Ellen White: Woman of Vision

Dedication Of Loma Linda Sanitarium

By the first of October Elder and Mrs. Burden were residing at Loma Linda, and within days patients were coming. But pressed hard to meet the needs of an opening institution, the staff found it necessary to postpone the dedication. WV 473.5

This dedication was something Ellen White could not miss. Invited to give the dedicatory address, she made the trip south to meet the appointment and to attend, a week later, the dedication of the Paradise Valley Sanitarium. She, with her son W. C. White, Sara McEnterfer, her niece May Walling, and Clarence Crisler, reached Loma Linda on Friday afternoon, April 13. WV 473.6

She was glad to arrive a few hours before the Sabbath began. She sometimes found it necessary to travel on the Sabbath and sometimes arrived at her destination after the Sabbath had begun, but she said, “It is very painful to me to be arriving on the Sabbath” (Manuscript 123, 1906). WV 473.7

By the time the sun was setting over the orange groves, casting light on the snowcapped peaks beyond, Ellen White was comfortably settled in the “nine-room cottage,” one of several on the eastern end of the sanitarium grounds. She found the surroundings beautiful—the air filled with the fragrance of orange blossoms, the lawns green and flower gardens colorful, and the glow on Mount San Gorgonio a rich pink from the last light of the sun. WV 473.8

Sabbath morning in the sanitarium parlor she gave a sermon on Second Peter. Sunday morning she looked over the property as guests came in from all over southern California for the dedication that afternoon. About 500 gathered in the chairs set up on the lawn under the pepper trees. Among the guests were “several physicians and other leading men from the surrounding cities.” The speakers’ platform was an improvised structure about three feet (one meter) off the ground and covered overhead and in back by a striped canvas. WV 473.9

Ellen White made her way to the platform for her talk and took a seat beside Elder Haskell (Manuscript 123, 1906). When her turn came to speak, she stood just to the left of the small table in the center of the platform. Part of the time she placed her right hand on the table, while she gestured with her left. WV 474.1

In her talk she reviewed the providences of God in the purchase of Loma Linda, emphasized the values of its then rural location in the treatment of the sick, and delineated the purposes of establishing sanitariums (The Review and Herald, June 21, 1906). WV 474.2