The year 1910 was a busy one for Ellen White. From the epochal union conference session in Mountain View, which closed on Sunday, January 30, she went immediately to Lodi to attend the annual session of the California Conference, which was to open on Tuesday morning. Just as the union session was a particularly important one, so was the meeting of the local conference. There was little question concerning the leadership of the field. Elder S.N. Haskell, although 76, was giving good steady guidance in conference affairs. In advance of the meeting he had expressed a desire to be relieved of responsibilities, but while Ellen White did not want to sway the election, she had indicated her approval of his continuing in office. She wrote:
Regarding Elder Haskell's future work, I dare not take the responsibility of giving advice. With proper helpers, Elder Haskell and his wife, by the sustaining grace of God, may continue to do an important work in the position they have occupied. There is to be an increased force of working agencies in every part of the field.
If Elder Haskell feels that he is willing again to carry responsibility, I would advise that a wise-hearted minister be chosen to share his responsibilities. The experience and the knowledge gained in their past service has given to Brother and Sister Haskell an understanding of the work that will be a help to their fellow laborers and to the conference.--Letter 8, 1910.
There were 162 delegates at the conference, representing 5,039 members in eighty-three churches. The conference session opened Tuesday morning, February 1, and extended to Sunday, February 6. Ellen White spoke each day at eleven o'clock, closing her work with the sermon on Sabbath morning. A good spirit pervaded the conference (Pacific Union Recorder, February 17, 1910). Some things were done that were entirely different from what the president had expected. Three very important moves were made:
1. The school in Lodi: The Western Normal Institute, which had been started independent of conference support, was heavily in debt and stood in dire need of strong leadership. Ellen White had observed this in an earlier visit to Lodi. In one of her addresses at the session she dealt somewhat with the school and its problems, including those in disciplinary lines. Careful groundwork had been done, and a proposal that the Lodi school become a "conference" school, with the church taking over the plant and a $27,000 debt, gained favorable support (Ibid.).
2. Action was taken to make the new school at Angwin, so far operated by the California Conference, a union conference institution to be known as Pacific Union College. The property was turned over to the Pacific Union, and a board of managers was chosen (Ibid., February 24, 1910).
3. It was decided to move the headquarters of the California Conference from Mountain View to Oakland, a move that became effective immediately (Ibid.).
With the session over, it was back to Elmshaven, where she devoted her time and strength to book work. Some of the members of her staff were just beginning to consider the involvements in what some have termed a "revision" of The Great Controversy. At the time of the union session, C. H. Jones, manager of the Pacific Press, had discussed with W. C. White the need of a new printing of the book and the matter of the much-worn printing plates. First considerations were in upgrading illustrations, appendix notes, et cetera. But the involvements were to increase as the year wore on.
A Visit To Pacific Union College
On Tuesday, March 8, although not feeling well, Ellen White went to Pacific Union College to join a group of about twenty-five workers and members who had been invited to come to the school and become acquainted with developments there. The group had arrived the afternoon before and had looked over some of the more general features of the plant and listened to presentations made by the president, C. W. Irwin, and some of the teachers. They found that, in harmony with the counsel given through the Spirit of Prophecy down through the years, a strong industrial program was in operation, with students dividing their time between study and manual labor. Students were found with skills in engineering, blacksmithing, electrical work, the handling of horses, orchard care, the felling of heavy timber, poultry care, gardening, and cooking.
Ellen White spoke encouraging words to the inspecting group. She was pleased with the accomplishments at the college (WCW to AGD, March 13, 1910).
The Trip To Southern California
Loma Linda was much on the minds of Ellen White and W. C. White at this time. The decisions reached at Mountain View on January 29, which called for Loma Linda to be developed into a full-fledged medical school, were far-reaching and called for concurrence of the General Conference Committee and the several union conferences that would be assisting in the project. It was recognized that there must be the work of "selling" the plan to the organizations involved. To do this, a committee was named in the last clause of the action taken at Mountain View. It read:
That a committee consisting of the incoming president of the Pacific Union Conference, the president of the Southern California Conference, W. C. White, J. A. Burden, and I. H. Evans, be asked to present this entire question to the General Conference and the union conferences referred to, and to lead out in the establishment of this medical school.--The Review and Herald, May 19, 1910.
