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Appendix Notes
421
in Mashonaland. Rhodes was especially pleased with the plan out-
lined for operating a mission among the natives of that country, and
handed to Elder Robinson a sealed letter addressed to Dr. Jemison,
secretary of the company, to be given to him in Bulawayo. The
brethren went to Bulawayo expecting to purchase land, and did not
know until Jemison told them that Rhodes had ordered him to give
them all the land they wanted. A tract of twelve thousand acres was
selected, and this became the site of the Solusi Mission, the first
one operated by the denomination among non-Christian peoples. A
knowledge of this gift created considerable concern among certain
leading brethren at Battle Creek, who feared that to accept it would
be a violation of the principles of the separation of church and state.
As the matter was discussed at the General Conference session of
1895, action was taken:
“That we ought not as a denomination either to seek or to accept
from any civil government, chief, ruler, or royal chartered company,
supreme, local, or otherwise, any gift, or donation, concession, grant,
either of land, money, credit, special privilege, or other thing of value,
to which we are not in common with all others justly entitled as men
without any reference to our religious profession or religious work.”
This was followed by another action:
“That in harmony with this resolution that the General Confer-
ence Association be instructed to pay an appropriate amount for all
government land that may be secured in Africa or elsewhere.”—
The
General Conference Bulletin, February 21, 1895, 283
.
The Foreign Mission Board ratified this action by recording that:
“The lands secured from the government shall be purchased and not
received as a grant.” Before this action could be implemented, how-
ever, on January 30, 1895, Ellen G. White wrote a communication
from Australia in which she indicated: “With respect to the propriety
[528]
of receiving gifts from Gentiles or the heathen,” “what they would
give, we should be privileged to receive.” The next day she wrote
the article appearing on pages 200-203, pointing out that certain
“leading men” were “taking extreme positions.” In the light of these
two communications from Ellen White, the action of the General
Conference session was never implemented
.