

The only fitness of things, then, in your profession of the gospel, and in mine, as ministers of the gospel, the only fitness that there can possibly be in our profession, is that our work shall bring into the cause of God more than our wages and expenses can ever take out. And each one of us is to be everlastingly ashamed of himself if that is not so–until it shall be so.

And still further: the preaching ministry is the key of the whole work of the Lord in this world. I say advisedly, the key, for it is literally true that whichever way that key turns, things go. If the preaching minister is dilatory, trifling, weak,–as certainly as he is of that sort, so the whole cause wherever his influence reaches will become that sort; all the people will become that sort.

But is the minister is wide-awake, energetic, inventive, thoughtful to devise and powerful to execute, clothed with the power of God, and really preaches the power that does all this for those who receive it,–then as certainly as the key turns that way, so the whole cause wheresoever that minister's influence reaches will be of that sort. All the people to whom he preaches will be of that sort.

Now we have a problem. Every conference and conference committee knows that it is a problem in this work of reorganization to bring the ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist cause upon a self-supporting basis, to bring the ministry of the cause to where their work will bring into the cause more than their wages and expenses take out.

Upon what principle, by what process of reasoning, can I argue that I shall spend my time a whole year at conference expense, taking from the treasury in wages and expenses five, six, or seven hundred dollars, and bringing into the cause one, two, or three, four or five individuals, and perhaps none at all? I want to know upon what principle of fairness I can do that thing.

Of what is the conference composed?–The members, the Seventh-day Adventists that are within the territory of that conference. The conference committee are simply men chosen from the membership to have the care of the funds, the property, and the work of the conference. And they are to guard the funds, as well as to care for the business, of the denomination in that conference.

Those funds come from the people. True, they are tithe that belong to God; but those tithes you know come from the poor people. I mean poor people, because Seventh-day Adventists are generally poor, and that is why we have so much money. That is straight. You can always trust the poor. We are not to despise the rich. Thank the Lord that he can save even the rich; but we never can put our trust in rich men, nor in the money of rich men. Our trust can be safely put in the poor, and never be disappointed.

Thank God always when he does gather in a rich man, and save his soul; but of all things do not put your trust or any kind of dependence at all upon his wealth. I do not mean to say that he will give nothing. That is not it. But I do say that it is wrong in principle to rest any kind of hope upon the money of the rich. Our dependence is not upon money; it is upon God. Our dependence is upon righteousness; it is upon character. And that is one thing that Seventh-day Adventists everywhere, and in our institutions particularly, must soon settle once and for all: that money shall never be allowed any kind of weight as against character.

Character is the one thing. Character, righteous character, in an institution is worth more than all the money that that institution could make in a million years.

For an institution to compromise with falsity in character, and overlook unrighteousness, condone iniquity in employees, for fear that the abrupt stoppage of a press, or the disarrangement of a department, or even the stoppage of the whole institution for righteousness' sake, would cause the loss of "so much money," of "such an important job," or would jeopardize "so much of a steady income," is simply deliberately to love iniquity and hate righteousness. And there is nothing that has cursed Seventh-day Adventist institutions in our day more than that very choice, which in itself is a choice of the love of iniquity and the hatred of righteousness. Not that they deliberately stand up and say, "I do love iniquity, and I do hate righteousness." But if an employee uses obscene language, or plays wicked tricks, or does ungodly things, or carries on mischievous practices, and the management of that institution knows of these things, and then holds that man in their employ, just because to eliminate that individual would cause the loss of this job or that piece of income, or the favor of such and such a man, or such and such a set of people,–what is that but deliberately to put wealth, income, influence, money, against character; "business" against Christianity; and deliberately to commit the management and the institution itself to iniquity as against righteousness? It is as clear a decision, as clear a choice, of the love of iniquity and the hatred of righteousness as a man can make.

I was saying a moment ago that the tithes come largely from the poor, from the hard-working, self-denying people. You knot it. Poor widows who have to labor at the washtub and practice self-denial and careful management in every possible way to support themselves and the children who are dependent upon them,–these faithfully turn over to the treasury of God the tithe that belongs to the cause of the Lord for propagating the gospel. Then I want to know what kind of a heart there can be in me if I have the face to drift along a year, much less year after year, as has been done, bringing practically nothing into the treasury, and taking out those sacred funds by the hundreds? Where is the spirit of fairness? Where is it only as between man and man?

Well, then, let us stand up and be men enough to refuse to have anything to do with any such thing as that. Let us be manly enough to decide that if our work cannot bring into the cause of God more than our wages and expenses take out, then we will put ourselves at something in which it will do it.

(To be continued.)

June 3, 1902

"Self-Government Means Self-Support. (Continued)" [6]1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 22 , pp. 8-10.

(Continued)

THEN another thing: Those who compose the conference committees have an obligation to God, and to those sacrificing souls, to guard that sacred means against such encroachments as that. You and I, as certainly as we are conference committeemen, are obliged, under God, to guard the doubly sacred funds of the Lord's treasury against this kind of practice and work that will drift along and spend time with no sufficient returns, and perhaps none at all, for the means taken out. You and I are responsible to God and to the people that that thing shall not be done. We must administer the things of our trust in a more godly, substantial, and manly way than that.

Then when this is done, as certainly as the key turns that way, the cause will go that way. And the key has turned the other way so much at least, that, practically, the cause stands committed to that other way of things. I can confidently appeal to every conference committee in this house; for each one knows that the key has been turned that other way so much and so long, that, practically, the tide has become set that way.

This evil is not alone in the ministry. In the ministry the example has been set. If a man can get into the ministry, can be ordained, and have his credentials, and his name on the pay roll, then, although only two, three, four, five, or six people, or even none at all, are brought in in a whole year's work, that is expected to pass all right; the wages must go on just the same. Then that same example has been followed in the institutions. Many, almost the majority, of those who become connected with our institutions–a printing house or a sanitarium–think that that is all that is needed. They have their position, they think that it must be theirs forever, merely because they are "Sabbath keepers," and so they drift along with no thought as to whether or not their work is profitable to the institution. The management are kept at their wits' end year in and year out to keep that institution from running behind all the time. An institution of two or three hundred operatives perhaps, and yet it be a problem and a constant study to the management and the board to keep from losing money!

Can there be any problem about it? When an institution has all the work it can do year in and year out, and two hundred and fifty or three hundred operatives, and it barely clears itself of expenses, is it not as plain as A B C that the work of many of those operatives is not paying for their wages, that their work does not bring into the institution what their wages take out,–whether it be a printing house or a sanitarium?

And it does not stop with employees. I have met it–I do not say where, possibly I do not need to say where; for I know personally that it is found in more than one place. Physicians in charge of an institution, responsible for its work and the building up of its practice, ask for an increase of wages, ask boards for money to keep that institution out of debt, when the only possible way that the board has to get money is to borrow it. Asking the board to borrow money to increase their wages!

Now how long can it go that way before that institution will be self-supporting, think you? How long can that kind of management be kept up before there will be an income to that institution? There is no problem in that at all. That simply says that that physician was not putting into his work enough energy and thought to gather practice, and make his own way; not enough to make his work pay his way, and pay his own wages.

To more than one of these I said, and to all, preachers, physicians, printers, and all others, I still say, Suppose you were not in the institution at all. You are supposed to carry on your chosen work somewhere in the world. Suppose you were not in this institution. Then what would you do for wages? Would you ask the board to borrow money from Seventh-day Adventists to pay you wages, and support you? If not, why not? One of these thought that perhaps he would not. Then I said, "Why do you do it now? Brother, there is nothing at all to hinder you from having more wages, all the wages you want. Just simply go to work, and make it. Make all the wages you want, and you have it. But I will not borrow any money, nor ask anybody for money, to pay you wages."

So I say that there is in our presence, as committees and boards generally, enough evidence to show that the key of the ministry has been turned to the wrong side long enough to make that entirely too largely a practice among Seventh-day Adventists. So that it is actually a principle seriously to be considered in this work of reorganization.

And there is a better way, thank the Lord. And that way is the way of the gospel: simply preach the gospel, which is the power of God; and get this people in possession of the power of God and the wisdom of God and the knowledge of God that will make a man of a man, and give him power to make his way in this world wherever he strikes the earth, with nothing but his two bare hands to begin with. I will put it that way if you want it: I say truly that all that any Christian anywhere in this world needs to make his way is to be somewhere, and have the use of his faculties and his two bare hands. That is so; for it is written, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. . . . And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." And what is He? Is he not the Head of every Christian? And what is the office of the head anywhere? Is it not to do the thinking, to do the planning, to be the guide? And if

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Christ your Head is not that, then what is he to you?

Well, then, brethren, we are agreed, are we not, that you and I, that the ministry of the gospel in the third angel's message, shall work upon that basis solely, that each minister's work shall bring into the cause of God more than his wages and expenses can possibly take out? Now is that settled? Come along, let us all say, Yes. [Voices: "Amen."]

Now do not misunderstand. I do not mean, I do not suggest at all, that anyone of us is to start out in our preaching to bring in money; or that we are to have our minds on money. That is not it,–souls are what we after–souls alone. We will work for souls, to bring souls to God, souls to Jesus Christ, souls to the gospel. And what is the gospel?–The power of God. Then we will preach the gospel, that he who receives it may be clothed with the power of God, and thus be able to do what he never was able to do before: it matters not what kind of person he may be who receives the gospel.

Let us put it to the extreme: because it is not extreme at all. Suppose that each one of us individually goes out from this conference to preach the gospel the season through, the coming season; and by that true gospel, the power of God, we bring to Christ twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, of the poorest of the poor people, who never knew a thing of Christianity, and never could make a clear living in the world, but were simply a drag on the community, to be supported by gifts from people round about in the neighborhood. Suppose that is the only kind of people we gather to the gospel in this season's work. As certainly as that is so, as certainly as you and I preach to those folks the gospel, the true gospel, the power of God, and they receive it, then next year each of those people, every soul of them, with Christ his Head, will be able to make his way in the world in spite of everything on the earth. And you and I are to be ashamed of ourselves if we preach any other gospel, or any less gospel, than precisely that–the power of God. And that people, taken from the poorest of the poor, and clothed with the power of God, which is the gospel itself; imbued with the wisdom of God and the knowledge of God; with the Spirit of God to guide them,–in a word, with Christ truly their Head,–will be able to make themselves prosperous; they will clearly make their way in the world; and they will bring a profitable, an honest tithe into the treasury for the gospel ministry. That is so.

So I say it is not money we are to work for. Our minds are not to be upon that at all. Our minds are to be upon souls, and the righteousness of God upon those souls, and they imbued with the divine character. Then with every minister doing that, how will things stand? How will the treasury stand?–It will be full. And each season's work as the years go round, will shop, be of that same sort. Then see what trate [sic.] will come: Our ministry will be of that sort that will bring to the treasury funds for the spread of the gospel to the world–each year bringing, for that year, more to the treasury than we take out. Then isn't it as plain as A B C that there will be a constantly accumulating fund in the treasury beyond whatever can be taken out by those who are the laborers in the conference? Isn't that so? Then what shall be done with that accumulating fund?–It is to be used for missionary work, to spread the gospel abroad, to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth.

As certainly as the ministry takes that stand, and works steadily on that basis, so certainly the people who are influenced by that ministry will, each one of them, at whatsoever he works, be not only self-supporting, but will produce a clear profit in his work. There will be a constantly accumulating fund beyond what he consumes in his daily life. And what shall he do with that? Suppose he is a farmer,–a gospel farmer, I mean; a man clothed with the power of God, and having the wisdom of God to devise, and the Spirit of God to show him how and what to do. His work brings in more than his living consumes. What shall be done with that excess? Isn't it just as certainly true that that excess shall go to spread the gospel to all the world, and not into a bank, nor out at interest, as that the excess of the work of the minister himself shall be to spread the gospel, and not to put money into a bank or out at interest?

Then when that thing spreads from the ministry through all the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists everywhere, what will be the result? Will they be indebt?–No; not one of them. Each one producing more than he consumes, each one having an excess to devote to the cause of God,–that so everywhere, with every one all over the world, in all the ranks, then the day will have come when that glorious Scripture will be a living fact: "Thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow."

I will say, too, right now, brethren, that that time has come. The time has come for that promise of God to be fulfilled upon his people, and in his people, before the world: that his people shall lend to many nations, and shall not borrow. But you know that it has not been that way. It has been the other way; and yet you see the secret of how that promise is to be fulfilled. And I do not say that that time is going to come. I say truly that that time has come. It has come to every soul who will accept this gospel in its sincerity, and will act upon that gospel that we are now studying. It will be so with each minister, and each individual member of the church. You can see plainly enough that that is the way it will work. Let each employee in our conferences, in our publishing houses, in our sanitariums, each student in our colleges, each individual on the farm or in the shop, put his soul into his work, concentrate all his Christian mind upon the task that is under his hand, to do it in a way the most nearly perfect and the most speedy way possible to be perfect. Can there then be any possibility of any conference, or any institution, or any individual running behind or barely paying expenses?–Why, no. Each will have a surplus with which to spread abroad the truth to the world. It is as plain as A B C.

O! the Scripture tells about wicked men being "inventors of evil things." You know that that is so to-day. It was so when Paul wrote. It is so to-day. Men of the world, the wicked of the world, are doing it now in Chicago, actually sitting down to hard, close thinking to invent some new way of doing iniquity, to invent some new trick in evil. That is the truth. Well, then, isn't it high time that Christians, every soul of us, became so devoted to the righteousness of God, to the glory of God, in the success of the cause of God on earth, that we shall concentrate every energy of mind, body, soul, and spirit to inventing how best to do right things? What grander thing can we devote ourselves to? What grander project can there ever be to occupy the faculties of man than to put the utmost attention of his whole being upon how best to do right things? O, come along! let us be Christians.

