The Sign of Our Relationship to God
By the observance of the Sabbath the children of Israel were to be distinguished from all other nations. “Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep,” Christ said, “for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” “It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed.” “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.” Exodus 31:13, 17, 16.
The Sabbath is a sign of the relationship existing between God and His people, a sign that they are His obedient subjects, that they keep holy His law. The observance of the Sabbath is the means ordained by God of preserving a knowledge of Himself and of distinguishing between His loyal subjects and the transgressors of His law. This is the faith once delivered to the saints, who stand in moral power before the world, firmly maintaining this faith.
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Opposition we shall have as we voice the message of the third angel. Satan will bring in every possible device to make of no effect the faith once delivered to the saints. “Many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” 2 Peter 2:2, 3. But in spite of opposition, all are to hear the words of truth.
The law of God is the foundation of all enduring reformation. We are to present to the world in clear, distinct lines the need of obeying this law. Obedience to God’s law is the greatest incentive to industry, economy, truthfulness, and just dealing between man and man.
The law of God is to be the means of education in the family. Parents are under a most solemn obligation to obey this law, setting their children an example of the strictest integrity. Men in responsible positions, whose influence is far-reaching, are to guard well their ways and works, keeping the fear of the Lord ever before them. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Psalm 111:10. Those who hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord and cheerfully keep His commandments will be among the number who see God. “The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He hath commanded us.” Deuteronomy 6:24, 25.
Our work as believers in the truth is to present before the world the immutability of the law of God. Ministers and teachers, physicians and nurses, are bound by covenant with God to present the importance of obeying His law. We are to be distinguished as a people who keep the commandments. The Lord has stated explicitly that He has a work to be done for the world. How shall it be done? Let us seek to find the best way and then perform the will of the Lord.
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This world is a training school for the higher school, this life a preparation for the life to come. Here we are to be prepared for entrance into the heavenly courts. Here we are to receive and believe and practice the truth until we are made ready for a home with the saints in light.
Our sanitariums are to be established for one object—the proclamation of the truth for this time. And they are to be so conducted that a decided impression in favor of the truth will be made on the minds of those who come to them for treatment. The conduct of each worker is to tell on the side of right. We have a warning message to bear to the world, and our earnestness, our devotion to God’s service, are to bear witness to the truth.
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Chapter 33—A Broader View
St. Helena, California,
October 30, 1903
To Medical Missionaries:
Christ, the great Medical Missionary, came to our world as the ideal of all truth. Truth never languished on His lips, never suffered in His hands. Words of truth fell from His lips with the freshness and power of a new revelation. He unfolded the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, bringing forth jewel after jewel of truth.
Christ spoke with authority. Every truth essential for the people to know He proclaimed with the unfaltering assurance of certain knowledge. He uttered nothing fanciful or sentimental. He presented no sophistries, no human opinions. No idle tales, no false theories clothed in beautiful language, came from His lips. The statements that He made were truths established by personal knowledge. He foresaw the delusive doctrines that would fill the world, but He did not unfold them. In His teachings He dwelt upon the unchangeable principles of God’s word. He magnified the simple, practical truths that the common people could understand and bring into the daily experience.
Christ might have opened to men the deepest truths of science. He might have unlocked mysteries that have required centuries of toil and study to penetrate. He might have made suggestions in scientific lines that would have afforded food for thought and stimulus for invention to the close of time. But He did not do this. He said nothing to gratify curiosity or to satisfy man’s ambitions by opening doors to worldly greatness. In all His teaching, Christ brought the minds of men in contact with the Infinite Mind. He did not direct the people to study men’s theories about God, His word, or His works. He taught them to behold God as manifested in His works, in His word, and by His providences.
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Christ’s Victory Over Unbelief
While upon this earth, the Son of God was the Son of man; yet there were times when His divinity flashed forth. Thus it was when He said to the paralytic: “Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” Matthew 9:2.
“But there were certain of the scribes sitting there,” who “began to reason,” not openly, “but in their hearts, “saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” Mark 2:6; Luke 5:21.
“And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith He to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.” Matthew 9:4-6.
The great Medical Missionary took away the sins of the paralytic and then presented him to God as pardoned. And He gave him also physical healing. God had given His Son power to lay hold of the eternal throne. While Christ stood forth in His own personality, He reflected the luster of the position of honor that He had held within the enriching light of the eternal throne.
On another occasion Christ made the request: “Father, glorify Thy name.” And in answer there came “a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” John 12:28.
If this voice did not move the impenitent, if the power that Christ manifested in His mighty miracles did not cause the Jews to believe, we should not be greatly surprised to find that men and women today are in danger, through continual association with those who are incredulous, of manifesting the same unbelief that the Jews manifested, and of developing the same perverted understanding.
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I am made unutterably sad as I consider what has been opened before me regarding the condition of things at Battle Creek and other centers of our work, where great light has been shining. In the past, when matters have been shown to be wrong, there has been a realization of the wrong, and this has been followed by confession, repentance, and thorough reformation. But of late there have not been faithful stewards to repress the evils that needed to be repressed. Can we, then, be surprised that there is great spiritual blindness?
Those engaged in the gospel ministry need to learn of Christ His meekness and lowliness, and to be thoroughly converted, that their lives may testify to a world dead in trespasses and sins that they have been born again. Medical missionary workers, also, need to be converted. When they are converted, their influence will be a power for good in the world. They will be willing to receive counsel and help from their brethren, because they have been sanctified through the truth. Daily they will receive rich supplies of grace from heaven to impart to others.
