MR No. 921—Ellen White's Concern for Doctor Kellogg
Should I be considered your enemy, because I will not hold my peace when the Lord instructs me to tell you that you need a work done for yourself which will give you an altogether different experience from that which you are now having?—Letter 77, 1900, p. 3. (.)12MR 1.1
You feel that Sister White has turned away from you, but it is exactly the opposite. Sister White has no different testimony to bear from the testimony she has borne for the last fifty years. It is you who have changed and changed decidedly. You have refused to accept the light which the Lord has been pleased to give you, that you were to work in harmony with your brethren.—Letter 85, 1900, p. 2. (.)12MR 1.2
According to the light God has given me, sore and troublesome annoyances will come. I have been instructed that for a time your presence is needed at the sanitarium in Battle Creek. There are trials to come to the sanitarium. Its help is not all that it should be. I am instructed, Look not to human beings for wisdom. If we trust in the Lord, nothing can prevail against us. There is a tree of life in Battle Creek, to which all have free access. All may pluck and eat of it. My brother, look constantly to Jesus. Eat His flesh and drink His blood. Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. If you will walk in the light, your heart and your mind will be under the supervision of God....12MR 1.3
I do not want you to have any wrong upon your soul. I want you to come off more than conqueror. God wants you to stand on the high platform of eternal rectitude. Let not your good be evil spoken of. You have a living Saviour. Cling fast to Him. Pray, Oh, pray that the Lord will reveal Himself to you, and will maintain you ever to work for Him. You must often feel the necessity of dying to self. Then you will not yield to [any] influence but the influence of the Lord Jesus Christ.12MR 2.1
I have the greatest interest in you. I understand you much better than you understand yourself. It is not only your privilege, but it is your duty to seek a character so consistent that sin will find no place in your words or actions. Walk wisely in your home. Walk wisely before your patients and your students, that when you bow in prayer, the Lord can hear and answer you. Walk wisely in a perfect way. Let your words be seasoned with the grace of Christ. Let the Christlikeness of your words and actions be a sign between you and Christ's followers that you walk with God. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. Let its power strengthen and mellow your disposition. In all your associations, reveal the uplifting principles of heaven, that when your work here shall close, only the fragrance of your good works and words may be remembered.12MR 2.2
I felt that I must write this now, because at any time I may be called upon to lay off my armor. I am watching and waiting. You need to feel the softening, subduing influence of the grace of Christ. You are certainly in danger of exaggerating your power of authority. This ... you have done many, many times.—Letter 112, 1901. (.)12MR 2.3
Night after night I am in distress, walking the floor with a burden almost unendurable. I have a deep interest in you, my brother. The Lord has given me messages for you, warning you not to be as Nebuchadnezzar, filled with self-exaltation. You have before you every temptation to sway the work in such a way that God cannot put his signature upon it. Altogether too much power and authority rests in your word. You are not sufficient for these things. The Lord must be the ruler.—Letter 199, 1901, p. 2. (.)12MR 3.1
I must say unto you that trials will come to me and to others, for I have been instructed there will be men and women who are not always wise because they are not sanctified through the truth, and they will not behave judiciously. They will walk and work unwisely, and there will be those who will corrupt the doctrines we now hold. If reproved they will falsify and misstate the words spoken. Publications will be multiplied and the world will be warned. But dangers are before us all now in the field. Not one third of the working force of men and women we have in the field are rooted and grounded in the faith, and to be trusted.—Manuscript 220, 1902. (.)12MR 3.2
Even if you continue to refuse to accept what I say, I shall not feel that I have nothing more to say to you. I love your soul too well to keep silent. I shall continue to warn you. I promised the Lord that I would do this. And when I see the people of God in danger of accepting your wrong version of things, and of moving blindly, I shall present to them that which I have presented to you, else I shall be held accountable. I love your soul and I want you to have eternal life. I must tell you the truth. And whether you acknowledge it or not, you know that what I tell you is truth.12MR 3.3
Shortly before your father died, he called me to him, saying that he had something to say to me. “I feel that John is in great danger,” he said. “But, Sister White, you will not get discouraged, will you, even though he seems to be headstrong? You are the only one who can help him. Do not let him go, even though his case appears discouraging.”12MR 4.1
I promised that I would do as the Spirit of the Lord directed me. God's word to me has always been, “You can help him.”—Letter 174, 1902, p. 8. (.)12MR 4.2
Dear Brother: A scene has been presented before me of actions performed by you, similar to the actions of Satan in the heavenly courts. From time to time I have given warnings to different ones who were being blinded by your sophistries and misrepresentations. Your power of misrepresentation is so continuously exerted that many have been deceived.12MR 4.3
In some things you act like a man bereft of his reason. It is a marvel to me how one who has had the light in so many ways, who has received so many warnings and reproofs, can yet go on blindfolding himself and others.12MR 4.4
You wrote me that you had surrendered. But wherein have you surrendered? When I received this word from you, I forbore to open before you some things that I shall now have to tell you. I hoped that you would seek to reform. Many times you have been entreated to change your course. You certainly need to do so; for you have been the greatest hindrance to the work that God would have advance in straight lines. Other men have acted a part in some respects similar to the part that you have been acting, but they have not been so regardless of justice, honesty and truth.12MR 4.5
You have not been given occasion to do the things that you have done. For years I have striven to give you every word of encouragement that I dared give you, hoping that you might take hold of the encouragement and make thorough work for eternity. At the General Conference held in Battle Creek in 1901, I treated you as a man who would make every effort to set things right. When your long-drawn-out documents were presented to me to commend and approve, I was shown clearly by the heavenly agencies the sure results of receiving such documents. I was shown the oppression that would be exercised by you and by others linked up with you, who were spiritually blind.12MR 5.1
You have made persistent efforts to try to center everything in Battle Creek, after clear light had been given that this should not be done. For years messages have been coming to you, distinctly pointing out the fact that plants should be made in many places, and that so much should not be gathered into Battle Creek. I was surprised that you took so little heed to messages regarding this that the Lord has repeatedly sent you. You were professedly believing the Testimonies, and yet walking and working contrary to them, following your own impulses, turning from the plain, Thus saith the Lord, to carry out your own plans and devisings. You have had little use for those whom you thought would obstruct your way. You would not harmonize with them, and refused to recognize in them any virtue or righteousness.12MR 5.2
“Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto Him, Master, thus saying Thou reproachest us also. And He said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers” (Luke 11:45, 46).12MR 5.3
I have no liberty to withhold any longer the matters that I have written. There is much that must be brought out. And yet I say unto you, as I have said many times before, I have an intense desire that you shall show by your words of confession and by your actions that you will now make thorough work for repentance. Let the plowshare of truth go deep and thorough into your heart. Do not surface work; for God will not accept superficial promises. The Lord Jesus reaches out His hand once more to you, and He will not be trifled with. You have a work to do. Cease your underhand work, which shows that you would spoil the work of God. If you will repent, and be converted, the Lord will have mercy upon you.—Letter 319, 1905, pp. 1, 2. (.)12MR 6.1
White Estate
Washington, D. C.,
April 1, 1982.