The Reopening of Battle Creek College, and the Fault of Large Institutions

St. Helena, Cal.,

August 3, 1903.

Brethren Daniells, Prescott, and W. C. White:

... I am very sorry to hear that there is a plan to reopen Battle Creek College. To establish a college in Battle Creek, after such plain warnings have been given against doing this, would be to make a great mistake.SpM 306.5

I can assure you that the large number of patients at the Sanitarium is no evidence that the institution is where it should be, or that it is conducted after God's order. Christ's plan for teaching truth can not be carried out in so large an institution as the Battle Creek Sanitarium, where so large a number of patients of all classes are gathered together. There may be some conversions at the Sanitarium at Battle Creek, among those who go there for treatment, but these will meet with greater difficulty than in almost any other place. Because of the large number of patients, this sanitarium is necessarily conducted as a large hotel. Worldlings of all classes are of course entertained there, and the helpers are constantly brought into connection with an influence that tends to draw them away from Christ. Oh, why can not those who know the truth follow the instruction that God has given? Why do they not make plants in places that have never yet heard the truth? Let us pray to God for help to do His work as in his very presence.SpM 306.6

The enemy works untiringly to deceive human beings, and lead them away from God. He and his angels will in the future assume the shape of human beings, and work to make the truth of God of no effect....SpM 307.1

Those who know the truth, but who walk contrary to the truth, may never place their foot in the path that Christ followed.SpM 307.2

We are to “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” No man or woman is to bind himself or herself to serve for a certain number of years under the control of a medical association. This is not God's plan, but a plan of human devising. Human beings belong to the Lord, body, soul, and spirit, and they are to be guided and controlled by him. He has bought us. We are under obligation to be laborers together with him. No one should bind himself to serve for a certain number of years in any institution.SpM 307.3

I know that some have thought it advisable for the workers in our sanitariums to sign certain contracts. But I know also that it is not in accordance with God's plan for the workers to sign these contracts. They are pledged to God, and if he moves upon them to take the message to a certain place, shall they be bound by a pledge that hinders them from going? Never, never, We are not our own, and we are not to bind ourselves to human beings by signing contracts to do this or that. We are to work under our Master, Christ Jesus, looking to him for directions. We are to pray and work and believe, following always the course that he marks out.SpM 307.4

There are among professing believers many who know little of what is comprehended in the third angel's message. They have not followed the straight pathway of truth. They have not purified their souls by obeying the word. They are unconverted. They need to “seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call upon Him while he is near.” “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”SpM 307.5

Our ministers need this message. There are among them those whose feet are standing in slippery places. They slip first one way and then another, and continue to slip and slide. May God help them to place their feet in the footprints of Jesus.SpM 307.6

Our churches are in the condition described in the message to the Laodicean church. They are neither cold nor hot. They need a fresh, new experience. God calls upon them to prepare for his coming; for it is near at hand.SpM 307.7

Ellen G. White.