Loma Linda Messages

Safeguarding Our Youth

Elder E. E. Andross: There are a few points that I might mention with profit. First, I believe, and you believe too, that our young people are our chief asset today. They are of more value than anything else in this world. We, as parents, regard our children as of infinite value. It is for their sake that we establish our schools. So far as I know, we have schools for the training of every kind of worker we need in this cause in all its departments, with the exception of a school for the training of physicians. It seems to me that if the Lord is coming as soon as I believe He is, and as you do, we ought not to delay longer in creating a school that will train our young people for service as capable physicians. It seems to me that we ought not to stop to consider the question as to whether or not we need a medical school today. When we think of the situation existing among the leaders of thought in the universities of the world at the present time, and then, too, the demands that exist today for physicians that are trained for service in this cause, there can he no question but that we need a medical school of some kind in connection with our system of denominational schools. LLM 515.3

As to the question of the location of the school: We naturally would not, perhaps, select the site of Loma Linda for a medical school. We might think of reasons why it would not be the best. (870) But I have sufficient confidence in the Spirit of Prophecy to believe that when the Lord speaks through this medium, I do not care to question it any longer. In the testimony that has been read in our hearing this evening, it is plainly stated that Loma Linda is the place where the school is to be started. LLM 515.4

Plan of Operation

And now with reference to the operation of the school: We have been trying to do all we could down there at Loma Linda, to prepare the way; but now, according to the plan that we want to put into operation, provision is made for the bringing together of a board of management composed of not simply some of the brethren at Loma Linda or in the Southern California Conference, but also of representative brethren chosen from various parts of the field. LLM 515.5

We hope to enlist the assistance of the General Conference in this work, and we have representative men here already committed to it. If we succeed in securing their cooperation, the plan is that they will appoint two members of the board of management. And then we hope to enlist the cooperation of the various union conferences—the Lake, the Northern, the Central, the Southwestern, the North Pacific, and the Pacific—mentioned in the recommendation. These union conferences largely represent the wealth of this people in America—from a financial point of view. We invite the General Conference and these union conferences to unite with us in carrying forward this enterprise. All will be represented on the board by one or two persons chosen by the various conferences named. LLM 516.1

We naturally expect this plan to give us a good, strong board to operate the school along right lines. We acknowledge, as others have pointed out, that we have had no practical experience in operating a medical school. The entire burden of making this enterprise successful ought not to rest on the men of one conference only. We certainly do not know enough to operate a medical school; but we do hope to gather together a sufficient number of men who are rich in experience, to enable us to carry forward a school successfully. LLM 516.2

In the counsel that has come to us at this meeting, we are instructed that our youth should be taught to treat understandingly the cases of those who are diseased, so that the door will be closed for any sensible physician to imagine that we are not properly qualifying our students to act as physicians. The Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists is not to be a school that does not turn out finished graduates, finished workmen, along medical lines. So, in view of this counsel, we want to dismiss from our minds the thought that we are not to do a complete work. LLM 516.3

Economical Management

The school is to be thoroughly equipped, and yet not so elaborately as to require a large outlay of funds. Certainly if there is any point emphasized in the testimonies that I have read regarding this matter, it is that we are not to expend a large amount of money in starting this school. We are to be economical in the expenditure of funds. We do not need a large equipment. Of course there are some essentials that the State will require, but these may be provided without the expenditure of any vast sum. We believe that we can start out with an expenditure of eight thousand dollars for the first year, so it is provided that the Union Conferences above named, with the General Conference and the Southern California Conference, shall share the expense equally, by providing one thousand dollars each to maintain the school for the year 1910. This is to cover the cost of necessary equipment, and also the deficit that may accrue from the operation of the school. LLM 516.4

We have invited these various union conferences to join us in this work, because they are going to benefit equally with us. They have more young people to educate along these lines than we have; and we invite them to join us in the establishment and maintenance of the school. LLM 517.1

So it seems to me that, from every standpoint, we have a fairly reasonable plan of operation to start the school upon. We ought gladly to unite in establishing a school that will suitably train our young people for this important department of our work. LLM 517.2

A Glance into the Future

For several years in the past, I have not had sufficient confidence in the universities of the land to advise a single young man or young woman to enter one of them as a medical student. I have fully decided, in my own mind, after seeing the wrecks that have been strewn along the way, that I would never consent to one of my children's entering one of these universities to prepare for medical work. I have never yet advised a single young person to go to one of these schools, nor should I like to do so. LLM 517.3

So I am heartily in accord with this resolution, and I do hope that in the near future we may look back with pleasure upon the monument that we are now proposing to erect. I expect to see many of our young people enter this school, and come out strong in the message, as well as strong in a knowledge of the proper treatment of disease. The youth who secure such a training, will be an honor to the cause, and will be a mighty means of assisting us to finish quickly the work of proclaiming the gospel in all the lands of the world. LLM 517.4

I ought perhaps to give one passing thought to an inquiry that some have made, as to the meaning of our eagerness to establish more training-schools. “How is it?” some inquire. “We are getting discouraged. You seem to be starting so many institutions, and now you are going to start a medical college, and we shall have to wait four or five years before our young people are ready to enter the work as graduated physicians; and that will put the coming of the Lord off away into the future.” LLM 517.5

But, my brethren, will it delay the coming of the Lord? I believe that the best place in the world for our young people to be in, until they have received a fitting up for service, is in our training-schools, even in these days of peril when we are rapidly nearing the very close of probation. Is it not better for them to be there, in process of training for active work in the Master's vineyard, than to allow them to drift into worldly pursuits, or even to attend worldly schools? We must act in the fear of God, and plan wisely for the safe-guarding of our youth in these times of trial and uncertainty. We are instructed to occupy until the Lord shall come. And, brethren, we are not putting off the coming of the Lord by making this preparation for efficient service on the part of our youth. LLM 518.1

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