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Life Sketches of Ellen G. White
Working the Cities from Outpost Centers
In the course of her talk before the conference, Mrs. White exalted
the sacredness of God’s law, and spoke decidedly regarding the neces-
sity of prompt action and of acquainting the people with the meaning
of the things coming upon the earth. She referred particularly to the
advantages to be gained by working the cities from outpost centers.
“Out of the cities, out of the cities!” she declared; “this is the
message the Lord has been giving me. The earthquakes will come;
the floods will come; and we are not to establish ourselves in the
wicked cities, where the enemy is served in every way, and where
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God is so often forgotten. The Lord desires that we shall have clear
spiritual eyesight. We must be quick to discern the peril that would
attend the establishment of institutions in these wicked cities. We must
make wise plans to warn the cities, and at the same time live where
we can shield our children and ourselves from the contaminating and
demoralizing influences so prevalent in these places.
The Review and
Herald, July 5, 1906
.
Scenes of Destruction
Two weeks later Mrs. White returned to her St. Helena home by
way of San Jose, Mountain View, and San Francisco. “As we traveled
northward,” she wrote in an account of this journey, “we saw some
of the effects of the earthquake; and when we entered San Jose, we
could see that large buildings had collapsed, and that others had been
seriously damaged.
“At Mountain View, the new post office and some of the largest
stores in town had been leveled to the ground. Other buildings had
partially collapsed, and were badly wrecked.”
The Review and Herald,
May 24, 1906
.
“On our way home from Mountain View, we passed through San
Francisco, and, hiring a carriage, spent an hour and a half in viewing
the destruction wrought in that great city. Buildings that were thought
to be proof against disaster, were lying in ruins. In some instances,
buildings were partially sunken in the ground. The city presented a
most dreadful picture of the inefficiency of human ingenuity to frame