PURCHASING THE NELSON FARM

Introduction  

Heading south  

The riverboat tour  

Purchase of the property  

UNITED THOUGH SEPARATE

Something remarkably new  

Leaders shocked at new concepts  

Opposition begins  

Organizational structure of Madison  

The underlying principle  

Church leaders arrive  

Opposition continues  

Ellen White strongly objects  

The forbidding becomes official  

Low-cost book sales  

Earlier independent publications  

The Spalding-Magan Collection  

Part One told how our early schools led to the founding of the Battle Creek College and, later, the establishment of Emmanuel Missionary College.

But, when Part One ended, two events began almost simultaneously. In the spring of 1904, Sutherland and Magan left EMC; for they had been counseled by Ellen White to start a new school in the southern states. Just one year later, in the spring of 1905, another educational project began in southern California.

Here, in Part Two, we will follow Sutherland and Magan as they journeyed south in order to locate a suitable site for their new school. It is important that we learn what happened at Madison; for, in its history, we will learn both what to do--and what not to do--in a blueprint school.

In Part Three, we will survey the history of Loma Linda and the terrific impact it has had on our entire denomination in all the years since. But, from its earlier years, we will still learn more about the blueprint for a medical missionary training school.

Some readers will want to start a self-supporting missionary project. We will find extremely important principles for this throughout this book.

As we earlier discovered, from the summer of 1901 till the spring of 1904, Edward Sutherland and Percy Magan worked feverishly to make a success of Emmanuel Missionary College at Berrien Springs, Michigan. But, by 1903, they realized that the opposition to their blueprint reforms was intensifying and they would eventually be pushed out.

The Southern States had caught the attention of Sutherland and Magan as early as 1898, when Percy visited James Edson White, Ellen Whites son, who since 1894 had dedicated his life to helping poor blacks. At that time, he had cruised in Edson's mission steamer, the Morning Star.

In April 1899 and June 1901, for a short time Sutherland and Magan went to Alabama and Tennessee to help Edson start some schools.

When Edson briefly visited Battle Creek in 1899, Magan helped him print his small journal, The Gospel Herald. They also gave Edson some donations earmarked for his work.

Several times, even before they took up the work in Berrien Springs, Brethren Magan and Sutherland expressed to me their burden for the work in the South. Their hearts are there . . They think that they can better glorify God by going to a more needy new field.--EGW, remarks at meeting in Berrien Springs, May 23, 1904.

After handing in their resignations to the board of Emmanuel Missionary College, Sutherland and Magan made a trip to the South. On June 1, 1904, they arrived in Nashville and spoke with George I. Butler, president of the Southern Union, and also visited S.N. Haskell, who, just then, was conducting an evangelistic series in Nashville. You will recall that Magan had earlier made a round-the-world trip with Elder Haskell, during which time Magan had written those 49 articles for the Youths Instructor (January 1890 to July 1891). So they were already very close friends. Both deeply believed in obeying the Spirit of Prophecy blueprint in all its aspects.

The day after arriving in Nashville, Sutherland and Magan visited with Ellen White in Edson's home, where they discussed the likelihood for a new school. Her son, W.C. White, was with her. In the providence of the Lord, they happened to be spending a few weeks in the South.

Very enthusiastic about the prospects, Ellen White encouraged them to go on a riverboat tour of possible real estate holdings.

On Thursday morning, June 9, with Edson at the helm, the Morning Star headed up the Cumberland River. Then, suddenly, the ship broke down and was forced to dock at Edgefield Junction Landing for repairs, not far from a tiny place on the road, called Madison.

Since they had time on their hands, W.O. Palmer, one of Edsons helpers, took Ellen White to the nearby Nelson Farm which Edson had earlier learned about. Priced at $12,000, it had 414 acres. But, as they looked about the farm, they saw that it needed repairs; and, although the lower fields were quite fertile, some of the higher ground had been eroded of its topsoil. The farm was 15 miles from Nashville.

