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Life Sketches of Ellen G. White
“God designs that this place shall be a center, an object lesson. Our
school is not to pattern after any school that has been established in
America, or after any school that has been established in this country.
We are looking to the Sun of Righteousness, trying to catch every
beam of light that we can....
“From this center we are to send forth missionaries. Here they are
to be educated and trained, and sent to the islands of the sea and other
countries. The Lord wants us to be preparing for missionary work....
“There is a great and grand work to be done. Some who are here
may feel that they must go to China or other places to proclaim the
message. These should first place themselves in the position of learn-
ers, and thus be tested and tried.”
(Australasian) Union Conference
Record, July 28, 1899, pp. 8, 9
.
And this ideal—the training of many Christian workers for the
needy mission fields lying beyond—was continually held before the
supporters of the Avondale School, and is the ideal that has charac-
terized the work there in the years that have followed, as indicated by
the very name the school now bears, “The Australasian Missionary
College.”
“We have moved out by faith and have made large advancement,”
Mrs. White wrote at the close of 1899, “because we saw what needed
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to be done, and we dared not hesitate. But we have not done the half of
that which should be done. We are not yet on vantage ground. There
is a great work before us. All about us are souls longing for light and
truth; and how are they to be reached? ...
“My brethren and sisters in Australasia, there is in every city and
every suburb a work to be done in presenting the last message of mercy
to a fallen world. And while we are trying to work these destitute fields,
the cry comes from far-off lands, ‘Come over and help us.’ These are
not so easily reached, and perhaps not so ready for the harvest, as the
fields within our sight, but they must not be neglected. We want to
push the triumphs of the cross. Our watchword is to be, ‘Onward, ever
onward!’ Our burden for the ‘regions beyond’ can never be laid down
until the whole earth shall be lightened with the glory of the Lord.
“But what can we do? We sit down and consider, we pray, and
plan how to begin the work in the places all around us. Where are the
faithful missionaries who will carry it forward? and how shall they be
sustained?