p. 5 | St. Helena Sanitarium by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 23, 1915

St. Helena Sanitarium

By F. M. W.

Notes From the Field — No. 7

The week following our visit to the Lodi Academy, it was our privilege to visit three other denominational institutions; namely, the St. Helena Sanitarium, the Pacific Union College, and the Pacific Press Publishing Association. We found in each of these centers a spirit of cheer and courage on the part of the workers.

St. Helena Sanitarium

This is the oldest sanitarium in the sisterhood of our medical institutions. With a small and humble beginning, it has grown in scope and influence through the years, until at the present time it is exerting a widespread influence in connection with this movement.

It has enjoyed an excellent patronage the past year, and at the time of our visit, the season when there are usually the fewest number of guests, between sixty and seventy patients were under treatment. As we mingled with these afflicted ones, we found a spirit of confidence in the physicians and management, and in the methods being employed in the treatment of disease.

The principles represented by our sanitariums are held in high esteem by thousands of men and women who resort to them for help in preference to the use of drug medications. These seekers after health show an appreciation of rational methods in the treatment of disease above that of many Seventh-day Adventists. Too many of our brethren and sisters are still employing drugs to the exclusion and neglect of simple treatments which would prove more potent and efficient, and which could be successfully used in every home.

The medical work is under the charge of Dr. G. E. Klingerman. With him are associated Drs. Ida Herr Nelson, F. Burton Jones, and Elsie B. Merritt as the other members of the medical staff, and Miss Helen N. Rice and H. F. Wilson as head nurses. The successful and efficient business management of Brother L. M. Bowen, assisted by Sisters J. L. Ings and W. H. Saxby as matrons, H. McDowell as steward, and L. V. Robertson as secretary and assistant treasurer, under the blessing of the Lord has carried the institution through many trying years of history, and brought it to its present state of prosperity.

Elders S. T. Hare and R. W. Munson are being blessed of God in their ministry as chaplains. With these leading workers are associated a large company of men and women whose hearts God has touched, and who are endeavoring faithfully to bear their part in the work here.

Though we did not have the privilege of coming in close touch with many of the young men and women in training, we were impressed with the spirit of earnestness which characterized the service they rendered the guests of the sanitarium.

We noted many improvements since our last visit. Several additional cottages had been erected. The dining room had been enlarged. The surgical hospital had been remodeled, making it at the present time one of the best-equipped and best-arranged surgical hospitals in the West.

Active plans are now in operation for the erection of a wing to the main institution, providing new treatment rooms for both men and women. This will require an outlay of about twenty thousand dollars. The necessary funds for this addition are in hand, from the surplus earnings of the sanitarium for the last few months. This is the manner, we believe, in which all our institutions should make additions and improvements. The St. Helena Sanitarium has long needed new treatment-room facilities. The workers, however, have contented themselves with their old equipment until the time has come when from its earnings the institution can build the necessary additions. It is better to work with humble facilities than to borrow money and thus place our institutions under a great load of debt.

Pacific Union College

The road to Dublin was never more rocky and precipitous than the one which winds up the mountain side from Napa Valley to the site occupied by the Pacific Union College. But the ascent is well worth while. Beautiful scenes of valley and mountain, glen and glade, stretch out on every side. The ascent may be made from the sanitarium in an hour, the descent in half that time.

Reaching the college settlement, one finds a quiet, rustic scene, amid the beauties and quietude of nature, well suited to study, meditation, and worship. We know of no other school connected with this movement so ideal in its situation as this college. Removed from the stir and activity of our great commercial centers, from the spirit and temptations of city life, the students are placed in an environment which is conducive to the attainment of the highest ideals and purposes in school life.

We had the pleasure here of speaking to a large company of young men and women. As we looked into their faces and recognized them as representative of the thousands of devoted students in our schools who are preparing themselves for active service in this work, we saw a solution of the problem of the culmination of this movement in this generation.

Since we last met this family, a new administration building, containing classrooms and a commodious chapel, had been erected; also a boys' dormitory. This work, being all done by the students, under the direction of their instructors, gave the young men a practical experience in carpentry. The lumber employed was sawed from the logs by the students, in the sawmill operated by the school.

The trades taught and the manual work furnished the students do much to forestall a demand for the harmful or useless sports and amusements constituting so large a part of the life of the students in the schools of the world.

Nor does the place which manual work occupies in the Pacific Union College lower in any degree the high standard of scholastic attainment which the school seeks to maintain. Prof. C. W. Irwin and his associate teachers are doing faithful and efficient service. This school is worthy of the hearty support of our brethren throughout the Pacific Union Conference, and this support we feel assured they are endeavoring to give.

Nearly one hundred students are doing college work in the school. A much larger number are doing work in the grammar grades and in the church school. But there is room for others, room for many young men and young women who are attending high schools and colleges not associated with this movement, educational institutions where these young people are in great danger of losing the spirit of the advent movement out of their lives. Let us encourage our boys and girls to attend our own schools. If they lack the necessary means, they may do as thousands are doing every vacation period — engage in the sale of our denominational literature, earning their scholarships in our own schools.

The Pacific Press Publishing Association

If any one has doubt as to the prosperity of this movement with which we are connected, he should visit one of our great denominational publishing houses. The busy editors, the click of the linotypes, the whir of the presses, the busy activity of the bindery and mailing departments, all indicate the spirit of strenuous activity which is taking possession of our publishing work.

This is the impression which one receives as he enters the busy plant of the Pacific Press Publishing Association, at Mountain View, Cal. There was a time when this institution, the same as the Review and Herald, devoted a large part of its energies to commercial work; but that day has forever passed in the experience of both these publishing houses. The faith exercised in entirely eliminating all commercial printing, has borne abundant fruitage in the large and constantly increasing volume of denominational work, taxing our publishing houses to their fullest capacity.

The Pacific Press Publishing Association

is nearing the close of another successful year. Increased sales throughout its territory have attended the efforts of its faithful representatives.

During the first ten months of this year the Pacific Press Publishing Association sold to the people west of the Mississippi River books and tracts to the value of $238,052.40, which is almost $50,000 more than for the same time last year. Exclusive of periodicals, the total sales of this institution, including those to foreign lands during that time, amounted to $313,767, which is a gain of almost $40,000 over the same period of 1914. More than $40,000 worth of these publications was in the Spanish language.

In addition to this, its international branch at College View, Nebr., has supplied literature in German, Danish, and Swedish, to the value of more than $25,000. Just before we arrived at Mountain View, a shipment of three tons of “The Great Controversy” (Finnish) had come from Finland. It had been more than six months en route, having been repeatedly delayed by war restrictions. This book is being bound in cloth and half leather, and will be sold at the same price as the English, although the freight and war charges amount to nearly half the original cost of the books themselves.

The journals published by the Pacific Press are exerting a wide influence for the truth of God. The Signs of the Times, in both weekly and monthly forms, has thousands of interested readers. Many are rejoicing in the message today as the result of the circulation of these papers. Our Little Friend is a welcome visitor to thousands of our children, in whose lives it is exerting a strong molding influence for the right.

It is cause for great rejoicing that our two older publishing houses will soon be in a position, under the prospering hand of God, where they will be able to turn their net earnings to the upbuilding of the work in other lands. The call to this people today is to the world's evangelization. Let us work steadily for the accomplishment of this heaven-appointed task, both as individuals and as institutions. Heaven will prosper us in so doing.

F. M. W.