The next day, she told Sutherland and Magan that this was the place they should purchase. Frankly, somewhat shocked by her announcement, they hesitated to purchase such an expensive property. Sutherland and Magan intended to locate their school in the mountains of eastern Tennessee or in the western section of the Carolinas (Light Bearers to the Remnant, p. 245). So the Morning Star headed up the river and the two men spent two days looking at various farms, but without success. Finally, they decided that Ellen White knew what was best. Later years would prove it to be an outstanding choice.

Upon returning to Edgefield Junction, Ellen White spoke with the owners of the Nelson Farm, an elderly couple named Ferguson. But, after initially agreeing to the sale, when Magan spoke to her afterward, Mrs. Ferguson tried to back out, demanding more money.

I never went through more of a siege in my life. She now wants about $13,000 for the place. This, of course, is much more money than we had thought we could possibly pay, and yet on the whole, I think the place is better than any other place at that money.--Magan to Ellen White, June 19, 1904.

Meanwhile, Sutherland had gone to Berrien Springs to get his aunt, Mrs. Druillard, to help pay for it. But, upon hearing about it, Druillard hesitated and said no; but then she decided to return with him and look at the place. Arriving there, she liked it.

On June 22, an agreement was drawn up for the purchase price of $12,723, with a $5,000 down to be paid within 10 days. The final papers were signed the following day.

Ellen White then promised Nellie R. Druillard (1844-1938) that if she would help the boys with the project, that God would give her a long life; and He did.

Said Mrs. White to Mother D that day: Nell, you think you are just about old enough to retire. If you will come and cast your lot with this work, if you will look after these boys, and guide them in what the Lord wants them to do, then the Lord will renew your youth, and you will do more in the future than you have ever done in the past. A.W. Spalding, Christs Last Legion, p. 169.

She joined as a founder of the school and continued to support it until her death at the age of 94.

Mrs. Druillard had one of the shrewdest financial heads in the denomination. She had acted as treasurer and financier in several positions, including a foreign field.Ibid., 168. 

Ellen White also made another promise. She told Sutherland and Magan that, if they would incorporate the new institution as an independent organization, she would serve on the board.

At this juncture, the reader needs to understand that a momentous change in Spirit of Prophecy guidance was about to take place. Prior to this time, Ellen Whites life had been wrapped up in denominational work. But, time after time, she had seen Heaven-sent opportunities and projects damaged or ruined by stubborn leaders or committees.

It was now the summer of 1904. God revealed to her that the time had come for her to begin urging the formation of independent organizations, faithful to the historic beliefs, which would help fulfill the Divine plan for training students; caring for the sick; producing publications; and giving the third angels message to the world.

A year later, Ellen White would be instrumental in the formation of the Loma Linda project, as a church-owned entity. She would personally help gather together the cream of blueprint-favoring workers, including Burden, Haskell, Howell, Abbott, and others, to help get it started in the right way.

Yet, by 1910-1912, all the workers she would send there would be shipped off by church leaders to other places or set in the background. Controlling church entities, in this instance the Southern California Conference, assisted by the General Conference--would set in motion certain changes which ultimately reduce the medical blueprint to tatters. By the 1930s, these changes had set in motion a state of affairs which ultimately desolated our other education institutions. More on this in Part Three.

All this was unknown to Ellen White in the summer of 1904; but God knew what was ahead, and He guided her to do something totally unheard of: She helped a small, independent group start an institution; and then specifically--and repeatedly--she demanded that they not permit it then or later to come under church control. Here is the story:

On June 30, 1904, Magan headed north to care for various duties in Berrien Springs, Battle Creek, and Washington, D.C.

According to his diary (which he kept throughout his life), the plans suggested by Ellen White for the new school in Tennessee were not appreciated at General Conference headquarters. Some said too much land had been purchased. Others said it would bankrupt the church. Still others were upset at the idea of a work-and-study program.

