Testimonies for the Church Volume 1 - A New You Ministry

positions in the institution seemed more than willing to take larger wages than thosewere satisfied with who filled other and equally important stations in the great causeof truth and reform; when I learned, with pain, that, in order to make the institutionpopular with those not of our faith and to secure their patronage, a spirit of compromisewas rapidly gaining ground at the Institute, manifested in the use of Mr., Miss, andMrs., instead of Brother and Sister, and in popular amusements, in which all couldengage in a sort of comparatively innocent frolic—when I saw these things, I said:This is not that which was shown me as an institution for the sick which would sharethe signal blessing of God. This is another thing.And yet calculations for more extensive buildings were made, and calls for largesums of money were urged. As it was then managed, I could but regard the Institute,on the whole, as a curse. Although some were benefited healthwise, the influence onthe church at Battle Creek and upon brethren and sisters who visited the Institute wasso bad as to overbalance all the good that was done; and this influence was reachingchurches in this and other states, and was terribly destructive to faith in God and in thepresent truth. Several who came to Battle Creek humble, devoted, confiding Christians,went away almost infidels. The general influence of these things was creating prejudiceagainst the health reform in very many of the most humble, the most devoted, and thebest of our brethren, and was destroying faith in my Testimonies and in the presenttruth.It was this state of matters relative to the health reform and the Health Institute,with which other things were brought to bear, that made it my duty to speak as I didin Testimony No. 13. I well knew that that would produce a reaction and trial in manyminds. I also knew that a reaction must come sooner or later, and, for the good of theInstitute and the634