The San Francisco Earthquake

Ellen White spent much of the year 1906 at her Elmshaven home busily engaged in writing. She was deeply concerned about problems in Battle Creek involving Dr. Kellogg, A. T. Jones, and others. With the coming of April it was time for the dedication of two sanitariums in southern California. On Thursday, April 12, she left for the south. With her were her niece, May Walling, who had arrived at Elmshaven a week or two earlier (Letter 124, 1906); Sara McEnterfer; and Clarence Crisler (Manuscript 123, 1906).WV 495.5

After the dedication service at Loma Linda Sunday afternoon, April 15, Ellen White and her associate workers stayed on at the sanitarium through Monday. She was to return to Los Angeles on Tuesday and would speak at the Southern California Conference session held in the Carr Street church in Los Angeles on Wednesday. She would be en route to San Diego and the dedication of Paradise Valley Sanitarium the next week.WV 495.6

Monday night, April 16, while she was still at Loma Linda, a solemnizing vision was given to her.”A most wonderful representation,” she said, “passed before me.” Describing it in an article that now appears in Testimonies for the Church, volume 9, she wrote:WV 495.7

During a vision of the night, I stood on an eminence, from which I could see houses shaken like a reed in the wind. Buildings, great and small, were falling to the ground. Pleasure resorts, theaters, hotels, and the homes of the wealthy were shaken and shattered. Many lives were blotted out of existence, and the air was filled with the shrieks of the injured and the terrified.... The awfulness of the scenes that passed before me I cannot find words to describe. It seemed that the forbearance of God was exhausted and that the judgment day had come....WV 495.8

Terrible as was the representation that passed before me, that which impressed itself most vividly upon my mind was the instruction given in connection with it. The angel that stood by my side declared that God's supreme rulership and the sacredness of His law must be revealed to those who persistently refused to render obedience to the King of kings. Those who choose to remain disloyal must be visited in mercy with judgments, in order that, if possible, they may be aroused to a realization of the sinfulness of their course (pp. 92, 93; italics supplied).WV 496.1

She woke up and switched on the lamp by her bed. It was 1:00 Tuesday morning. She was relieved to discover that she was safe in her room at the Loma Linda Sanitarium.WV 496.2

During the hours of Tuesday morning she seemed dazed (Letter 137, 1906). In the afternoon she and her helpers took the train for Los Angeles and went on to Glendale.WV 496.3

That night she was given another vision:WV 496.4

I was again instructed regarding the holiness and binding claims of the Ten Commandments, and the supremacy of God above all earthly rulers. It seemed as if I were before many people, and presenting scripture after scripture in support of the precepts spoken by the Lord from Sinai's height (The Review and Herald, July 5, 1906).WV 496.5