The Lord is giving to His people a rich treasure of light and instruction regarding the work they are to do, and the way to do it." So wrote W. C. White to a church leader in America. He continued, "Almost daily He speaks to Mother in the night about how the work is being done, and how it ought to be done. And she is told to bear her testimony to His people."--WCW to I. H. Evans, June 6, 1898 (12 WCW, p. 48).
He had expressed much the same thought to A. G. Daniells a month earlier as he wrote:
Day by day and night by night the situation is presented to Mother. She is prepared to give us counsel much, much needed, and I think very much appreciated. She tells us plainly that we have not too many teachers and that we cannot afford to cut down our teaching force, but that it is our duty to fit ourselves to the work, so that everyone's labor will count.
She tells us that we are presented to her as separate, independent threads, standing apart, whereas we ought to unite our energies one with another, and all be woven together as a perfect web. Mother is giving us precious information regarding the importance of organization and the necessity of making every feature of our work educational.--11a WCW, p. 669.
A thoughtful reading of the above suggests the presence of problems in relationships in the working force at Avondale. They were not to be "independent threads, standing apart." Considering the diverse nature of the personalities and the experience, and the age differences in the working force, these words had meaning. The matter is more clearly understood by reading Ellen White's diary and the personal messages directed to several individuals.
Matters at Avondale had reached the place where, because of jealousies, narrow-mindedness, and shortsightedness, it was difficult for the school board to function properly. W. C. White was chairman; with his broad experience and his close connection with his mother's work providing a special insight that not all others could grasp, he often sensed what needed to be done. But of the dissension he said nothing to his mother. "W. C. White tells me not a word," she wrote in her diary, "but I know." And she added,"The Lord has presented the matter before me, and as things are, there would be a better state of things without any board."--Manuscript 184, 1898.
To Elder Prescott she also stated:
The Lord has given to W. C. White a special work to do in this country ever since he first stepped upon its soil. God has used him in a special manner as an organizer. This is the work to which he is appointed.--Letter 57, 1898.
He saw the objectives and the goals before the school enterprise and pushed forward dauntlessly. Criticism weighed him down, but he bore it in silence.
"Our School Must Be a Model School"
Coming from a school board meeting on April 28, W. C. White wrote to a fellow worker, W. M. Crothers, in New Zealand:
This morning we had a long board meeting, and Mother read us some very important instruction. From what she has said to us from time to time, we conclude that the present school term is a very important time, and that it is our duty to do everything in our power to give this school the right mold.--11a WCW, pp. 642, 643.
In September, Ellen White declared: "Our school must be a model school for others who shall establish schools in Australia; every movement we make must tell."--Manuscript 186, 1898.
On this point Ellen White spoke again in a letter dated October 5. Writing of the orchards and grounds surrounding the school, she stated:
The land is to be our lesson book. After being cleared, it is to be cultivated. Orange, lemon, peach, apricot, nectarine, plum, and apple trees are to occupy the land, with vegetable gardens, flower gardens, and ornamental trees. Thus this place is to be brought as near as possible to the presentation that passed before me several times, as the symbol of what our school and premises should be.--Letter 84, 1898.
That the attendance for this term of school passed the one hundred mark, with the young people "hearing, learning, and practicing as if they desired to occupy a right position in the home and school firm," brought satisfaction to the leaders (Manuscript 76, 1898).
The Conference Session in Stanmore
The officers of the New South Wales Conference did not see how they could hold a camp meeting in 1898, so it was planned that the annual conference session would be held in the Stanmore church, beginning Friday, July 22. Ellen White was present for the opening meeting and talked on faith, and Sabbath morning she spoke on what constituted health reform. Sunday morning her address was on education and the Avondale school (Manuscript 184, 1898).
The conference president, W. L. H. Baker, asked to be released from his work so he could return to America to spend more time with his aging father.
S. N. Haskell, the Bible instructor at Avondale, was called to the presidency of the New South Wales Conference. He and his wife sought Ellen White's counsel on that point. Several times within the past two years Ellen White had been given light in regard to his work, particularly in his connection with the school.
Almost two weeks before, on July 11, she had written in her diary of being shown in vision workers moving from one place to another. In the representation she heard Elder Haskell say, "I know not whither I shall go or where I shall remain. I think I will go to America." One stood before Haskell. He said, "Your work is in this country for the present. When you are called to another place, you will understand His [God's] voice.... When He calls you to America, you will know it."--Ibid. Haskell accepted the conference presidency.
