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Ellen White: Woman of Vision

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Two More Payments

Elder Burden had no reason to expect that it would be any easier to meet the remaining payments on the $40,000 contract that he had signed; the next payment was due within a month. The president and officers of the Southern California Conference were still holding back on their interest, support, and money. WV 471.7

It was hoped that the soon-coming Southern California Conference camp meeting would provide an opportunity to lift the level of support. Ellen White would be present and would have a message. WV 471.8

The camp meeting was scheduled for August 11 to 21 in Los Angeles, where evangelist W. W. Simpson's tent meetings were about to close. The big tent would be moved to Boyle Heights—an area that would become well known to Seventh-day Adventists a decade later, for the White Memorial Hospital was to be established there. The tent would be pitched on Mott Street, between First and Second (Pacific Union Recorder, July 27, 1905). WV 472.1

The annual conference constituency meeting would be held in connection with the camp meeting, which made it a particularly crucial session. Writing of the experience a month later, W. C. White declared: WV 472.2

We all saw that very much was at stake, and that much depended on how the sanitarium work was presented to our people at this meeting. We knew that there was sufficient means among our people in southern California to carry forward all the institutional work in that conference, but if they chose to keep it in the banks, to invest it in real estate, or to tie it up in farms, if they feared to trust it in our institutional work, then we should have great difficulty in securing funds. WV 472.3

Ellen White spoke six times in the large tent, at times to a packed tent of 2,000. And while some speakers found it difficult to make themselves heard by so large a crowd, the Lord gave her “strength to speak so that all could hear” (Letter 241a, 1905).”The Lord greatly sustained me in my work at the camp meeting,” she wrote later (Letter 251, 1905). WV 472.4

At the close of the three-hour meeting when the Loma Linda project was presented, the people began to testify to their confidence in the work, and to tell of the money they had in the bank, which they would lend to the enterprise. Others promised to sell property and to invest the proceeds in sanitarium enterprises. By one o'clock the blackboard showed the responses: WV 472.5

Gifts subscribed on June 20$ 1,100
Gifts subscribed today$ 1,100
Money offered at moderate interest$14,000
Property consecrated to be sold and the
proceeds invested in sanitarium work$16,350
(28 WCW, p. 449).

The tide was turned in overwhelming favor of the sanitarium enterprises. Loma Linda would have full support. WV 472.6

This led the astonished conference president to comment in his report in the Pacific Union Recorder: WV 472.7

This liberality on the part of a willing membership, few of whom are well off in this world's goods, ought to stimulate confidence in our own conference and perhaps inspire other conferences to raise funds to liquidate all indebtedness (September 14, 1905). WV 472.8

The August payment of $5,000 was made on time, and a few days later the December 31 payment also was made. In fact, instead of taking three years to pay the second $20,000 of purchase price, as agreed to in the contract, it was taken care of within six months. WV 473.1

Reported J. A. Burden, who was closely involved in the enterprise: WV 473.2

The counsel of the Spirit of Prophecy had been confirmed. As we moved forward in faith, the Lord opened the way before us, and the money came from unexpected sources (The Story of Our Health Message, 361). WV 473.3

A detailed account of God's continued providence in connection with Loma Linda cannot be included here. Fuller accounts are to be found in such works as The Story of Our Health Message; The Vision Bold, Legacy; Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists, volume 3; and the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. WV 473.4