In connection with the session of the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference of 1901, a meeting of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association was called on the afternoon of April 9. The constituency of the association included the General Conference Committee, the presidents of local conferences, twelve men selected biennially by the General Conference, all persons who had paid $1,000 or more into the association treasury, and delegates from the various sanitariums and subsidiary organizations. These members were called forward from among the general delegation attending the General Conference held in the large tabernacle in Battle Creek, Michigan.
The Biennial Report
The secretary gave a report of the operations of the association during the two-year period. As soon as he had finished and the report had been accepted, a delegate arose and said: "I was not quite sure, Mr. Chairman, of the statistics; but the best I could get it, from the report, is that this association employs 74 physicians, 448 nurses, and about 1,200 other helpers. Am I correct?"--The General Conference Bulletin, April 10, 1901.
On being assured that these figures were approximately correct, the delegate continued: "Then if this is correct, there are more persons in the employ of this association in its various departments of work than in the employ of the whole General Conference. Is that correct?"--Ibid.
Again the conclusion was affirmed, and thus these striking figures were emphasized, as indicating "the size of the work that is being brought before us today."--Ibid.
A good part of the strength of this organization had been the result of its progress and growth during the two-year period covered by the secretary's report. During that time there had been added eleven of the twenty-seven sanitariums then functioning, and fifteen of the thirty-one treatment rooms then in operation, not only in the United States but also in Switzerland, Denmark, England, Germany, South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and the Pacific Islands. Scores of nurses were engaged in self-supporting work among the poor and needy in Chicago and other cities. The Haskell Home for Orphans and the James White Memorial Home for the Aged were filled to capacity, and other lines of philanthropic endeavor were widespread. Besides the Good Health, with an average circulation of 30,000 copies monthly, nine other health publications were issued, some of them extending the knowledge of the health principles to lands across the sea. There was a steady demand for doctors and nurses and health educators, calls from various parts of the world being received faster than these workers could be trained for service.
The quality of the training given in the American Medical Missionary College had been subjected to the severest tests in examinations given to the graduate students by the State Board of Illinois, and the splendid results achieved secured admittance for the college into the Association of American Medical Colleges. Forty-five members of the two first classes had graduated, thus making possible the opening of several new institutions and the strengthening of those already in operation. The 115 undergraduates also gave promise for still further expansion.
An Unfortunate Situation
Up to this time the medical school had been a foster child of the sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. There had been no calls through the organized body of Seventh-day Adventists for means either for its establishment or its operation. Not only had the school been supported by the sanitarium, but this institution also had made it possible for many students to attend the medical college, by offering them work sufficient to pay their living expenses and tuition.
These factors help to an understanding of an unfortunate relationship that existed between the General Conference organization, which directs the worldwide evangelistic work of the denomination, and the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association with its complete control of the varied lines of service carried on by the denomination in medical and philanthropic endeavor, and, as we have seen, employing a larger number of workers than the general organization.
The relative strength of these two organizations was further affected by the respective financial assets of each. The General Conference was dependent, for its support and the prosecution of the purely evangelistic lines, almost wholly upon the tithes and freewill offerings of loyal church members. The medical missionary organization also could draw liberally upon the sympathy and support of the members of the church; but besides this, the nature of its work enabled the medical leaders to make effective appeals to wealthy philanthropists outside the church membership. Then, too, through their professional services, sanitariums and treatment rooms were capable of earning hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. This explains the fact that the sanitarium at Battle Creek could support the medical college and furnish work for the medical students and nurses while pursuing their professional studies.
An Impediment to United Action
The resultant feeling of independence from the General Conference organization, on the part of the directors of the sanitarium at Battle Creek and its allied organizations, may be seen in the following statement made by Dr. J.H. Kellogg, the chairman, in his opening remarks at the first session of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, at the General Conference of 1901. He said:
"This association has charge of the medical and benevolent work of the entire denomination, and it has the power of the entire denomination in it; for it has all the presidents in it, and the whole General Conference in it, and it has something more in it besides. And so you see it is competent to deal with any question that needs to be brought forward in relation to medical missionary work. There is no question that this association can consider that it needs to refer to the General Conference Committee or the General Conference, because it is the General Conference, and the Medical Missionary Association. We have, therefore, a responsibility on our shoulders to do the right thing, and to know what we ought to do."--Ibid.