But everyone was fully aroused when they learned that Ellen White had urged the two men to incorporate it as an independent corporation; this one would not be under church control.

It was bad enough to purchase a large acreage for a school--one that would include agricultural work, of all things, as part of the curriculum. But to do it independently; why, this was treason. Or rebellion. Or some other ominous word.

Earlier, in the late 1880s, Sutherland and Magan had seen the General Conference Association loaded down with debt on educational and medical institutions. The two men had served for years as leading officers at Battle Creek College, struggling with a debt burden of $90,000 which others before them had brought upon it; and this was at a time when ministers and teachers only made $10 to $12 a week.

So when asked, the men told church leaders that they intended to only build and enlarge as fast as funds came in. Another peculiar concept! How could a school be started that way?

Yet all these strange ideas were part of the blueprint, bequeathed to Sutherland and Magan through the Testimonies and direct counsels from Ellen White.

Although it may not have been intentional, church leaders effectively set to work to keep any money from church members from going to this independent project. The project would either fail or be brought under church control.

This twofold objective continued for a very long time. Two full years later, Ellen White demanded:

The Lord does not set limits about His workers in some lines as men are wont to set. In their work, Brethren Megan and Sutherland have been hindered unnecessarily. Means have been withheld from them because in the organization and management of the Madison school, it was not placed under the control of the Conference. But the reasons why this school was not owned and controlled by the Conference has not been duly considered . .

The Lord does not require that the educational work at Madison shall be changed all about before it can receive hearty support of our people. The work that has been done there is approved of God, and He forbids that this line of work shall be broken up. The Lord will continue to bless and sustain the workers so long as they follow His counsel.--EGW, June 18, 1907; Series B, No. 11, p. 32.

All this makes us curious: Just what was the organizational structure that Ellen White specified for this new project?

In June 1904, at the time that she told the two men to purchase the Nelson Farm, she also told them something very startling: They must make sure the new project never be placed under denominational control.

She explained that, in order to do this, they must incorporate the property under State law as a non-profit corporation. And, she said she would serve on their board of directors.

That was equally startling. At no other time did Ellen White ever serve on a church or institutional board of any kind! She had never done it earlier, and she never did it later. It had been revealed to her that she would need to do it on this occasion in order to demonstrate to church leaders and members everywhere that it was not wrong to start independent ministries, and that the little groups had her full backing. With Ellen White on the board, it would be very difficult for church leaders to denounce Madison as a renegade, in rebellion against duly authorized church control.

These folk were fully in harmony with our historic beliefs and standards; indeed, they were defending, practicing, and promoting them better than many others in the church were.

To make matters worse, while Madison was operating an independent worker training center and sanitarium, elsewhere, Edson White was publishing and selling books without church permission.

Ellen White had been shown by God that, henceforth, it would be necessary for independent ministries to help carry on the educational, medical, missionary, and publishing work of our people. No longer were Gods people to assume that the denomination should be in charge of everything that was done. Indeed, she saw that they would have to tackle challenges and enter upon new fields and projects which church leaders at times would refuse to do.

From time to time, the question has been raised as to whether our independent ministries should form corporations. The answer is that it was Ellen White who gave instruction that it be done.

Ellen White not only demanded that this new institution not be owned or controlled by the denomination, but she told its founders that it must be incorporated under the laws of the State of Tennessee.

She did this because she had been instructed that corporations were far more enduring than private and partnership organizations. If Madison had been privately owned or a legal partnership, it would be easier for the General Conference to later penetrate and take control of it. Or the children of the owners might turn it over to the church or leave the faith--taking it with them.

In Madison we have a property held, at Ellen Whites request, by a group of independent missionaries and chartered, at her request, as a non-profit corporation.

(It is of interest that Ellen White later arranged that the ownership of her bookwork also be placed in an independent organization, the Ellen G. White Estate, Inc. However, after her death, its board members chose to accept denominational salaries. This brought the board back under quasi-denominational control.)