Medical Missionary Work
The first step in the line of medical missionary work in Australia was the opening of the Health Home in Sydney in late 1896. The next step was the publishing of a health journal, the Herald of Health, launched in Melbourne in 1898. As the Battle Creek Sanitarium Health Food Company in the mid-1890s forged ahead in making wheat flakes, a coffee substitute, "caramel cereal," and in the development of vegetable protein meat substitutes--beginning with peanut butter and soon more sophisticated products as "nuttose" and "nut cheese"--a serious interest along these lines began to emerge in Australia.
But it was in the winter of 1898 that the various lines of medical missionary work really began to blossom in Australia. One matter of concern was that of priorities in the use of available funds. Responding in June to questions asked by A. G. Daniells, president of the union conference, Ellen White enunciated two principles:
All should be able to see eye to eye before we determine how means shall be appropriated. It is necessary that we see how we stand financially in all our lines of work.
I am fully in harmony with the medical missionary work, but that mission must, to a large extent, make its own way, and be self-supporting. And it will be this if it is conducted properly.--Letter 52, 1898.
The Medical and Surgical Sanitarium, And the Use of Meat
In June she reported, "The Health Home is full.... We see a large number of people who are destitute of a knowledge of how to take care of themselves. We feel a great desire to advance the work."--Letter 56, 1898. In July she observed, "The Health Home is the means of reaching many souls that would not otherwise be reached."--Letter 58, 1898. Then came a report indicating progress, published in the Union Conference Record of July 15.
Those of our people who read the Herald of Health will have noticed that the Sydney "Health Home" has changed its name. Henceforth this institution will be known as the "Medical and Surgical Sanitarium" of Summer Hill.
Nor is this a change in name alone. The entire institution has been placed upon a higher scientific plane; in fact, a sanitarium plane.
A physician has taken charge of the medical and surgical work.... A thoroughly competent chemist and microscopist is at the head of a new complete laboratory of investigation. Medical gymnastics and other special facilities are being added to assist in the recovery of the sick.
While at the session of the New South Wales Conference held in the Stanmore church, Ellen White attended an early-morning meeting on Monday, July 25, to discuss the dietary program of the new sanitarium. Drs. E. R. Caro and S. C. Rand, newly come to the institution, were present; also A. W. Semmens, W. C. White, and G. B. Starr. In her diary she reported what took place:
The consideration was in regard to the meat question. Shall the Sanitarium maintain the principle of nonmeat eating for the patients who have not been instructed in a vegetarian diet? The question was, "Would it not be well to let them have meat at first, educate them away from the appetite by lectures, and then bring them where they will be instructed by the lectures on the evil of meat eating?"
I replied that to condemn meat eating and show its injurious effects and then bring the injurious article and give it to the patients, and prescribe it for some of the patients as some had thought best to do, was a denial of their principles and would not be in accordance with the teachings of our people on this question of health reform. We felt there must be no drawing back on this question.--Manuscript 184, 1898.
She pointed out that the increase of disease in the animal kingdom was a strong argument in favor of her position. The subject in various aspects came up in formal and informal discussions at the conference on both Monday and Tuesday, and Ellen White noted:
We are to be sure that we commence the work in right lines. No tea, no coffee; avoid drugs. We are to take our position firmly in regard to the light given us that the consumption of the dead flesh of animals is counterworking the restoring of the sick to health. It is not a safe and wholesome diet....
However great the goodness of God and however abundant His promises to any people, continued transgression of the laws of God in our nature brings disease. Therefore we cannot present meat before the patients.--Ibid.
The impact of the discussions and Ellen White's firm position were reflected in the resolutions passed at the session, two of which read:
3. Resolved, That in the prosperity attending the work of the "Health Home," which has now grown into a "Medical and Surgical Sanitarium," we recognize the blessing of God upon right principles in dietetic reform, and the use of rational, or nature's remedies in the treatment of disease; ...
4. Resolved, That we pledge our support of these principles by our practice and our influence, and with our means.--UCR, August 15, 1898.
