Times of Volume Three
vii
to render aid when needed. James White’s own failing health, his
conviction that others should be stepping in to lift the burdens, and his
frequent calls to duty elsewhere, all tended to separate him from the
administrative interests at Battle Creek. While Elder and Mrs. White
continued to maintain their home midway between the sanitarium and
the publishing house in the headquarters city, we find them often in
distant parts. In the summers of 1872 and 1873 they spent periods of
rest in the mountains of Colorado, and were also for some months in
California. A still longer period was spent by them on the West Coast
in 1874, at which time Elder White began the publication of the Signs
of the Times. Thus others were forced to assume responsibilities of
leadership at the headquarters, and the work gained strength
.
This was a critical period, too, for, during the time when the church
was finding its way in the question of leadership and organization,
some were inclined to unduly stress individual independence and were
in danger of repeating the experience of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
in rebellion against properly constituted authority. Scattered through
volume 3 are counsels providing a definite steadying influence through
these experiences. Here and there are enumerated in magnificent
statements some of the great principles of organization and leadership
.
The three-year period of the times of this volume also marked the
close of the first decade in the teaching and practice of health reform.
Counsel was given to guard against extremes on the one hand and
indifference on the other. Again and again, in general articles and
personal testimonies, Ellen White pointed to the great principles of
temperance and right living, and called the people to advance in their
new and helpful health reform experience
.
All this was laying the foundation stones for wider expansion.
[5]
It was in this period that the believers began to get a glimpse of
the entire world as the field of labor. It was a staggering view. It
presented a challenge. They did not then see the significance of the
little church school started in Battle Creek by Goodloe H. Bell, an
experienced teacher who had accepted Adventism through his contacts
at the sanitarium as a patient. It was in the early summer of 1872
that he began this schoolwork. A little later that year a beginning was
made in laying plans for a more advanced school to train workers. In
December, as Testimony No. 22 reached the hands of our people, they
found that it opened with an appeal for such a school and instruction