There is another mischievous thing that come in, to which I must call your attention, by this wrong process of drifting, and the ministry content to receive their pay from the treasury, and committees content to have it so, with only two or three, or four or five, souls in return, or perhaps none at all. It comes to this: Here is a worker who goes through a whole year. He reports perhaps three who accepted the truth. And you know that there are many on the lists who have made reports for a year, of not even that many. Every committee knows that that is so. Now this one is "a worker," and he goes right on, and is pay goes right on. His next year's work may bring in two or three more. Presently here is simply an everyday Christian in the church, who, by his Christian influence and intelligence, brings two or three people into the truth. Instantly he is recommended to the conference for a license, and to be taken on the list as a worker. And why not? When licensed and accredited workers, who are drawing wages all the time, do so little, and still are retained and paid as "workers"? Why is not any one a worker, and worthy of license, and to be on the list, who does as much? And so it has actually come to pass that whosoever brings to the truth one or two or three souls in a year, is expected to be counted a worker, to be taken upon the list, and counted in the pay roll. And these are "the workers." And what are all the other members?

That distinction has actually grown up. These who bring the few to the truth are "the workers." And we get these all together, and we have "a workers'" meeting. And what are the

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other people, all those who are not on the list?–O! they do not expect to be expected to be specially active in doing missionary work, and bringing souls to the truth, because they do "not see how they can leave home and become workers." You see that it runs inevitably to that: the great body of the people have ceased to be workers, have ceased to be the gospel workers that they must be to be Christians; and "the workers" become a special class.

Every Seventh-day Adventist in the world ought to be able to bring to the truth one, two, or three souls every year of his life.

True, there are many who say: "In this community where we live, the people have all heard the truth, and have decided against it, so that there is no chance to bring any to the truth." Well, you are not obliged to stay there. Get up and move to a place where the people have not heard the truth. Settle down where they will be glad to have somebody in the community who can speak to them the truth, and they will listen to it, and they will come to the truth. That is what individuals are for who are not of the ordained ministry. That is why I say that every Seventh-day Adventist in the world–I mean Christian men and women of course, who can go here and there, and do as their own judgment dictates–should bring to the truth every year one or two or three souls. They are not obliged to stay where they are, in communities that have been warned. There are thousands of communities on the earth that are hungering and thirsting for such persons to come and live there, and be shining lights. And yet if all would truly be shining lights, they would find that the communities where they now are, have not decided against the truth nearly so much as is thought. Maybe the have heard the truth, and had no chance to see it. Give them a chance to see it shining in good deeds in the lives of all who profess it, and it will make a great difference in their attitude toward the truth.

(To be concluded)

June 10, 1902

"Self-Government Means Self-Support. (Concluded)" [7]1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 23 , pp. 9, 10.

(Concluded).

YOU see, then, that self-government, reorganization from the General Conference back to the individual, means self-support for every individual Seventh-day Adventist in the world, at whatever he is engaged, whether it be preaching, nursing, printing, farming, blacksmithing, or what not. And all these are equally Christian and honest and gospel occupations. Each Christian who work in a blacksmith shop is doing gospel work as certainly as am I who stand in the pulpit and preach–if that is his calling, and this is mine. And while he is a blacksmith, that is his place to preach. But you know that it has been almost an epidemic among Seventh-day Adventists that a man who is a farmer, a blacksmith, or a carpenter, must sell out, and go away from where he is, so that he can work "in the cause." The man who is not working in the cause when he is shoving the plane, swinging a hammer, or guiding the plow, cannot be a worker in the cause when he sells out, and leaves that occupation to be a worker "in the cause." The man who is not a worker in the cause in the occupation where he is now engaged, cannot be a worker "in the cause" to quit that altogether, and go out to preach. The cause is simply the development of Christian character, where each one of us is. That is all that the cause is. And Christian character is developed only by earnest consecration and honest occupation in whatsoever we may be called just now to do.

Just think of this: Jesus Christ came into this world, and lived here until he was crucified out of it. And the time he worked at a trade was nearly six times as long as the time he spent in preaching. He spent eighteen years at a trade, working right along; while he preached in the gospel ministry only about three and one-half years. And he was a worker in the cause, and just as much the Saviour of the world, when he was sawing, planning, and hammering as when he was preaching the sermon on the mount. He never thought it necessary to sell out, so that he could work "in the cause." It is true that his work in the cause outgrew the shop, and even the work at that trade, as such; but it was still only the cause in which he worked. And thus he demonstrated that Christian work at a trade is as certainly working in the cause of God as is any other kind of work.

Now you see that this same principle goes into our schools. That is one of the divine principles that God gave as the foundation of our school system from the day he announced it to Seventh-day Adventists forty years ago. That is why he wants the trades in the schools. That is why he wants not only the students to learn the trades, but the teachers to learn the trades, so that the young people shall go forth from our schools independent of this whole world and everything in it, able, with their two bare hands, to make their way in this world, and to make the world their opportunity for success. That is what it is for. And that is right.

The man who in this world is made a new creature, who is clothed with the power of God, imbued with the divine principle of work, and the divine energy and consecration to put every faculty of is being into what comes to his hand to do, to make it the best that can be made on the earth, is not dependent on anybody for occupation. Why, he can make it for himself. If he wants work, and nobody calls him, he will make it for himself. If he wants a conference, so he can be president of it, he will make one; for he can do it. He asks no odds of anybody or anything in this world; he finds his resources in God.

You said at the beginning of this study to-night that self-government is found only in God, that God is all in all to the man. And you stated that self-government means self-support. Then every man who finds self-government in God, finds also his resources in God. And I know that there are resources in God to supply all the demands that ever can come to any soul in this wide world, and in any place on the earth.

Now let us wake up, and be men, Christian men, and teach this to our youth, have our schools inculcate it, and teach it to our people everywhere. Then every Seventh-day Adventist will be independent of everything and everybody on the earth; for he will find his resources only in God. God will be his motive power. If he wants to make something, and a machine is needed to make it, he will make the machine in order to make the thing that has to be made by the machine. He has it in him, because God is in him; his resources are in God. Inventiveness, development, thought,–all these belong to the people who belong to God. Please, brethren, do not think this extravagance. This is the truth.

Another thing goes with this; that is, when you and I as ministers lead the people that way, when we educate the people that way, we shall have a people so apt, so thorough, and so qualified in whatsoever they ought to put their hand to, that the Sabbath, instead of being a detriment, will be an advertisement of their faithfulness, and will be a recommendation to men who want faithful work done. I know, so do you know, people to-day who are independent of everybody in this world so far as Sabbath keeping is concerned. Their work goes right on; and the work in place where if the Sabbath ever could interfere, it would interfere there. But no question is ever asked about that. Why?–Because their work is so valuable, so well done, it is such Christian work, that men in this world who want faithful work done, want that kind of people. And the more of them they can find, the more glad they are that they are in the world.

You and I are to life up Christianity–I mean Seventh-day Adventist Christianity. You and I as ministers are to life up Seventh-day Adventist Christianity to where it will be a credit to this whole world; so that the world will honor the faithfulness, the honorable dealing, the inventiveness, and the adaptability of Seventh-day Adventist everywhere, and will be glad to have their services, Sabbath or no Sabbath. We are never to rest until Seventh-day Adventists are only that kind of people.

And I say again, it all depends upon you and me. It depends upon the ministry here. Think! there are Seventh-day Adventist sanitariums, that is, Christian sanitariums; there are Christian publishing houses; there are Christian colleges; there are conferences. There are all these Seventh-day Adventist organizations in the world. But now what would all these be worth without the

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gospel? What could they do for the world without the ministry of the gospel? But suppose there was not an item of it. Suppose there was not a Seventh-day Adventist conference on this earth, nor college, nor sanitarium, nor publishing house,–only one solitary individual in possession of the gospel of the third angel's message. As certainly as he is a minister of the gospel, the gospel I am talking of to-night, as certainly as that one minister of the gospel were here, in him you would have all the sanitariums, and all the publishing houses, and all the colleges, and all the conferences there are or ever shall be on the earth. Yes, sir; as certainly as that man preaches the gospel which is the gospel, so certainly all these things will come. They are all in the gospel which he preaches. Then which stands first? Where is the key of Christianity? Where is the key of the third angel's message? Where is the key of the Seventh-day Adventist cause? In institutions?–No; in the ministry of the gospel.

Then it follows inevitably that every one of us ministers of the gospel, shall preach such a gospel, and never be content for a moment not to preach such a gospel, as has in it the direct creation of conferences, publishing houses, sanitariums, and colleges. Any man who goes forth to preach the gospel from this time forward, dare not go forth to preach it unless that is the gospel that he preaches; unless there is in the gospel that he preaches the power to create all these things; and everywhere he goes, as far as the circumstances demand, these things shall be created; the gospel which he preaches, when received by the people, will save their souls; they will be converted, they will be clothed with the power of God, they will be imbued with the wisdom of God, they will be taught by the Holy Spirit, the knowledge of God will be in them, and they will be wise to devise and plan and invent for right things, whether in workmanship or in thought; and they will be ever building up characters, the identical character of Jesus Christ himself. They will be students and educators. Every family will be a school, and every collection of families where there is a church will establish a church school; and beyond the church school there will be the intermediate school; and from that the youth will go to the college, and then out into the great wide school of the work of the third angel's message under God. So that every step of the way from the first sermon that the minister preaches, it will be education straight forward until we step into the glorious kingdom of God.

And publishing also; that will be in it. They will be interested in studying the literature which is the literature of the gospel. They will have no time for any literature but the literature of the gospel. Then studying the literature of the gospel, as certainly as it is the literature of the gospel, their lives will be wrapped up, their hearts will be enlisted, in making it the literature of other people's lives. That spreads the literature. But it must be printed. Then that brings the publishing house and the press. And I need not give further details. You see where it runs. But the ministry is the key to the whole of it.

Then isn't it as plain as A B C that you and I, as ministers of the gospel, the preachers of the gospel, are the key of the Christianity and the cause of God in the earth, and that whichever way that key turns, that cause is certain to go?

Well then, brethren, which way shall that key turn from this time forward? Come alone, brethren, let us find the power of God as never found before on the earth by mankind. Let us find the gospel in a depth of meaning that never touched men since the apostles stood on the earth. Preaching such a gospel, working in the manifestation of the power of such a gospel,–O, then the ministry will be elevated! God will witness to it, and he himself will elevate it. And he has certified that "men shall call you the Ministers of our God." Then souls will be brought in by the scores and the hundreds, not by the one, two, three, in a year. Then the cause, from beginning to end, from center to circumference, will be self-supporting, and more. Then will be fulfilled the promises that have never yet been fulfilled, that have never had a chance to be fulfilled: "Thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow." "And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail." The time has come for that. That time is here. And it is high time to awake out of sleep. But O, the gospel, the gospel, the power of God!–that is the thing which must accomplish it all–literally, literally, God "manifest in the flesh." God so in you and me, so possessing you and me, that the motions of our hands, the thoughts of our minds, shall be but the expression of the will of God, by his Spirit,–that is God manifest in the flesh, and that is what we are here for. That is our profession. O, let us rise by the power and grace of God to the height of that grand profession to which he has called you and me as ministers of the gospel.

July 22, 1902

"The Petaluma (California) Camp Meeting" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 29 , pp. 17, 18.

THE camp meeting at Petaluma, June 5-15, was good from beginning to end, from the first meeting to the last. This meeting was held for the benefit particularly of those in the northern bay district, including San Francisco, Oakland, and the Sonoma and Napa Valleys. It was also hoped that it might be the means of renewing and building up the work in Petaluma itself. Petaluma was the first place in California in which the third angel's message was preached, having been visited by Elders Loughborough and Bourdeau immediately after landing in San Francisco from a voyage by way of Panama before the first railroad was finished across the continent. It was a pleasant thing to have Brother Loughborough with us throughout the meeting, and to hear him tell the experiences of the Lord's plain leading in those earliest days.

Before the meeting some were thinking that the meeting would be rather small–perhaps an attendance of three hundred at most. I set my mind on five hundred at least. And the attendance was more than five hundred. This is not to say that there were more than five hundred people in attendance all the time; but there were more than five hundred who attended the meeting: some spent part of the time at the meeting, and then went home that others might come; others spent the first part of the meeting in camp, went home, and returned to the last part. There were about four hundred who encamped. There were nearly two hundred present at the very first meeting, on Thursday evening.

The first three days were spent upon the great truths of the forgiveness of sins; the conversion of heart, soul, and life; receiving and knowing the righteousness of God; and receiving the Holy Ghost. Monday and Tuesday were spent in the study of Christian education and its practical recognition in our homes, our churches, our publishing houses, our sanitariums, and our colleges. Wednesday and Thursday were spent in the study of the medical missionary work, and the practical recognition of it in our homes, our churches, our schools, our colleges, and our sanitariums. Friday was spent in the study of the publishing work–tract society and canvassing, distributing the soul-saving literature of the third angel's message everywhere. The Sabbath was a blessed day, a great day of consecration of person and occupation, of life and employment, of spirit and work, to God, for the honor and glorification of his church as the pillar and basis, the support and stay, of the truth in the world, which is the dearest object of his affection, and which he is so soon to present to himself a glorious church not having spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing, but holy and without blemish.

In addition to the meetings of the whole assembly, there were regular daily meetings of the young people and the children.

The city of Petaluma was districted, and people, young and old, from the camp regularly and systematically visited the people of the city to get acquainted with them, to invite them to the meetings, and to show Christian kindness in any other way that circumstances might present.

One result of this was that throughout the meeting there was a good attendance from the city,–the assembly pavilion being crowded every night,–and an excellent interest on the part of all who came. And though we were told, when pitching the tents, that there was an exceedingly rough element in Petaluma that would let us have no peace, I never saw a quieter time in any meeting than we had here day and night throughout.

