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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 25, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 17.

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Editorial

By Editor

Editorial Correspondence

Loma Linda, Cal., April 2, 1912.
We have spent the last week at the Loma Linda Sanitarium and College of Medical Evangelists. This enterprise has several times been presented to the readers of the Review during the last few months. We have felt greatly interested in becoming acquainted with the college and with the work it is doing. This is our first visit, and it is a surprise to see so large and progressive a work built up here.
The location is unique. Erected on a lofty eminence overlooking the San Bernardino Valley, the institution has a most beautiful situation. In every direction stretch beautiful vineyards and orange groves. In the distance are seen the little cities of Colton, San Bernardino, and Redlands; while forming a background on every side are the mountain peaks of the San Bernardino range, snow-capped, and towering six thousand feet above sea-level.
About three hundred acres of fertile land is controlled by the institution. This has been brought to a good state of cultivation and fruit production, and contributes in no small degree to the support of the enterprise.
The main building is a wooden structure five stories high. This, with a dozen cottages adjoining, furnishes accommodations for one hundred guests. During the last year there has been erected near the main building a commodious chapel, with a seating capacity of four hundred; a nurses’ dormitory, with accommodations for 116 nurses; and also a laboratory building, for the benefit of the medical school. The facilities afforded by this laboratory are most excellent, and are considered the best possessed by any medical school on the Pacific Coast.
These buildings are all situated on a hill overlooking the valley. In the valley below, about two blocks distant, is the railroad station of the Southern Pacific, a general store operated by the institution, a food factory, a laundry, and other buildings, while in the field beyond is the barn for the accommodation of the sanitarium dairy, which supplies milk and cream to the institution.
The work of the sanitarium has been especially blessed. From the beginning, it has enjoyed an excellent and growing patronage. Last year’s work resulted in a net gain of several thousand dollars. Guests are found here from the North, East, and South, and a good spirit is felt in the social and religious life of the family.
LOMA LINDA SANITARIUM
LOMA LINDA SANITARIUM
In addition to the regular sanitarium work carried on here, there is likewise conducted an extensive educational work; namely, the school for the education of physicians and medical evangelists, and the nurses’ training class. Fifty-six are engaged in medical studies, sixty are enrolled as nurses in the sanitarium training-school, while thirty-five others are doing special preparatory work, making, in all, a school of more than one hundred fifty. This has brought together a large number of earnest and consecrated young men and women.
For the carrying forward of this enterprise a large and responsible faculty has been assembled. Here are men and women who have occupied positions of responsibility and have borne heavy burdens in connection with other institutions in years gone by. These brethren and sisters feel that the providence of God has particularly led in the development of this work thus far; and as we listened to the relation of some of the experiences passed through, and read the instruction that has come through the spirit of prophecy regarding the work to be established here, we saw in this enterprise one of more than ordinary importance, and we believe that here has been established a base for a very extensive work, far-reaching in its influence in coming years.
The great need of the work which is being done in the education of medical evangelists and missionary physicians has many times been emphasized. Years ago the instruction through the servant of the Lord to this denomination was that a school should be established for the education of physicians, that our young men and women should not be compelled to attend worldly institutions to obtain an education in medical science.
An effort was made to provide a school of this character. The circumstances which arose and the events which culminated in the separation of that school from denominational work, and in its final abandonment on the part of its promoters, are events of recent history, and need not be recited here. Suffice to say that the instruction that applied to the establishment and development of that school applies with equal force to the school at Loma Linda. The need is even greater, and the demand which exists for devoted medical workers is every year increasing.
The work which has been established at Loma Linda is an effort to meet as fully as possible the spirit of the instruction that has been given. Our brethren and sisters in Loma Linda and in other parts of California have recognized this demand, and have liberally responded to the appeals that have been made for funds for the upbuilding of this work.
