Arrival in Oakland by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 3, 1884

Arrival in Oakland.

By Editor

On the morning of Dec. 24, Bro. W. C. White, and about forty-five others, arrived in Oakland in a car chartered for the company. Three of them are residents here, returning from a visit to the East; two are ministers, Eld. St. John and Eld. Corliss, the latter bringing his family with him; a few will connect themselves with our work in Oakland, in different capacities; but most of the company come to avail themselves of the benefit of the climate of California, and have not yet determined where they will settle. One expects to go to Honolulu.

Although they arrived in a stormy time, the newcomers are delighted with the climate, and with what they have seen of the country. Oakland in December, while tedious snow-storms are reported in the Eastern States, seems like Paradise to them.

But there is a great difference! We met a lady on San Pablo Bay, a few years since, in January, who said she thought she was in Paradise when she awoke that morning. She said she left New Hampshire in cold winter weather; the cold increased as she journeyed through the West; the train was snow-bound in the mountains, and descended the Nevadas in the night; in the morning she awoke on the Sacramento plains, where the oak trees were full-leaved, the grass green, and flowers in bloom. She said she thought it was Paradise indeed. As she neared the place of her destination and we went to congratulate her that she had safely made so long a journey, we told her that when she had seen as much sin and suffering, as much of death, as she had seen elsewhere, with more derangement of mind and insanity, she would, we hoped, realize that Heaven is better than California. In appearance some of it may bear a pleasing resemblance to Paradise; and, as in many other things, most people prefer the seeming to the real.

We welcome the new-comers; but we have never advised people to come to this State, unless they have means to purchase, or have friends who know something of the country, who can assist them in selecting a location.