Another result was that so many people expressed the wish that the meeting could continue beyond the time set to close, that a nice lot in the most central and best place in the city was easily obtained, the meeting tent was removed to that place, a good company of workers remained, and the meetings were continued, and are still going on; and the report, so far, is that though the attendance is not a great crowd, it is good, as to numbers; the interest is great, and the attendance regular.

Yet another result of this systematic visiting of the city's people by those in the camp was the good spirit of real Christian work that was developed in our own people, which could easily be continued wherever they might be after the meeting had closed. For when they found the people here so ready as they were to receive in such an appreciative way their kindly visits and Christian attention, they were encouraged to think that the people in other places, even right around their own homes, might do so also. And this is what all our people need to discover; and it can be discovered in the same way; and it is perfectly easy.

The rich blessing of the Lord was received abundantly throughout the whole meeting. The entire absence of gossip and mere visiting was so marked as to be distinctly noticed and remarked upon. Instead, there was a deep interest in the

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truths presented, an earnest spirit of study and inquiry to know the good way and to walk in it. And so, over the grounds it was easy to hear frequently such remarks as, "What a splendid camp meeting this is! "What a peaceful place this is!" "This is the best meeting that I ever attended." "O, I shall be sorry when we have to break up!" "I just wish that every Seventh-day Adventist in Northern California were at this meeting," etc., etc.

Of course in such an atmosphere the social meetings were really social and full of expressions of gratitude and praise to God. In one of the early morning meetings where were nearly a hundred and fifty people, with only the simple usual opening exercises of singing a hymn, reading a few verses of Scripture, and a prayer, and with not a word said by the leader of the meeting specially to direct the thought of the meeting toward praise, every person in the meeting spoke, and the only note struck, the only thought expressed, was of clear, distinct praise to God. When all had so spoken, I called attention to the fact; and we all rejoiced together, and praised God anew, that God's people have reached the point where they have really received and are wearing "the garment of praise."

The book sales amounted to more than five hundred dollars; the donations were liberal; and by there being presented to them so fully the respective branches of the cause–the evangelical, the educational, the medical, and the publishing–the people departed to their homes with a better understanding of the unity of the great movement which we represent, and a more intelligent mind to the work than ever before.

And for it all we sincerely thank God, and pray that he will keep it upon the hearts of his people forever.

ALONZO T. JONES.

August 5, 1902

"Denominational Finances" [8]1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 31 , pp. 8, 9.

OUR study for to-night is the same subject that we have had in the two previous studies–self-government; because that subject embraces fully one half of all the third angel's message and its work. To-night it will be particularly a study of the financial situation of the denomination, and the relationship of the ministry to it.

There is one thing that not one of us should ever forget, and that is that we are always in school. And when this is borne in mind, it will be easy to remember what does with it,–that everything that comes before us in the work of God is worthy of our study; and that we are to put ourselves to school to God, in that situation, to see what lesson he has for us to learn. For as certainly as we ever find ourselves in a situation that is not right, that ought not to be, there is room for a study of how we got there. We got there by some wrong management, some way, somewhere. But we should not remain there. We should get out as soon as possible. But the only safe way, the only true way, to get out is to find out how we got in, and then refuse to follow those evil principles any longer.

The foundation of all our study in this school is found in the principle and the philosophy of the forgiveness of sins and the life of righteousness. If you want to know the true principle of financial success, study to find out the true principle of the success of the human soul in escaping from sin and keeping clear of it. And if you want to know the basis and the philosophy of recovery from disease, and the life of health, find out for yourself the philosophy of the forgiveness of sin, and the life of righteousness. The gospel of the salvation of the soul–escaping from sin, and abiding in the life of righteousness–that is the basis of all true philosophy in whatever connection.

Last night I asked you not to think that I was saying extravagant, unbelievable things. And I ask you that same thing to-night. I am telling you the truth. If it seems new and strange, please do not think that I am indulging in mere extravagance or falsehood.

You have no doubt heard that the denomination has had some financial difficulties; that the denomination is somewhat in debt. This being true, it is the truth that every one of us who will deliberately put himself to school in this financial condition in which we are, and will make the financial situation of the Seventh-day Adventists a problem for study, will learn the philosophy of financial success. It will be found to be simply a part of the way of our getting round to the fulfillment of that promise which I read last night: "Thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail." And I want you to put yourself to school now for an hour, the time we shall study here, and let us find some of the lessons that are for us in this financial situation.

And first of all, please do not count it a cause of groaning and complaining; do not think of it as an awful thing and a great burden, and inquire, "How shall we ever get out from under this awful burden?" Just put that all away, and thanks God that his love and kindness are over all yet; and that we can get out of it just as easily as we can do right?

Some mistakes have been made in getting into this, that is true; but we are to profit by these. One that we can easily notice, and that is plain on the face of it, is that it is neither religion nor business for a missionary association to borrow money to give away; and I mean particularly a missionary association or corporation.

An individual can, if he wants to, borrow money, and give it away; because when the money is to be paid back, he will expect to draw on his energies and his exertions to make the money, so as to have it ready to pay back when due to the person from whom he borrowed it. If an association or corporation be one that has means of making money, and so of controlling an income, and that association or corporation wants to borrow money to give away, and then make extra exertions of its machinery, or whatever its facilities may be, to increase its income, so that when that money must be paid back, they will have made enough money extra to pay it back, that can be done.

But for an association or corporation that is missionary only, that has no way of making money,–for that kind of association or corporation to borrow money to give away,–how is it going to pay back what it borrowed?–Borrow more money, of course, to pay that back. But how is it going to pay back what it borrowed to pay back?–Borrow more money, of course, to pay back what it borrowed to pay back what it borrowed to give away. How long at that rate, could a Christian denomination proceed before it would come to the place of the fulfillment of the promise that ye shall lend to many nations, and shall not borrow?–Eternally.

Then don't you see that it is not sound financial management for an association that has no way of making money, to borrow money to give away. That as-

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sociation may get money to give away; that is all right; but it cannot borrow money to give away. It can receive money that is given, and give it away, all right.

Now that thing has been done among Seventh-day Adventists. Money has been borrowed to do missionary work with, borrowed by the denomination to give away.

The money has been well spent; that part of it is all right. The money is in missionary work, and is doing only good. But now you see that in order to pay that back, we must make the money, and pay it back. Then don't you see that one of the first things, yes, the first thing, that stands before Seventh-day Adventists, the whole denomination, is that we simply will not get into debt any more.

Now there is an arrangement that will have to be made, but that can be made without going into debt. We cannot take the position just yet that we will not borrow money. That cannot be done; for we are in a vise, and we have got to stay there until we get out. The denomination has the money of a great many people. Some persons have loaned money for a certain length of time, and now they need their money. They may be in a hardship by which they actually need and must have their money.

Now it is not going into debt, you see, to borrow that same sum from some one who does not need it, in order to pay this person who does need it. That is not going into debt. That is simply holding our own, by changing the obligation from the one who needs his money, and must have it, to one who does not need his money, and is willing that the denomination shall use it until we gather to ourselves resources by which to settle the obligation without borrowing to do it. So I say, Under the circumstances, we are not at the place yet where we can say that we will not borrow; for in order to meet the needs, actual needs, of some people who have money in the denomination, they must have it, and sometimes they must have it on short order, because they are actually in distress. The association has not time to devise means to get the money as an income; and so it may borrow an equal sum to pay this sum that is needed by the person to whom it belongs. And to borrow the same sum, at the same or even a less rate of interest, is not increasing the debt. Thus, though the time has not yet come when we can say that we will not borrow, the time has come for us all to say decidedly and forever that we will not go into debt, and that we will not allow an increase of the debt that we are already in.

That is the first thing. And that is an important thing; for I have found in my experience occasions in which it seemed to be an actual struggle with some Seventh-day Adventist organizations not to go into debt. It seemed necessary fairly to rally them, almost to take them by their shoulders and whirl them around as by a mighty lever, to get them to stand where they would actually refuse to go into debt.

Now, if you are going to put yourself on that platform, that as conference committees, associations, etc., you will not go into debt, then you will find yourself tested. Have you the courage to refuse to go into debt when you have a good chance to go into debt? You should begin just now to gather to yourselves that kind of courage individually, because it is just as much a school for the individual, and just as much the concern of the individual man or woman, as it is of the conference committee, or the printing house, or the college; because it is no credit to a Seventh-day Adventist individual to be in debt, and to conduct things in such a way that he does not get out of debt.

Another thing that goes along with that determined refusal to go into debt, is the courage to get along with inconveniences, if need be,–the courage to do without a great many things that it might be pleasant to have. And you will have to decide whether you will have the Christianity and the courage to do without a great many things that it would be pleasant to have, rather than to go into debt. You will have to make your choice, and it is Christianity to make your choice, not only to do without things that would be nice, but actually to do without things that it would be proper to have, and even things that are needed, rather than to go into debt. You must have the Christianity and the courage to pinch down to the lowest notch, hold steadily there, and do with the least that can possibly be gotten along with, and stick to that, rather than incur a debt. That is the way that you and I must do as individuals, to get out of debt; and that is the only way that we can do as committees and boards, to get out of debt.

When that is done, when that experience is gained, and our lesson learned, the other thing that goes with the refusal to go into debt is that we shall maintain Christian sense enough to use money carefully when we get it. If we will discipline ourselves as individuals and as committees and boards, to do with the least possible, to do with inconveniences, to do with hardships even, in self-denial of what would be right and proper, and perhaps of what is needed, then when we do get money, we shall have learned enough not to be extravagant just because we have money. And unless Seventh-day Adventist committees, boards, etc., do learn that lesson while paying the debt,–if we do not learn the discipline that will spend money most wisely and most economically when we have abundance, then there will be no special benefit in getting out of debt.

The whole story of economy, of finance and financial success, lies in just these two things–refusal to make debts, and true economy, frugality, in the use of money. And I have said to Seventh-day Adventists in other places, and I will say it now to you: If the Seventh-day Adventists of this land would to-night unitedly–institutions, individuals, and all–put themselves right there, where they would not make a cent's further debt, and would economically, wisely, frugally, handle the money that would come in, I would just as cheerfully take the whole burden of indebtedness of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination as I would take my breakfast.

It is perfectly easy not to go into debt when you have no chance. It is easy to quit then. But when you have the best chance in the world to go into debt, when all the prospects are promising, and the step seems to be "perfectly safe," then is the time when you can prove whether you are really going to quit going into debt or not. Because, you know, brethren, that the great majority of times when persons go into debt, and the way they go into debt, is when there is some wonderfully prosperous-looking project; when by actual figures it can be made plain that it is all "perfectly safe." But by actual experience it does not turn out profitably, and the person finds himself in debt.

And you and I, as Seventh-day Adventists, will meet occasions when that same thing will appear, when it will appear to be a perfectly proper thing to incur an indebtedness; because, "Just see what is coming! just see what is in prospect for us!" But what are you going to do?–that is the question. Are you going to set yourself firmly upon the principle of self-government and self-support,–self-government first of all, that you can govern yourself enough to keep yourself from going into debt; then also wed yourself to the principle of self-support, that you will depend upon your divine resources in God to make prosperity for the cause of God, rather than to depend upon speculation? Whether you will depend upon sound principles rather than upon a bright, alluring prospect,–that is the thing that you must settle.

And when we have it settled that we will not go into debt, then there will be met the temptation to use for other purposes than the payment of debts, the money that is saved, made, or received. And we must have the Christianity–the self-government–to resist that temptation. And I have seen those who did not have it. I have seen those who acted, "Now we have money. We can have this thing, and that thing, and the other thing," which were not really needed at all. But no matter: it was, "Can't get along without it!" And yet they always had got along without it, and could have got along well without it. But no, they had the money, and thought that a good use to put it to. The only good use that a man or an association can put money to–except only actual running necessities–when debts are to be paid, and obligations to be met, is to pay those debts and meet those obligations.

(To be concluded.)

August 12, 1902

"Denominational Finances. (Concluded.)" [9]1 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 32 , pp. 10, 11.

THOSE two things being settled, another thing that comes right along with them is that our institutions must be put firmly and uncompromisingly upon the principles for which they were planted in the world, and for which they stand.

I have seen in Seventh-day Adventist institutions the very principles for which those institutions stand, despised, rejected, and cast out by those who were in the place of responsibility in those institutions and for those institutions. I have seen institutions planted to represent a certain phase of the third angel's message in which there was not a single principle recognized for which the institution stood, as a practical thing, in the institution.

Now I want to know how we can in any true sense at all expect God's prospering hand to be with an institution when the management of the institution is conducting the institution in defiance of the principles for which the institution stands. How can that be? And is it any wonder that such institutions as that cannot make their way, and that they run behind every year? Is there anything strange about that? When an institution is planted for a certain purpose, and stands in the world for certain principles; and yet by those in responsibility there those principles are ignored, if not despised and rejected,–then it is any wonder that those institutions run behind? Is it any wonder that the brethren, the people, the Seventh-day Adventists, are not very ready to make donations to those institutions, and to the work of those institutions?

I have seen it in my experience, when I have told the managers of more than one institution that I had neither the heart nor the face to ask any Seventh-day Adventist for money to be spent in behalf of that institution until a better showing was made of the money that had been spent in it. But let you and me straighten up, conduct this thing straight, wed ourselves to the principles for which it stands, and firmly place the whole institution upon those principles, so that it will recommend itself to the people for what they did give their money, and you will not have difficulty, you will not run behind; and money will come all right. I have never seen it fail. I do not know of any people in this world who are more liberal, or more ready to give, and who more lovingly give, than Seventh-day Adventists. And in justice to those people, to their liberal hearts and their consecrated energies, you and I, as men in responsible places on committee, or as ministers in the field, it is your place and mine to do everything in our power to see that every institution, and every part of the cause is conducted strictly upon the principles for which the cause and the institutions stand.

