Letters From Ellen G. White To Sanitarium Workers in Southern California—c

The Loma Linda Sanitarium

By Ellen G. White.

I wish to present before our people the blessing that the Lord has placed within our reach by enabling us to obtain possession of the beautiful sanitarium property known as Loma Linda. This property lies sixty miles east of Los Angeles, on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railway. Its name, Loma Linda—“beautiful hill”—describes the place. Of the sixty acres comprised in the property, about thirty-five form a beautiful hill, which rises one hundred and twenty-five feet above the valley. Upon this hill the sanitarium building is situated. SpTB03c 39.1

The main building is a well-planned structure of sixty-four rooms, having three stories and a basement. It is completely furnished, heated by steam, and lighted by electricity. It is surrounded with large pepper trees and other shade trees. SpTB03c 39.2

About ten rods away and on the highest part of the hill there is a group of fine cottages. The central cottage has nine beautiful living rooms and two bath rooms. In the basement is a heating plant for the five cottages. SpTB03c 39.3

Prettily grouped around this larger cottage are four smaller ones, having four rooms each, with bath and toilet. An interesting feature of three of these cottages is that each room has its veranda, with broad windows running to the floor, so that the beds can be wheeled right out onto the veranda, and the patients can sleep in the open air. SpTB03c 39.4

Between these cottages and the main building there is a recreation building, which can be used as a gymnasium, and for class rooms and meetings. SpTB03c 39.5

In all, there are ninety rooms. The buildings are furnished throughout and are ready for use. SpTB03c 39.6

There is a post-office in the main building, and most of the trains stop at the railway station, about forty rods from the sanitarium. SpTB03c 40.1

The seventy-six acres of hill and valley land is well cultivated, and will furnish much fruit and many vegetables for the institution. Fifteen acres of the valley land is in alfalfa hay. Eight acres of the hill are in apricots, plums, and almonds. Ten acres are in good bearing orange orchard. Many acres of land round the cottages and the main building are laid out in lawns, drives, and walks. SpTB03c 40.2

There are horses and carriages, cows and poultry, farming implements and wagons. The buildings and grounds are abundantly supplied with excellent water. SpTB03c 40.3

This property is now in our possession. It cost the company from whom we purchased it about $140,000. They erected the buildings, and ran the place for a time as a sanitarium. Then they tried to operate it as a tourist hotel. But this plan did not succeed, and they decided to sell. It was closed last April, and as the stockholders became more anxious to sell, it was offered to us for $40,000, and for this amount our brethren have purchased it. SpTB03c 40.4

We must now secure money with which to complete the payments. Ten thousand dollars have already been paid. Ten thousand more must be paid in September and December, and the remaining twenty thousand at the end of two years. SpTB03c 40.5

Until our recent visit, I had never before seen such a place as this with my natural eyes, but four years ago just such a place was presented before me as one of those that would come into our possession if we moved wisely. It is a wonderful place in which to work for the sick, and in which to begin our work for Redlands and Riverside. We must make decided efforts to secure helpers who will do most faithful medical missionary work. If Christ will bless the treatment given and let His healing power be felt, a great work will be accomplished. We shall need to secure competent physicians and nurses,—men and women who are true and faithful, and who can be relied on; men and women who live in constant dependence upon the great Healer; men and women who humble their hearts before God and believe His Word, keeping their eyes fixed on their leader and counselor, the Lord Jesus Christ. SpTB03c 40.6

O, how I long to see the sick and suffering coming to this institution! It is one of the most perfect places for a sanitarium that I have ever seen, and I thank our heavenly Father for giving us such a place. It is provided with almost everything necessary for sanitarium work, and is the very place in which sanitarium work can be carried forward on right lines by faithful physicians and managers. SpTB03c 41.1

The buildings are all ready, and work must be begun in them as soon as we can secure the necessary physicians and nurses. I am anxious to see the work started. For some time I have been looking for just such a property as this, with good buildings all ready for occupancy, surrounded by shade trees and orchards. When I saw Loma Linda, I said, Thank the Lord. This is the very place we have been hoping to find. SpTB03c 41.2

The character of the buildings, the terraced hill, covered by graceful pepper trees, the profusion of flowers and shrubs, the tall shade trees, the orchards and fields,—all combine to make this place meet fully the descriptions that I have given in the past of the place presented to me as the most perfect for sanitarium work. Everything at Loma Linda is fresh, wholesome, and attractive. The patients could live out of doors a large part of the time. The land will serve as a school for the education of patients. By outdoor exercise and working in the soil, men and women will regain their health. Rational methods for the cure of disease will be used in a variety of ways. Drugs will be discarded. SpTB03c 41.3

