Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 17 (1902)

Ms 172, 1902

On the Establishment of a Restaurant in Los Angeles

St. Helena, California

May 7, 1902

Previously unpublished.

(Counsel given at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the California Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, at Sanitarium, California, Wednesday, May 7, 1902, at 2 P.M.) 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 1

Mrs. E. G. White: When the idea was presented to me that many thousand dollars were to be invested in something like a hotel for tourists, I thought that, from what God had shown me, that was not the right way. But this morning Bro. Moran has presented to me this plan, and I do not see but that it is reasonable. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 2

The light has been given me that if we would be wide awake and have our eyes under the supervision of God, He would open ways for us to take up work without a large outgo of means and no production. It would not be in the order of God to involve a large amount of means in one place, because we must work in reference to the plans that will be made for work in different places. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 3

The plans that were to be made in Southern California were represented to me in figure—as here would be a center of work; and around this would be places that could be worked from that center; there would be a center and a large circumference of localities around it. The circle would be large where it took in a large number of localities. Then there were localities presented as distinct as these separate figures are one from the other, where there should be a local sanitarium that would not reach so large a circumference. Each center should be large enough to accommodate those who are likely to come to it, like the one in San Diego and in other places. There should be several sanitariums in different localities. Each locality, before proceeding to establish a sanitarium, should make calculations and count the cost, considering also that other institutions are to be created, built up, and worked. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 4

But there is to be in the Southern field one sanitarium that is to comprise more than just the outstanding places around it. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 5

Now is our time, now, now. Christ said to His disciples—when they urged Him, saying, “Master, eat”—“I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” Then He said, “Lift up your eyes.” They said, “Four months, and then cometh harvest,” but He said, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” [John 4:31, 32, 35.] 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 6

And how did that harvest begin? With one woman—just giving the truth to one woman, and that woman giving it to others; for she went into the village and said, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did.” They came out; and they listened; and there the harvest began. “Now we believe,” they said, “not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves.” [Verses 29, 42.] 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 7

Just such a work will be carried on in these days. There will be one, or two, or more in a place, and they will communicate the light to others; thus the work will grow until there is a large company. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 8

Here in Los Angeles there are the various interests that Dr. Moran has spoken of that will be connected with the restaurant, rooms where our treatments can be given—call it a small sanitarium—and thus act as a feeder for our larger institutions, which are more fully equipped to receive patients. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 9

In connection with the restaurant and treatment rooms there should be a reading room, where the patrons can learn of our message and of the work we are doing in medical missionary and gospel lines. In this work ministers should have a special interest. Here talks can be given upon the truth and the Bible. All these efforts, all these opportunities, are the sowing of the seed, and the harvest will soon follow. The sowing and the harvest will be commingled, the one following close on the other. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 10

This is the way this work has been outlined to me in symbols and representations. You can take it and work it out. I cannot see any objection to such a work as this. It will open the way for many to come to our larger sanitariums that shall be established in these different places and to learn of their work. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 11

This work in Los Angeles has been upon my mind for a long time. I have felt that the years are passing away, and we are not accomplishing what we ought to accomplish. Should Dr. Moran leave here now, with no work established, this opportunity to educate, to train, to give the light of truth, would be closed up. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 12

When the idea of a hotel was presented to me, I knew that could not be right, for the light had been given me several times that we were not to enter these large places of resort and build hotels to accommodate the people as they drift in—that was not our work. But a restaurant is different. [It] is an educational work, it is like sowing the seed, and there will be an awakening among the people to know what we believe; and then we must be prepared and ready to give them the light upon the gospel that God has given us. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 13

These things I can lay out only in a very imperfect manner, because I am not in a condition to present all that I would be glad to give you. There are things that I shall need to present, especially in regard to the work in the South. I have already written to the workers there, that there should be a work there like this [that] Dr. Moran is planning. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 14

Restaurants in different localities should be educating the people how to prepare healthful food from the productions of nature right around them where they live. They cannot depend upon having the health foods shipped from Battle Creek; it is too far off. Then there should be a central sanitarium in some modest location near Nashville, not in the city, but just outside. 17LtMs, Ms 172, 1902, par. 15