Loma Linda Messages

Advancing by Faith

Elder I. H. Evans: I am deeply interested in what has been read to us tonight from the Spirit of Prophecy. The question before the meeting is one of great importance, and needs most careful consideration from every standpoint. LLM 506.1

The establishment of a medical school has been under consideration for several years by some of our leading brethren. Not a few of our men have believed that we should have such a school. They have hesitated to establish a school, because of their lack of experience in operating such an enterprise, and because they did not know where to secure either the teachers or the money with which to carry forward the same. LLM 506.2

When the statement from Sister White is read, I am sure that the majority of our brethren will feel as we feel tonight,—that the Lord has spoken, and we will obey. To some, this counsel from Sister White may come as a trial of their faith; to others, I am sure the words spoken will seem God-given and timely. Oftentimes, the light God has sent to His people has seemed to be foolishness to those who did not view things as Heaven views them. Now if we always were wise-hearted, and saw everything as the Lord would have us view it, there would be no need of further light through the Spirit of Prophecy; but we are mortal, and our vision is limited, and we often see things in a perverted light. Because of our lack of clear perception, the Lord in mercy speaks to His people through the Spirit of Prophecy. He has had to do this in the past, and we may well hope that He may long continue speaking to us concerning our duty and the needs of His cause. LLM 506.3

Since our brethren have been talking on this subject tonight, I have been thinking of the many times in the past when the Lord has spoken to this people, counseling them to do one thing or another, when many of the leading men at the time were not able to see any light in doing that which was suggested. LLM 506.4

The Development of the Publishing Work

A few years ago, nearly all of our leading men thought that two publishing houses were ample for all our needs in the United States. Some of us were pretty sure we knew what we were talking about. Sister White said that we were to establish a publishing house in the South. To those who had to give up territory, to those who had to make heavy donations for the opening of this new sister publishing house, it was no small trial. LLM 507.1

We went ahead, and did what we were told. Today, are we sorry that a third publishing house in this country was established at that time? What unforeseen calamities have come to our older institutions since that instruction was given in the General Conference of 1901! Our publishing house in the South has had its trials; it has passed through the furnace of financial affliction; yet where could you find a loyal Seventh-day Adventist who would wish that the Southern Publishing Association had no existence? LLM 507.2

Church Schools

Again: Well do I remember when the church school question was being agitated among us. Many did not see light in this movement. But Sister White spoke very plainly in regard to the establishment and conducting of church schools. When that testimony came, it was a severe trial to many of our brethren. They inquired: “Where are the funds coming from with which to establish these schools, and maintain them after they have been established? What will the Foreign Mission Board do for funds? To operate these schools will bankrupt the denomination.” But have these false prophecies ever proven true?—No, indeed; church schools have come, and long may they remain with us. What agency has ever proved so efficient in saving the children of Sabbath-keeping parents, as the establishment and maintenance of church schools? What money has this people ever expended that has brought such good returns in workers, as that which we have put into the church schools? Today, who would deprive this people of their little church schools? Nothing would bring to us a greater calamity, than to have our church school system destroyed. When we think of the value of these schools, it seems almost incredible that there ever was a time when the instruction to establish church schools tried men's faith. Yet it is a fact that many did not see light in the church school question, until the Lord spoke to His people through His servant. LLM 507.3

The Australasian Field—An Object Lesson

When Sister White and some of the leading brethren were in Australia, the continuous calls for money seemed most imperative; and there were not a few on our boards in this country, who felt that the call for means for Australia exceeded by far the amount that ought to be appropriated to that country. We sent thousands and thousands of dollars into Australia to help establish the work. I suppose, to the people over there, it did not seem to amount to so very much; but I tell you, brethren, when we were under the strain of raising that money, it was a great stretch of our faith to send so much ready cash into the Australasian field. LLM 507.4

Our brethren in America said: “Australia is a small country. It has a very limited population. Why should we send so many thousands of dollars to that field, while we are doing so little for many other countries?” LLM 508.1

But today we see the benefits of having our work in Australasia thoroughly established. Not only is the work there itself entirely self-supporting, but the Australasian field is training workers for the islands of the Pacific Ocean, including the Philippines, and the Straits Settlements. The Australasian Union Conference is carrying on a large and extensive missionary campaign. It is not only supplying men, but is also furnishing more than forty thousand dollars a year, cash, in the establishment and development of our mission work in the great archipelagoes of the Pacific and the Indian Oceans. LLM 508.2

Do you think the Mission Board is now sorry that for several years it sent so much money to Australia to establish institutions and to help develop the work there?—O, no! Now it is very plain (867) that the Lord was leading, and that the instruction given by Sister White was the very best possible advice that we could have followed. LLM 508.3

