For the printing of literature for the various language groups in North America, arrangements were made in 1903 to establish at College View, Nebraska, the International Publishing Association. Prior to this the Review and Herald had handled this type of work, but the loss of the plant by fire in late 1902 brought about the necessity of a new arrangement. Equipment was installed at College View, in a plant of moderate size, and printing was done there in German, Danish-Norwegian, and Swedish.
Differences in nationality of workers led to differences in opinions as to how the plant should be operated. A growing feeling had been expressed at the General Conference session in Washington in May, 1905, that it would be well if there could be a separation of the printing work for these three language groups. Also, some of the ministers in the field working for these several nationalities were advocating the organization of separate conferences for each of the three respective ethnic groups.
Considerable study was given to the matter at the time of the session, but the published reports of the meeting are silent in regard to this. However, at this session, arrangements were made to organize a Foreign Department of the General Conference to care for the needs of the various language groups in North America.
The annual meeting of the International Publishing Association was appointed to convene at College View, Nebraska, on September 5, 1905. In connection with this the newly formed Foreign Department of the General Conference was to hold a council. Those arranging for these meetings were well aware of the agitation in the churches of the various nationalities calling for separate local conference organizations. It was with considerable misgiving that the leading brethren prepared for the meetings to convene in College View in early September.
Meeting the Appeal for Guiding Counsel
Elder G. A. Irwin, vice-president of the General Conference, was to be present, and the president of the Central Union Conference, Elder E. T. Russell, was also to be there. These two church leaders requested Ellen White to send them any instruction she had relating to the questions that would come to the front at those meetings. She began to respond to this request before leaving for southern California on August 10. Search was made in the various sources of her existing writings in the Elmshaven office that would provide materials. A key item found was an address she had given at a council at Basel, Switzerland, on September 24, 1885.
From a long chapter in Testimonies, volume 7, published in 1902, "God's Purpose in Our Publishing Houses," selection of material was made that would be of particular value in helping the workers in the College View plant see the very exalted nature of the work in which they were engaged. They were also reminded that the church's publishing houses were to be training schools for workers. The materials selected came from pages 140, 142-144, and 146-149. Another article appearing in volume 7 on pages 191-193 was selected for use. A third article was made up of materials selected from the Testimonies relating to the publishing work at home and abroad and containing excerpts from volumes 7 and 8. From her manuscripts a little item was chosen presenting her observation in Switzerland of men working together in a well-organized way. Thus Ellen White's staff worked getting ready for the September 5 deadline for the College View meetings.
Soon after leaving Los Angeles and its camp meeting on August 20, Ellen White went to Loma Linda and wrote three testimonies to aid in dealing specifically with situations that would be met at College View. The first of these carried the dateline Loma Linda, August 24, 1905, and was addressed to "Our Brethren Connected With the Publishing Work at College View." She opened with a reference to her attending the council held the year before at College View in connection with the first annual meetings of the International Publishing Association. At that meeting her mind was deeply exercised, she said, "regarding the unity which should attend our work." This set the tone for her letter. [The several Ellen G. White statements regarding the publishing work in college view and separate conferences were drawn together as parts of Manuscript 94, 1905, and later published as Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 4 (see especially pp. 22-32, where quotations in this chapter can be found). See also Testimonies for the Church 9:186-198.]
She asked:
Why are many of us so weak and inefficient? It is because we look to self, studying our own temperament and wondering how we can make a place for ourselves, our individuality, and our peculiarities, in the place of studying Christ and His character.
She declared:
Brethren who could work together in harmony if they would learn of Christ, forgetting that they are Americans or Europeans, Germans or Frenchmen, Swedes, Danes, or Norwegians, seem to feel that if they should blend with those of other nationalities, something of that which is peculiar to their own country and nation would be lost, and something else would take its place.
She urged:
My brethren, let us put all of that aside. We have no right to keep our minds stayed on ourselves, our preferences, and our fancies. We are not to seek to maintain a peculiar identity of our own, a personality, an individuality, which will separate us from our fellow laborers. We have a character to maintain, but it is the character of Christ.
The second communication written from Loma Linda on the same day, August 24, titled "The Publishing Work at College View, "was in more general terms. It opened with the words:
I approve of the efforts that have been made to establish our German and Scandinavian publishing work at College View. I hope that plans will be devised for the encouragement and strengthening of this work.
She came right to the subject in stating:
Our German and Danish and Swedish brethren have no good reason for not being able to act in harmony in the publishing work. Those who believe the truth should remember that they are God's little children, under His training. Let them be thankful to God for His manifold mercies and be kind to one another. They have one God and one Saviour; and one Spirit--the Spirit of Christ--is to bring unity into their ranks.
