The erection and maintenance of the mammoth sanitarium that was rebuilt in Battle Creek brought many complications and perplexities. Through the years the Spirit of prophecy had been calling for a scattering from the headquarters of the denomination, and the distribution of the many responsibilities centered there. In harmony with this counsel, the college was moved to Berrien Springs, Michigan, in 1901, and re-established there as Emmanuel Missionary College. Two years later, in 1903, the offices of the Review and Herald Publishing Association and the General Conference were transferred to Washington, D.C.
Battle Creek Still a Center
Yet Battle Creek remained still the center from which was directed the medical missionary work conducted by the denomination. All medical institutions and workers throughout the world were bound by strong ties to the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. Although Battle Creek College had been moved away, its charter had not expired, and in the early summer of 1903 an announcement was made of the reopening in Battle Creek of a college under the old name. Plausible explanations were given that this was necessary to care for the preparatory education of the hundreds of nurses and medical students who were dependent upon the sanitarium for remunerative employment to assist them with the expense of their education. But many who were familiar with the alienation of the medical leaders from the church organization, the subtle teachings that were adverse to its fundamental doctrines, and the warnings and counsels that had come through the Spirit of prophecy, viewed with serious misgivings the inducements that were being set before the very flower of the youth of the church to come to this large center for training in medical lines.
Counsels from Mrs. White were plain and specific. She urged that the training of medical missionaries be carried forward at various places, rather than centered in one place. "By fire," she wrote, April 16, 1903, "the Lord removed the great argument in favor of gathering many students to Battle Creek. He swept away the sanitarium to prevent the carrying out of the idea that Battle Creek was to be the great center for the training of medical students. To carry out this idea would be out of harmony with the work for these last days and with the plans of the Lord."--The Review and Herald, August 27, 1903.
And when, a few months later, announcement was made by the sanitarium leaders at Battle Creek that the college was to be reopened at that place, she wrote on August 3, 1903: "I am very sorry to hear that there is a plan to reopen Battle Creek College. To establish a college in Battle Creek, after such plain warnings have been given against doing this, would be to make a great mistake. ...
"A school such as has been planned for should be in some place where the students would not be closely associated with the large numbers who are expected to patronize the sanitarium at Battle Creek. It is not wise to plan to maintain such a school in a place where a worldly element prevails to so great an extent as to counterwork that which the Lord has outlined should be done for our youth in our educational institutions."--Ibid.
Support Gradually Withdrawn
With the loyalty of the members of the denomination to the General Conference organization and to the Spirit of prophecy, it was inevitable that their patronage and support not only to the sanitarium in Battle Creek but to the American Medical Missionary College should be steadily withdrawn as the breach widened. This became most noticeable by 1907, when, after a graduation of twenty-two in the spring, only twenty-six of the fifty-seven undergraduates returned in the autumn, with eleven members of a freshman class. This decreased the total enrollment to thirty-seven. There was a further drop, with ten graduates and a total enrollment for the next term of only thirty-three in all classes. In 1909 there were but five graduates.
Efforts were now made to enlarge the attendance by making the school popular with other denominations. On the advisory council were placed such names as Wilfred T. Grenfell, Robert Beebe, and George D. Dowkontt. A freshman class of thirty-six, representing eleven religious denominations, enrolled in 1908, and again the future of the school looked promising. In his commencement address before the class of 1909, Dr. Kellogg said:
"The present prospect is that within two or three years, at least, the school will have an attendance of between one hundred and fifty and two hundred; and I presume this is about as large as the school ought to be, for forty or fifty students graduating each year is about as large a number as the missionary boards will be willing to find places for."--The Medical Missionary, July, 1909.
These high hopes, however, were not to be realized. A graduating class of ten members in the spring of 1910 was the last to receive diplomas from the American Medical Missionary College. During its life of fifteen years it had received over four hundred students and had graduated nearly two hundred, the larger part of whom were Seventh-day Adventist young men and women who have made possible the manning of many sanitariums, or who have served valiantly in home or foreign service in behalf of Christ.
Strong pressure was beginning to be brought by the American Association of Medical Colleges to eliminate "unworthy schools from the land, and to limit the number of medical colleges to those great universities whose standing as great schools may be taken as a guaranty of the character of their work." This pressure was felt by the American Medical Missionary College, and though it was still able to maintain its status, its leaders looked into the future with grave apprehension. They thought best to close voluntarily rather than later to be forced out of existence. Deeming it "expedient to yield at once what seemed to be an untenable position," they announced that the school was to be merged with the Illinois state university. (Ibid., October, 1910.)
A Providential Opening
And now, as the work of training Christian physicians goes down in Battle Creek, Michigan, we turn our attention to developments that were opening the way for such training to be given elsewhere. The providence of God was unmistakably seen in this emergency.
Five years before this, in an appeal to Seventh-day Adventist parents not to send their children and youth to Battle Creek, where their minds would become confused by erroneous teachings and misleading influences, Mrs. White had written on October 28, 1905, the following assurance regarding divine plans for the education of medical missionaries and physicians:
"The Lord will open, yes, He is opening ways whereby your children can be given an education in medical missionary lines without endangering their souls. If the preparations in these places are not as complete as they are at Battle Creek, they can do as much as was done when the work was first started at Battle Creek. We did not then have provision for sending out fully equipped physicians. In a short time we shall have facilities for giving the necessary requirements."--Ellen G. White Manuscript 151, 1905.
It was, doubtless, providential that this statement, with a prediction of facilities to be provided elsewhere than in Battle Creek for giving the necessary requirements for the training of "fully equipped physicians," was not sent out at the time it was penned. Surely the faith of the believers would have been taxed to the utmost at that time to credit the assertion or to realize that the Lord was even then "opening up ways" whereby the youth could be "given an education in medical missionary lines without endangering their souls." Yet so it was, as may be seen today in the light of later developments.
A Remarkable Coincidence
It is certainly a remarkable coincidence that a few days after reading of the merging of the American Medical Missionary College with the state university of Illinois, because of the seemingly imminent closing of the former institution by the American Association of Medical Colleges, one might have seen in the denominational church paper a report beginning with these words:
"September 29 [1910] was a red-letter day in the history of our medical missionary work. A new mile-stone was passed in the opening of the College of Medical Evangelists, our denominational medical college at Loma Linda, California."--The Review and Herald, October 27, 1910.
At the very time when the students who had begun their medical studies in the American Medical Missionary College were being transferred to the Illinois state university for the completion of their course, a group of about thirty-five Seventh-day Adventist youth were being enrolled in the new medical school at Loma Linda, California. A group of prospective cooks, bakers, and nurses raised the total enrollment of students to ninety-two.
Well might one wonder if those promoting this new enterprise had counted the cost involved or had seriously faced the difficulties connected with the establishment of another small medical college at such an unpropitious time. Were they unaware of the purpose of the authorities that regulated the medical colleges to force small, meagerly equipped institutions to close their doors? How could they hope to forge ahead under the same circumstances that had led the board of the American Medical Missionary College to regard the future outlook as hopeless, and to discontinue their training course for physicians?
The promoters of the enterprise at Loma Linda had counted the cost; they had, indeed, undertaken a formidable enterprise, but they had done so with courage because they were assured that they had been led by providential circumstances, and by the counsel that they had learned to regard as from One who not only calls His people to pass through the overflowing waters, but who opens those waters, as they by faith step their feet into the sea.