“My brethren and sisters in Australasia, there is in every city and every suburb a work to be done in presenting the last message of mercy to a fallen world. And while we are trying to work these destitute fields, the cry comes from far-off lands, ‘Come over and help us.’(Acts 16:9). These are not so easily reached, and perhaps not so ready for the harvest, as the fields within our sight, but they must not be neglected. We want to push the triumphs of the cross. Our watchword is to be, ‘Onward, ever onward!’ Our burden for the ‘regions beyond’(2 Corinthians 10:16) can never be laid down until the whole earth shall be lightened with the glory of the Lord.” (LS 375.1) MC VC

“But what can we do? We sit down and consider, we pray, and plan how to begin the work in the places all around us. Where are the faithful missionaries who will carry it forward? and how shall they be sustained?” (LS 375.2) MC VC

“Above all, how shall missionaries be trained? How shall workers be prepared to enter the opening fields? Here is now our greatest burden. Therefore our special anxiety is for our school in Avondale. We must here provide suitable facilities for educating workers in different lines. We see young men possessing qualifications that, if they can be rightly educated, will enable them to become laborers together with God. We must give them the opportunity. Some are placing students in our school, and are assisting them in defraying their expenses, that they may become workers in some part of the Lord’s vineyard. Much more should be done in this line, and special efforts should be made in behalf of those whom our workers shall send from the islands to be trained as missionaries.” (LS 375.3) MC VC

“In the future, more than in the past, our school must be an active missionary agency, as the Lord has specified.... Workers we must have, and in twenty-fold greater numbers, to supply the need in both the home and the foreign field. Therefore, the Avondale School must not be restricted in its facilities.” —Australasian Union Conference Record, January 1, 1900 (LS 376.1) MC VC

After Many Years VC

From 1901 to 1909 Prof. C. W. Irwin acted as principal of the Avondale School; and in his report to the General Conference of 1909 he bore witness of the fulfillment of that which had been said would come to pass on the Avondale estate, as follows: (LS 376.2) MC VC

“As time has gone on, and we have had an opportunity to watch the work develop, we can say most assuredly, from our experience, that God led in the selection of this place. Everything that has been said about the location of the school in this place, has been fulfilled,—everything.” (LS 376.3) MC VC

Professor Irwin declared further: “The brethren, in counsel with Sister White, had made such broad and liberal plans for the school, that through my eight years’ connection with it I have never yet needed to change a single plan they had laid down. God guided in the establishment of the work there; and all we have endeavored to do during these eight years, has simply been to develop more fully the plans already made. I believe the working out of this has proved that God’s instruction was true.” (LS 376.4) MC VC