The Story of our Health Message

A Complete Separation

During the interval between these two utterances the final steps had been taken that led to the complete separation between the denomination and the leaders of the large sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, who were also conducting the American Medical Missionary College for the education of Christian physicians. Well might the conclusion be drawn that this was a serious, if not fatal, blow to the aspirations of those who hoped for a continued strong medical missionary effort to blend with the evangelistic work of Seventh-day Adventists. For many, the divisive issues were too recent to make possible any clear evaluation of the basis for the co-operation called for in the beginnings of the health work as a vital part of the church program. SHM 362.3

It must have been with a unique foresight of the future work at the recently acquired property at Loma Linda, California, that Mrs. White now looked so optimistically to a bright era for the medical missionary work. In the same letter in which is voiced this promising outlook, she reviewed the providences that had made possible the securing of the three medical institutions in southern California; and in speaking of the acquisition of Loma Linda, she said with assurance, “I know that it was in the providence of God that we had an opportunity to purchase this property.” (E. G. White Letter 233, 1905.) SHM 363.1

Repeatedly in her utterances during 1905 Mrs. White expressed her conviction that the future of the work at Loma Linda was to be extraordinary. “The securing of this sanitarium, thoroughly equipped and furnished,” was to her “one of the most wonderful providences that the Lord has opened before us.” “It is difficult,” she asserted, “to comprehend all that this transaction means to us.” (E. G. White Letter 291, 1905.) SHM 363.2