Then when that is done,–I say again, I have never seen it fail,–the people are ready to put their means liberally into the work. And that is so in the connection on which I spoke last night,–the conference treasury and the ministry. It is surprising to me in the experience I have had for a good while, that the Seventh-day Adventist ministry are unable to see how dissatisfied the people are with the slipshod way in which the ministry is doing its work. There are Seventh-day Adventist people to-day sending their tithes, not to the conference treasury, but to the mission fields, rather than to the conference treasury, because of the loose, unwise, dilatory way in which the ministry of their conferences work, taking money from the treasury for little or no returns.

The man who is to be a minister of the gospel can be that truly only by being swallowed up in that ministry, every fiber of his being, body, soul, and spirit. Every item of his being has to be devoted to the ministry of the gospel. Nothing else can have any possible place. Neither speculations, dealings, investments, nor side issues of any kind can have any place in the life of a minister of the gospel. "Thou therefore

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endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully."

There is God's law for the ministry of the gospel: Entangleth not himself with the affairs of this life. The affairs of this life have no place in the affairs of the minister of the gospel.

That is the law of the ministry, and a man is "not crowned, except he strive lawfully." Those men who mix up in other things with the ministry of the gospel,–when the day comes for them to be crowned, they will be crowned as men of these other things, and not as ministers of the gospel, if indeed they be crowned at all. They cannot be crowned as ministers of the gospel, for they have compromised it with these little, unworthy things that have no place, and that are not to be mentioned in the same breath with the ministry of the gospel. And that is why the ministry of the gospel of Seventh-day Adventists all over this land has been going the other way all the time, instead of rising to the height where the ministry of the gospel belongs, and where God has called it to stand.

Now the financial success that will come from this reversal and reorganization of things is nothing at all in importance as compared to the divine manliness and the divine integrity and strength that will come to the ministry by their adopting, and wedding themselves to, this principle; for the man who puts his whole dependence for all that ever comes to him upon the gospel which he preaches, is independent. He will always have a good support, and his work will always more than pay all that his wages and expenses amount to.

And this brings in a double principle that I want you to get hold of. I am telling you the truth. The man who starts into the work of the gospel ministry on this principle, and adheres to it till he makes his work pay his way,–then his work will pay his way, that is true; and it will more than pay his way. And as his work goes on, his work will grow. And as his work grows, he will grow with it; so that the longer that man's ministry continues, the more successful it will be, and the more his efforts will bring into the cause, in return.

Now that is so, and not one of you should accept any other thing than that principle worked out that way. If you have been in the ministry ten years, then your work this year should bring into the cause far more returns in proportion than it did the first year or the second. So that a man's work, as it continues, and continues to grow, and he grows with it, will easily bring three, five, six, ten, or twenty times as much to the cause as his wages and expenses take out. And it is perfectly easy, because as his work grows thus, he is certain to grow with it, in manliness, in strength, in stamina, in manly, Christian independence–independence of conferences, conference committees, institutions, treasuries, and everything of the kind; because in the gospel which he preaches, he has conferences, he has treasuries, he has institutions, everything. And if the gospel which you preach, my brother, and the gospel which I preach, does not have in it conferences, and treasuries, and institutions, and the whole thing, then we have not the right kind of gospel yet.

Another thing that comes along with all this: ill-advised moves have been made,–and we as men in responsible places and on committees must look out for, and guard against, such things as that,–institutions have been built on a scale that made them far larger than were the men who were to conduct them. And when you have an institution that is a great deal larger than are the men who are in it to conduct it, you have an institution that is bound to run behind while those men are there. Then you see that it is an utter mistake, it is not economy at all, it is extravagance, wastefulness, to put up institutions larger than are the men who are to conduct the institutions.

But as certainly as each man, whether minister, doctor, teacher, or printer, starts into the work upon the basis that makes his work pay his way, and himself grows with his work, he will always be as large as is his work. And when an institution grows up under his work, the institution will not be bigger than he is. He himself will be as large as is the institution that God brings under his hand; and that institution will be a success from the day the first stone is laid in the foundation until the day it is fully equipped and running, whether it be medical, educational, or publishing, or a conference. That is the truth.

Other institutions will have to be built. We have not yet nearly all the institutions that there must be. Our educational institutions should cover this land in a perfect network,–the home school, the church school, the intermediate school, perhaps not any more colleges; but between the college and the home, there is to be a whole string in all these regions yet. There are to be health institutions, sanitariums,–many more than there are now. And you and I as managers and men in responsible places, must not allow ourselves to overreach, and build great institutions, larger than anybody who can ever be brought in to conduct them. No; built the institution according to the needs, however small it may be. Get the men who can run it at that size. Then let these men conduct it successfully at that size, and they will grow as the work grows. Then enlarge it, and they will still be as large as the enlarged institution is; and that institution and its business will always be a success.

Isn't it perfectly plain, then, that that is a principle, and not merely a policy, nor even only business? What principle is it? Isn't it the divine principle that is before us in all nature, and in the Bible,–the divine principle of growth? Plant institutions small, and let them grow. Then the men who are there will grow with them. But plant them so large that they never can grow, and bring in to manage and conduct the work in such an institution men who have not had time to grow, however much they may be ready to grow–they are not the size of the institution, they cannot grow up to the height of that thing, and the thing goes at loose ends, and everything goes backward.

Then you can see that it is the divine principle of growth. You can see that it all centers in the ministry; and you can see that the correct solution of our financial problem, and our financial success that is to come out of this problem, yea, everything that concerns the cause of the third angel's message, turns upon the ministry of the gospel. There is where this whole reform and the whole work of reorganization center. And each one of us must put himself into the mill, and let it grind. Do not have the brethren of the committee do it. Each one of us must put himself there, and hold himself there until that thing is settled the right way.

And when this is done, then what? Just review the ground, and let the things be carried out that are before us, and let the problem that is under our hands be solved, in the way that we have studied to-night; and then what? What do you think of it? What is the prospect? Well, it will be so restful that we can stand and take a long, refreshing breathe, and rest. That is the way out of this thing, and there is no difficulty, there is no problem, about it at all. It is simply the divine principle of righteousness; it is simply the divine principle of self-government; it is simply the divine principle of self-support; it is simply the divine principle of growth, allowed to work by the divine power of the gospel.

O, there is a higher place for us to stand! There is a higher place for the denomination. There is a higher place for our institutions. There is a higher place for conference committees. There is a higher place for the teachers in our schools. There is a higher place for the ministry, yes, a hundred per cent higher. For every soul, every phase of the work, there is an infinitely higher place for us to stand than where we have stood.

Brethren, there is a great work going on. And, thank the Lord, it is going on. It is going on; and it is never going to stop. That is the other beautiful part about it. Three beautiful things: there is a great work; it is going on; and it is never going to stop. Let us go with it, in the way that it is going.

The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 80 (1903)

February 10, 1903

"An Interesting Dedicatory Service" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 6 , p. 13.

ONE half the basement of the meeting-house of the Laguna Street Seventh-day Adventist church in San Francisco has been set apart and fitter up as a fully equipped dispensary and treatment rooms; and Sunday evening, Jan. 11, 1903, it was formally dedicated to the Lord in the work of the third angel's message. The meeting-house was crowded with people, the greater part of whom were not of our faith. The exercises occupied nearly two hours, and the people showed unabated interest throughout. There was a brief address on "The Medical Missionary Idea;" another giving the history of this particular enterprise; and the financial statement, as follows:–

Total amount of donations received from about four hundred individuals, whose names have been reported, in amounts ranging from two cents to fifty dollars, and covering a period of time from March 1, 1902, to Dec. 31, 1902. . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,302 00

Disbursement

Paid for heater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 60 00

Spray apparatus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 00

Electric light cabinet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 00

Plumbing and supplies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .460 00

Electrical work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 00

Lumber, tiling, and materials, and labor on same . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 27 $1,269 87

Leaving cash on hand, Dec. 31, 1902 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $32 13

Of the $1,302 received in donations, approximately $850 has been given by friends outside of San Francisco, and $452 by the members of this church. There is still outstanding in unpaid pledges about $200, most of which is to be paid within four years, in installments of five dollars a year.

All donations received have been acknowledged by publication of the names and amounts in the Pacific Union Recorder.

All bills presented have been paid, the dispensary is free from debt, and there still remains on hand a surplus of $32.13 available for purchasing much-needed instruments and furnishings.

E. E. Parlin, Treasurer.

These parts of the program were interspersed with pleasant songs, which made it a very interesting service.

The opening of this dispensary enables the San Francisco church now to stand fully organized in the work of the third angel's message. For, with the auditorium devoted to the preaching of the gospel in the word of God; and one half of the basement devoted to a good church school, and the other half to a well-equipped medical missionary dispensary, the full, all-round gospel for the whole man is represented. And what is this but that which every Seventh-day Adventist church should be? And what is it but that which every Seventh-day Adventist church can be?

This simply represents what the third angel's message is. It is simply the every-day work of the third angel's message, when that work is truly done; and every Seventh-day Adventist church is in the world for nothing else than to represent the whole gospel as given to the world in the third angel's message.

More than a hundred treatments had already been given in this dispensary even before it was dedicated. It was already exerting a good influence wherever known, and with the large attendance of the people of the city at the dedicatory service, its influence is certain to be very greatly enlarged; because after the formal services of dedication were past, the whole congregation were, section by section, escorted through the treatment rooms, where a number of treatments were in actual operation, illustrating the work of the dispensary. And the people were all given time to look well through the rooms, to inquire concerning the treatments, and ask any further questions that they might choose to.

When the enterprise was suggested, it was intended that the dispensary be thoroughly fitted up, and though it was known that the cost would be not less than a thousand dollars, it was proposed that it should be done, from beginning to end, without incurring any debt. While all expressed themselves that they would be only too glad if such a thing could be, yet it was declared that that thing never could be done. Nevertheless, the enterprise being exactly what was proper, and only what was necessary to the work of the church, if it were to be a true working church, it was decided to undertake it, with the proviso that it should be furnished and completed free from debt, all the way. And it was done. Step by step was taken only as the money was in hand to pay the expense; and as step by step was thus taken, the faith of the church grew, and the courage likewise, and the further the enterprise progressed, the more certainly success was assured: each said to his neighbor, "Be of good courage," each strengthened the hands of the other, and at last the work of preparing the dispensary was thoroughly done, and the dispensary was dedicated, not only free from debt, but, although the cost was $250 more than the thousand originally expected, $42.73 remained in the treasury, with $200 of good pledges yet to come.

And this only illustrates what can be done without incurring debt.

The San Francisco church is deeply grateful to the Lord for his blessing upon their efforts, and his prospering hand in this medical missionary enterprise. They start into their work at the beginning of this year 1903, with renewed courage. And, with their enlarged facilities for doing the work of the gospel, their efforts will certainly be fruitful, more fruitful than ever before. May the blessing of the Lord make it so, and may every Seventh-day Adventist church in the world go and do likewise.

Alonzo T. Jones.

February 24, 1903

"Principles of Organization of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary Association" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 8 , pp. 9, 10.

ALONZO T. JONES

THE principles that were developed and adopted in the organization of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary Association were considered and approved by the council of responsible brethren held in Battle Creek in November, 1902; and it was directed that an account of this organization be written out and published in the REVIEW AND HERALD for the consideration of our workers and people generally.

This organization was effected at the St. Helena Sanitarium, California, June 19, 1902. The following-named persons were present and took part in the work of organization: Elders W. T. Knox, J. N. Loughborough, A. T. Jones, J. O. Corliss, W. C. White, N. C. McClure, M. C. Wilcox, M. E. Cady, H. A. St. John, W. S. Sadler, B. F. Richards, Drs. W. R. Simmons, A. N. Loper, G. H. Heald, G. A. Droll, W. H. Jones, R. A. Buchanan, Brethren E. E. Parlin, A. Boeker, Wm. Saunders, C. H. Jones, L. C. Nelson, T. T. Heald, J. J. Ireland, W. D. Hicks, Z. Thorp, H. H. Haynes, L. M. Bowen, Jesse Arthur, and Sisters Gotzian and Sadler and others.

Preliminary to this matter of June 19, there had been elected at the Pacific Union Conference held at Portland, Ore., Feb. 28 to March 10, 1902, a Board to take charge of the medical missionary work in the Pacific Union Conference.

The election of this Board was the result of a long and earnest study of the medical missionary work, in principles and operation, by a large committee appointed for this purpose by the Pacific Union Conference in session. The Board was elected, not only to take charge of the medical missionary work in the Pacific Union Conference, but also to effect the permanent organization of the medical missionary work in this conference, into a Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. The Board that was elected consisted of the following-named persons: A. T. Jones, A. N. Loper, W. R. Simmons, W. T. Knox, T. S. Whitelock, A. Boeker, E. E. Parlin. The Board organized at Portland by electing A. T. Jones, President, and W. R. Simmons, Secretary.

The circumstances and the purpose of the appointment of this Board made its work of more than ordinary importance. The Testimonies had lately, repeatedly, and strongly indicated that the form of organization of the medical missionary work was in certain vital points defective. This required that this Board should search for original principles, as the basis of the organization that it was appointed to effect. The study of the question by the large committee at Portland had developed indications of the general direction to be taken; and in God's evident working in the reorganization of the General Conference, begun in Battle Creek, Mich., in the General Conference of 1901, there seemed certainly to be indications that it would be safe to follow in the organization or reorganization of the medical missionary work.

In a word, the principle of reorganization of the General Conference is the principle of self-government. The General Conference pushes back to union conferences all that can be done by union conferences; the union conferences push back to the respective conferences all that can be done by the individual conferences; the conferences push back to the respective churches all that can be done by the individual churches; the churches push back to the individual Christians all that can be done by individual Christians; and the individual Christian pushes back to God all that can be done in and through the individual Christian by God. Thus this order of things finds in God with the individual Christian, it source of life and energy; and so of organization.

