Church Institutions

by Ellen White

From what has been shown me, there should be a careful selection of help in the office. The young and untried and unconsecrated should not be placed there, for they are exposed to temptations and have not fixed characters. Those who have formed their characters, who have fixed principles, and who have the truth of God in the heart will not be a constant source of care and anxiety, but rather helps and blessings. The office of publication is amply able to make arrangements to secure good helpers, those who have ability and principle. And the church, in their turn, should not seek to advantage themselves one penny from those who come to the office to labour and learn their trade. There are positions where some can earn better wages than at the office, but they can never find a position more important, more honourable, or more exalted than the work of God in the office. Those who labour faithfully and unselfishly will be rewarded. For them there is a crown of glory prepared, compared with which all earthly honours and pleasures are as the small dust of the balance. Especially will those be blessed who have been faithful to God in watching over the spiritual welfare of others in the office. Pecuniary and temporal interests, in comparison with this, sink into insignificance. In one scale is gold dust; in the other, a human soul of such value that honour, riches, and glory have been sacrificed by the Son of God to ransom it from the bondage of sin and hopeless despair. The soul is of infinite value and demands the utmost attention. Every man who fears God in that office should put away childish and vain things, and, with true moral courage, stand erect in the dignity of his manhood, shunning low familiarity, yet binding heart to heart in the bond of Christian interest and love. Hearts yearn for sympathy and love, and are as much refreshed and strengthened by them as flowers are by showers and sunshine. 3T 193

Those who seek to lessen the interest of any in the school at Healdsburg, or in the missionary work in any of its branches, are not working together with God, but are working under another captain, whose aim is to weaken and destroy. Your usefulness, brethren and sisters of the Healdsburg church, requires that you be straightforward in all your dealings; that you be humble, holy, and undefiled. There should be less proud self-seeking, less self-importance. When the members of the church are clothed with humility, when they put from them self-esteem and self-seeking, when they seek constantly to do God's will - then they will work together in harmony. God's Spirit is one. . . . 5T 479

The Lord has warned me that there will come a great apostasy. There will come a falling away in spirituality. Many will turn away their ears from hearing the truth, and will accept fables. Our sanitariums are to be conducted by wise, God-fearing men, who will teach sound doctrines and show why we believe the truth and why we should practice strict temperance in all things, studying how to avoid all harmful practices and influences. Virtue and holiness shall be practised. 6MR 378

Wherever the last message of warning is given combined with medical missionary work and lessons on the right principles of living, wonderful results are seen. Our sanitariums are to be the means of enlightening those who come to them for treatment. The patients are to be shown how they can live upon a diet of grains, fruits, nuts, and other products of the soil. I have been instructed that lectures should be regularly given in our sanitariums on health topics. People are to be taught to discard those articles of food that weaken the health and strength of the beings for whom Christ gave His life. The injurious effects of tea and coffee are to be shown. The patients are to be taught how they can dispense with those articles of diet that injure the digestive organs. These things are to be treated from a health standpoint.--Letter 233, 1905, pp. 7, 9. (To Dr. and Mrs. D. H. Kress, August 9, 1905.) 7MR 380

Now no tea, coffee, or flesh meat is served in the institution. We are determined to live out the principles of health reform, to walk in the way of truth and righteousness. We shall not, for fear of losing patronage, be half-and-half reformers. We have taken our position, and by God's help we shall stand by it. The food provided for the patients is wholesome and palatable. The diet is composed of fruits and grains and nuts. Here in California there is an abundance of fruit of all kinds. CD 414

There has been much said in order to keep out licentious practices and improper familiarity between men and women. This has be to be met and reproved, and constantly guarded against, and the ones that are corrected become angry; in the place of reforming, they try to work their revenge upon the faithful workers in the institution. My own soul has been weighed down with burdens that are inexpressible, as I have tried in the fear of God to do my duty to all parties and to the institution. PC 26

The guardians of the institution must ever maintain a high standard, and carefully watch over the youth entrusted to them by parents as learners or helpers in the various departments. When young men and women work together, a sympathy is created among them which frequently grows into sentimentalism. If the guardians are indifferent to this, lasting injury may be done to these souls, and the high moral tone of the institution will be compromised. If any, patients or helpers, continue their familiarity by deception after having had judicious instruction, they should not be retained in the institution, for their influence will affect those who are innocent and unsuspecting. Young girls will lose their maidenly modesty, and be led to act deceptively because their affections have become entangled. . . . The young should be taught to be frank, yet modest, in their associations. They should be taught to respect just rules and authority. If they refuse to do this, let them be dismissed, no matter what position they occupy, for they will demoralise others. The forwardness of young girls in placing themselves in the company of young men, lingering around where they are at work, entering into conversation with them, talking common, idle talk, is belittling to womanhood. It lowers them, even in the estimation of those who themselves indulge in such things. . . . Let not those who profess the religion of Christ descend to trifling conversation, to unbecoming familiarity with women of any class, whether married or single. Let them keep their proper places with all dignity. At the same time they should be sociable, kind, and courteous to all. Young ladies should be reserved and modest. They should give no occasion for their good to be evil spoken of. . . . Those who give evidence that their thoughts run in a low channel, whose conversation tends to corrupt rather than to elevate, should be removed at once from any connection with the institution, for they will surely demoralise others. PH066 26

The influence of these messages has been deepening and widening, setting in motion the springs of action in thousands of hearts, bringing into existence institutions of learning, publishing houses, and health institutions; all these are the instrumentalities of God to co-operate in the grand work represented by the first, second, and third angels flying in the midst of heaven to warn the inhabitants of the world that Christ is coming again with power and great glory. RH DEC. 6,1892

The Lord calls upon those connected with our sanitariums, publishing houses, and schools to teach the youth to do evangelistic work. Our time and energy must not be so largely employed in establishing sanitariums, food stores, and restaurants that other lines of work will be neglected. Young men and young women who should be engaged in the ministry, in Bible work, and in the canvassing work should not be bound down to mechanical employment. RH MAY 16,1912

It seems cruel to establish our schools in the cities, where the students are prevented from learning the precious lessons taught by nature. It is a mistake to call families into the city, where children and youth breathe an atmosphere of corruption and crime, sin and violence, intemperance and ungodliness. Oh, it is a terrible mistake to allow children to come in contact with that which makes such a fearful impression on their senses. Children and youth can not be too fully guarded from familiarity with the pictures of iniquity as common as in all large cities. SPM 186

Those who labour at the institute are there for the purpose of promoting the intellectual welfare of those under their care. They must make their work a matter of earnest prayer and study, that they may know how to accomplish the object before them. Their first work is to carefully scrutinise their own habits, as they must meet the Bible standard of Christianity. Then when they are compelled to deal with those who are nearly ruined, either because of their own vicious habits or because of the intemperance or lasciviousness of men, they will know what words to speak to them, what attitude to assume toward them. They must be chaste and so free from the trait of defilement that they can correct these evils and bring the poor souls up to the Bible standard of purity. The only safety for men and women, married or unmarried, is to shun love-sick sentimentalism, and all undue familiarity. These things have produced great evil in the world. SPTB16 4

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