Mutual understanding and co-operation between the General Conference and the ministry, on the one hand, and the Medical Missionary Association and physicians, on the other, was made still more difficult because there was no representative of the medical work on the General Conference Committee. The personnel of the Foreign Mission Board, with headquarters in New York City, likewise included no representative of the medical missionary work. Yet in the foreign fields, as well as in the United States, there were evangelists and executives sent out and directed by the General Conference, while also physicians and nurses selected were sent out and directed by the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. These workers were all members of the same church, with many mutual relationships in their work, yet these circumstances tended to division rather than to the unity that was greatly needed.
Mrs. White's Notable Address
The General Conference of 1901 was an epochal one in the history of Seventh-day Adventists. It was a meeting of reorganization, of earnest study of basic principles, in an effort to strengthen every department of denominational endeavor. On the day before the conference was to open, Mrs. White addressed a representative group of leaders, pointing out that with the rapid growth and extension of the work in all the world the responsibilities resting upon the few should be widely distributed. Referring to the small number of men who were entrusted with the responsibilities of leadership, and who often dealt with problems relating to conditions in lands afar, she said:
"Never should the mind of one man or the minds of a few men be regarded as sufficient in wisdom and power to control the work and say what plans shall be followed. The burden of the work in this broad field should not rest upon two or three men. We are not reaching the high standard which, with the great and important truth we are handling, God expects us to reach."--E. G. White Manuscript 43, 1901.
Not only was the General Conference Committee to be enlarged, but it was to be representative of the various lines of work. She said further: "The management of the regular lines must be entirely changed, newly organized. There must be a committee, not composed of half a dozen men, but of representatives from all lines of our work, from our publishing houses, from our educational institutions, and from our sanitariums. ... God desires that His work shall be a rising, broadening, enlarging power. But the management of the work is becoming confused in itself. Not that anyone wishes to be wrong or to do wrong; but the principles are wrong. ... What must be done is to bring in other minds."--Ibid.
These thoughts were repeated by Mrs. White before the entire delegation, in the very first meeting, immediately after the report of the General Conference president. "What we want now," she said, "is a reorganization. We want to begin at the foundation and to build upon a different principle."--The General Conference Bulletin, April 3, 1901.
She urged that "men who are standing at the head of our various institutions," including the educational and medical interests in "different localities and in different states," should "stand as representative men, to have a voice in molding and fashioning the plans that shall be carried out." There must be "more than one or two or three men to consider the whole vast field. The work is great, and there is no one human mind that can plan for the work which needs to be done. ... There must be a renovation, a reorganization; a power and strength must be brought into the committees that are necessary."--Ibid.
Consistent Counsel
Consistent with her testimony borne through the years, at this conference Mrs. White urged the unity of the medical and evangelistic work of the denomination. She lamented the failure of some to live in harmony with the health principles, and urged both ministers and physicians to carry forward a dual service. In the opening address, from which we have already quoted, she said: "The principles of health reform have been proclaimed by us as a people for thirty years. And yet there are among us ministers of the gospel and members of the church who have no respect for the light that God has given upon health reform. They eat as they please and work as they please. ... God calls upon His people to put away self-pleasing. When in body, soul, and spirit they will dedicate themselves to God, His power will be revealed in a remarkable manner."--Ibid.
A few days later, as Mrs. White arose to address the conference, she prefaced her remarks with the striking statement that during the previous night she had received special instruction regarding the medical missionary work. She said also: "I have been given light all along the way in regard to the workings of the cause, and last night some things in regard to the medical missionary work were brought more especially before me."--Ibid., April 12, 1901.
She referred to the time about thirty-five years previous "when health reform was first brought to our notice," and stated that it had been presented to her as a work to be carried forward such as is described in Isaiah 61:1-4 and in the Saviour's commission to His disciples when He "sent them forth to preach the gospel," and gave to them power to "heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease." She spoke of the intemperance that she had then seen would "prevail in the world to an alarming extent," and how she was shown "that every one of the people of God must take an elevated stand in regard to reformation in habits and practices." Of the blessings that were to come to His people through this light, she said: "The Lord presented a general plan before me. I was shown that God would give to His commandment-keeping people a reform diet, and that as they received this, their disease and suffering would be greatly lessened. I was shown that this work would progress."--Ibid.
Further Instructions
The instruction given in 1865 regarding the establishing of a health institution was reviewed. Of this she said: "This was the means God was to use in bringing His people to a right understanding in regard to health reform. It was also to be the means by which we were to gain access to those not of our faith. We were to have an institution where the sick could be relieved of suffering, and that without drug medication. God declared that He Himself would go before His people in this work."--Ibid.