Continual Advancement and Prosperity

I cannot think of a single enterprise that has been started by the instruction of the Spirit of Prophecy, that has not worked out for the best good of the Lord's work. Many times we have been told to move forward, when the Red Sea seemed before us, and the mountains on either side; but every time we have accepted the instruction and stepped cheerfully forward, the Lord has made a pathway in which we could walk, and we have found not only prosperity to the cause of God, but we have found our own hearts nurtured in the Lord. LLM 508.4

These past experiences should strengthen our faith at this time, and help us to move forward courageously in heeding the words of counsel which the Lord has given to us through Sister White. We have before us tonight a plain, straightforward statement from Sister White, in regard to the establishment of a medical school. There is no guess-work about it; there is no equivocation; there is no false construction that need be put upon these words. The question is, Will we follow the counsel given? Do we intend to obey what the Lord has said to us in regard to the establishment and maintenance of a medical school? LLM 508.5

Is the Time Inopportune?

Some one may say, “The time is most inopportune.” But the question is, When the Lord reveals to us His desire that we shall establish a medical school, and do it soon, is the time inopportune for doing such a work? I can conjure up many reasons why at this time we are ill prepared to establish and operate a medical school. It is not hard for any man to say that we have not the money at hand. Any man need not be very wise to say, “We do not know where we shall get medical men trained and qualified to take up this work.” But the question is, “Will we establish this medical school, when the Lord has indicated so plainly our duty?” I believe, brethren, if we step forward in the fear of God, and make an effort to establish this school, the Lord will help us, and make the way clear. LLM 509.1

We certainly have a large number of graduated physicians scattered about throughout the country. Some of these men have studied in the very best universities and schools in the United States and in Europe. We have men who have passed over a11 that is to be taught in the highest universities of the world. These men have studied all that the worldly schools are able to offer. Of course, they are not all rich in experience. They have, however, a full textbook knowledge of that which is taught in the best medical schools in the world. Now it is possible for us to gather some of these men together, and place them where they can give this knowledge to those who shall come to them for instruction. If these men consecrate themselves to God, humbling their hearts before Him; if they accept His word as the guide of their life, and look to the Lord for the influence of His Holy Spirit, I am sure that the Lord can do a mighty work for them. LLM 509.2

The Problem from a Financial View-point

Yes, I verily believe God will give us men. I ask you, Will God give us the money? I have asked what the annual cost of maintaining the medical school will be. But the road is not yet blazed out very far ahead. We as a people have had no experience in establishing and maintaining a medical school. LLM 509.3

Since this testimony has been given, I have asked myself whether this school could be equipped for fifty thousand dollars. “Why,” you say, “fifty thousand dollars! Think of that!” But let us look for a moment at what we are doing today, along educational lines, for our own people. In this little California Conference, embracing the northern portion of California and the State of Nevada, you have already purchased a site for establishing a school. Into this school you are not planning to put less than fifty thousand dollars. How much territory does it answer for?—One little conference. LLM 509.4

Go down to the Southern California Conference, and there you have another school. I don't know how much it cost—a good many thousands of dollars, I suppose. (Elder E. E. Andross: Thirty-six thousand dollars.) The school at Walla Walla cost us a good many thousands of dollars at the time we established it, and a good many thousands of dollars since. Go into any of our conferences where we have established schools, and there you will find that we have invested large sums of money. LLM 510.1

We have many schools scattered throughout this country. The statistical report of our General Conference secretary says that we have 81 schools in this denomination, in which we have invested $1,625,670.56. But have we more schools than this denomination needs? Almost from the Pacific to the Atlantic, in Europe, and in Africa, wherever we have schools, they are crowded to the limit with students; and there are many more of our youth who will be going to our schools in a very short time, as soon as our school system can be set in complete operation. LLM 510.2

But in none of these schools have we made provision for the education of doctors. Look at our sanitarium institutions. We have 79 distinct sanitariums, 46 of which are under denominational control, and 53 private institutions. We have employed in these institutions 111 physicians, 966 nurses, and 766 other helpers, making a total of 1,843 employees. The total investment, for building and equipping these medical institutions, has been $2,766,346.50. But notwithstanding this great outlay in the establishment of our sanitariums, and the large number of employees therein, we do not have a single medical institution in the denomination for the training of physicians who shall be qualified to act as wise leaders in our work along medical missionary lines. LLM 510.3