It is in this testimony that we find Ellen White's classic statement that has been used in several E. G. White compilations:
Christ recognized no distinction of nationality or rank or creed. The scribes and Pharisees desired to make a local and a national benefit of all the gifts of heaven, and to exclude the rest of God's family in the world. But Christ came to break down every wall of partition. He came to show that His gift of mercy and love is as unconfined as the air, the light, or the showers of rain that refresh the earth.
The Matter of Separate Conferences
In her third communication to the workers at College View she addressed herself to the question introduced at the General Conference regarding German and Scandinavian conferences. This testimony, dated September 1, 1905, and written from Loma Linda, opened:
Some of our ministers have written to me, asking if the work among the Germans and the Scandinavians should not be carried forward under separate organizations. This matter has been presented to me several times, and I have written upon the subject; but I do not know where to find all that I have written regarding the matter. When I was in College View [in 1904,] the Lord gave me a straight testimony to bear, and since that time the matter has been presented to me again.
Then she tells of how the subject was presented to her:
At one time I seemed to be in a council meeting where these matters were being considered. One of Authority stood in the midst of those assembled and opened before them principles that should be followed in the work of God. The instruction given was that should such separation take place, it would not tend to advance the interest of the work among the various nationalities. It would not lead to the highest spiritual development. Walls would be built up that would have to be removed in the near future.
According to the light given me of God, separate organizations, instead of bringing about unity, will create discord. If our brethren will seek the Lord together in humility of mind, those who now think it necessary to organize separate German and Scandinavian conferences will see that the Lord desires them to work together as brethren.
Were those who seek to disintegrate the work of God to carry out their purpose, some would magnify themselves to do a work that should not be done. Such an arrangement would greatly retard the cause of God. If we are to carry on the work most successfully the talents to be found among the English and Americans should be united with the talents of those of every other nationality. And each nationality should labor earnestly for every other nationality. There is but one Lord; one faith. Our efforts should be to answer Christ's prayer for His disciples, that they should be one.
Bringing this phase of counsel to a close, she stated:
I must write plainly regarding the building up of partition walls in the work of God. Such an action has been revealed to me as a fallacy of human invention. It is not the Lord's plan for His people to separate themselves into separate companies, because of differences in nationality and language. Did they do this, their ideas would become narrow, and their influence would be greatly lessened. God calls for a harmonious blending of a variety of talents.
She closes her appeal with these words:
Brethren, unify; draw close together, laying aside every human invention, and following closely in the footsteps of Jesus, your great example.
At that time the United States mails were relatively uncluttered by a mass of second and third-class materials; postal schedules could be counted on with precision. Ellen White and her associates at Loma Linda had their eyes on the dates set for the meetings in College View and pulled these six or seven items together--those written earlier and the four written for the occasion--into a single package and got it off in the mail, addressed to Elder G. A. Irwin, so that it would reach him in College View just at the opening of the important meetings.
The Meeting
Considering the various factors and the temper of those involved, church leaders anticipated that the meetings could run into several days. They did not know what might develop regarding the separation of nationalities. But, reported Elder E. T. Russell after the meetings closed: "The business was carried forward with dispatch and in two days was worked out completely."--28 WCW, p. 471.
The work that was begun on Tuesday, September 5, was finished by Wednesday evening, September 6. On Thursday the seventh, Elder G. A. Irwin wrote to the workers at Elmshaven:
I am glad to tell you that the Lord has given the victory here just as signally as He did in Colorado. The communications from Sister White came in just the right time, and answered the most important questions before us. They made the matter so clear and plain that even the most extreme agitators of a separation were led to accept them.--G. A. Irwin to WCW, September 7, 1905.
Irwin pointed out that Mrs. White's words penned at Loma Linda sounded the keynote: "I approve of the efforts that have been made to establish our German and Scandinavian publishing work in College View. I hope that plans will be devised for the encouragement and strengthening of this work." It seemed to be a text to work from. Commented Irwin:
The Lord disapproved of the efforts to divide and scatter into separate organizations, but on the other hand, approved of the effort that had been made to unite the three nationalities together in the publishing work. So then all we felt that we had to do was to devise plans for the encouragement of the work.
Then Elder Irwin, who for four years (1897 to 1901) had served as president of the General Conference, opened his heart in an expression of what he saw take place during the few days at Denver in late August and at College View in early September. He wrote:
I want to say, Brother White, that ever since I have been connected with the message, I have never seen more marked manifestations of the workings of divine Providence than I have at the meetings at Denver and here. I came up to both of these meetings with a great deal of dread and many misgivings; but the Lord has worked them both out so easily and so satisfactorily that it gives me a great deal of courage in the Lord's work.