In addition to her remarks pointing out the benefits of personal adoption of the health reform, and of the educational work to be carried forward in the sanitariums, Mrs. White spoke of the work to be done by church members and ministers in their service for others. She urged that many of the members of the Battle Creek church should go out into the field "and help their fellow beings, to bring joy to those in sorrow, to heal the sick, to show men and women that they are destroying themselves." It was in this connection, while relating the instruction given to her the previous night, that Mrs. White uttered such striking statements in regard to the importance of medical missionary work as the following:
"Medical missionary work is the pioneer work. It is to be connected with the gospel ministry. It is the gospel in practice, the gospel practically carried out. I have been made so sorry to see that our people have not taken hold of this work as they should. ...
"I wish to tell you that soon there will be no work done in ministerial lines but medical missionary work. The work of a minister is to minister. Our ministers are to work on the gospel plan of ministering. ...
"The medical missionary work is God's work. The Lord wants every one of His ministers to come into line. Take hold of the medical missionary work, and it will give you access to the people. Their hearts will be touched as you minister to their necessities. ...
"I am fully in favor of this resolution, because I know that medical missionary work is the gospel in practice and, as the Lord has declared, is never, never to be separated from the gospel ministry."--Ibid.
Mrs. White was at this time nearly seventy-four years of age, and it was very unusual for her to take part in the business proceedings of the conference. The resolution that so aroused her interest as to lead her to depart from her usual absence from the business meetings was one making provision for the formation of a General Conference Committee of twenty-five members, of which six were to be chosen by the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, and nineteen by the General Conference.
Association Seeks Centralized Control
The medical missionary work was given a very prominent place in this epochal conference. The regular meetings of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association were largely attended by the delegates to the General Conference, as also were the meetings of the Michigan Sanitarium and Benevolent Association, which was the successor to the Western Health Reform Institute. There was, as could be seen later, one disturbing factor in the plans developed by the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. Clearly and definitely underlying the counsel for reorganization was the principle that responsibilities should be distributed rather than centralized. Yet at the very time when the General Conference delegates were seeking to follow this counsel, steps were being advanced involving a more effective centralized control by the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association of all medical missionary enterprises.
On April 16, 1901, the president of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association outlined a plan "to bind our different sanitariums together." When new sanitariums were started, instead of independent corporations being formed for their control, there were rather to be "auxiliary associations established, tied to this central body." Under this arrangement the officers of such organizations were to be nominated not by local conferences or organizations, but by the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association with headquarters in Battle Creek. It was set forth, as a desirable arrangement, that it should be "impossible for these institutions to exist without this body, and to maintain their corporate life without this corporation." After proposing this plan, the association's president continued:
"I want to ask this body to take a vote adopting this mode of procedure, and recommending that it shall be continued, and that all the sanitariums organized and incorporated shall be incorporated on a similar plan, so that they shall be tied to this body."--Minutes of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, reported in the The General Conference Bulletin, April 18, 1901.
Not to Centralize Power in Battle Creek
Although an action was passed by the delegates of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association in support of this plan of organization, it was not long before definite instruction was received from Mrs. White, pointing out that it was a mistake. Under date of July 28, 1901, Mrs. White wrote:
"It has been presented before me distinctly that there is not to be a submerging of interests or a binding up of all the sanitariums with the Battle Creek Sanitarium, so that they shall all be amenable to your control. These things are not of God's devising, but are the result of human planning. ...
"The Lord has presented matters to me again and again, and given me instructions to say that God Himself is ruler and counselor and guardian of every sanitarium that shall be established. It is an error to tie up everything possible with the powers at Battle Creek. All are required to work in perfect harmony. Each has a part to act, the high and influential and also the lowly ones. They can work in harmony without being bound with human cords, as they were being bound to Battle Creek as their great center and power."--E. G. White Letter 180, 1901.
Although the action taken by the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, binding all branches of the work to the central body, was later to become a controversial issue, yet its implications were not generally seen at the General Conference of 1901, and there seemed to be such unity and understanding between the two bodies as looked promising for the future.
When an appeal was made for the raising of a fund to provide a suitable building for the medical college in Chicago, there was a hearty response. Many of the delegates had occupied rooms at the sanitarium; and when the session closed, it was with great rejoicing on the part of those who had the interests of the cause at heart that there was not only a better mutual understanding between the medical workers and the General Conference, but that in the reorganization of the work provision had been made for closer co-operation between the medical and evangelistic parts of the work, not merely co-operation, as of two separate bodies, but real unity.