Take A Deep Breath

The sun that hot September day
Burned through air of choking gray
On frightened frosh Septuagint
Dazzles by Klooster's aurous glint

None knew well what lay ahead
As wrinkled welcome words were read
Used on hundreds years before
Word-some, wearisome, "Let us therefore"

What you are reading are the first two stanzas of a lengthy poem I wrote in May 1975 to "celebrate" graduation from dental school. It was printed in the Contrangle, the then student news rag of the school.
This past Friday we went to Loma Linda for the express purpose of hearing Christian Edition, a men's singing group started by Calvin Knipschild decades ago. They're very good.
Everything in Loma Linda has changed and yet everything is just the same. In March the air is clear and pure and even gets a washing every week or so by what is known as 'rain'.
Everyone is still in a hurry, and every time I am forced to take the freeways I wonder why people choose to live in a place known (Southern California) to be running out of water, running out of money, and overrunning with people.
Decades ago Ellen White wrote these words: "Out of the cities, out of the cities, who will be warned!" Maybe she didn't mean it. As well as anyone, I can think of all the arguments why we should continue to labor for the Lord in the cities. The ideal of living on a plot of land away from town, growing one's own food, perhaps having pure water from a well, all seem to be a distant memory as a solid wall of stucco landscape whizzes by from El Segundo (on the ocean) to well past Beaumont (nearly to the Palm Springs turn off. That's over 120 miles!).
So how are God's people supposed to be as self sufficient as possible and still reach unsaved souls in the cities? I don't know.
But this I do know; there is core of very dedicated faculty at Loma Linda in all of the schools; Medicine, Dentistry, Graduate, Religion...and others I have forgotten or that have been added since I left.
I know about the seed that was planted on the "Beautiful Hill" (Loma Linda); I know how it was supposed to grow and how it has grown. It is a glorious thing to behold...I think.
When disaster strikes Southern California (natural or otherwise), there will be as Maxwell Smart would say, 'Chaos'.
In the meantime I guess (editorially speaking) we stay at our posts laboring for the Lord.
The End won't be pretty but it will be, The End!
So to whom, when, where, was Ellen White talking about when she wrote; "Out of the cities. Out of the cities; who will be warned."?
God bless. e.c.