The General Conference having pushed back to the union conferences all that can be done by union conferences; and the Pacific Union Conference, after an extended study by a large committee, having appointed a Board to effect an organization of the medical missionary work in this union conference, this seemed to this Board to be an indication that the General (the International) Medical Missionary Association should push back to union associations all medical missionary work that can be done by union medical missionary associations; that the union associations should push back to State or conference associations all that can be done by such associations; that the State or conference associations should push back to local associations all that can be done by such associations; that the local associations should push back to individual Christians all the medical missionary work that can be done by the individual Christian with God as his recognized Source of life and energy.

With this principle as their guide, the Board canvassed the subject quite fully, and arrived at what seemed to them clear conclusions, which they submitted to this meeting for consideration, to be adopted, modified, amended, or rejected, as by further thought and discussion might be thought best. These, as formulated, were read one by one with explanatory remarks by the president of the Board as follows:* [10]1–

The Principles of Organization of the Medical Missionary Work

1. "Where the burden of labor rests, there rests the weight of control.

2. "The weight of endeavor should be always, as a principle, to have every work start and develop as self-supporting, by local resources, local energy, and local control.

3. "Under present circumstances general control of local enterprises is in operation; but whenever any enterprise becomes strong enough to go alone, it should be turned over by the general to local control.

4. "It is possible that instances may occur in which the great importance of establishing the work at some pivotal or strategic point may require the establishment of an institution before there is a sufficient local constituency for efficient control. In such cases there should be general effort and general control until there is developed local constituency sufficient for local control."

PRESIDENT OF BOARD: Here arose the question, we considered it, it is now before you, and it is one of the vital questions: What shall be the constituency of the local medical missionary enterprise? Where shall we find the constituency? Of what shall it be composed? In the California association as it has stood there is no such thing as any local constituency; all enterprises are conducted by one Board and from one center, merely as branches from that one center.

JUDGE ARTHUR: There are only two sanitariums that would be embraced in this union association, that are organized and have any connection with the International Association. These are at Spokane and Portland; and I reorganized both of them two or three years ago. I then strongly advocated the organization of an association independent of the other, and I suggested this very plan of operation. At that time I believe it was talked among the brethren here, and afterward abandoned. But I was satisfied that the time would come when you would find that it was the scheme.

PRESIDENT OF BOARD: So the question before this Board was, How shall the constituency of local enterprises be obtained and composed? In following out the principles with which the Board started, we answered it thus:–

5. "The constituency of a local enterprise shall be the church well instructed and in active co-operation in the principles of health and medical missionary work."

QUESTION: That would be the local church?

ANSWER: Yes. The membership of the local church where the medical missionary enterprise is to be established, shall be the constituency of that enter-

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prise. Yet bear in mind the distinct proviso: "The church well instructed and in active co-operation in the principles of health and medical missionary work." Not otherwise.

6. "This church constituency of local enterprise shall elect its own medical missionary Board of management, including at least one member of the State Board."

This, so as to make and keep a connection all the time, and by their own choice, with the State Board. According to the old way, the central Board makes this connection, by itself, or by its appointment. But as here proposed, the people who establish and conduct the enterprise make the connection with the State Board by their own choice, and of such member or members of the State Board as they choose to choose.

QUESTION: Would it be out of harmony with the general principle, to have the local church concerned choose from its membership a smaller number than the whole membership of the church as a constituency or electorate to elect the local board of control? Would not this be an advantage, especially where the church is large?

ANSWER: Such an arrangement would not be at all a violation of the principle: it would be simply a variation in the manner of applying the principle. As suggested, I think myself that it would be a distinct advantage where the membership of the church is large.

It was then moved and seconded and unanimously carried that Article 6 be amended so as to read:–

6. "This church constituency of local enterprise shall elect or choose an electorate to elect its own medical missionary Board of management, including at least one member of the State Board."

PRESIDENT OF BOARD: This amendment having been made, I will read it into the other articles where it is required, as I proceed.

7. "The whole number of local constituencies in annual conference compose the State constituencies, and elect or choose an electorate to elect the State Board, including at least two members of the Pacific Union Board.

8. "Delegates from the State constituencies in union conference assembled compose the union constituency, and elect or choose an electorate to elect the Pacific Union Medical Missionary Board.

9. "The bond of union and co-operation is loyalty to Christian principle in morals, in discipline, and in health and the treatment of disease.

10. "In short, the Medical Missionary Association shall be essentially of the church,–simply the church itself at work in medical missionary lines, just as schools and colleges represent the church at work in intellectual lines, and the churches and conference the church at work in evangelical lines. The sanitariums shall be instrumentalities of the church, just as are schools, tract societies, etc. The physicians, nurses, etc., shall be regularly licensed by the conference as church workers, the same as others.

11. "The funds of State organizations, at least for the present, shall be from the tithe of the income of the local enterprises, and from donations: of the Pacific Union, the tithe of the income of State organizations and from donations."

(To be concluded.)

March 3, 1903

"Principles of Organization of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary Association. (Concluded.)" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 9 , pp. 9, 10.

ALONZO T. JONES

(Concluded)

PRESIDENT OF BOARD: That is all. Now while the Board would not at all imply that this statement of principles should be adopted as now read, we do believe that the course indicated in it is the correct one. We are confirmed in this belief by this fact: after the consultation in which was developed these principles of organization, there was placed in our hands a collection of Testimonies on the medical missionary and sanitarium work. Upon reading these Testimonies through, we were gratified to find how exactly we had caught in our draft the principles which these Testimonies called upon us to adopt.

One of these Testimonies was read to us this morning, by Sister White herself. And you can readily recall how its whole tenor carries everything back to the individual with God, and calls upon us to respect individual responsibility, individual talent, and individual effort. To illustrate, one passage runs as follows:–

"To the leaders in the medical missionary work I must say that no one is to claim kingly power over God's heritage in the medical missionary work. God's people are to be under Him and Him alone. There is one Shepherd, and he has one flock. The Lord knows the future. He is the one to be looked to and trusted in to guide and guard and direct in the future development of the various branches of His work. For several years I have been warned that there is danger, constant danger, of men looking to men for permission to do this or that, instead of looking to God for themselves. Thus they become weaklings, bound about with human ties that God has not ordained. The Lord can impress minds and consciences to do His work under bonds to him, and in a brotherly fraternity that will be in accordance with his law."

Another statement runs thus: "Each institution is to stand in its own responsibility. They will increase in strength and influence if they follow the light God has given,–if they begin small and work carefully not spending more than they make. . . . It is best for every sanitarium to stand in its own responsibility."

Yet another, which tells must in little, runs as follows: "The kingly power formerly exhibited in the General Conference at Battle Creek is not to be perpetuated. The publishing institutions is not to be a kingdom of itself. It is essential that the principles that govern in General Conference affairs shall be maintained in the management of the publishing work and the sanitarium work. . . . No one is to think that the branch of work with which he is connected is of vastly more importance than other branches. The division of the General Conference into district union conferences was God's arrangement. In the work of the Lord for these last days there are to be no Jerusalem centers, no kingly power."

Surely here is an outline sufficiently clear,–individual freedom and individual self-government from God alone, the one Shepherd of his flock; institutional freedom and institutional self-government under bonds to God alone as the head and guide, yet in a brotherly fraternity that is in accordance with his law; the division of the General Conference into union conferences, God's arrangement; and the principles that govern in General Conference affairs to govern in the sanitarium work. And this is exactly the conception of the principles of organization of the medical missionary work here presented.

One great principle that now governs in General Conference affairs is self-government, beginning in the individual united with God.

ELDER WILCOX: I am glad to see our organization finding its source in God's unit.

PRESIDENT OF BOARD: Yes, Brother Wilcox, and when it shall be indeed that throughout our organization, its source shall be found in God's unit, then throughout our organization there will be seen God's unity,–that unity for which Jesus has all these years been praying.

Individual self-government necessarily expands to local self-government of the collection of individuals in a locality, as in the affairs of the church organization or of medical missionary work. From the many localities local self-government expands to State or conference self-government. From the several State or conference organizations self-government expands to union conference self-government. And from union conferences, self-government expands to General Conference self-government: each organization governing itself only, in the field of its own activities, and not attempting to govern any other; yet all working in a brotherly fraternity that is according to God's law.

In the nature of things, self-government means self-support. Local self-government means local self-support. Therefore the principle that "the weight of endeavor should be always, as a principle, to have every work start and develop as self-supporting, by local resources, local energy, and local control." And this according to the instruction that each institution is to stand in its own responsibility, beginning small,

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working carefully, not spending more than it makes, and so growing, but keeping out of debt.

This also inevitably brings into active co-operation in the medical missionary work the whole membership of the local church, especially wherever there is to be carried on in any degree sanitarium work. Surely we have had instruction enough, and for years, that each and every church should be a medical missionary working church. Indeed, we have had enough instruction on that subject to justify putting the question this way: What are our churches worth if they are not medical missionary working churches? How much true gospel have they, and what are they doing in the message for to-day, as that message is to-day, unless they are medical missionary working churches? Since the medical missionary work is "God's helping hand" of the church, if a church is not only not using that hand, but is not in any spirit or condition to use it, then what is the church worth to the world in the great gospel necessities of to-day?

To me it seems sorely akin to an abomination to see a sanitarium work started in a city where there is a Seventh-day Adventist church, and find scarcely a single member of that church taking any more part or interest in it than if it were not there at all. The physicians and nurses are obliged to work and pinch and make their way by the hardest efforts to get a start and make the work self-supporting, when the intelligent and hearty co-operation of the whole membership of the church in that place would easily make the work flourish from the beginning, and cause it to be a blessing to the church, and to the whole place besides. Therefore the principle that "the constituency of a local enterprise shall be the church well instructed and in active co-operation in the principles of health and medical missionary work."

This principle carried out, inseparably unites them. It makes the medical missionary work, the sanitarium work, the very work of the church itself as such. And this is right. Indeed, this only is right in this connection; for this is precisely the church's calling. The church is the pillar and stay, the ground and support, of the truth in the world. To the church God commits his truth for the world. And the church is recreant to her Lord, to her call, and to her trust when she does not, as the church, give to the world that truth as from the church. Now this glorious and mighty truth of God's saving health, the medical gospel, is made known and committed by God to his church to-day for the afflicted and perishing world of to-day. And every Seventh-day Adventist church is recreant to her Lord, to her call, and to her trust when she allows the health work, the medical missionary work, the sanitarium work, to be carried on apart from the church, and to stand before the world as not of the church. It is a proper part of church work.

Let all the churches be intelligently and actively engaged in medical missionary work. Let those choose delegates to a State or conference meeting. Such delegates would be capable of having a voice in the election of a State or conference medical missionary board, and of considering the medical missionary interests of the State or conference, as well as of considering the strictly conference business, or the tract and missionary business. Such a delegation in conference assembled could do the medical missionary business and the tract and missionary business. There would not need to be different delegations for different phases of the one great work; but the same delegation would altogether consider the different phases of the one great work; for it would then be seen to be indeed only one work.

At the Portland conference the one delegation was the delegation for all the business. And all who were there have witnessed that we never had a better conference anywhere. When we recognize that the church is God's only recognized constituency, and then educate, educate, educate, till the church everywhere becomes an all-round church in the work of God, we shall find God's unity and God's power in the work as never can be otherwise. That will be the logical outcome of this principle and course of reorganization,–all the people, all God's church, at work in all his work, as his church, representing and manifesting all his truth, and so, as his church, being the pillar and stay, the ground and support, of the truth in the world.

At this point, on motion, recess was taken till 5 P. M.

Upon the reconvening at the hour of 5 P. M., the study of the proposed principles of organization was resumed, in joint meeting with the members of the California Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. The study took no wider range than simple question and answer as to the operation of the principles.

ELDER KNOX: I would like to make this motion:–

That the constituency of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association be composed of the members of the Executive Committee of the Pacific Union Conference; the presidents of the local conference Medical Missionary and Benevolent Associations; medical superintendents of all sanitariums in the territory; one representative from every five hundred members in every local conference; the managers of the food factories in the territory; and such delegates as may be present from the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, not to exceed ten.

Thereupon, without any further modification or amendment of the proposed principles, it was moved, seconded, and carried–

That we approve of this plan as presented by the chairman and Elder Knox, and request the Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association Committee to proceed with the work of organization upon these lines.

The principles of organization of the medical missionary work, as adopted, stand as follows:–

1. Where the burden of labor rests, there rests the weight of control.

2. The weight of endeavor should be always, as a principle, to have every work started and developed as self-supporting, by local resources, local energy, and local control.

3. Under present circumstances general control of local enterprises is in operation, but whenever an enterprise becomes strong enough under general control to go alone, it should be turned over by the general to the local control.

4. It is possible that circumstances may occur in which the great importance of establishing the work at some pivotal or strategic point may require the establishment of an institution before there is a sufficient local constituency for efficient control. In such cases there should be general effort and general control until there is developed local constituency sufficient for local control.

5. The constituency of a local enterprise shall be the church well instructed and in active co-operation in principles of health and medical missionary work.

6. This church constituency of local enterprise shall elect, or choose an electorate to elect, its own medical missionary board of management, including at least one member of the State Board.

7. The whole number of local constituencies, in annual conference, compose the State constituencies, and elect, or choose an electorate to elect, the State Board, including at least two members of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association Board.

8. Delegates from the State constituencies, in union conference assembled, compose the union constituency, and elect, or choose an electorate to elect, a Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association Board, including a member or members of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association Board.

9. The bond of union and co-operation is loyalty to Christians principle in morals, in discipline, and in health and the treatment of disease.

10. In short, the Medical Missionary Association shall be essentially the church–simply the church itself–at work in medical missionary lines, just as the schools and colleges represent the church at work in intellectual lines, and the churches and conference the church at work in evangelical lines. The sanitariums shall be instrumentalities of the church, just as are schools, tract societies, etc. The physicians, nurses, etc., shall be regularly licensed by the conference as church workers, the same as others.