Here is a statement from the commemorative golden anniversary album of Madison. It reveals that it was Ellen White who decided the type of organizational structure it would have.

Elder and Mrs. S.N. Haskell, at the request of the founders, held title to the newly purchased property until a corporation could be formed.

Mrs. E.G. White was very emphatic about how the title should be held and where the controls of this new property could rest. Dr. Floyd Bralliar, well-known throughout the church as a naturalist, a writer, and a prominent Madison worker from the early years until he was laid to rest in 1952, quotes Mrs. White as follows:

Now I want you to know that I have been shown how this school should be organized. It is not to be organized like our other schools, neither owned or controlled like them. I want you, Professor Magan, to go with me, and we will get hold of an attorney and we will get him to draw up the papers and take it to the state authorities and get the institution incorporated, and I will stay here until we get that done and then I will go to California.

I want you, Professor Sutherland, to go North and see if you can get enough money to make the first payment on this place [about $5,000] and we will attend to the organization down here.--A Pictorial History of Madison College: A School of Divine Origin, 1904-1964.

While Sutherland went off to try and raise more money--Ellen White stayed behind to make sure the property was duly incorporated in the Secretary of States office at the State Capital in Nashville. She would not head west to her home at Elmshaven until Madison had been independently incorporated.

This was no fly-by-night decision on her part. Ellen White was one of the original incorporators of the project, and she became one of the ten trustees (board members). She remained on that board till she was too feeble to continue, not resigning until 1914.

It is an intriguing fact that Ellen White did something similar at the 1901 General Conference Session. Having returned only a few months earlier from Australia, at that session she pushed through a decentralization of the denomination. No longer could the central authority (the General Conference) at Battle Creek dictate what was done in the divisions, unions, conferences, and their entities. The objective was to enable our administrations and workers, on all levels, to look directly to God for guidance.

The division of the General Conference into district union conferences was Gods arrangement. In the work of the Lord for these last days there are to be no Jerusalem centers, no kingly power; and the work in the different countries is not to be tied up by contracts to the work centering in Battle Creek; for this is not Gods plan.--Unpublished Testimonies, p. 368.

It was thus a follow-through part of the overall plan that, in 1904, Ellen White was directed to initiate independent ministries which would train more independent workers, ministries, and training schools. Laymen were to set to work and, alone or in little groups, carry on missionary work. (7 Testimonies, pp. 18-28, is an example of this.)

For several years I have been warned that there is danger, constant danger, of men looking to men for permission to do this or that instead of looking to God for themselves. Thus they become weaklings, bound about with human ties that God has not ordained. The Lord can impress minds and consciences to do His work.--Unpublished Testimonies, p. 366.

It is good that we should counsel together; but, in the work of the Lord, we should not be mere automatons, doing what others tell us.

In no conference should propositions be rushed through without time being taken by the brethren to weigh carefully all sides of the question. Because the president of a conference suggested certain plans, it has sometimes been considered unnecessary to consult the Lord about them. Thus propositions have been accepted that were not for the spiritual benefit of the believers and that involved far more than was apparent at the first casual consideration. Such movements are not in the order of God.--9 Testimonies, p. 278.

There were so many things which needed to be done on the farm, and Ellen White stayed there for a few days to encourage the workers. During this time, faithful Elder Haskell held sole legal control of the property. Ellen White knew he could be trusted not to turn it over to the church without her permission, which she had no intention of giving.

By this time, it was early August. Magan was busily counseling with Ellen White, to make sure that the incorporation proceed exactly in accordance with her wishes. But soon visitors arrived.

Thoroughly aroused at what they had learned from Sutherland, a number of church leaders journeyed to Madison to see what was happening and, if possible, prevent the catastrophe of a separate organization.

Here are three successive entries from Magan's diary, in his quaint, terse style:

August 7, 1904: Had a talk with Sr. White regarding our plan for organization. She approved of the same. W.C. White was present.

