Special Mention by William C. White

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 28, 1916

Special Mention

By William C. White

The Los Angeles Hospital

As the work of the College of Medical Evangelists progresses, and our people are preparing to build a dispensary and hospital in Los Angeles, I have heard a variety of arguments for and against the hospital enterprise.

One view of the movement is that because our missionary work in the Orient calls for many to combine medical work with their ministry, we should hasten to lay broad plans for the most thorough education and training of a multitude of workers to do skilfully that which they will be called upon to do when they reach the mission fields.

It is urged that because dispensary work is greatly needed in thousands of cities and villages, because it is heartily welcomed by the people, and because it is a most potent agency for the winning of confidence and the opening of hearts to the gospel, therefore it is wise for us to give special emphasis to the training of physicians and nurses for dispensary and hospital work.

With this in view, we ought to lay the foundation in Los Angeles for a broad work, which in time may include many dispensaries and several treatment-rooms.

One brother expressed fear that the establishment of a large clinical hospital in Los Angeles would take away from the Loma Linda Sanitarium its patronage, and ruin its work.

Another good brother said that he believed that if Sister White were living, she would oppose the movement now on foot to build a hospital in Los Angeles. This set me to thinking and to calling to mind what mother had written and said that would have a bearing upon this question.

Mother's views and plans regarding the work which was begun in 1905 by the purchase of the Loma Linda Sanitarium, have always impressed me as being very broad and inclusive.

Shortly after the opening of our work at Loma Linda, in her interviews with Professors Cady and Howell of the Healdsburg College, she presented outlines of work and attainments that gave us clearly to understand that a broad and advanced educational work would some day be done in Southern California, from Loma Linda as a center, if we moved forward in harmony with the advancing providences of God.

Often when expressing freely her views regarding the work in Southern California, of which the Loma Linda institution was a part, she presented to our minds a united medical and evangelistic work which included Los Angeles, Redlands, Riverside, San Bernardino, and other places.

When we understood this as applying to evangelistic work, it seemed clear and easy to be comprehended; but when her statements obviously applied to the medical side of our work, it was not so easy to understand.

One day in April, 1911, when a company were assembled to see what could be done to secure the control of the eighty-seven-acre tract of land lying in front of the institution, she spoke of the desirability of our owning this land, and at the same time presented forcefully the necessity of broadening our plans to include the cities in the San Bernardino Valley and Los Angeles.

In March, 1913, when the building of the Loma Linda Hospital was under consideration, and we were at the same time considering the apparent necessity of giving the last two years of the medical course in Los Angeles, mother was asked if it was right for us to give the last two years of instruction in Los Angeles, or if we should hold all the work in Loma Linda.

In reply to this, she advised that we do in Loma Linda just as much of the work as could be done acceptably there, and carry the remainder to Los Angeles.

In later conversations she spoke interestedly of the work being done in Los Angeles, and was especially solicitous that a good home be provided for the students who were completing their medical studies there, that they might have the most favorable conditions for the development of medical knowledge and Christian experience.

On the morning of May 9, 1915, about twelve weeks after the beginning of mother's last illness, I received letters from Elders E. E. Andross and G. B. Starr, telling of the plans under consideration for the establishment of a students' home and a hospital for the Los Angeles branch of the work of the Loma Linda Medical College. When I visited mother, about 11:30 A. M., I found her as usual those rainy days, in her reclining chair in the big bay window. She looked very frail and feeble, and said, “I have some strange feelings today.” After I had talked with her a little while about her condition, and had acknowledged the goodness of God in prolonging her life, I told her I had good news regarding the work at Loma Linda. I then related that a good sister in the East had offered to make a very liberal gift to the College of Medical Evangelists for the establishment of a students' home and a hospital in Los Angeles.

Mother's lips quivered, and for a moment she shook with emotion. Then she said: “I am glad you told me this. I have been in perplexity about Loma Linda, and this gives me courage and joy.” After a little further conversation, I knelt down by her side, and thanked the God of Israel for his manifold blessings, and prayed for a continuation of his mercies. Then mother offered a very sweet prayer of about a dozen sentences, in which she expressed gratitude, confidence, love, and entire resignation.

With such an experience as this, and knowing her anxiety in behalf of the Los Angeles department of the college work, I find no foundation for a doubt but that mother would have been heartily glad if she could have known of the efforts that we were to make for the strengthening of the work, of which the Los Angeles hospital will be an important factor.

W. C. WHITE.