11. The funds of State organizations, at least for the present, shall be from the tithe of the income of local enterprises, and from donations; the funds of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association shall be tithe from the income of State organizations, and from donations.

June 23, 1903

"Dedication of the Madison Sanitarium" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 25 , pp. 18, 19.

AT Madison, Wis., Sunday afternoon, June 7, there was, dedicated the new sanitarium, erected for the making known of God's "saving health among all nations."

This sanitarium is a beautiful, excellently arranged, moderate-sized, four-story structure, on the lake shore opposite the capital city of Madison. The sanitarium grounds are composed of a five-acre plot touching two hundred feet of the waters of the lake, not far from the Chautauqua Assembly grounds. The views from the windows and verandas of the sanitarium, over lake and hills, are so charming as certainly of themselves alone to be strongly conducive to the health of whomsoever shall have the benefit of them. And in truth the house is already nearly full of patients who are having this splendid benefit, with all the others that the institution can bestow.

The dedicatory services were held on the broad, high front veranda, the audience of several hundreds of people occu-pying the lawn and driveway in front of the building. Elder Wm. Covert presided. There were selections of instru-

19

mental music, hymns and songs; a brief history of the Madison Sanitarium, by Brother J. H. Bramhall, who started this work in Madison; dedicatory address by Dr. J. H. Kellogg; short addresses by A. T. Jones and Jesse Arthur; an original poem by Mrs. Olson; the dedicatory prayer by Elder Covert, and benediction by Elder Reed. All passed off pleasantly in a Christian way, and good impressions were made in behalf of the Lord's cause and great message of saving health.

Brother C. P. Farnsworth, M. D., and Sister A. B. Farnsworth, M. D., are the physicians in charge. It is they with their helpers who, under God and by his good hand upon them, have brought the medical missionary work to this successful stage at Madison. They have a truly model sanitarium, for the moderate-sized class; they have the hearty co-operation of the whole Wisconsin Conference, and the good will of the city of Madison and the University of Wisconsin, and surely nothing less than the sincere good wishes and Godspeed of every lover of the third angel's message in all the world. And with all this in their favor, and with the good hand of God still upon them, they can with bright hope and good cheer go on in their present and larger field of usefulness and, blessing to suffering mankind.

In the Wisconsin Conference the doctrinal work and the practical work of the gospel move on harmoniously, and therefore strongly, The strictly evangelical work, the medical missionary work, and the educational work are all carried on and built up in even lines, in pleasant relations, and in Christian fellowship and mutual helpfulness–"in a brotherly fraternity according to God's law." Accordingly, brightness, good cheer, and prosperity pervade all, and are apparent everywhere. May it be so, and more also, forever and everywhere!

ALONZO T. JONES.

"Convention of the Educational Department of the General Conference" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 25 , p. 19.

At eleven o'clock Elder A. T. Jones gave an address upon the philosophy of history. "The problem of sin and its solution is the philosophy of history. Any study, or any teaching, of history that is not conducted in view of that, is not the true study of history at all, and as a study in itself it is certain to be vain. Therefore another thing follows, and that is, since the history of this world, as alone we can know it, is the result of sin, and the solution of it, it is plain that the beginning of our study of history must be with the beginning of sin, not: only in this world, but the beginning of sin where sin began. The philosophy of history, and that philosophy worked out in demonstration, is given in the Bible. This problem of sin, and the study of history in the light of the solution of it, is the only thing that will give the true understanding of the occurrences that history outside the Bible records."

At three o'clock, Friday afternoon, this subject was further considered, with special reference to the teaching of it. Elder Jones said that his histories were not written primarily for our schools, but were the result of a request made by our brethren that he should prepare something which would bring together the facts of history in accordance with the general principIes which he stated in his morning talk. He felt that so far as possible it was better to go to the original sources for his facts. Accordingly he had taken, as far as possible, that which the men who made the history had to say of what they had done. His histories were thus quite largely a compilation. He had done this, feeling that those who read and study them would be better students for having thus studied the records as they were originally written. A general discussion followed, led by M. E. Kern and W. A. Colcord. As a result of this meeting, a committee, consisting of the following-named persons, was appointed to bring to the convention recommendations regarding the outline of history and the preparation of suitable books for our schools: A. T. Jones, M. E. Kern, W. A. Colcord, B. E. Nicola, J. G. Lamson, F. Bralliar, and Miss M. Bessie De Graw.

At eight o'clock Elder A. G. Daniells gave an address upon "Our Message." He emphasized the thought that our work had not happened to come into existence, but that it was in the definite order of God. So in the giving of this message we had a specific and peculiar work. From this idea we must never depart.

Sabbath forenoon Elder Jones spoke upon. "The Bible in Education." "Education truly begins with life, and is intended never to end. And the Bible belongs in it all the way, for the first of all reasons because it is the Word of God, who is the author of life, the designer of destiny, and the continuance of life without end. Being the Word of God, the Bible belongs in education, because it is thus the fountain of knowledge." Sabbath afternoon a union Social meeting was held, led by Elder H. W. Cottrell.

FREDERICK GRIGGS,

Secretary of Department.

August 4, 1903

"A Surprising Announcement Concerning Battle Creek College" The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 30 , p. 4.

At this point A. T. Jones spoke as president of the Seventh-day Adventist Educational Society, as follows–

"You heard the word directly–and it needs no explanation and no sanction,–that we should get the College out of Battle Creek, and that we should sell the buildings and grounds in Battle Creek just as soon as possible."

He further said: "This is enough. Why should we hesitate or delay any longer? The International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association is ready to enter into arrangements to take the property at one hundred and six thousand dollars. This will pay all the debts, and leave the College with about twenty-six thousand dollars with which to plant itself in another place. [Italics ours.] Now I ask, first, all you who are members of the Board of Trustees of the Battle Creek College who are present and are in favor of taking advantage of this arrangement, and accepting this offer, and thus moving Battle Creek College out of this city according to the instruction given. [Italics ours], to please rise to your feet." The vote was unanimous.

Then Elder Jones said to the stockholders: "Will all you who are stockholders of Battle Creek College, who are present, who are in favor of this movement, and who indorse this action of the Board, which has already been taken, please rise to your feet?" This vote was also unanimous. Then as the whole General Conference delegation was present, Elder Jones said to them: "All the General Conference delegation who approve of this transaction will please rise to their feet." And "the vote to carry out the instruction was unanimous."

Then in addition to all this, since there were present a large number of people of the denomination from almost all sections of the country, the question was extended to all these, so that the voice of the whole denomination, as nearly as it could ever be possible to obtain it, could be had upon the question. Elder Jones, therefore, addressed the whole assembly, and asked all those who agreed to the arrangements in view, and who indorsed the movement, also to rise to their feet. This was also unanimous: so that neither by the Board, nor by the stockholders, nor by the General Conference delegation, nor by the whole congregation, which was largely representative of the whole denomination, was there a single opposing vote, nor dissenting voice. See General Conference Bulletin, 1901, pages 213-219.

August 11, 1903

"California Young People's Conventions" The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 32 , p. 21.

AT the session of the California Conference immediately following the General Conference last April, it was unanimously voted that there should be held a Young People's convention this year. When the time came to make arrangements for the convention, it was found that in order to reach and accommodate the most young people, it would be best to hold two conventions instead of one. Accordingly one was appointed to be held at Healdsburg, July 9-14; the other at Hanford, July 16.-21, the first to accommodate those in the northern, the second to accommodate those in the central and the southern, part of the conference.

For two years correspondence had been conducted, first in finding the young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two, and next in corresponding with them direct. In this way about five hundred and fifty names had been secured; and we knew that it would be a great advantage to have as many of them as possible together for closer acquaintance and more personal work. At Healdsburg more than two hundred of them met, and at Hanford about one hundred and fifty. Thus in the two conventions we were enabled to meet between three hundred and fifty and four hundred bright, earnest young people.

And they were in earnest too. They did not come together merely for an outing, nor to have a hilarious time; they came with minds and hearts enlisted to find their true place in the cause of God, and to know what they could, do to be most useful in the world. Hence from beginning to end, both conventions were really devotional meetings. Not a minute of time, not a particle of effort, had to be spent in keeping order, either in or out of the meetings. All the time was needed, and was busily spent in helping them to find the good things of the word and work of God, which their minds and hearts were longing to know. The result was, of course, that the meetings were only a series of rich blessings to all, that increased from meeting to meeting and from day to day, making these two conventions to be what was declared without exception the best meetings that any of us ever attended.

At Healdsburg A. T. Jones, A. S. Kellogg, M. E. Cady. W. S. Sadler, B. F. Richards, E. D. Sharpe, and Dr. Evans were present; and at Hanford the same, except Elder Richards and Dr. Evans. Meetings were held at 8:30 and 10:30 A. M., and 3 and 7:45 P. M. The first part of each convention was spent in helping the young people to become, as far as possible, acquainted with the promises of God; and the latter part in helping them to become acquainted as far as possible with the different branches of the work of God. No time was spent in organizing societies; but all the time was spent in getting the young people organized for work, and in helping them actually to enter into the work, or at least take up active preparation to enter into the work. The results were excellent. The meetings were filled with testimonies of praise, confidence, and courage; more than forty decided to enter the canvassing and periodical work–a goodly number without even going home first; and for other branches of the work, and for college, I have not the exact numbers, but many. And even better than this, they all definitely and intelligently decided that wherever they may be, they will be workers with God; and that whatever work shall fall to them to do wherever they may be, whether washing dishes or sewing, picking fruit or plowing, it shall be to them the work of God, and they will "do it heartily, as to the Lord."

It was a great encouragement to the young people to know that they are needed, and that they are wanted in the work of the church, and that a systematic and permanent effort is being made to help them to find each his place in that work. And with glad hearts they asked that another young people's convention may be held next year. And surely their request must be granted; for there is before the church of God to-day no greater work nor grander opportunity than this of helping our own young people to find their true place in the work of God. God has given to us, has given to this church, the brightest, the cleanest, and the best young people in the world. Simple recognition with a few words of counsel is all that is needed to see them by the scores and the hundreds springing to the noblest and the greatest work that ever fell to the lot of humankind–the work of the third angel's message. And what should or could be easier for the church to do than to make the simple investment of bestowing this recognition and these few words of counsel? Such investment will readily be repaid a thousand fold. And O that the investment may be promptly and universally made!

ALONZO T. JONES.

August 25, 1903

"The Educational Work in Battle Creek" The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 34 , pp. 11, 12.

THE closing of Battle Creek College and the organization of Emmanuel Missionary College at Berrien Springs, Mich., was one of the most important events which has ever occurred in connection with our denominational educational work. The wisdom of this move has been clearly vindicated in the remarkable success which has attended the work at Berrien Springs as indicated not only by the multitude of providential circumstances which have prepared the way, the location, the facilities, and have been as a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day in all the progress of the work, but by the inspiration which this work has been to a multitude of young people whereby they have been led to give their lives to the work of Christian education.

A multitude of church schools in which thousands of the children of the denomination are being taught the principles of the whole truth, and are receiving a training which will fit them to be able champions of truth when they are grown to mature years, testify to the efficiency of the work done at this new educational center. The leaders of this educational enterprise have ever taken care to hold forth continually the fact that Emmanuel Missionary College has for its sole purpose the training of missionaries. There is, perhaps, no place in the world where men and women can receive a more thorough training for ministerial and evangelical missionary work than at this school. The whole curriculum is planned with reference to these lines of Christian activity. All the energies of the teachers and pupils are concentrated upon these objects.

Emmanuel Missionary College is the exact complement in our educational work of the American Medical Missionary College, which has for its purpose the training of men and women to minister as medical missionaries.

The closing of the Battle Creek College at the time of the establishment of Emmanuel Missionary College was, of course, necessary. The buildings were sold, and were occupied by the Sanitarium and the American Medical Missionary College. All the teaching appliances and facilities were moved to Berrien Springs, and most of the teachers engaged in the work at Berrien Springs, or went elsewhere.

It was, however; found to be impossible to close entirely the educational work at Battle Creek. The Sanitarium continued its training school for missionary nurses. This of necessity remained at Battle Creek in connection with the Sanitarium. The American Medical Missionary College continued its work; the church school continued its work; thus the closing of the College created new problems which those who had in charge the various interests referred to were compelled to study carefully

For several years, the attendance at the Battle Creek College had largely consisted of young people from the Sanitarium. At one time there were in attendance at the College as many as one hundred and sixty students, who were earning both their board and their tuition by working at the Sanitarium, the tuition being paid monthly by the Sanitarium treasurer. At the time of the closing of the Battle Creek College the attendance largely consisted of these students, some of whom were pursuing the elementary studies necessary for an ordinary English education, in preparation for the Sanitarium Training School for Nurses, while others were pursuing advanced scientific and English studies, in preparation for entering the American Medical Missionary College. These students, of course, remained behind. They could not be spared from the work at the Sanitarium, where there were constantly from four hundred to seven hundred patients, according to the season of the year, requiring attention.

At the same time the Sanitarium was equally necessary for the students, as it afforded the only means whereby they could obtain an education, being compelled to pay their expenses in work while pursuing their studies. It was already necessary to make at once provisions for carrying on educational work for the benefit of these who were preparing themselves for medical missionary work, and who necessarily remained in Battle Creek.

A conference of persons representing the leading interests involved was held, and this question was carefully discussed. There were present at this conference, E. A. Sutherland, President of Emmanuel Missionary College; P. T. Magan, Dean of Emmanuel Missionary College; Elder A. T. Jones, of the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference Committee; and J. H. Kellogg.

