Observations—From St. Helena, Cal., to Nashville, Tenn
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Observations—From St. Helena, Cal., to Nashville, Tenn.
By W. C. White
At the beginning of the week of prayer, I decided to spend a week or two visiting old associates in church work in the bay cities of California. Accordingly, Sabbath morning, December 12, I met with the Richmond church. Here a few old-time Sabbath-keepers from other places, with a score or more who have recently embraced the truth under the labors of Elder J. D. Rice and wife, have united to form an active, working church, and are preparing to build a meeting-house in this growing northern suburban city. In the evening it was my privilege to listen to Elder G. A. Snyder as he spoke to the newly organized company in Melrose, an eastern suburban town. Sunday, in company with Elder A. Brorsen, I visited several of the charter members of the Oakland church. Monday was spent with our laborers in Fruitvale, Melrose, and San Francisco; Tuesday, at Palo Alto and Mountain View. In all these places the evidences of devotion, earnestness, and consecration on the part of both laborers and laymen, were truly encouraging. As a result of broadening labors, there are now a larger number of Sabbath-keepers in Oakland and its suburbs than before the removal of the printing-house to Mountain View. In response to a telegram from Elder A. G. Daniells, inviting me to attend the annual meetings in Nashville, and then spend two weeks in Washington, I returned home the sixteenth, and prepared to go East. On the twenty-fourth I left home, and arrived in San Fernando, Friday, the twenty-fifth. Sabbath, December 26, I spent with the teachers and students of the Fernando school. This school is doing a solid work in fitting its students for usefulness and efficiency in service to God, by a faithful ministry to their fellow men. A large number of the students had just returned from spending a week in house-to-house work with religious literature in Los Angeles, and it was good to hear them relate their experiences. The executive committee of the Southern California Conference held its monthly meeting in Los Angeles, December 27, and amid other matters of importance they took time to listen to a report of progress, and to express individually their interest in the development of a well-equipped college for the Pacific Union Conference. At Loma Linda I spent half a day with the college faculty. The sanitarium buildings are complete and satisfactory. No more is the sound of saw and hammer heard in the main building. The new elevator is greatly appreciated by the patients. The building and the grounds are much admired by those who come to Loma Linda, but that which is most frequently the subject of remark, is the efficient service rendered cheerfully, heartily, and in the spirit of brotherly love. The new bakery is just getting into full operation. The farm, the garden, and the dairy look well. The teachers gave me some interesting facts in regard to the educational work at Loma Linda. In the three nurses' classes there are forty-two students: in the first year's class, eleven; second year, twenty; third year, eleven. In the medical course there are fifteen students; in the gospel workers' course, nine; in the bakers' and cooks' course, three; miscellaneous, twelve. Of the sixty-nine students in all the regular courses, about two thirds are from Eastern and Northern conferences. In addition to these students in the regular courses, there are twenty-six attending the Bible classes only. Some of these are carpenters, farmers, and gardeners belonging to the sanitarium family or living in the neighborhood. These, with a few of the helpers who are taking one class a day in other studies, bring the number of junior and senior students up to one hundred seven. The church-school is held in a new building at the foot of the hill. Its enrolment is about forty, of whom five come from Redlands and San Bernardino. Altogether, the students at Loma Linda, regular, special, and primary, are more than one hundred forty. From the little printing-office in the top of the bakery building there is issued a small journal called the Medical Evangelist. We hope this journal may grow to be a regular monthly, and a strong and influential exponent of the work for which the Loma Linda Sanitarium and the College of Evangelists have been established. Leaving Loma Linda, Monday afternoon, I was in El Paso, Tuesday evening. I had purchased my ticket over the Texas and Pacific and Iron Mountain railways, to save time, but found that there would be a lack of connection, and consequently a lay-over of twenty-two hours in El Paso. This gave me opportunity to visit Mr. and Mrs. Addis Albro, whom I had met at Loma Linda. They told me about other friends who were in El Paso. Wednesday I met Elder H. L. Hoover, superintendent of the New Mexico mission, who, with his wife and several Bible workers, had recently come to labor for a time in El Paso; also Brother and Sister Fee, from San Diego, Cal., who were at one time workers in the Paradise Valley Sanitarium. Wednesday afternoon a company of twelve met at the home of Brother Fee, where I related some of the recent encouragements that had come to our workers in the home and foreign fields. Wednesday night and all day Thursday our train was running through northern Texas. Much of the way the country is very sparsely settled, and the mesquit scrub looks much like an old orchard that was irregularly set. In size and distance apart, the trees make one think of a very old peach or apple orchard. At Forth Worth I found time to telephone to the workers in the office of the Southern Publishing Association there, and at Little Rock, to the physician in the sanitarium in that city. Friday afternoon I reached Memphis, and having the address of Elder J. S. Washburn, I was soon visiting with him at his fireside. Later in the evening we attended a meeting in the northern part of the city, where the tent-meetings were held last summer. About twenty-five earnest souls attended this meeting, and joined heartily in the study led by Brother Washburn. Sabbath morning, January 2, the little meeting-house was filled to the doors. Of the one hundred twenty-five persons in the congregation, about forty had joined the church recently, as the result of the labors of Brother Washburn and his associates. Memphis is a large and promising field, and it is expected that many more will be won to the truth, and join the church there. Elders Washburn and Burrow invited me to join them in the special services of the quarterly meeting and the ordination of church officers; but learning that there was a small colored congregation in the city, whose minister was absent, I spoke to the white congregation for a half-hour on the fulfilment of prophecy and the progress of the work, and then hurried across the city to find a small company of colored people hungry for the Word. Among them I saw several who should be trained as teachers. Learning that hydriatic treatment-rooms had been established in Memphis, I visited the place after the Sabbath, and enjoyed an hour's talk with Brother A. Attebury and wife. Their work is steadily gaining influence, and they desired help to know how to make it a greater influence for good. Late at night I took the train for Nashville, thankful for what I had seen of the advancing work all along the line.