August 8, 1904: Worked with W.C.W. during the forenoon getting article of plans ready regarding incorporating school in Nashville. In afternoon met Daniells, Prescott, Griggs, Washburn, Baird, W.C. White to consider our plan of organization. Daniells didn't like it. Prescott thought we traveled too much. So did Daniels.

Bland thought other teachers would envy our independence and would want to do likewise.

August 9, 1904: Washington. Spent forenoon with Daniels. Had a very satisfactory conversation. Told him why our school was independent and would have to eat shewbread.--Magan diary entries for Sunday through Tuesday, August 7-9, 1904.

Although the independent corporation was Ellen Whites idea, and although her son (W.C. White) was working with Magan on corporate plans, Daniells expressed himself as fully in opposition to it. In addition, both Prescott and Daniells did not appreciate the fact that Magan and Sutherland were traveling about the countryside raising money for an independent ministry, which was not under leadership control.

By Tuesday, August 9, Daniells appeared more mollified; but later months and years would prove his favor to be short-lived.

Let us now turn the clock forward nearly two years. By that time, Daniells was demanding that church officers throughout the continent put a stop to any, and all, efforts by the folk at Madison to obtain donations. In his view, church control was more important than fulfilling blueprints or carrying on missionary work.

Daniells was not a bad person; he was just misguided. When you have arisen to leadership of a church, it is easy to think that everyone should be obeying someone else.

Here are two more diary entries by Magan:

May 7, 1907: Paradise Valley. Talked to Sr. White regarding attitude of General Conference towards us. Miss Sara McEnterfer and Lillian present. Told Sr. White that the administration held we had no right to get the money unless we were owned by the Conference. She replied, You are doing double what they are. Take all the donations you can get. This money belongs to the Lord and not to those men. The position they take is not of God. The Southern Union Conference is not to own or control you. You cannot turn things over to them.

May 14, 1907: Loma Linda. To see Sr. White . . I talked to her about the General Conference position that concerns non-conference owned should have no money. She answered . . Daniells and those with him have taken a position on this matter that is not of God. She said she had something written on this and would try to find it.--Magan diary entries for Tuesday, May 7, and Tuesday, May 14, 1907.

Apparently, Ellen White did not find what she had written on the subject; so that day, May 14, she wrote a follow-up letter to Magan, stating her convictions in the matter even more strongly.

I bear positive testimony that you and your fellow workers in Madison are doing the work that God has appointed to you . . The attitude of opposition or indifference on the part of some of your brethren has created conditions that have made your work more difficult than it should have been . . but the Lord is pleased that you have not been easily discouraged.

Some have entertained the idea that because the school at Madison is not owned by a conference organization, those who are in charge of the school should not be permitted to call upon our people for the means that is greatly needed to carry on their work. This idea needs to be corrected . .

The Lord Jesus will one day call to account those who would so tie your hands that it is almost impossible for you to move in harmony with the Lords biddings . . You are just as much entitled to ask for that which you need as are other men to present the necessities of the work in which they are engaged . .

As you carry on this work in harmony with the Lords will, you are not to be kept on a constant strain to know how to secure the means you need in order to go forward. The Lord forbids the setting up of walls and bands around workers of experience who are faithfully acting their God-given part.

Much precious time has been lost because man-made rules and restrictions have been sometimes placed above the plans and purposes of God. In the name of the Lord, I appeal to our conference workers to strengthen and support and labor in harmony with our brethren at Madison, who are carrying forward a work that God has appointed them.--EGW to Percy Magan, May 14, 1907; Spalding-Magan Unpublished Testimonies, pp. 411-412.

Elder W.C. White, Ellen Whites son, was her constant companion. He knew her thinking and unfailingly stood in support of her decisions:

May 23, 1907: St. Helena. Spent the forenoon with W.C. White . . He gave me Sr. Whites letters to Daniells regarding us. He told me he did not agree with the administration at Washington in insisting that all monies pass through their hands . . Said that he would not agree to our going under conference domination.--Magan diary entry, Thursday, May 23, 1907.