The situation was clearly recognized, and after canvassing all the features of the problem, it was unanimously decided that the only course to be pursued was for the Sanitarium to organize and carry on an elementary school for the benefit of the students working at the Sanitarium who were preparing to. enter the missionary nurses' training class, and the American Medical Missionary College; and that a corps of teachers should be organized to take charge of the work of preparing students who must necessarily remain in Battle Creek for entering the American Medical Missionary College. Prof. E. D. Kirby was placed in charge of this work, with authority to employ teachers to assist him. This conference was held two years ago the present summer at the educational convention held at Berrien Springs.

The plans then laid have been carried out. Professor Kirby and his assistant teachers have organized and carried on classes, which have been announced by notices posted at the Sanitarium and the Review and Herald Office, without any attempt to draw students from abroad, or to do anything more than accomplish the purpose desired. Professor Kirby and his teachers have been kept very busy, having enrolled more than one hundred students during the last year. These, almost without exception, have been persons who were engaged in work at the Sanitarium, and were preparing for medical missionary work. One or two pupils have been received from the Review and Herald Office, and there have been perhaps two or three others.

The work might have continued indefinitely in this way but for certain changes made in the laws of various grades, with reference to the educational qualifications necessary for entering a medical college. Medical colleges differ from denominational schools in the fact that they are required by law to meet certain standards both as regards the medical instruction given and as regards the educational qualifications required for entrance upon medical study. Diplomas from schools which do not recognize these standards, and which do not conform to them strictly, are worthless in most States of the Union, and are of no account whatever in any foreign country. A medical diploma secures to the possessor various legal advantages, legal protection of various sorts, and certain important immunities which are essential in medical work, whether of an ordinary professional character, or of the sort termed medical missionary work, and hence legal diplomas are essential.

The Board of Trustees of the American Medical Missionary College have within the last year repeatedly been compelled to face very serious problems as the result of the passage of new laws advancing grades, or otherwise changing the standard of educational qualifications required at the entrance examination. One of the new regulations renders it impossible for the medical faculty to examine students with reference to their entrance qualifications, making it necessary that certificates should be presented by students from some legally qualified educational body. This educational institution must be recognized by the Board of Regents, and the State Medical Examining Boards.

Very earnest efforts were made to make arrangements with the Battle Creek city high school for giving such certificates but after months of effort, and not withstanding much good will and Courtesy shown by the city Board of Education and the Superintendent of Education, it was found impossible to accomplish this because of legal technicalities which could not be overcome. There was no way left but to provide a legal educational body which could be recognized by the authorities.

The possibility of such a contingency was fully discussed at the conference already referred to, at which the persons named above were present, and it was agreed that this should be done. In fact,

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it was at the time expected that it would be done; but the desire to avoid any appearance of reopening a work that had been closed, or the organization of educational work to be conducted in opposition to the Emmanuel Missionary College, led those most concerned in the matter to seek to solve the difficulty by every other possible means before resorting to the plan last referred to, namely, the organization of a regular educational institution, legally qualified to grant certificates and degrees.

After most earnestly studying this problem for nearly two years, and waiting as long as it was possible to wait because of the necessity of conforming to the newly enacted laws, a meeting of the old Board of Trustees of the Battle Creek College was called. The matter was presented and fully discussed, and it was decided that the best solution of the difficulty was to ultilize the charter and the name of the Battle Creek College for this purpose. The life of the corporation had not yet expired, the society and the Board of Trustees were still in existence, having never been legally dissolved, and there was no legal objection in the way, and consequently it seemed the best and simplest solution of the difficulty. Action was accordingly taken for the accomplishment of this, purpose, and a committee was appointed to organize a faculty to take charge of the administration of the work, with a clear understanding which was placed on record by a resolution passed in committee that the object of the work should be simply to carry out the purposes which have been clearly stated above; in other words, to do the educational work necessary to be done for the preparation of students desiring to enter the American Medical Missionary College or the Sanitarium Training School for Nurses, and who are necessarily resident in Battle Creek because of their connection with the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

The faculty have been instructed to adhere strictly to this purpose. No person except those preparing for medical missionary work can obtain entrance to the school without special action of the Board of Trustees, and exception will be made only in cases in which an exception is justly and reasonably demanded.

From the preceding it will appear that the announcement of the opening of Battle Creek College does not mean the restoration, or reopening, of anything which has been closed. It does not mean the reorganization in Battle Creek of the educational work which was moved to Berrien Springs. The reopening is such only in a technical and legal sense, and the announcement was made for technical and legal purposes. No new educational work will be begun next fall, or at any other time, in consequence of the announcement which has been made. The educational work which will be done is simply the continuance of that which has been carried on ever since the Battle Creek College was announced to be closed, and since the opening of the work at Berrien Springs. The only difference will be that the work which has heretofore been done in private classes and by tutors who are not legally qualified to give certificates which could be recognized by boards of regents and medical examining boards will now be done by the same persons in the same way, but acting in the capacity of a legally constituted faculty who have the power to grant certificates and to confer degrees.

And so there is no occasion that any one should take alarm, or to suppose that there is any lack of faith on the part of anybody, or that any new or unexpected thing is being done. The thing which is being done is a thing which was unanimously agreed upon by all interested as a thing that should be done and must be done. The only thing that is perhaps unexpected to some is in the use of the name of the Battle Creek College, but it was necessary to use some name, and this name seemed most convenient for the purpose, and the most suitable, and could be used with the least expense and trouble for the reason that Battle Creek College is already listed among the recognized schools whose certificates are received by the legal bodies whose standards must be recognized.

The work of the Battle Creek College will be to give to medical missionaries the general educational qualifications necessary to fit them for the special training they receive in the Sanitarium Missionary Nurses' Training School and the American Medical Missionary College. This is the special field of this school. Those who desire a general education for other purposes, whether in connection with the cause or otherwise, should avail themselves of the educational advantages of our various denominational schools, all of which afford excellent opportunities for a general education.

The school at Battle Creek will be conducted in perfect harmony with the school at Berrien Springs. The President of Emmanuel Missionary College is a member of the Board o.f Administration of the Battle Creek College, and will take care to see that no steps are taken which could be detrimental to the interests of Emmanuel Missionary College. Certainly there is no member of the Board of Management who would willingly be connected with any such opposing movement.

The whole purpose of this arrangement is to afford encouragement and needed assistance to young men and women who desire to devote their lives to the service of the Master in their efforts to obtain an education and training for the purpose. Certainly such an effort should be recognized by all as beneficent and generous in its purpose and in the interests of the cause of God and to humanity in its operation.

Any who desire further information concerning educational opportunities at Battle Creek should address Prof. E. D. Kirby, Secretary Battle Creek College, Battle Creek, Mich.

(Signed) ALONZO T. JONES, E. A. SUTHERLAND, P. T. MAGAN, E. D. KIRBY, J. H. KELLOGG.

October 29, 1903

"To the Seventh Day Adventist Denomination" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 80, 43 , p. 3.

A Statement Relative to the Battle Creek College Property and the Missionary Acre Fund

DURING the past few weeks we have received many letters from our brethren and sisters, inquiring about the Battle Creek College property, the uses to which it is being put and is to be put, and the manner in which the Missionary Acre Fund is being used. As these inquiries spring, in large part, from a misunderstanding of the facts, we will endeavor to make as clear and concise a statement of the situation as is possible–to the end, and with the prayer (in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ), that we may all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among us, but that we be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

The Ownership of the Battle Creek College Property

The Battle Creek College property was owned, until the fall of the year 1901, by a corporation, formed about the year 1874, and known as the Seventh-day Adventist Educational Society.

This society was the legal body owning and operating Battle Creek College. In the course of time its financial affairs became involved. It was in debt to the amount of about eighty-four thousand dollars. For various reasons which need not be set forth here, it became necessary to reorganize this old corporation.

The Spirit of God approved, of the effort to remove the college from Battle Creek, and Testimonies to that effect were received by those concerned. A mortgage was placed upon the entire property for the benefit of the creditors, and for the purposes of reorganization, and in October, 1901, the entire property was sold at public auction, by order of the court, and was bought in by the association which now holds it. This corporation is known as the–

International Medical Missionary Training School Association

The membership of this concern consists of the General Conference Committee of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, the Lake Union Conference Committee, the Board of Trustees of the Review and Herald Publishing Association, the Board of Trustees of the Michigan Sanitarium and Benevolent Association, the Board of Trustees of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, and the Board of Trustees of the Emmanuel Missionary College of Berrien Springs, Mich.

The membership of this corporation was formed of these committees and boards, not by accident, but of design, and for a definite purpose. These bodies have in their membership a larger number of responsible and leading Seventh-day Adventist brethren than could probably be found associated together in any one corporation. In thus forming this corporation, we felt that we were making the Battle Creek College property as secure to the denomination as any human piece of machinery or human device could make it; for it would hardly be possible to form a corporation that would be more truly denominational than is this One. We felt that, humanly speaking, it could scarcely be within the realm of human possibility for the majority of the members of the different boards and committees already mentioned, and which formed the constituency of this corporation, to apostatize from the faith, and take away this property from our people.

The corporation is so organized that these various boards meet once in two years and elect six persons to act as trustees of the Battle Creek College property, to care for the business and pay off the debts. The present trustees are Alonzo T. Jones, Chairman; W. H. Edwards, Secretary; S. H. Lane, Treasurer; P. T. Magan, Assistant Treasurer; I. H. Evans, J. H. Kellogg.

This corporation was designed to be intermediary in its nature. It was to hold the property, raise the money with which to pay off the debts, and ultimately to turn the property over to the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, for the American Medical Missionary College, to be used for the training of medical missionary workers of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.

The old Battle Creek College was formerly patronized not merely from all over the United States, but from other parts of the world. In the course of time other large schools sprang up, and during the latter days of its history the Battle Creek College became, in the very nature of things, to a greater or less extent, a local institution. But the debt was one for which the denomination throughout the entire country was responsible. It could never justly be made to rest upon any one district or territory. Knowing this, and in view of the fact

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that it had already been decided that this debt should be paid off by the Missionary Acre Fund,–a fund which is gathered from all over the country,–we felt that it would be absolutely necessary to secure the harmonious co-operation of our leading brethren throughout the land in every possible way, and to put the property in such condition that the large amount of money owing to our people upon it would be absolutely safe. And we knew no better way to do this than to form a corporation to hold the property, composed of our leading denominational committees and boards.

All of this was done, with a sincere desire to carry out the instruction of Sister White that the Battle Creek College should be moved out of Battle Creek, and that the property should be disposed of for the benefit of the American Medical Missionary College, in the best manner, and on the best terms possible.

The Contract with the American Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association

In the REVIEW AND HERALD of May 26 of this year there was published an elaborate statement relative to this property, its ownership,, etc., a copy of which statement can be had, on application, from P. T. Magan, of Berrien Springs, Mich. On the first day of May of this year, the whole matter was considered by the General Conference Committee. The meeting was well attended, and the following basis of agreement, presented jointly by the Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association and the International Medical Missionary Training School Association, was unanimously voted:–

"1. That the title to the property of the Battle Creek College remain in the International Medical Missionary Training School Association until all the obligations now standing against the association shall have been liquidated.

"2. That the creditors of the International Medical Missionary Training School Association who have not as yet received promissory notes covering the amounts due them, shall receive the same immediately; that the Review and Herald Publishing Association shall receive an interest-bearing note for the amount due said association, payable Jan. 1, 1904, and that the Seventh-day Adventist Central Educational Association shall receive a note or notes for the amount of equity due said company, said note or notes, however, to be non-interest bearing.

"3. That the International Medical Missionary Training School Association shall proceed immediately to give to the International. Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association a written instrument of contract and lease for the Battle Creek College property, the lease to be for the term of twenty-eight years, or, if so desired, until the property has been paid for as herein stipulated.

"4. That the Benevolent Association shall raise a sum sufficient to pay the purchase price of the property by means of the Missionary Acre Fund, and by other plans to be devised in the future.

"5. The Benevolent Association is to pay all taxes, assessments, and expense of repairs to keep the buildings in a reasonably good condition.

"6. That the Benevolent Association is to pay to the Training School Association an amount equal to the interest which the Training School has to pay, as stipulated in the contract.

"7. That the Benevolent Association /insure the property for forty thousand dollars, said insurance to be made payable to the Training School as its interest may appear.

"8. When the Benevolent Association has paid for the property, it shall receive a deed in fee simple for the property, to be used for the American Medical Missionary College, and the training of medical missionary workers, and its other purposes.

"9. In case of fire loss, such a reduction shall be made in the purchase price as shall relieve the Benevolent Association from loss after taking the insurance into account, the said reduction to be borne by the unpaid equity."

These articles of agreement, so far as we are aware, have been honestly and faithfully carried out by all the parties concerned.

The Purpose for Which the Property is Now Being Used

The International Medical Missionary Training School Association, in accordance with Article 3 of the preceding provisions, immediately gave to the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association a written instrument of contract and lease of the Battle Creek College property, and in doing this we acted strictly in accordance with what had been voted by the General Conference Committee.

The Benevolent Association sublets the property, in large part, to the Sanitarium, which, on account of the impoverished condition of the association, is endeavoring to carry the burden of the American Medical Missionary College. In truth, if it were not for the help which the Benevolent Association receives from the Sanitarium in the use of the buildings, it would be utterly impossible for it to pay the rent.

According to Article 8 of the agreement voted by the General Conference Committee at the meeting of May 1, 1903, the property was to be "used for the American Medical Missionary College, and the training of medical missionary workers, and its [the Benevolent Association's] other purposes."

Now the buildings are being used as follows; for the class rooms and laboratories of the American Medical Missionary College; as dormitories for patients and helpers; as part of the offices of the Sanitarium; as editorial rooms for The Medical Missionary magazine; as class rooms for nurses and medical students who are employed in the Sanitarium, and who need to make up preparatory work; as class rooms for the Battle Creek church school until other accommodations can be provided.

