Creek, building shall be piled upon building and advantage heaped
upon advantage. The means thus expended will testify against us.
You should put wise plans into operation and scatter the influence
that is centering in Battle Creek, diffusing the light that God has
given you. Blessed are they that sow beside all waters. The more
there is invested in Battle Creek, the greater will be the demand
for additional investment; but this is not in the order of God, and
before a very long period of time shall pass, the mistake of centering
interests in Battle Creek will be made evident.
In adding building to building in Battle Creek, we are encouraging
neglect of other fields. Superabundant advantages there mean
destitution elsewhere. Other parts of the vineyard are robbed of the
means they should have. Means should be invested elsewhere in
winning souls to the truth and in providing houses of worship for
them.
God has pointed out the fact that it is the duty of those in Battle
Creek to help His institutions in other places. As a wise steward
of means you should scatter your forces, using the power of your
influence to help those in darkness to know God as He is. [147]
The Need of Broader Plans
How many towns and cities there are that are utterly neglected.
Our people are injuring themselves by crowding into one place.
When trees in a nursery are crowded thickly together, they cannot
grow healthfully and sturdily. Transplant trees from your thickly
planted nursery. God is not glorified in the centering of so many
advantages in one place. Give room; put your plants in many places,
144 Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
where one will not lean for support upon another. Give them room
to grow. This the Lord demands of you.
The means expended in enlarging your advantages in Battle
Creek, which are already overgrown and have passed reasonable
limits, should be used in establishing missionary stations elsewhere.
You should broaden your plans and widen the field of your operations.
You should send wise men into the cities and towns that have
not yet heard the gospel message. Pick out the best men you can
possibly spare, and give them opportunity to become caretakers and
burden bearers. Let them have opportunity to develop the talents
that in the past have lain idle. Place them where they can use their
God-given abilities in calling sinners to repentance. Let men who
make it manifest that they love God have a chance to do something
for Him.
Let men learn to pray earnestly, and let them make their prayers
short and right to the point. Let them learn to speak of the world’s
Redeemer and to lift up the Man of Calvary higher and still higher.
All the preaching in the world will not make men feel deeply the
need of the perishing souls around them. Nothing will so arouse in
men and women a self-sacrificing zeal as to send them forth into new
fields to work for those in darkness. Prepare workers to go out into
[148] the highways and hedges. Do not call men and women to the great
center, encouraging them to leave churches that need their aid. Men
must learn to bear responsibilities. Not one in a hundred among us
is doing anything beyond engaging in common, worldly enterprises.
We are not half awake to the worth of the souls for whom Christ
died.
We need wise nurserymen, who will transplant trees to different
localities and give them advantages that will enable them to grow. It
is the positive duty of God’s people to go into the regions beyond.
Let forces be set at work to clear new ground, to establish new centers
of influence wherever an opening can be found. Rally workers who
possess true missionary zeal, and let them go forth to diffuse light
and knowledge far and near. Let them take the living principles
of health reform into the communities that to a large degree are
ignorant of these principles. Let classes be formed, and instruction
be given regarding the treatment of disease.
Go Forth Into Many Places 145
It is a fact that through the influence of the sanitarium the truth of
heaven has come to the notice of thousands. Yet there is a work to be
done that has been neglected. Money has been expended in enlarging
facilities in Battle Creek, when the Lord desires the leaven to be
introduced into the mass of meal, that the whole may be leavened.
Instead of building after building being added to the sanitarium,
there should be at this time many institutions fully equipped and in
working order in other places.
There are men who have been long connected with the sanitarium
who will always be shadows of someone else, if they are retained
there, when, if they were permitted to rely upon their own judgment,
they would become deep, self-reliant thinkers, capable of giving wise
counsel. Let these men have a chance to learn to bear responsibilities
in the strength of God. Thus they will gain an experience that will
enable them to impart the truth to others. [149]
But instead of men being sent from Battle Creek, as God has
directed in the pointed testimonies that have been given, thousands of
dollars have been devoted to enlarging the institutions and increasing
the facilities in Battle Creek. And the call comes from Battle Creek
for more conveniences and more workers. But there must be a
change.
We are encouraged as we see the work that is being done in
Chicago and a few other places. Years ago the large responsibilities
centering in Battle Creek should have been distributed. You may
look with satisfaction at the widespreading growth of the sanitarium
at Battle Creek, but God does not look upon it with the same approval
that you do. If institutions had been built up in other places,
if men had been given responsibilities to bear, there would have
been far more strength, far more efficiency in our work, and we
should have moved more nearly in accordance with the mind and
will of God than we have. As it is, a few men are carrying heavy
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responsibilities. A few wield an influence that has a controlling
power in the management of the work far and near, while there