It was a large assignment for the committee of five, one that would take W. C. White into the field much of the time in 1910 and particularly before a meeting at Loma Linda, opening May 6, to chart the course of the school. It was this meeting Ellen White had her eyes upon as the next crucial step in getting the medical school under way.
By this time she was laying aside heavy correspondence and devoting her time and strength to book work, and, except for nearby churches, speaking on important occasions only. While there are 222 letters from her pen on file for the year 1905, the file for 1910 contains only ninety-seven.
On Wednesday afternoon, March 23, she was on her way to Los Angeles, accompanied by Sara McEnterfer and Helen Graham. Thursday morning she counseled with the officers of the Southern California Conference in Los Angeles. In the afternoon, the president, Elder E. E. Andross, and John Wessels, business manager of the Glendale Sanitarium, drove her to the institution (WCW to May White, March 27, 1910). W. C. White joined her for the weekend. Sabbath she met with the members of the Carr Street church and spoke to an overflow crowd. Her topic was "The Vine and the Branches." Writing of this meeting, she said:
The house was crowded to its utmost capacity. I wish a picture could have been drawn of the crowd. The crowded congregation was the most agreeable sight I have ever looked upon, and everything was in order.
Every receptacle for flowers was removed. Every seat that could be crowded in was occupied. There was not one crying voice of a child, and the pleasant, happy faces were a sight that brought joy to my heart and did my soul good. The sisters, as far as I could see, removed their hats, and what a pleasure it was to view their countenances. I had good freedom in speaking.--Letter 36, 1910.
She was to go back to Glendale to speak to the workers there the following morning. She wrote about leaving the Carr Street church:
When we were seated in the automobile, ready to return to Glendale, not a few colored sisters pressed about the conveyance to see and speak with me. They expressed their appreciation of the discourse. Cheerfulness and happiness was expressed in their countenances, and it was a scene of cheerful parting. I shall long remember that interesting meeting, and the stillness and peacefulness expressed in the countenances of both white and colored people.-- Ibid.
On Monday, March 28, Ellen White went to Loma Linda. The same day W. C. White took the train east to attend the Spring Meeting of the General Conference Committee to be held early in April, at Washington, D.C. At this meeting the Loma Linda medical school would be considered, and he had to be there. He would not be with his mother again until just before the crucial May 6 meeting.
When Ellen White reached Loma Linda, she found work going forward on a church building--a "meetinghouse," as she would call it. She spent the week resting, for still she was not feeling well. On two occasions she went out for a drive with the carriage pulled by an "old steady horse" owned by the Sanitarium. One drive took her "up the hill where there is so much to please our senses in the beautiful variety of flowers and trees of rare selection and beauty." She exclaimed, "It is simply indescribable."--Letter 150, 1910.
As her age advanced, the speaking and travel drew more heavily on her physical resources. During this week of resting at Loma Linda she wrote of the "severe taxation at Mountain View" as "a terrible ordeal" to her, and also of speaking in Lodi in a room improperly ventilated. "All these things combined to cause me much suffering," she wrote, but declared, "Still I shall not excuse myself from the future meeting in Loma Linda." She went on to explain: "I feel no particular anxiety in regard to my future life. Let my life be hid with Christ in God, and it is then well with my soul."-- Ibid.
On Sabbath, April 2, she spoke to a large congregation assembled on the lawn of the institution, under the pepper trees. With her strength returning, it seemed that plans for her to visit other points in southern California before the important Loma Linda meeting could be carried out. The school at San Fernando was the first, where she spoke twice over the weekend. Late the next week she spoke in San Diego, on Sabbath morning, April 16. She was glad for another visit to Paradise Valley Sanitarium, in which she had a great interest, but she did not stay long. Monday the eighteenth found her back in Loma Linda, and she was glad to see that the meetinghouse was near completion. The workmen were pressing hard to have it ready for the meeting that would open on Friday, May 6 (Ibid.).
