The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

San Francisco a Missionary Point

In 1875 an important testimony was given to the San Francisco church, to which attention is now called because of its being so strikingly fulfilled. This church from the first had been under the necessity of renting halls for services, and that, too, at considerable expense and some inconvenience, as no series of meetings could be held in them because much of the time they were required for other purposes. GSAM 446.2

On the evenings of April 14 and 20, 1875, the leading members of the San Francisco church were called together at the house of Mrs. J. L. James, Fifth Street, near Market Street, and Mrs. White there related to us what had been shown her in vision concerning the situation, which was that San Francisco would ever be a missionary point, where the work could be carried on; and that souls would, if the matter was managed judiciously, continue to accept the truth. If a house of worship was erected where the people could be invited, and where labor could be put forth, souls would be added to their number, who, in their turn, would help to meet the expense and lift the debt which must be incurred in preparing a meeting-house. GSAM 446.3

Mrs. White continued by saying that she had seen that when she should urge upon the San Francisco church the importance of erecting a house of worship, it would look to that poor church like a move in the dark; but she was bidden to say that as they moved out they would see the providence of God opening the way before them, step by step, and that friends would be raised up all the way along, until finally the debt would be entirely taken up. GSAM 447.1

Being one of the few who met in the meetings already referred to, I can say that the idea of that company, who were, nearly every one of them, of the poor of this world, taking hold to erect a meeting-house 35 x 80 feet, and that, too, in a city where the least expense for a lot seemed to demand an outlay of at least $6,000, looked indeed like “a move in the dark.” They were induced to make the move only by the full confidence they had that the testimony borne to them by Mrs. White was from the Lord, and would surely be accomplished. GSAM 447.2

Having been connected with the enterprise more or less from its inception until the present, I wish here to state that the above testimony has been fulfilled in every particular. When we started out in quest of lots, we succeeded in obtaining a $6,000 lot for $4,000. One sister said she would give $1,000 if she could sell her place. She immediately put the property in the hands of a real estate agent, who told her the price was too low. Within two weeks her place was sold for $1,000 more than she at first valued it, and her pledge was paid. Another, a poor brother who did not see how the church could be built, but said, “If the Lord says it must be done, he will open the way somehow,” found, to his astonishment, the estate of one of his relatives settled up, and that he was the possessor thereby of $20,000. He gave $1,000 toward the building and bought one third of the church lot on which to place a residence for himself, thus in two ways bringing relief to the society. GSAM 447.3