Before leaving this matter, it should be noted that an earlier letter by Ellen White (written to Elder Watson, president of the Colorado Conference) was also over this battle for funds. In her letter, dated January 22, 1905, she forcefully told Watson that he had no right forbidding the sending of tithe by church members directly to independent ministries. If you wish to read the entire letter, you will find it on pp. 215-216 of the book, Spalding-Magan Unpublished Testimonies. It is also available in the unusually complete Spirit of Prophecy compilation, The Truth about Tithe, available from the publisher of this present book (94 pp., 8 x 11, $7.50 + $2.50).

One delicate problem of a self-supporting institution, independent of direct guidance of the conference, was the source from which funds might be secured, especially for the purchase of property and the construction of the buildings. Naturally the leaders of the new school thought of their friends and former associates who lived in areas where money flowed more freely. Appeals made from the South would, of course, lead to responses from the North and West. And it was not easy at times for those carrying the responsibilities of local work to stand by and watch sizable amounts of money being sent to another field.--Merlin Neff, For God and CME, p. 114.

All the while, Ellen White was busily writing letters. Here is part of one from January 1908:

The Lord works through various agencies. If there are those who desire to step into new fields and take up new lines of labor, encourage them to do so. Seventh-day Adventists are doing a great and good work; let no mans hand be raised to hinder his brother. Those who have had experience in the work of God should be encouraged to follow the guidance and counsel of the Lord.

Do not worry lest some means shall go direct to those who are trying to do missionary work in a quiet and effective way. All the means is not to be handled by one agency or one organization. There is much business to be done conscientiously for the cause of God. Help is to be sought from every possible source.--EGW, to those bearing responsibilities in Washington and other centers, January 6, 1908; Unpublished Testimonies, pp. 421-422.

To those in our Conferences who have felt that they had authority to forbid the gathering of means in a certain territory I now say: This matter has been presented to me again and again. I now bear my testimony in the name of the Lord to those whom it concerns. Wherever you are, withhold your forbiddings. The work of God is not to be thus trammeled. God is being faithfully served by these men whom you have been watching and criticizing. They fear and honor the Lord; they are laborers together with Him. God forbids you to put any yokes on the necks of His servants.

It is the privilege of these workers to accept gifts or loans that they may invest them to help in doing an important work that greatly needs to be done.

This wonderful burden of responsibility which some suppose God has placed upon them with their official position, has never been laid upon them. If men were standing free on the platform of truth, they would never accept the responsibility to frame rules and regulations that bind and cramp Gods chosen laborers in their work for the training of missionaries. When they learn the lesson that  All ye are brethren . . they will remove the yokes that are now binding their brethren.--Ibid.

Unfortunately, Ellen Whites counsel was totally ignored. Four months later, the May 14 issue of the Review reported a General Conference action, that no money should be made available to independent ministries. It said in part:

Resolved. That any special enterprises for which donations are solicited from the people should first receive the sanction of the General Conference and the Union Conference in which such enterprise is undertaken. And that any person sent out to solicit such donations first receive suitable credentials from the Union Conference from which he comes, and that satisfactory arrangements be made, certified in writing, with the Union and local Conferences in which he wishes to solicit before he enters upon his work.--Conference Action, reported in Review, May 14, 1908.

As soon as a copy of that issue of the Review reached her (only 12 days from Washington, D.C. to California!), she wrote a blistering letter addressed to all the leaders at the General Conference. Here are a few excerpts of this lengthy letter:

To the Officers of the General Conference . . When I read the resolutions published in the Review, placing so many restrictions upon those who may be sent out to gather funds . . I was sorry for the many restrictions . . Unless the converting grace of God comes into the Conference, a course will be taken that will bring the displeasure of God upon them. We have had enough of the spirit of forbidding.