The Los Angeles Meeting In Simpson Auditorium
Elder Andross, president of the Southern California Conference, had pressed Ellen White to speak a second time in Los Angeles, on this occasion in a public hall to the people who could not possibly crowd into a small meetinghouse--people who would count it a privilege to hear her. "I was then suffering--sick upon my bed in Loma Linda," she wrote to W. C., "but I consented."--Letter 151, 1910. She then told of how the Lord had healed her to fill the appointment. Commenting further on such situations, she said:
I have my sick and suffering times, but whenever a call is made I get right up. I saw the Lord knows; He will strengthen me for the work. I am not feeling well, but when any calls come like this one, I shall be on my feet ready to speak.-- Ibid.
So, regardless of her feelings, in response to the urgent invitation she planned to fill the appointment. But as the week wore on and the time to go to Los Angeles neared, she felt it would be presumptuous to leave Loma Linda. Communication with the conference president led her to send word that if it was at all reasonable, she would come. Friday morning, April 22, she went to Los Angeles, stayed at Glendale Sanitarium Friday night, and was driven to the hall on Sabbath morning. When she arrived, the hall was filled, and 200 people stood outside. "I could not tell what to do," she wrote later.-- Ibid. It was proposed that a few blocks away was a larger hall--the Simpson Auditorium. Hasty arrangements were made for its use, and the crowd flocked to the new location. The large number of people standing on the street at the first hall, and then 1,500 people walking the few blocks to the larger hall, must have made quite an impression on the people of Los Angeles. Soon the main floor and gallery were filled.
"The Lord gave me voice and clearness of mind," wrote Ellen White of the experience, "as I spoke from the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy with portions from the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters." For more than an hour she addressed the attentive audience. "The Lord gave me the freedom of His Holy Spirit, and many in the audience were deeply affected," she reported.--Letter 146, 1910.
She commented concerning the actions of the conference president, "Elder Andross has done his part nobly." She also thought of the man who with his automobile had taken her from one place to another. "I will send you a book," she promised as they parted, "for you have waited upon us right attentively." "Oh," said he, "if you only knew what this occasion has been to me! It is the greatest blessing of my life."--Letter 151, 1910.
Time For The Loma Linda Meeting Nears
The time of the important meeting at Loma Linda was nearing, and Ellen White felt she should preserve her strength that she might work efficiently then (Letter 38, 1910). On Tuesday night, April 26, she received a vision concerning which she wrote to Clarence Crisler at Elmshaven. She urged him to come to Loma Linda for the meeting:
The Lord is opening matters to me. All who are connected with our schools as teachers are to understand what it means to learn from the highest Source the requirements of God and then carry them out in sanctified, refined characters. We are not to follow the sentiments of the world and call this the higher education. God has been educating His people in the higher principles of education. Our principles are to be kept high and ennobling, sanctifying the receiver. The science of higher education means the grand work of sanctification.--Letter 159, 1910.
The vision seemed timely. In a few days church leaders would be charting the course of the medical school that had been voted for the training of Adventist youth as physicians.
The morning after the vision, she wrote to Elder Burden, in Loma Linda carrying the responsibility of the work:
During the night of April 26, many things were opened before me. I was shown that now in a special sense we as a people are to be guided by divine instruction. Those fitting themselves for medical missionary work should fear to place themselves under the direction of worldly doctors, to imbibe their sentiments and peculiar prejudices, and to learn to express their ideas and views. They are not to depend for their influence upon worldly teachers. They should be "looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."
The Lord has instructed us that in our institutions of education, we should ever be striving for the perfection of character to be found in the life of Christ, and in His instruction to His disciples. Having received our commission from the highest authority, we are to educate, educate, educate in the simplicity of Christ. Our aim must be to reach the highest standard in every feature of our work.--Letter 61, 1910 (published in Medical Evangelist, Second Quarter, 1910).
The six-page communication stressed high standards, an independence from men of the world and "the spirit of the world." To physicians and teachers was to come "a new understanding of the principles that must govern the medical work. An education is to be given that is altogether in harmony with the teachings of the Word of God."
The instruction was balanced and cautious. Near its close she wrote:
A time will come when medical missionaries of other denominations will become jealous and envious of the influence exerted by Seventh-day Adventists who are working in these lines. They will feel that influence is being secured by our workers which they ought to have.
We should have, in various places, men of extraordinary ability, who have obtained their diplomas in medical schools of the best reputation, who can stand before the world as fully qualified and legally recognized physicians. Let God-fearing men be wisely chosen to go through the training essential in order to obtain such qualifications. They should be prudent men who will remain true to the principles of the message.