Now let us suppose, for a moment, that we should make an outlay of fifty thousand dollars to equip a medical school. That may stagger your faith: but when you come to think of it, it is considerably less than one dollar per capita, for our church membership in the United States of America alone. Why, we have invested nearly eighty thousand dollars in our little seminary in Washington. We put a large amount of money into Mount Vernon College; nearly two hundred thousand dollars was put into Union College, and in many other educational institutions we have invested large sums. Is it a thing to be considered impossible for us to invest fifty thousand dollars, (868) more or less, in establishing and properly equipping a medical school for the training of medical workers? LLM 510.4

A Wise Expenditure of Means

Do we regret the money we have invested in developing and strengthening our educational system? Were it possible for you to draw the money out of your schools, would you take the responsibility of saying you think it an unwise thing to have put so much money into schools where our youth can be educated, that they may become workers in the cause of God? Would you take your boys and girls out of our church schools, out of our intermediate schools, and out of our academies and colleges, and place them back into the public schools of the world, for the paltry sum of money that we have invested in the school buildings that have been prepared for the education of these children? No, brethren, you would never consent to take one dollar back, if this meant the withdrawal of your children from our denominational training-schools. LLM 511.1

Repeated Counsels to Advance

The medical work is a distinct part of the third angel's message. It is God-given. If ever God has spoken to this people concerning any branch of our denominational work, He has spoken most emphatically concerning our medical work. Let your mind run back over the writings of Sister White during the past fifteen or twenty years. There has been as much said about the medical work, as about any other one branch of our work. (Elder W. C. White: More.) For many years, the testimonies have been coming to us concerning our duties in establishing these medical institutions, and conducting them in harmony with right principles. But our medical work has not yet reached its zenith of usefulness. In the great cities, in our mighty centers of population, we must have many treatment-rooms, where trained nurses and skilled medical helpers can meet the people, give them treatments, talk to them concerning their soul's salvation, and help them to obtain a knowledge of the truths of the third angel's message. Competent, consecrated, trained nurses make the very best kind of Bible workers that can be stationed in our large cities to do missionary work. LLM 511.2

Nurses' Bureaus—An Open Door for Service

If we had a thousand nurses tonight whom we could organize into a Nurses' Bureau, and set them at work in the great cities, we should have none too many. One of the very best features of the medical work is that in most cases the worker is entirely self-supporting. So far as the problem of finance is concerned, it would seem as though, with proper directions, we could use one or two thousand nurses at once in our large cities, and make their work entirely self-supporting. Besides the medical missionary work they could do, they would give Bible Readings, hold cottage meetings, and work among the poor and needy, thus removing prejudice, and helping many to see Christ as the Saviour of sinners. LLM 511.3

The medical work can do more to remove prejudice against our denomination, than any other line of work that we are carrying forward. All other lines of effort seem to irritate somewhat, and create more or less prejudice; but everyone is in sympathy with those who do medical missionary work among the sick and afflicted. LLM 512.1

Shielding Our Youth from the Teachings of Modern Universities

We think it necessary to have many schools established for training our youth to labor as preachers and Bible workers, and to fit many for efficient service in the Master's cause along other lines. Does it not appeal to you that we ought to have at least one medical school in this denomination, where our young people who feel compelled to secure a medical education, can obtain this training without exposing themselves to the grave danger of having undermined their faith in the word of God and in the truths of the third angel's message? LLM 512.2

When I was in Shanghai, last winter, I attended a reception held one Saturday night. During the evening, several talks were given by different parties. Among other speakers was a man by the name of Evans, who keeps a boarding-house in Shanghai, known as the missionaries' hotel. In the course of his remarks, he said: LLM 512.3

“We want a lot of missionaries sent to China. We want you people to send all the consecrated missionaries that you can.” Then he added: “But for heaven's sake, do not send us graduates of the universities of the United States and of Europe! The men who come from these universities, do not believe the Scriptures. The Chinese do not need preaching from men who have lost their faith in the Scriptures.” LLM 512.4

Agnosticism and Infidelity

Now it is a fact that in many of our higher schools, both in Europe and in America, a spirit of agnosticism of rank infidelity, prevails. In the Cosmopolitan for February, 1910, Mr. Harold Bolce, commenting on the teachings that are advocated in many of the universities of our land, says: LLM 512.5

“Practically all the universities in the United States teach that Christianity has borrowed traditions from other faiths, and that its very legends, as they call then, have been borrowed from older pagan myths. Thus the University of Michigan teaches its students that Ishmael, Moab, Rachel, Leah, and Hagar are not the names of persons, but of clans of districts, and that names like Sarah and Laban refer, not to men and women, but to gods and goddesses. It is taught by Professor Wenley that the prophets, from Elijah, David, and Samuel to the author of Daniel, were turned from their historical position, and by religious interpreters ‘tricked out in every device of unlicensed phantasy.’ Even David, the shepherd king of Israel, is assailed at Ann Arbor. He is held up to the view of American students as ‘a brigand sheik originally, acted upon imaginatively until he actually becomes a vicegerent of Yahweh.’” LLM 512.6