Then he referred to his observation regarding the response of the people and their loyalty to the testimonies:
I was very much pleased to see the loyalty with which the brethren here regarded the testimonies.-- Ibid.
He told of one brother who was strong for the division of the groups into separate conferences, but after the testimonies were read he was the first man to get on his feet and acknowledge that he was wrong. "Now that the Lord had spoken, he felt to say, Amen."
There had been some grumbling among the personnel in the publishing house during the meeting. Some who strongly favored a division suggested that possibly the wording of the messages as read to them from Sister White did not actually come from her pen but may have been written by someone else, perhaps by Elder Irwin, to help carry the day at College View. This was a line of criticism that would run into 1906 and accelerate. It was suggested, particularly in Battle Creek, that possibly some of the messages sent out as coming from Sister White actually were written by others.
Nonetheless, it was a clear-cut victory for the truth at College View, the second occasion within a few days' time in which messages sent through the mail from California arrived at just the hour they were needed, met the situation squarely, and were heartily responded to by the workers and rank and file of the people.
Those present at the councils in College View in 1905 requested copies of the E. G. White testimonies that had turned the tide and had seemingly settled the question both of a unified work in the publishing house and of whether there should be separate conferences representing the language groups. There were also many out in the field who had been agitating the matter of separate conferences, and it was felt that they should have copies of these testimonies.
So plans were laid for the immediate publication of the entire group of materials in a thirty-two-page pamphlet. This was identified as Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 4, and carried the title of "Testimonies for the Church Regarding the Spirit of Unity That Should Be Maintained in the International Publishing Association and Among Laborers of All Nationalities in the Lord's Harvest Field." It was printed at Pacific Press as soon as arrangements could be made and was the second pamphlet of the four printed in 1905 as part of the nearly a score of pamphlets designated as Special Testimonies, Series B. Much of it was later reprinted in Testimonies, volume 9.
Concern for the Vegetarian Restaurants
Ellen White's trip to southern California to attend the Los Angeles camp meeting and to visit the sanitariums at Loma Linda, Paradise Valley, and Glendale took her away from home from August 10 to September 21.
For a year or more she had been concerned regarding the restaurants Seventh-day Adventists were operating, a line of work she had strongly supported. On several occasions she visited the vegetarian restaurant in Los Angeles and had been led to ponder:
It is not the large number of meals served that brings glory to God. What does this avail if not one soul has been converted, to gladden the hearts of the workers?
She declared:
There is danger, in the establishment of restaurants, of losing sight of the work that most needs to be done. There is danger of the workers' losing sight of the work of soul saving as they carry forward the business part of the enterprise. There is danger that the business part of the work will be allowed to crowd out the spiritual part.
Some good is being done by the restaurant work. Men and women are being educated to dispense with meat and other injurious articles of diet. But who are being fed with the bread of life? Is the purpose of God being fulfilled if in this work there are no conversions? It is time that we called a halt, lest we spend our energies in the establishment of a work that does little to make ready a people for the coming of the Lord.
The only object in the establishment of restaurants was to remove prejudice from the minds of men and women, and win them to the truth.--Manuscript 84, 1903 (Medical Ministry, 306, 307).
Now in September, 1905, just after her return from southern California, she participated in a convention of health food workers held at St. Helena Sanitarium. She spoke to them on Sabbath, and on Sunday addressed them on the subject of restaurant work (Manuscript 150, 1905). She spoke of her visit to the vegetarian restaurant in Los Angeles and told of her distress on observing that little was done to make the work a means of evangelistic outreach (Manuscript 96, 1905; Manuscript 27, 1906). Reporting on her Sunday meeting, she wrote:
I told them that there must be a thorough reformation in the health food business. It is not to be regarded so much as a commercial enterprise. At present but little is seen as the result of this work to lead us to recommend the establishment of more places to be conducted as our restaurants have been in the past. But few have been converted by this work in Los Angeles and in San Francisco. Many of the workers have lost the science of soul saving.--Letter 271, 1905.
Shortly after this convention, in writing to the president of the Southern California Conference she asked, "What is being accomplished in our large restaurants to teach men and women the way of the Lord?"--Letter 279, 1905.
Then she reported:
I am instructed to say that it is a mistake to gather up our young men and young women who have talent that might be utilized in evangelistic work, and call them to a work of serving tables, to a work where but feeble efforts are being put forth to warn those that are perishing in their sins, in ignorance of the truth and light which should be making its way into all parts of the world.... Those who have a valuable talent of influence should not be confined to the work of restaurants as they are now conducted.-- Ibid.
