Ellen G. White: The Later Elmshaven Years: 1905-1915 (vol. 6)

At Paradise Valley Sanitarium, and the Trip Home

Ellen White had to hasten on to San Diego to the dedication of Paradise Valley Sanitarium, scheduled for Tuesday, April 24. She was to be one of the speakers (Ibid.). She was delighted that Dr. Anna Potts was present for the occasion. The doctor was a talented woman about Ellen White's age, and an “excellent speaker.” She was now engaged in lecturing on health and temperance; she spoke in the evening following the dedication, telling the story of her efforts to establish and maintain the institution at Paradise Valley and expressing her great pleasure that the church was carrying on the type of work she had hoped to do (Ibid.). 6BIO 81.1

Then it was back to northern California by way of Loma Linda. There, on Friday, April 27, she attended an important meeting called to consider the health food business in southern California, and the production of health foods at Loma Linda (Ibid.). 6BIO 81.2

Feelings of dread swept over Ellen White as she contemplated the trip home. She knew she would view with her own eyes the destruction she had seen in vision. “I did not want to see the ruins of San Francisco,” she declared, “and dreaded to stop at Mountain View” (Ibid., July 19, 1906), where the beloved Pacific Press had suffered severe damage. As the train neared San Jose, just south of Mountain View, that Thursday morning, May 3, she could see everywhere the effects of the earthquake. 6BIO 81.3

Changing cars at San Jose, they traveled the ten miles to Mountain View. Here they were met at the railroad station by C. H. Jones, manager of the Pacific Press, and W. T. Knox, president of the California-Nevada Conference, headquartered in Mountain View. The drive to the press took them through town, where they saw the new post office leveled to the ground and the largest stores totally destroyed. But “when we saw the fallen walls of the Pacific Press,” she reported, “we were sad at heart.” Yet there was one reason for rejoicing: “No lives were lost.”—Manuscript 45, 1906. 6BIO 81.4

The brethren persuaded Ellen White to spend the weekend in Mountain View, counseling regarding Pacific Press matters and speaking to the church on Sabbath morning. Meetings were held in the publishing house chapel, which was patched up sufficiently to allow a congregation to assemble. 6BIO 82.1

In spite of the move of the press from Oakland to the more rural site, that Mountain View then was, the danger of commercialism still threatened, and the younger workers were imperiled by eroding social standards. While there, she was in vision “instructed, as God's messenger, to appeal to the youth connected with our institutional work” (Ibid., July 19, 1906). The church's young people needed to be surrounded with wholesome, uplifting influences. They were to be kept in the love of the truth. The standard set before them was to be high. 6BIO 82.2