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of them -- that had been designed and built just for the dining
room of this building at the time of original construction. This
table is so heavy it takes seven men to lift and carry it.
How many thousands of dollars it would take to have such
furniture made today I have no idea. Of course it would have to be
custom manufactured all by hand -- there's certainly nothing like
it in any furniture store. Anyway I do know what I paid for the
table, fine bevelled -- mirror top and all, including the great
chairs -- exactly $100. That is not a misprint. One hundred
dollars! That's all!
There was a 200-foot-wide strip of property between this
Merritt mansion and what was then our campus. And on this property
was a very superb mansion of Mediterranean-type architecture. This
we needed badly as a student residence for college women. We
expected to have to pay a certain sum -- if, indeed, the owners
ever became willing to sell. Suddenly they offered it to us -- for
exactly ONE-THIRD of what we believed would be the lowest price the
owners would consider!
. . . even in England
I have written before of how the fabulous Memorial Hall, with
its several acres of grounds-beautiful grounds with the choicest
Cedars of Lebanon left in the world, so far as we know, and with
the ornate formal garden in the front with its costly giant urns,
the aviary, the fabulous rose garden, the exotic, superbly
beautiful Japanese Garden, the dazzlingly colorful English sunken
garden, the several greenhouses -- and the big building as fine as
the fabulous Merritt mansion in Pasadena -- all this came to us for
$22,400. That sounds incredible, I know! But this is GOD'S WORK
-- and He guides and BLESSES IT!
Of course all these properties had been neglected and let go,
so far as spic-and-span maintenance is concerned -- overgrown with
weeds. We had to clean them up, and even do some repairing -- but
that expense was negligible compared to present appraisal
valuation.
You have probably read all this before. But I want you
o-Workers to REALIZE how God Himself set the CHARACTER STANDARD for
the physical properties of His COLLEGE -- and His earthly head-
quarters where His WORK is conducted.
These truly fine and magnificent properties came
PROVIDENTIALLY! They do not represent reckless management. They Do
represent THE KIND of properties the Living CHRIST has shown us HE
WANTS for His WORK!
Co-Workers, we need to realize IT IS NOT WRONG to have the
finer things -- IF one can afford them. In our case God put these
finer properties in our hands at LESS COST than any cheap, poorly
constructed, unsightly properties (giving us the same usable space)
could have been purchased for!
How GOD Lives
Do you think God WANTS us to live in slums, ghettos, or in
drab, depressing, UNbeautiful surroundings? He does NOT want us to
live beyond our means -- but He does want us to use our minds
actively and alertly, and to work hard and faithfully, and to