Maxson, Brother and Sister
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, Australia
November 5, 1896
Previously unpublished.
Dear Brother and Sister Maxson:
I have written you largely, although it is but a small portion of that which I have been waiting and working upon. The Lord will work with you if you will open your heart and mind to be worked. But in some respects you are certainly keeping yourselves in the mist and in the fog. The Lord calls for you. “Go forward” and upward. You have a work to do for your own individual selves. Neglect it not. 11LtMs, Lt 69a, 1896, par. 1
My brother, if you had not tried to do the things you are not qualified to do, if you had felt the necessity of having a sound, level, all-sided man as superintendent, had you fallen into the line where you ought to have been, there would now be an entirely different showing. I have [had] but one testimony to bear to you from the first; you are not a man who can manage large interests as a superintendent. You have felt yourself to be everything that the sanitarium required, but you have never estimated yourself correctly. When you have far more humble views of yourself, you will, through the grace given you of God, have restfulness in Him. May the Lord help you to understand, is my prayer. 11LtMs, Lt 69a, 1896, par. 2
The managing and controlling of the Health Retreat is not your work. When you see this, you will have gained a rich experience, and the Lord God will be glorified. 11LtMs, Lt 69a, 1896, par. 3
Do not set this on one side. Do not, I entreat of you, say that this is Sister White’s opinion. The Lord is in earnest with us. Both of you can do a good work if you will co-operate with God as a part of His great firm, working under His management as Chief. You are to follow God’s ways, and not your own ways. O, that you could both see this as it is. 11LtMs, Lt 69a, 1896, par. 4
The Lord has been dishonored by His servants who have seen the dangers, and who should have taken decided measures to set things in order. The Lord will not hold them guiltless for allowing you to have so large control as you have had. The position that Dr. Burke claimed was that he should be chief manager. It was a mistake to give him this position. The position that Dr. Kellogg has occupied has been of an order that neither you nor Dr. Burke were capable of filling. Yet Dr. Kellogg has submitted his plans to the board, and has carried them with him in mind and judgment. Some things that he, in his keen perception, could see, the board could not understand. But although he knew himself to be right, he deferred a renewal of his propositions until they could come to unity of decision. 11LtMs, Lt 69a, 1896, par. 5
But you have tried to run the institution at St. Helena when you were disqualified to do this, and you have tried also to run the board. But one man’s mind and judgment cannot do that which you have supposed you could do. 11LtMs, Lt 69a, 1896, par. 6
I now leave this matter with you. May you have a more humble opinion of yourself, is my prayer; and may the Lord guide you into all truth. 11LtMs, Lt 69a, 1896, par. 7
<I cannot find an article written about two months ago, for I have just come home after five weeks’ absence. When I find it, will send it.> 11LtMs, Lt 69a, 1896, par. 8