From this it will be seen that the buildings are used for many and varied purposes. It has been absolutely necessary to do this in order to keep them all rented, and to get sufficient money to pay the interest, taxes, and insurance. Were the buildings used only for the American Medical Missionary College, they would not at present be nearly all occupied. The Medical College has no funds of its own with which to meet the interest, taxes, and insurance; therefore, the present owners were exceedingly glad to have the buildings occupied as they are, in order that a sufficient amount of money might be forth- coming with which to meet the fixed charges on the estate. We thought, that this would be a better, way to do than to call upon the people to donate money with which to pay the running expenses of the property.

The Ultimate Ownership of the Battle Creek College Property

The ultimate ownership of this property, according to the provisions agreed to in the meeting with the General Conference Committee, will be vested in the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, for the Medical Missionary College. But this will not be until the large debt now resting upon the institution is entirely wiped out, and every creditor thoroughly satisfied. The present ownership is absolutely denominational, and when all these debts shalt have been paid, and the property cleared for the purposes agreed upon, it is impossible to believe that an organization as fully denominational as the one now holding it would ever turn it over for perpetual ownership to any organization not as truly denominational as is, the present one itself. That the Seventh-day Adventist people shall own and control fully and freely and without let or hindrance that for which they are requested to–and that for which they do–donate their money, is most manifestly a righteous proposition, and one for the maintenance of which the undersigned have always stood, for which they stand to-day, and for which they trust they may ever stand in this as well as in all other similar cases. And for these reasons it is clearly understood by the undersigned that when the property is transferred by the International Medical Missionary Training School Association, it shall be in such a way as to make the ownership secure to the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.

The Missionary Acre Fund

The present trustees depend upon the Missionary Acre Fund as their main source of income with which to pay off the debts upon this property. These debts were made when this property was a denominational literary college, and many of them were made when it was the chief literary college of the denomination, and therefore the payment of them rests upon the people throughout the whole country.

Lately a number of persons have stated that they could not conscientiously give their money to the Missionary Acre Fund, as they understood that the property is not to be used for the American Medical Missionary College. We wish to state as plainly as it is possible to state a thing in human language this property is ultimately to be used entirely (if its purposes should require such a large amount of space) for the American Medical Missionary College; that the present trustees are sacredly bound by written instructions, as well as by their honor, to turn the property over to the Benevolent Association for this purpose. We do not believe that there is a man on the present Board of Trustees of the intermediary corporation who has any thought in his mind of turning the property over to any other body or corporation than to the one already mentioned, or for purposes other than those above set forth and specified. We can not do otherwise morally or legally. We have no disposition to do otherwise if we could.

It is the prayer of those who sign this article that the Testimony which will appear in the next number of the

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REVIEW from the pen of Sister White relative to the Battle Creek College debt will forever set at rest all questionings as to the propriety of donating to the Missionary Acre Fund, and that the same earnest purpose to carry out the mind of God may be manifested in a liberal support of the Acre Fund as in all other denominationally approved enterprises and undertakings.

Signed in behalf of the Trustees of the International Medical Missionary Training School Association.

ALONZO T. JONES.

JOHN H. KELLOGG, PERCY T. MAGAN.

The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 81 (1904)

August 11, 1904

"LaGrave" The Advent Review And Sabbath Herald 81, 32 , p. 23.

LAGRAVE.–Died at College Place, Wash., June 13, 1904, of heart-disease, Denis LaGrave, aged 61 years and 15 days. Brother LaGrave was born at Mycenae, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. He moved to Washington Territory in 1872, and settled near Dayton, where in the same year, he married Miss Mary Palmer, and where he continued to live until the establishment of Walla Walla College at College Place. In the summer of 1875, Elder I. D. Vary-Horn held a tent-meeting at Dayton, during which Brother LaGrave, his wife, mother, acd sister embraced the truths of the third angel's message, in which they all rejoiced as long as they lived, Sister Mary LaGrave being the only one now remaining. She and her three children are left to mourn the loss of a devoted husband and loving father; but they do not mourn as those who have no hope. The funeral services were conducted by the writer, who had been intimately acquainted with the family for nearly twenty-nine years, and who happened to be passing through College Place just at the time.

ALONZO T. JONES.

September 1, 1904

"The Missionary Acre Fund" The Advent Review And Sabbath Herald 81, 35 , p. 5.

BY the regular monthly reading in the churches for the month of April last, the call was made for all to take part in contributing to the Missionary Acre Fund by setting apart a portion of ground or orchard or vineyard, the whole proceeds from which should be devoted to that fund. As it is now in the midst of harvest time, we call the attention of all to this matter.

The proceeds of the Missionary Acre Fund have been devoted especially to the paying off of the debts of the old Battle Creek College property. About sixteen thousand dollars of this debt is due to the Review and Herald Association in Washington. About twice this amount is due to individuals of our own people, who loaned their money to the college when it was in need.

That which is due to the Review and Herald is now greatly needed in establishing the work in Washington. Many of the individuals to whom money is due from the college debt now desire to have their money, that they may help establish the work in Washington. Others desire to have their money because they personally need it very much.

The Training School Association was organized as an intermediary corporation, solely for the purpose of raising the money and paying off these debts on the college property, and of transferring the property to the designated corporation for the designated purpose. This association has no enterprise of its own; it has rightly no will of its own; it is confined to the one matter of raising the money and paying off these debts and transferring the property. The Acre Fund was assigned to this association as its principle resource and indeed its only regular source–of income for the purpose for which the association exists. We want to pay all. But we simply can not possibly pay any, without money; and the Acre Fund is practically our only source of means.

Donations to the Acre Fund can not really interfere with donations to any other enterprise; because practically the Acre Fund is the proceeds of a certain portion of ground or orchard or vineyard that is set apart for that purpose; and after the portion of ground or orchard or vineyard is so set apart, the amount which shall be given is decided solely by what that portion produces, whether it be little or much; and even only a little from each one of our people, devoted for this fund will be all-sufficient to effect in a short time the purpose which the Training School Association was organized to accomplish. Indeed, in the matter of the sixteen thousand dollars due the Review and Herald, and much that is due to individuals, it is the truth that every dollar paid to the Training School Association pays double; each dollar counts the same as two dollars; for it pays those debts, and at the same time helps the work in Washington. And we can fully assure all people that the officers of the Training School Board could take no more pleasure in anything than in putting into the hands of our brethren in Washington that sixteen thousand dollars; and in paying to the individuals what is due to them so that they can put the money into the hands of the brethren in Washington.

Therefore, the officers of the Training School Board earnestly request that all our people will remember the Acre Fund, throughout the harvest time of the abundant crops that the Lord has so graciously given this year. Please send in promptly the proceeds of the portion of field, orchard, vineyard, or garden that you have or will set apart, that it may be passed on to the cause and the persons that so much need it. We believe that it is safe to say that if the debt of the college property were all to be paid now, the greater part of all the money would go directly into the hands of the brethren of Washington to aid in establishing the work there.

All money to the Acre Fund and all other money to help pay the debts on the college property should be sent to the Treasurer of the Training School Association, 267 West Main St., Battle Creek, Mich.

ALONZO T. JONES, President of Training School Board.

September 8, 1904

"The Missionary Acre Fund" The Advent Review And Sabbath Herald 81, 36 , pp. 22, 23.

BY the regular monthly reading in the churches for the month of April last, the call was made for all to take part in contributing to the Missionary Acre Fund by setting apart a portion of ground or orchard or vineyard, the whole proceeds from which should be devoted to that fund. As it is now in the midst of harvest time, we call the attention of all to this matter.

The proceeds of the Missionary Acre Fund have been devoted especially to the paying off of the debts of the old Battle Creek College property. About sixteen thousand dollars of this debt is due to the Review and Herald Association in Washington. About twice this amount is due to individuals of our own people, who loaned their money to the college when it was in need.

That which is due to the Review and Herald is now greatly needed in establishing the work in Washington. Many of the individuals to whom money is due from the college debt now desire to have their money, that they may help establish the work in Washington. Others desire to have their money because they personally need it very much.

The Training School Association was organized as an intermediary corporation, solely for the purpose of raising the money and paying off these debts on the college property, and of transferring the property to the designated corporation for the designated purpose. This association has no enterprise of its own; it has rightly no will of its own; it is confined to the one matter of raising the money and paying off these debts and transferring the property. The Acre Fund was assigned to this association as its principle resource and indeed its only regular source–of income for the purpose for which the association exists. We want to pay all. But we simply can not possibly pay any, without money; and the Acre Fund is practically our only source of means.

Donations to the Acre Fund can not really interfere with donations to any other enterprise; because practically the Acre Fund is

23

the proceeds of a certain portion of ground or orchard or vineyard that is set apart for that purpose; and after the portion of ground or orchard or vineyard is so set apart, the amount which shall be given is decided solely by what that portion produces, whether it be little or much; and even only a little from each one of our people, devoted for this fund will be all-sufficient to effect in a short time the purpose which the Training School Association was organized to accomplish. Indeed, in the matter of the sixteen thousand dollars due the Review and Herald, and much that is due to individuals, it is the truth that every dollar paid to the Training School Association pays double; each dollar counts the same as two dollars; for it pays those debts, and at the same time helps the work in Washington. And we can fully assure all people that the officers of the Training School Board could take no more pleasure in anything than in putting into the hands of our brethren in Washington that sixteen thousand dollars; and in paying to the individuals what is due to them so that they can put the money into the hands of the brethren in Washington.

Therefore, the officers of the Training School Board earnestly request that all our people will remember the Acre Fund, throughout the harvest time of the abundant crops that the Lord has so graciously given this year. Please send in promptly the proceeds of the portion of field, orchard, vineyard, or garden that you have or will set apart, that it may be passed on to the cause and the persons that so much need it. We believe that it is safe to say that if the debt of the college property were all to be paid now, the greater part of all the money would go directly into the hands of the brethren of Washington to aid in establishing the work there.

All money to the Acre Fund and all other money to help pay the debts on the college property should be sent to the Treasurer of the Training School Association, 267 West Main St., Battle Creek, Mich.

ALONZO T. JONES, President of Training School Board.

September 15, 1904

"The Missionary Acre Fund" The Advent Review And Sabbath Herald 81, 37 , pp. 22, 23.

BY the regular monthly reading in the churches for the month of April last, the call was made for all to take part in contributing to the Missionary Acre Fund by setting apart a portion of ground or orchard or vineyard, the whole proceeds from which should be devoted to that fund. As it is now in the midst of harvest time, we call the attention of all to this matter.

The proceeds of the Missionary Acre Fund have been devoted especially to the paying off of the debts of the old Battle Creek College property. About sixteen thousand dollars of this debt is due to the Review and Herald Association in Washington. About twice this amount is due to individuals of our own people, who loaned their money to the college when it was in need.

That which is due to the Review and Herald is now greatly needed in establishing the work in Washington. Many of the individuals to whom money is due from the college debt now desire to have their money, that

23

they may help establish the work in Washington. Others desire to have their money because they personally need it very much.

The Training School Association was organized as an intermediary corporation, solely for the purpose of raising the money and paying off these debts on the college property, and of transferring the property to the designated corporation for the designated purpose. This association has no enterprise of its own; it has rightly no will of its own; it is confined to the one matter of raising the money and paying off these debts and transferring the property. The Acre Fund was assigned to this association as its principle resource and indeed its only regular source–of income for the purpose for which the association exists. We want to pay all. But we simply can not possibly pay any, without money; and the Acre Fund is practically our only source of means.

Donations to the Acre Fund can not really interfere with donations to any other enterprise; because practically the Acre Fund is

23

the proceeds of a certain portion of ground or orchard or vineyard that is set apart for that purpose; and after the portion of ground or orchard or vineyard is so set apart, the amount which shall be given is decided solely by what that portion produces, whether it be little or much; and even only a little from each one of our people, devoted for this fund will be all-sufficient to effect in a short time the purpose which the Training School Association was organized to accomplish. Indeed, in the matter of the sixteen thousand dollars due the Review and Herald, and much that is due to individuals, it is the truth that every dollar paid to the Training School Association pays double; each dollar counts the same as two dollars; for it pays those debts, and at the same time helps the work in Washington. And we can fully assure all people that the officers of the Training School Board could take no more pleasure in anything than in putting into the hands of our brethren in Washington that sixteen thousand dollars; and in paying to the individuals what is due to them so that they can put the money into the hands of the brethren in Washington.

Therefore, the officers of the Training School Board earnestly request that all our people will remember the Acre Fund, throughout the harvest time of the abundant crops that the Lord has so graciously given this year. Please send in promptly the proceeds of the portion of field, orchard, vineyard, or garden that you have or will set apart, that it may be passed on to the cause and the persons that so much need it. We believe that it is safe to say that if the debt of the college property were all to be paid now, the greater part of all the money would go directly into the hands of the brethren of Washington to aid in establishing the work there.

All money to the Acre Fund and all other money to help pay the debts on the college property should be sent to the Treasurer of the Training School Association, 267 West Main St., Battle Creek, Mich.

ALONZO T. JONES, President of Training School Board.

[1] Address delivered at the opening of the Medical Missionary Convention, San Francisco, Jan. 23 to Feb. 3, 1902.

[2] A talk by Elder A. T. Jones, Chicago, Ill., March 28, 1902.

[3] From a talk by A. T. Jones, at the recent session of the Lake Union Conference.

[4] From a talk by A. T. Jones, at the recent session of the Lake Union Conference.

[5] From a talk by A. T. Jones, at the recent session of the Lake Union Conference.

[6] From a talk by A. T. Jones, at the recent session of the Lake Union Conference.

[7] From a talk by A. T. Jones, at the recent session of the Lake Union Conference.

[8] From a talk by A. T. Jones at Chicago, Saturday evening, March 29, 1902.

[9] From a talk by A. T. Jones at Chicago, Saturday evening, March 29, 1902.

[10] From here onward the minutes of the meeting are adopted.