Make the Health Food Work a Blessing
NP
May 17, 1903 [typed]
Portions of this manuscript are published in HFM 67-71.
For all who are engaged in the health food business I have words of counsel. I have said that food stores and hygienic restaurants should be established in cities, and that they should be so conducted that they will be the means of reaching people with the gospel message for this time. All our restaurants are to be so conducted that there will not be an accumulation of debt. If debts accumulate, even though the patronage is large, there needs to be a careful, thorough investigation of the business, and such changes should be made as will put it on a paying basis. A restaurant should not be maintained at a continual financial loss. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 1
Recently in the night season we seemed to be in a council meeting. One of authority stood among us, and questioned the workers who were bearing responsibilities in the food work. He asked, “Have you made this work merely a commercial matter? Are you carrying out the instruction that restaurants should be established to teach the people how to prepare wholesome food and to bring them to a knowledge of the present truth? To those whom you have met from day to day, have you spoken of the Christian’s hope? Have meetings been appointed and talks given on Bible subjects?” 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 2
The workers in our restaurants are to hunt and fish for souls. Meetings should be appointed at some convenient place, and notice of these meetings should be given to those coming to the restaurants for their meals. Some will attend and will thus be led to study the Bible and to ask questions regarding the truths which they have heard. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 3
Seek the Lord in prayer, asking Him to show you the best way in which to reach the people with whom you come in contact. Remember the words of the Saviour, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” [Matthew 9:13.] Remember that different methods must be followed in dealing with different people. To some you can give a tract. To others, you can put the question, “Do you love the Lord Jesus?” In the meetings that are held, talk in a way that will interest them. Deal with the subject on which you are speaking in so simple and practical a way that they cannot fail to understand. There are many so ignorant of the terms used by those who speak on spiritual subjects that they do not understand what they hear. Many who hear have so little interest in spiritual things that much of the effort put forth to give them religious instruction is like beating the air. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 4
If in your restaurant work you make no advancement in religious lines, what have you gained? Daily you are brought into association with many who perhaps all their lifetimes have continued in sin. Some means of arresting their attention must be devised. They must be warned of their danger. If this work cannot be done in our restaurants, let them be discontinued; for what use is it to expend means and talent in a work that consumes without producing? Or what use is it for workers to spend their time preparing temporal food for men and women, while they neglect to offer them the bread of life and the water of salvation? Merely to provide temporal food is not a savor of life unto life. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 5
The servants of God are to watch for souls as they that must give an account. If in the restaurant work more is not done to advance the work of soul-saving than has been done in the past, the workers in the restaurants would better use their talents in lines of work that will do more to draw souls to Christ. The interests of Christ’s kingdom are paramount to all else. We are not to bend our energies to the establishment of food stores and food factories merely to supply people with temporal food and to make money. Thousands are perishing in sin, and the energies of God’s people are to be put forth to arouse souls to a sense of their danger. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 6
We cannot afford to call our young men and young women into a work where they are brought in contact with the worldly element, if, instead of exerting an influence that will win souls to Christ, they are leavened by the worldliness. In every work to which the people of God put their hands, soul-saving is to be made of the first importance. Let not those engaged in the food work think that their efforts can bear the approval of God unless they do all they possibly can to reach with the truth those whom they supply with temporal food. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 7
A most decided warning was given by our Instructor. He repeated the following words, found in the eighth chapter of Isaiah: 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 8
“Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many of them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.” [Verses 12-15.] 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 9
“The food business may be so conducted as to be an injury instead of a blessing to the people of God. This line of work must be jealously guarded, else we shall find ourselves on the losing instead of the gaining side. The workers must be guarded. The barriers that I have placed between them and the world must not be taken down, lest they become leavened with worldliness. Unless great care is taken, some will fall into Satan’s snares, seduced by the spirit of the world, and led to corrupt their ways. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 10
“Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.” Let this be your safeguard. “And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion.” [Verses 16-18.] “Fear ye not, neither be ye afraid; have I not told you from that time, and have declared it? Ye are even My witnesses. Is there a God beside Me? Yea, there is no God: I know not any.” [Isaiah 44:8.] 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 11
“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God, for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” [Isaiah 8:19, 20.] Satan will bring in many devices to draw men from the truth. Let God’s people take warning. Let them refuse to mingle with the world in a way that will endanger their spiritual interests. Let not too many cares and responsibilities be placed on one man; for if this is done, that man will lose his balance and will follow a course that will defeat the purpose he desires to fulfil. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 12
In the food business there is a snare for all who engage in it without realizing their danger. The Lord is not pleased with the way in which this business has been carried on. No overburdening commercialism is to be brought into it. Those connected with this work need to heed the invitation to come to Christ and learn of Him His meekness and His lowliness. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 13
I desire to place this warning before God’s people. The time has come when we need to see in a clearer light that diligent care must be taken to preserve pure, holy principles in the work of God. There are those who have been warned not to pervert principle and who with strong emphasis say that they would do anything rather than yield principle. But for years these very men have mingled false principles with their work, and they are not proper judges of what true, sanctified, ennobling principles are. Counterfeit principles have been accepted for the genuine principles of right. This God sees. Will men see it, and will they exchange the counterfeit for the real? 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 14
I was instructed to bring the following Scriptures to the notice of the people of God: 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 15
“There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.” [Isaiah 11:1-5.] 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 16
“In that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise Thee; Thou wast angry; Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. ... And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon His name, declare His doings among the people, make mention that His name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord; for He hath done excellent things; this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.” [Isaiah 12:1, 2, 4-6.] 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 17
There is a great work to be done in the world, and the Lord’s servants are not to start enterprises of a commercial character, which will absorb the ability and tact and skill that God calls for in other lines of work. Just as soon as God’s people lay off the burdens that He has not placed on them, and obtain the robe of Christ’s righteousness; just as soon as they begin to answer the prayer of Christ, and to serve the Lord with all humility, the words of the twelfth chapter of Isaiah will be fulfilled to them. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 18
I am instructed to speak to our ministers, who are dealing in Bible truth, and to tell them to preach the gospel to all nations, teaching the things that Christ has commanded. I am instructed to tell our physicians to give themselves unreservedly to their appointed work, to ministering to the physical and spiritual needs of the afflicted, and to be partakers of the divine nature, that they may escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 19
Please read the forty-fifth and forty-ninth chapters of Isaiah. The Lord calls upon all to make diligent work for repentance. He calls upon our physicians to see the importance of establishing small sanitariums in connection with our schools. True medical missionary workers, laboring under the direction of God to fulfil His purpose, will do a hundredfold more good than it is possible for food stores or restaurants to do, as they are now conducted. The Lord’s workers in every line are to cherish pure, clean principles free from any taint of selfishness. It is such principles only that are acceptable to God. “Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” [Isaiah 57:15.] 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 20
Let us in the name of the Lord advance in His work, doing His will, cherishing the principles of righteousness and equity, bound together in Christian unity. 18LtMs, Ms 45, 1903, par. 21