Chapter 13— Confidence in the Prophetic Gift
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Ellen White urged church leaders to establish sanitariums in several places in Southern California because thousands of tourists visited this region. In a vision in 1901, she had been shown a sanitarium outside of Los Angeles. In 1904, the church purchased facilities for Paradise Valley Sanitarium and Glendale Sanitarium, but neither of them fully matched the one she had seen in vision. So, Mrs. White encouraged the church leaders to keep looking.GP 115.1
In 1905, a health resort named Loma Linda was put on the market for $110,000. John Burden, manager of the Glendale Sanitarium, reported to Mrs. White that the seventy-six-acre property seemed to match her description but the price was too high. Sometime later, the price was reduced to $85,000, and Ellen White wrote to the church members in Southern California, “Arouse and avail yourselves of the opportunity open to you.”GP 115.2
Soon afterward the price dropped further, to $45,000. Burden talked to the owners. They said if the church purchased the property within the next few days, they could have it for $40,000. Burden cabled Mrs. White asking for advice. Based on a vision she had received the night before, she asked her son Willie White to telegram him, telling him to secure the option to purchase the Loma Linda property. However, the members of the local conference committee were in Washington attending the General Conference session. They cabled John Burden to delay action until their return. What was he to do?GP 115.3
Convicted that it was the Lord’s will that the property be secured, Ellen White urged Burden to go ahead and put down the deposit, which he did. But when the second installment of $5,000 was due and there was no money with which to make the payment, some felt that a mistake had been made. Then, a few hours before the deadline, a letter containing a bank draft for $5,000 arrived from a woman in Atlantic City. “I don’t know just what your immediate need is, but if this will help, use it,” the woman had written. Once again, God’s guidance through Mrs. White was confirmed. GP 116.1