This morning I could not sleep after midnight. I awoke bearing this message to our leading men: Break every yoke that would hinder or limit the power of the Third Angels message. The calls that have been made for large liberality, which have been responded to so nobly by our people, should lead to feelings of confidence and gratitude rather than to the placing of yokes upon the necks of Gods servants . .

A much greater work would have been done if men had not been so zealous to watch and hinder some who were seeking to obtain means from the people to carry forward the work of the Lord . . Is man to be a dictator to his fellow man? Is he to take responsibility of saying, You shall not go to such a place? . . There is need of a great reformation in our ranks.--EGW, to the Officers of the General Conference, May 26, 1908.

A related source of irritation to church leaders was the fact that the workers in the South were publishing and selling books at prices below that of the regular publishing houses. Believers were donating funds to independent groups which not only helped them in their mission work, but also enabled them to publish these lower-cost books.

The people to whom God has given His means are amenable to Him alone. It is their privilege to give direct aid and assistance to missions. It is because of the misappropriation of means [by the regular channels] that the Southern field has no better showing than it has today. I do not consider it the duty of the Southern branch of our work, in the publication and handling of books, to be under the dictation of our established publishing houses. And if means can be devised to reduce the expense of publishing and circulating my books, let this be done . .

I have to say, my brother, that I have no desire to see the work in the South moving forward in the old, regular lines. When I see how strongly the idea prevails that the methods of handling our books in the past shall be retained, because what has been must be, I have no heart to advise that former customs shall continue.--EGW, letter 60, 1901.

Why did Ellen White consider the bookwork so important? Because she knew that, when low-cost copies of our best missionary publications are placed in the hands of believers, it is a most powerful way to spread the truth faster and wider than living preachers could. This is why she frequently called them the silent preachers.

In a dream (9T 66-75), Ellen White was shown the importance of heavily reducing the price of missionary books and the opposition it would receive. In the first part of the dream, she was shown the importance of distributing Spirit of Prophecy books, and other books which reveal Satan's devices. Later in the dream, Christ Himself speaks:

Because books were being sold at low prices, some being especially reduced for the occasion, many were purchased, and some by persons not of our faith. They said: It must be that these books contain a message for us. These people are willing to make sacrifices in order that we may have them, and we will secure them for ourselves and our friends.

But dissatisfaction was expressed by some of our own people. One said: A stop must be put to this work, or our business will be spoiled. As one brother was carrying away an armful of books, a canvasser laid his hand upon his arm and said: My brother, what are you doing with so many books? Then I heard the voice of our Counselor saying: Forbid them not. This is a work that should be done. The end is near. Already much time has been lost, when these books should have been in circulation. Sell them far and near. Scatter them like the leaves of autumn. This work is to continue without the forbiddings of anyone. Souls are perishing out of Christ. Let them be warned of His soon appearing in the clouds of heaven.

Some of the workers continued to appear much cast down. One was weeping and said: These are doing the publishing work an injustice by purchasing these books at so low a price; besides, this work is depriving us of some of the revenue by which our work is sustained. The Voice replied: You are meeting with no loss. These workers who take the books at reduced prices could not obtain so ready sale for them except it be at this so-called sacrifice. Many are now purchasing for their friends and for themselves who otherwise would not think of buying. 9 Testimonies, pp. 72-73.

It is a significant fact that Ellen Whites attention was turned to independent printing facilities over a decade before she urged independent training schools. Following the crisis at the 1888 conference, when important leaders at the Review and General Conference opposed her messages for a time, she was guided to publish her next book release, Steps to Christ (1892), through an outside publishing house: Fleming H. Revell Co.

Later, in the spring of 1903, as the book Education was nearing completion, she very nearly gave the book to Sutherland and Magan at Emmanuel Missionary College to print. Both her son, W.C. White, and C.H. Jones were in on the project (Magan dairy entry March 25-26, 1903).