To every one of His appointed agencies the Lord sends the message: “Take your position at your post of duty, and then stand firm for the right.” To all I am instructed to say: “Find your place. Receive not the fanciful sentiments of men who are not taught by God. Christ is waiting to give you insight into heavenly things, waiting to quicken your spiritual pulse to renewed activity. No longer subordinate the claims of future, eternal interests to the common affairs of this life. ‘Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ Matthew 6:24. Wake up, brethren, wake up.”
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The breadth of gospel medical missionary work is not understood. The medical missionary work now called for is that outlined in the commission which Christ gave to His disciples just before His ascension. “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth,” He said. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:18-20.
These words point out our field and our work. Our field is the world; our work the proclamation of the truths which Christ came to our world to proclaim. Men and women are to have opportunity to gain a knowledge of present truth, an opportunity to know that Christ is their Saviour, that God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
A Warning Against Centralization
Christ embraced the world in His missionary work, and the Lord has shown me by revelation that it is not His plan for large centers to be made, for large institutions to be established, and for the funds of our people in all parts of the world to be exhausted in the support of a few large institutions, when the necessities of the times call for something to be done, as providence opens the way, in many places. Plants should be established in various places all over the world. First one, and then another, part of the vineyard is to be entered, until all has been cultivated. Efforts are to be put forth wherever the need is greatest. But we cannot carry on this aggressive warfare and at the same time make an extravagant outlay of means in a few places.
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The Battle Creek Sanitarium is too large. A great many workers will be required to care for the patients who come. A tenth of the number of patients who come to that institution is as many as can be cared for with the best results in one medical missionary center. Centers should be made in all the cities that are unacquainted with the great work that the Lord would have done to warn the world that the end of all things is at hand. “There is too much,” said the Great Teacher, “in one place.”
Let those who have fitted themselves to engage in medical missionary work in foreign countries go to the places that they expect to make their field of labor, and begin work right among the people, learning the language as they work. Very soon they will find that they can teach the simple truths of God’s word.
A Neglected Field Near Us
There is in this country a great, unworked field. The colored race, numbering thousands upon thousands, appeals to the consideration and sympathy of every true, practical believer in Christ. These people do not live in a foreign country, and they do not bow down to idols of wood and stone. They live among us, and again and again, through the testimonies of His Spirit, God has called our attention to them, telling us that here are human beings neglected. This broad field lies before us unworked, calling for the light that God has given us in trust.
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Chapter 34—Christ Our Example
St. Helena, California,
October 30, 1903
To Medical Missionaries:
That which is most needed by medical missionary workers is the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord. Those who labor as Christ, the great Medical Missionary, labored must be spiritually minded. But not all who are doing medical missionary work are exalting God and His truth. Not all are submitting to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Some are bringing to the foundation wood, hay, and stubble—material that will not bear the test of fire.
I pray that I may have wisdom and power from God to present to you that which constitutes gospel medical missionary work. This is a great and important branch of our denominational work. But many have lost sight of the pure, ennobling principles underlying acceptable medical missionary work.
In my diary I find the following, written one year ago: October 29, 1902. This morning I awoke early. After praying most earnestly for wisdom and clearness of mind, that I might properly express the matters urged upon my attention, I wrote out about ten pages of instruction. I know that the Lord helped me to trace on paper the important matter that should come before His people.
When writing thus, I feel intensely, but after the instruction has been recorded, relief comes to my mind; for I know then that the subject matter presented to me will not be lost, even though the subject may pass from my mind. Those only who realize that the cross is the center of hope for the human family can understand the gospel that Christ taught. He came to this world for no other purpose than to place man on vantage ground before the world and the heavenly universe. He came to bear testimony that fallen human beings, through faith in His power and efficacy as the Son of God, may become partakers of the divine nature. He alone could make atonement for sinners and open the gates of paradise to the fallen race. He took on Himself, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man, and in this world lived a life untainted by sin. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” John 1:14, 12.
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By His life and death Christ taught that only in obedience to God’s commandments can man find safety and true greatness. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Psalm 19:7. God’s law is a transcript of His character. It was given to man in the beginning as the standard of obedience. In succeeding ages this law was lost sight of. Hundreds of years after the Flood Abraham was called, and to him was given the promise that his descendants should exalt God’s law. In course of time the Israelites went into Egypt, where for many years they suffered grievous oppression at the hands of the Egyptians. After they had been in slavery for nearly four hundred years, God delivered them by a wonderful manifestation of His power. He revealed Himself to the Egyptians as the Ruler of the universe, One greater than all heathen deities.
At Sinai the law was given a second time. In awful grandeur the Lord spoke His precepts and with His own finger engraved the Decalogue upon tables of stone.
Passing down through the centuries, we find that there came a time when God’s law must once more be unmistakably revealed as the standard of obedience. Christ came to vindicate the sacred claims of the law. He came to live a life of obedience to its requirements and thus prove the falsity of the charge made by Satan that it is impossible for man to keep the law of God. As a man He met temptation and overcame in the strength given Him from God. As He went about doing good, healing all who were afflicted by Satan, He made plain to men the character of God’s law and the nature of His service. His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God.
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Never did Christ deviate from loyalty to the principles of God’s law. Never did He do anything contrary to the will of His Father. Before angels, men, and demons He could speak words that from any other lips would have been blasphemy: “I do always those things that please Him.” John 8:29. Day by day for three years His enemies followed Him, trying to find some stain in His character. Satan, with all his confederacy of evil, sought to overcome Him; but they found nothing in Him by which to gain advantage. Even the devils were forced to confess: “Thou art the Holy One of God.”
Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 8 pp. 199-208