A few days after returning to Cooranbong, Ellen White wrote:
We greatly hope that our physicians in the Health Home may be soundly converted to correct principles in health reform. I was glad that up to the present time flesh meat has not found its way upon the tables at the Sanitarium, and we hope it never will disgrace the health-reform tables.--Letter 180, 1898.
The Health-Food Business
The next day, July 31, she reported that Willie "leaves Wednesday for Melbourne to have plans laid in regard to medical missionary work, to establish it upon a good basis." (Letter 181, 1898). Medical personnel generally would be there, and of course, plans would be laid for the developing health-food business.
By this time, health foods were being imported on a regular basis. P. B. Rudge was brought from New Zealand to manage sales, which were promising. The June 15, 1898, Record carried an interesting advertisement:
"Try Them"
We invite all our readers to improve their diet by eating granola and nut butter, and by drinking caramel cereal. They are the great food correctives for indigestion and constipation. We also invite you to assist this good enterprise by selling the foods to others. Liberal discounts are offered to all agents. Address, Sanitarium Health Food Agency, 251 St. George's Road, North Fitzroy, Victoria.
Two months later the Record reported the arrival in Australia of G. W. Morse who was to "devote his time to the interests of the Australasian medical missionary work, giving special attention to the health-food business." He was present at the Melbourne meeting of the newly formed Australasian Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. An early and prime concern was where the food factory should be located. Melbourne was the well-established center of the work in Australia, and workers and believers there quite naturally felt that there was little need for such a study. Others felt there were other important considerations, and a committee on the location of the manufacturing plant was appointed, made up of A. G. Daniells, Dr. E. R. Caro, G. W. Morse, W. C. White, and E. R. Palmer.
The Mollifying Influence of a Vision
In addition to the possibility that Melbourne might not be chosen as the location of the proposed plant, consideration was being given to moving the union conference office from Melbourne to Sydney. A vision given to Ellen White in Stanmore and repeated some weeks later prevented a serious rift when these matters were under study at the council meeting in Melbourne.
Ellen White had told her son of some of the things revealed to her that, now as he was in Melbourne studying certain moves with others, took on considerable significance. W. C. White hastened off a postcard to his mother, urging her to write out the matter for their immediate use at the council meeting. But while some things stood out clearly before her, "other things," she wrote, "are not laid out as distinct as I could wish." She added, "I must wait. It will come to me, I feel quite sure."--Letter 63a, 1898.
Then on Tuesday night, August 9, she had a unique experience in which just that took place. The next day she wrote:
Last night ... I thought I must write a few lines before retiring. I began about the Sabbath meeting, when, like a flash of lightning, I had presented to me so sharply some things which had been presented to me at Stanmore, and I wrote on and on, until I had written four and a half pages.--Letter 62, 1898.
She promised to have the matter copied and sent to them, which she did in a document dated August 12. The instruction came to her in symbolic form, and now she wrote: "As these things revive in my mind, I am trying to put them with pen and ink where I cannot lose them."
There was instruction given in an assembly. Words were addressed to men in responsible positions.... After the council meeting I saw quite a change being made. As I told you, there was a transferring of workers, and our Counselor was saying the same men should not continue a length of time in one place....
There were families with their goods being drawn away to be transported to other places. There was a necessity for this in order to leave a positive influence on the work and the cause of God, and its advancement. I would encourage the movement you suggest, and believe the Lord is in Elder Daniells' moving to Sydney at this time, and the Lord will tell him what to do next.
I did have some things presented that there was now a more decided work to be done in Sydney and the vicinity....
The advantages now presented in doing medical missionary work need more calculation and experience brought into the management of the work. I shall be relieved if this change is made. I believe Brother Morse will be less experienced a help in Melbourne, but with Elder Daniells here in New South Wales, the working force seems more evenly balanced.--Letter 63a, 1898.
The Earlier Interview at Sunnyside
Just before the Melbourne council meeting, G. W. Morse, who had just arrived in Australia, and Dr. E. R. Caro spent a morning in an extended interview with Ellen White at Sunnyside. They discussed many things relating to the medical missionary work, including the lines of work getting well under way at the Summer Hill Sanitarium and the health-food business. In addition, the young and energetic Dr. Caro, having in mind Dr. Kellogg's work in Chicago, urged that as a part of the medical missionary program in Sydney there should be "an infants' orphan home" and a place "to help fallen women." As she wrote of the interview in her diary she observed that "the want of means is the great barrier to doing that work that should be done" (Manuscript 184, 1898). She felt the Lord would give them wisdom needed at every step.