Repeatedly, the independent ministries in the South published various missionary publications. In late 1910, she arranged for a small printing press to be purchased for her grandchildren (the twins, Henry and Herbert), so they could start an independent printing business in Battle Creek, which they did with fervor. One of them, Herbert, was still printing independent books as late as the 1950s.

In later years, Percy Magan, by that time at Loma Linda, wanted to print a book, Counsels to Medical Workers, compiled from the writings of Ellen White, but met with such stiff opposition from church leadership that he gave up the project.

Church leaders said they did not want him to receive the royalties on such a book, which he wanted to use to help fund graduating medical students when they first went to foreign fields. The Review and Pacific Press wanted to keep the royalties for themselves. (The later books, Counsels on Health, in 1923, and Medical Ministry, in 1932, were not as rich in the available resources from her writings on the subject as his would have been. Our own compilation, The Medical Missionary Manual, probably comes closer to his plan.)

In 1921, Magan wrote a letter to the CME president about the problem. The letter is remarkable for what it tells us. Ellen White strongly considered removing all her books from denominational control and publication!

I have a letter from C.H. Jones [manager at Pacific Press] telling how the council . . turned down our proposition concerning royalties on the medical book. This, however, was no disappointment to me as I knew that would be the end of the matter in the hands of the men who handle it. There is absolutely nothing to their arguments, except unbelief in the Spirit of Prophecy on the royalty question. Sister White foresaw all of this many years ago. She had absolutely no confidence in the management of the Review and Herald as it existed at that time, and she begged W.C. White to take her books away from them and also from the Pacific Press and urged that they should publish her Testimonies themselves. I was living in her home and working for her at the time and she talked to me about the matter, not once or twice, but over and over again.

I greatly fear that this royalty question is just one link in the long, long cable of apostasy that is coming on. I do not want, however, to get into the state of mind where I will charge apostasy against my brethren and not feel that I am in danger along the same lines myself. You and I and our medical group have much to do to keep our work where God wants it to be. It would have cost the Review and Herald and the Pacific Press no more to let the money, which properly should go to the authors as royalty, go into missions as a gift from the publishing house, who have already no right to it at all.--Magan to Newton Evans (CME president), November 11, 1921.

It is clear from the above letter that Ellen White was guided to want her books henceforth to be published by independent ministries. She had been shown that there was great danger when a single organization, even though it be our own denomination, could have printing and copyright control over all her writings.

An example of this danger is shown in the early 1980s, when a young believer in Switzerland (primarily at his own expense, doing paperhanging) printed Great Controversy in Romanian, German, and French. He smuggled the Romanian print runs, at great danger to himself, into Romania (still, at that time, behind the Iron Curtain). But our Hamburg Publishing House (Advent Verlag, in Hamburg, Germany) threatened to have him jailed for copyright infringement, when he tried to widely distribute German and French editions of the book. Yet there was no error in his editions; he had only typeset from standard German and French editions. Within a couple years, he totally gave up in discouragement. The present author has copies of every Great Controversy printed by our publishing houses throughout the world for purposes of reprinting. Editions of that book, printed by the denomination, are generally very costly, and not many are sold.

This opposition to Madison and related independent ministry publishing and missionary projects continued for years. If you question the fact, purchase a copy of the Unpublished Testimonies (also called the Spalding-Magan Unpublished Testimonies). Its 498 8 x 11 pages, containing 151 letters, primarily consist of letters by Ellen White about this and other matters relating to the work of independent ministries, primarily in the southern field (available from Leaves of Autumn Books, Box 440, Payson, AZ 85541).

The history of Madison is highly significant. Ellen White spent so much time, pleading, praying, and writing in defense of it. Madison represented something very important: a way that Gods work would be able to more fully succeed in later years. Looking back on it, with all that we know today, we can understand why God also wanted independent ministries to help finish the work on earth.