Happenings at Elmshaven
At Elmshaven, with the coming of fall it was grape-harvest time. Ellen White did not sell her grapes to wineries. Instead they were crushed and the juice was bottled fresh at the nearby Sanitarium Health Food Factory. It was then sold to health food stores, sanitariums, and individuals.
One Friday afternoon in mid-October, W. C. White summarized the activities around the place:
This Friday afternoon Dores [Robinson] is working writing out Mother's messages to the promoters of the Canon City Sanitarium enterprise. Ella and Mrs. Crisler are under the live oak tree, reading Patriarchs and Prophets [in connection with putting in new chapter headings, new tailpieces, and new illustrations.]
Sara is assisting Brother and Sister James with the wine, and Maggie, with a broken arm [she tripped over a pipe that was out of place] is inspecting the operations. May and the children are at home getting ready for the Sabbath.--29 WCW, p. 148.
October and November were months in which many issues pressed hard upon Ellen White. Then on November 16, W. C. White, on the urging of Elder Daniells, left to attend meetings in the Midwest and the East. He was away the rest of the year.
Her Seventy-Eighth Birthday
Sunday, November 26, was Ellen White's seventy-eighth birthday, but under the pressure of work she had forgotten this. Late in the morning she took a carriage ride. When she returned, she was greeted by a house full of people and two tables prepared in the dining room.
"I had been so busy," she wrote to Edson, "that I had not thought of its being my birthday, and I was, as Brother Starr used to say, 'plumb surprised' to find such a large gathering."--Letter 321, 1905.
The surprise dinner had been prepared by Sarah Peck and Mrs. S. H. King, Ellen White's new housekeeper. Dores and Ella were there, May and her three children, Grace and the twins, Mrs. King's 10-year-old niece, and the Elmshaven office staff. Only Willie and Mabel were missing--Mabel working at Paradise Valley and her father at College View, Nebraska, attending the Fall Council of the General Conference Committee.
"We partook of a nicely prepared meal," Ellen White wrote, "after which we went into the parlor, and engaged in a season of prayer, and sang a few hymns. The Lord came graciously near to us as we offered up hearty thanksgiving to God for His goodness and mercy to us all."-- Ibid.
She failed to mention that she delivered what May described as a "sweet little talk," part of which Dores took down in shorthand. In this she said:
I do not know as I shall be with you till another birthday. I do not cling to life; neither do I dread it. I am willing to take whatever God may see fit to send me.
But one thing I do desire is that as long as I have the breath of life my mental powers may be preserved. I am very thankful that my mind is as clear as it is, and that I can help as I do....
When I consider how weak I was in my younger days, I feel that at my age I have great reason to be thankful to the Lord.... Since the accident that happened to me when I was 9 years old, I have seldom been perfectly free from all pain. But I do not remember when I have been more free from pain than I am at present.--Manuscript 142, 1905.
Thinking of the controversy accelerating in Battle Creek over her work, she added:
I greatly desire that no contention or unbelief may cause me a single thought of retaliation against those who are opposing my work; for I cannot afford to spoil my peace of mind. I want to know that the Lord stands back of me, and that in Him I have a helper that no human being can exceed. Nothing is so precious to me as to know that Christ is my Saviour.
I appreciate the truth, every jot of it, just as it has been given to me by the Holy Spirit for the last fifty years. I desire everyone to know that I stand on the same platform of truth that we have maintained for more than half a century. That is the testimony that I desire to bear on the day that I am 78 years of age....
I know where my help is.... I trust in Jesus Christ as my Redeemer, my Saviour, and through Him I shall be an overcomer.-- Ibid.
Sister Ings at the Sanitarium sent down flowers, and there was another bouquet from St. Helena. Mrs. King gave her a silver-plated water pitcher, "just such a one as I had been thinking of purchasing" (Letter 321, 1905).
In writing of the surprise birthday party she took occasion to praise her new housekeeper, who had come from Healdsburg College where she served as matron, to take the place of Mrs. M. J. Nelson. The latter had left to continue her nurse's training.
We have been favored with Brother and Sister King to be our helpers. Both are very useful workers. Sister King is my cook, and the food comes onto the table in an appetizing shape for my workers. This is what we need: simple food prepared in a simple, wholesome, and relishable manner.... I have had a good appetite and relish my food, and am perfectly satisfied with the portion which I select, which I know does not injure my digestive organs....
I am glad and thankful that we secured Sister King as the matron of our home, and her husband to be a caretaker outside the home, and inside when needed.--Letter 322, 1905.