Out of the cities, has been my constant advice. But it has taken years for our people to become aroused to an understanding of the situation. It has taken years for them to realize that the Lord would have them leave the cities and do their work in the quiet of the country, away from the turmoil and noise and confusion. We are thankful to God for Loma Linda. It is one of the best locations for sanitarium work that I have ever seen. At this place the sick can be given every natural advantage for regaining health and strength. SpTB03c 41.4

Forty years ago the Lord began to give us instruction in regard to the establishment of sanitariums, as one of His chosen ways for proclaiming the third angel's message. Men and women bring disease upon themselves by transgressing the laws of God. The laws of nature, as truly as the precepts of the decalogue, are divine, and only in obedience to them can health be recovered or preserved. Many are suffering as the result of hurtful practices, who might be restored to health if they would do what they might for their own restoration. They need to be taught that every practice which destroys the physical, mental, or moral energies is sin, and that health is to be secured through obedience to the laws that God has established for the good of all mankind. SpTB03c 42.1

Our sanitarium, are to be schools in which people of all classes shall be taught the way of salvation. In them the sick are to be taught to overcome the appetite for tea, coffee, flesh meat, tobacco, and intoxicating liquor of all kinds. SpTB03c 42.2

In every one of our medical institutions the sick and suffering are to be pointed to the Saviour as their only hope. In the Christian life there is strength and joy and courage. Turning away from the injurious fashions of this degenerate age brings peace of mind and the assurance of the love and friendship of the heavenly Father. Receiving the Lord in simplicity and sincerity places men and women where they know the meaning of the words, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” SpTB03c 42.3

Out of the cities, is my message. Those who have had the light, but have neglected to follow the instruction that the Lord has given regarding the location of our health institutions and schools, will one day see the folly of clinging to the cities. They will realize how kind the Lord was to point out the right way. SpTB03c 42.4

Let your schools, the high and the lowly, be out of the cities. If you desire to live a heavenly life in this world, place yourselves in right relation to God. Let your aspirations be Christlike. Christ lived much in contact with nature. God's missionaries are to form their lives after the divine similitude. They are to have a close connection with Christ. His life is to be their example. SpTB03c 43.1

For the past twenty years the Lord has been giving the message that plants are to be made in many places. He will greatly bless us as we endeavor to carry out His will. Out of the city into the country is the word that has been given, and this word is to be obeyed. Our sanitariums are to be established in the most healthful surroundings. We have tried to follow closely the Lord's directions in this matter, and He has let light shine on our pathway, as we have endeavored to establish sanitariums where sin-sick souls may be led to the great Healer. God declared that we should find buildings suitable for our work, and that these buildings would be offered to us at a very low price. Has not our recent experience in Southern California proved this true? SpTB03c 43.2

I could not but weep for joy as I saw how plainly the providence of God had been revealed in our selection of places for sanitarium work in San Diego, Los Angeles, and the Redlands and Riverside district. SpTB03c 43.3

Money is needed with which to establish the work in places outside of the cities, from which the cities can be worked. We must have means with which to meet the payments on Loma Linda. I ask our brethren who have means to awake to the responsibilities resting upon them, and to do what they can to help us. Those who have the Lord's money in trust should regard it as a privilege to give of their means to help to pay for a place so well adapted to sanitarium work. Gifts, and loans at a low rate of interest, will be gladly received. My brethren, it is the Lord's money that you are handling, and you can not invest it better than by putting it into the Lord's work. Thus you will lay up treasure in heaven. I beseech you, by the mercies of God, “that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye conformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” SpTB03c 43.4

I have had much to write in regard to the shortness of time. Our work is soon to close, and we are now to place ourselves in working order in God's way. We are not to link ourselves up with those who are not wise to discern what is the will of God. We are to come out from among them, and be separate. The end of all things is at hand, and the message of warning must be given. A spirit of anger is stirring the nations, and it will soon be too late to work for the Lord. Every conceivable deception will be brought in, and the enemy will work with masterly power. Stronger and stronger will be his efforts, until in heaven it shall be said, “It is finished.”. SpTB03c 44.1

Ellen G. White