The Story of our Health Message

A Providential Donation

About this time a gentleman told Dr. Kellogg of a friend who was anxious to see the doctor, but who could not find an opportunity, for he was not sick. The doctor very readily made an appointment, and his visitor stated “that for three months he had been impressed that he ought to make a liberal contribution to medical missionary work.” He said, “Should we present to you $40,000 in cash, I would like to know what you would do with it.” Dr. Kellogg replied, “We will go to Chicago and start a medical missionary work.”—Ibid., February, 1893; July, 1905. SHM 276.1

This project pleased the prospective donor, and he and his brother wrote out checks for that amount. These two brothers were from South Africa. Their money had come to them through the sale of their farm in the diamond fields near Kimberly. So the long arm of circumstance links the discovery of diamonds with the medical missionary work of Seventh-day Adventists. SHM 276.2

The money was not all spent at once, but its possession made it possible for Dr. Kellogg and his associates to make the beginning of dispensary work in Chicago. With much feeling he used to relate the providences connected with the finding of a suitable location. Colonel Clarke, their old friend, was dead. Those in charge of his work at the Pacific Garden Mission were unacquainted with the sanitarium physicians and were not interested in the plan to establish another work similar to theirs. A suitable place was found in another part of the city, but the rental was prohibitive. The doctor walked about and finally stood in despair upon the curbstone, asking himself why he could not find a suitable place. SHM 276.3

It was almost time for him to take the train back to Battle Creek, when he raised his head, looked across the street, and saw on a building the sign “Rooms to Let.” It was the same place where he had been so many times—the Pacific Garden Mission. Since his last visit there the proprietors had changed their minds. Thus the doctor found that the way was now open for the work to be started in this desirable place and at a moderate rental. SHM 277.1

“I did not know it,” he continued, “but the Lord did, and it was He who directed me to that street and held me there on the curbstone until at last I saw the sign. They took me in and showed me all over the place. We secured a few rooms and the use of a large hall, and began our work in a humble way.”—Ibid., July, 1900. SHM 277.2

The new dispensary was opened on June 25, 1893. A basement twenty-five by fifty feet, a third-story front room about twenty by forty feet, and a large room on the first floor about fifty by one hundred feet were rented from the Pacific Garden Mission on the corner of Van Buren Street and Fourth Avenue in Chicago. Five lines of work, all free, were inaugurated—a dispensary, a bathroom, a laundry, an evening school for the Chinese, and a nursing bureau. Dr. O. G. Place of the sanitarium in Battle Creek was assisted by Drs. Howard Rand, E. R. Caro, and D. H. Kress, besides two visiting nurses and twenty-five Bible workers. SHM 277.3

During the first five weeks more than 1,300 different persons received benefit from the dispensary. Of this number more than 700 were given medical assistance. The others made use of the free bath and the laundry. In addition to this over a hundred were cared for at their homes by the missionary nurses. SHM 277.4