Now in her letter presenting the revived, fuller view given to her at Stanmore, she wrote:
One thing was certain, changes must be made for the more healthful warfare before us in the health missionary work. There is needed in council and management of the work in Sydney, men of larger experience than those who are now connected with the work. Counsel with these young men who certainly need all the experience of those who have been taught of God, that the work shall not become disproportioned in any of its lines.
There are many branches that will grow out of the plans now made in Sydney, and every line of work needs experienced managers, that part may unite with part, making a harmonious whole. More than two or three minds must be given to all.--Letter 63, 1898.
The letter was mailed at Cooranbong on Friday, August 12. In Melbourne, on Monday, August 15, a meeting of the managing committee was held, considering the manufacture of health foods. W. C. White had in hand the letter from his mother in which she pictured the moving of interests and workers. It removed all question as to the wisdom of considering other places for the location of the food manufacturing establishment. The committee on location could now enter on its work with enthusiasm and confidence. Many points had to be considered, from the cost of raw materials to transportation facilities and the potential in employees. Here are excerpts from G. W. Morse's report of the committee as published in the September 15 issue of the Record:
Several Locations for the Food Factory Considered
The committee gave very careful consideration to the matter while at Melbourne, taking into its counsel several of the leading brethren of that city, and securing such items of information as would lead to a correct conclusion. Sydney was also visited, and the same investigation made as at Melbourne. Cooranbong was the next place visited, and here the whole matter was gone into very carefully, and the evidences, pro and con, as pertaining to each location under consideration, were impartially canvassed....
There were a number of points concerning which it seemed to the committee that Cooranbong presented inducements that were superior to any other locality. And so it transpired that when all things were taken into account, and allowed to have their full weight, it seemed conclusive that Cooranbong was the place for the factory, and a decision was made accordingly.
The points enumerated in considerable detail can be summarized:
1. The sawmill plant at Cooranbong, a one-and-a-half-story building of sixty by sixty-two feet, with its power equipment together with two acres of land, was offered by the school for £400. The school had decided to sell the mill, as it had served its primary purpose in the erection of the school plant.
2. There was water transportation available with oceangoing boats carrying twenty to thirty tons able to dock within a few rods of the factory located on the banks of Dora Creek. The railroad station was within three miles.
3. Fuel for power was abundant and about half the cost in Sydney or Melbourne.
4. Not mentioned in this report, but noted elsewhere, was the fact that raw materials were less expensive in New South Wales than in Melbourne.
5. An important point was that student labor, male and female, was right on the premises, as it were, and the factory would offer opportunities for the students to earn. The committee saw the advantages of the school enterprise and the food production enterprise working hand in hand in a natural manner.
The report in the Record pointed out that "in harmony with direct instruction that the Lord has given regarding the interests involved, the food manufacturing business will be carried forward in a way to prove a valuable auxiliary to the school enterprise."
W. C. White Review of the Experience
On October 18, W. C. White, in a letter to W. L. H. Baker, who had been at the Stanmore conference session but was now in America, summarized in perspective the fast-moving developments. Coming to the point of the location of major interests, he described the steps taken that looked forward to moving the office of the union conference from Melbourne to Sydney, and the suggestion that possibly the health-food business should center at Cooranbong. He suggested to Baker, "I think you are well enough acquainted with our brethren in Melbourne and their feeling that most of the good things should be centered there, to believe me when I say that Brethren Faulkhead, Michaels, and some others seemed to be preparing for a strong protest against the transfer of men and business to Sydney."
But just then we received letters from Mother, telling us more about what was presented to her that night in Stanmore. Among other things, she said that she saw drays being loaded with the household goods of families who were moving away from Melbourne to take part in the work in other places.... She also cautioned us repeatedly against allowing our personal ambition, our selfish interests, and our local views to interfere with such plans as were for the general interest of the cause. These letters saved us much unpleasant controversy.--12 WCW, p. 179.
In the meantime the Ellen G. White-sponsored medical missionary program right there in Cooranbong went quietly on. This was in the form of Sara McEnterfer serving as community nurse without charge, and help to families in which there was dire need of food, clothing, and bedding. In her letters, and at times in her oral presentations, Ellen White continued to call for a hospital at Cooranbong.