We are able to note no evidence of extravagance in the work that has been built up. We believe that the money invested in the enterprise has been economically expended, and that those incharge of the work have used good judgment and labored in the fear of God in the promotion of the enterprise. Worthy of special mention is the spirit that has actuated the local workers connected with the sanitarium and school in the contribution of their own means to the support of the work. Nearly one third of all the donations given to the Loma Linda enterprise have come from the physicians, nurses, and students connected with the work. This amounts in the aggregate, since the work started, to nearly $22,000; and this liberality on the part of these brethren and sisters toward the work in which they are directly interested, has by no means lessened their contributions to other enterprises. Since Jan. 1, 1906, there has been paid
by the workers gathered here over $26,000 in tithe, and over $10,000 in offerings to missions and other general denominational enterprises. A spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice has been faithfully manifested by this family of laborers.
The advantages afforded by this school to our young men and women desiring medical education should be considered by them before they decide to attend the medical schools of the world. This school has been established to provide as thorough instruction as may be obtained elsewhere, and at the same time to save our young men and women from the many demoralizing influences confronting them in their associations in the schools of the world. Surely those who, without sufficient reason, pass by opportunities of this kind provided in our own work, and choose their own way in matters of educational advantages, can not expect to be safeguarded from the temptations that will confront them. We earnestly urge our young people contemplating the medical course, to consider the instruction that has come to us as a people with reference to these subjects, and to avail themselves of the schools of the denomination. Not alone should those seeking a medical education do this, but all others as well. There are scores of Seventh-day Adventist young men and women who are attending high schools and colleges in the world who should be in the colleges and academies conducted by the denomination.
FACULTY AND STUDENTS IN THE COLLEGE OF MEDICAL EVANGELISTS
FACULTY AND STUDENTS IN THE COLLEGE OF MEDICAL EVANGELISTS
During the last week there has been held the constituency meeting of the institution. This has brought together a large number of representative brethren, members of the General Conference Committee, of the Pacific Union Conference Committee, and of the Southern California Conference Committee, as well as other friends of the institution. Trustees have been elected to fill vacancies on the board. Resolutions have been adopted shaping the future plans and policies of the work. Of special importance has been the decision to raise fifteen thousand dollars for the purpose of establishing a central heating plant, which is sadly needed. It was voted to raise another fifteen thousand dollars for the establishment of a hospital, which will be needed in connection with the medical school next year. These features of the work will no doubt be presented before our people more fully in the near future.
The establishment and maintenance of a medical school by Seventh-day Adventists, with their membership and resources, is a stupendous undertaking. Already many perplexities attend the work. These are the result of a lack of ready and necessary means to provide the facilities required, and the difficulty in securing a staff of workers who, fully understanding the principles that should govern such an undertaking and their relationship thereto, will labor unitedly, and not as independent factors, for its development. Upon the workers assembled at Loma Linda rests a great responsibility, the chief responsibility of making the work a success through God’s grace.
We feel great confidence in the work that is being carried forward here. We believe that its establishment is in the order and providence of God. As we view its future, it seems to us that three important essentials are necessary to its highest success: (1) The maintenance of its simplicity and the careful, consistent regard of the principles that have called it into existence, and of the instruction that has been given by the servant of the Lord with reference to its operation; (2) the hearty, united effort of the large number of workers who have been called to bear responsibilities in this place. If the faculty assembled here, with the young men and women in training, can constitute a band of workers whose hearts God has touched, and who will walk humbly before him, a mighty work will be accomplished through their efforts in spreading abroad a knowledge of the message for these last days; (3) the prayers, sympathetic interest, and hearty cooperation of our people throughout the field. These prayers, this interest, this cooperation, we bespeak for the enterprise from our people everywhere. The work here is one of God’s instrumentalities. Our brethren and sisters who are laboring here are worthy of our confi-dence. Honestly and humbly and earnestly they are laboring with God’s help to do the best they know. Let us be faithful in holding up their hands, promoting the interests of the work in which they are engaged, and thus become co-laborers with God and with our brethren in work for the salvation of our fellow men.
F. M. W.