These should obtain the qualifications and the authority to conduct an educational work for our young men and our young women who desire to be trained for medical missionary work.
The communication closed with this counsel:
Now while the world is favorable toward the teaching of the health reform principles, moves should be made to secure for our own physicians the privilege of imparting medical instruction to our young people who would otherwise be led to attend the worldly medical colleges. The time will come when it will be more difficult than it now is to arrange for the training of our young people in medical missionary lines.-- Ibid.
This message was delivered just ten days before the leading men of the church would meet to outline the course that should be followed in the developments at Loma Linda.
In the meantime, the Spring Meeting of the General Conference Committee convened, and the far-reaching action of approval was taken on April 13. The minutes of that meeting read:
G. A. Irwin presented the instruction from Sister White regarding the establishment of a medical college at that place [Loma Linda], and the action of the Pacific Union Conference....
G. A. Irwin moved that we accept the action and invitation of the Pacific Union regarding the Loma Linda Medical College, and that we appoint two members of the board of the proposed institution.
W. C. White also spoke of the favorable conditions at Loma Linda for such a school.--General Conference Committee Minutes, April 13, 1910 (see also DF 5, Medical Practice and the Educational Program at Loma Linda, p. 93).
The whole matter was carefully considered, and before the day closed the approving action was taken:
Resolved, That the General Conference unite with the Pacific Union Conference in establishing a medical school at Loma Linda, California.
There was a financial provision for the new school in the amount of $1,000, and three men from the General Conference were appointed to serve as members of the board of control.
As the matter was presented to the respective unions in North America, either constituencies or administrative committees gave their approval, and each appointed a member to the board of control.
The May 6 Meeting At Loma Linda
On Friday, May 6, 1910, the men from the various fields appointed to the task of opening a medical school at Loma Linda met there in the newly finished meetinghouse. The first item of business was to review the history of the work and the development of the medical school idea. This was done so "that the brethren from the East might have an intelligent understanding of the present status of the movement, and thus be prepared to consider the question from the standpoint of the light that had been received, which caused the brethren connected with the work at Loma Linda to pursue the course which they had" (G. A. Irwin, in Pacific Union Recorder, June 9, 1910). In reporting the meeting in the Review and Herald, Elder Irwin wrote:
The latest [Ellen G. White] communications in regard to this enterprise were so clear and explicit that all doubt as to their intent was removed from the minds of the members of the council; and hence, from the very beginning, the meeting was characterized by a spirit of earnestness and determination.--June 9, 1910.
Ellen White spoke only once during the council, and that was near the close. She was on the grounds, and her advice was sought from time to time. In the main, however, matters had been laid out so clearly that steps were taken on the basis of her accumulated statements, which were studied and restudied. Early in the meeting consideration was given to the organizational structure. Should the Sanitarium and the medical school be represented by separate corporations or only one? Here again, counsel already had been given. Irwin reports that concerning the corporation, "The testimonies clearly implied [they] should be one."-- Ibid. A resolution was passed "to consolidate the Sanitarium corporation and the college corporation into one, to be known as the College of Medical Evangelists" (Ibid.).
Here, too, in the matter of the selection of a name, Ellen White had had some insight. Some months before this meeting, while visiting Loma Linda, she had been pondering the matter of a name. It was not uncommon for her to wrestle with words, attempting to find a way to put them together effectively. One morning as she came to breakfast at Loma Linda, she declared triumphantly, "I've got it! I've got it! Medical Missionary Evangelists." This phrase of her coining, which she felt embodied the true objective of the institution, contributed to the choice of a name for the school, "The College of Medical Evangelists."--As told to the author by W. C. White.
Through the week of the spring meeting at Loma Linda steps were taken carefully and firmly, and the medical school--that is, plans for it--became a reality. On Wednesday, the day before the council closed, Ellen White addressed the group. Following her address, accompanied by Sara McEnterfer and Helen Graham, she left for St. Helena and home. She was much worn, the weather was very hot, and she laid aside her burdens for the remainder of the month. During this time she enjoyed a visit from her friend Mrs. Nellie Druillard.