“Chicago University, which, in its foundation, has affiliations with a great religious denomination, announces that, ‘in the light of comparative historical study, the claim to exclusiveness, selectedness, singularity, and incomparableness, on the part of Christianity as a positive religion, must be entirely abandoned.’ Students are asked to take a broad view of Christianity, the instruction setting forth that it is by no means assured that Christianity will survive indefinitely.” LLM 513.1

Further: LLM 513.2

“Unmistakably the colleges that teach women, as (well as) the colleges that teach men, are arrayed as an academic army against (869) the orthodox church and orthodox interpretations of Holy Writ.” LLM 513.3

Again: LLM 513.4

“Boston University also totally rejects the belief that the kingdom of heaven is coming upon earth with the accompaniment of signs and wonders. The doctrine of a material heaven, with streets of gold and walls of jasper, is ridiculed.” LLM 513.5

“In the place of revealed truth, the students, both women and men, are offered philosophy that denies the possibility of arriving at any ultimate and changeless standard.” LLM 513.6

The Subtle Influence of Erroneous Teachings

With such teachings as these, is it any wonder that medical students compelled to attend a university whose teachers are largely agnostics, if not avowed infidels, come out of the school graduated physicians, but with their faith wrecked in the word of God, and themselves spiritually maimed and crippled for life? These universities not only teach that the word of God is not inspired, but they also teach principles that must be unlearned; and oftentimes it is almost impossible for the medical graduate to throw off the influences of his years of training. Many of the professors in our leading medical schools teach and prove to their own satisfaction, from science, that meat is the proper diet for man. They teach the use of drugs; and while the most of them admit that drugs do not cure disease, they still teach the use of drugs, and instill into the minds of students the necessity of often using drugs, for fevers and other diseases, and in times of emergency. In most of these institutions, but little is ever said concerning the rational remedies of disease, and hydrotherapy has but a meager place, if any, in the curriculum. Thus our medical students come from such schools, recognized, to be sure, as physicians, but crippled in usefulness. The training they have received makes it very difficult for them to carry forward our denominational work along lines in harmony with the light that God has given to us. LLM 513.7

Now if we expect to save our young people who feel impelled to take a medical course, it does appeal to me that it is necessary for us to provide some means by which they may secure their medical education without wrecking their faith both in the Bible and in the Spirit of Prophecy, as well as in the truths of the third angel's message. LLM 514.1

The Value of a Medical Training for Service in the Far East

The training school for physicians, as proposed in the recommendation now before us, can give us a great army of workers for such fields as China, Korea, and India. In those countries, there is dense ignorance everywhere concerning disease, and rational remedies for curing the same. If every worker who shall be sent to the Far East, could be given special training in some medical school, and have at least two or three years of instruction along the lines that will be so ably taught in the Loma Linda school, his usefulness would be greatly multiplied. LLM 514.2

Go where you may in China, outside of the great cities, and you can scarcely find a capable physician with whom you may consult, and to whom you may look with confidence for intelligent instruction concerning your difficulties. Countless thousands, yea, millions, are dying annually in the Far East, because of the gross ignorance that prevails. If every worker who goes to that part of the world, could have what might be obtained by two or three years of hard study in a school like the one we now propose to establish in Loma Linda, it would be the greatest blessing that could possibly come to our work in the Orient. I should be glad, if it were possible for us to draw largely our supply of workers for some of these distant fields, from those who have finished a course of training in a school similar to Loma Linda. LLM 514.3

Those who expect to do the best work in the Far East, must not forget the Word of God; they must live much in prayer, but, in addition to instruction in God's word and in the privilege of prayer, they must also be instructed along the lines of practical medicine, so that they can relieve suffering, and help in a practical way the afflicted, suffering souls that have no physician on earth to consult, except the poor quack doctors that infest the country. LLM 514.4

Our Duty to Advance

It seems to me that there is nothing for us to do but to earnestly, cheerfully, hopefully take up the work of organizing and conducting a medical school, knowing that it will take money, knowing that it will take men. We ought to have the support and sympathy of the General Conference, and of our people throughout the entire field. This school, if properly established and equipped, will prove one of the greatest blessings to our medical work that has ever come to it; and I do not believe that time will make us sorry for either the investment or the labor required for the establishment of the school on a proper basis. LLM 515.1

To this end, let us all unite our sympathies and prayers, and go forward. I believe we shall see light, more and more, as we advance by faith, in accordance with the words of counsel that have come to us through the servant of the Lord. LLM 515.2