The Washington Missionary College by J. L. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 28, 1914

The Washington Missionary College

By J. L. S.

Since the plans of the reorganization of the Washington Missionary College have been announced, letters have been received from many who are interested in the institution. We take this opportunity of speaking further concerning the College and its plans.

A corps of experienced teachers has been appointed for the coming year. Courses of instruction providing for regular academic and college work have been arranged, and a calendar has been published. The territory for academic students comprises the District of Columbia, New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Chesapeake Conferences. For college students, the territory assigned embraces the Atlantic, Columbia, Southeastern, and Southern Union Conferences, and the Eastern Canadian Union (except Ontario).

The College will endeavor to stimulate advanced education from denominational viewpoints. The number of students taking college courses in our various educational institutions is surprisingly small. Last year the enrollment of such students in eight training schools numbered 243. Only thirty-two finished a college course. There is a tendency on the part of young people to take up work without sufficient education, and in doing so they are handicapped for efficient service in after life. In “Counsels to Teachers,” page 513, we read:—

“Perseverance in the acquisition of knowledge, controlled by the fear and love of God, will give the youth increased power for good in this life; and those who make the most of their opportunities to reach high attainments, will take these attainments with them into the future life. They have sought and obtained that which is imperishable. The ability to appreciate the glories that ‘eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,’ will be proportionate to the attainments reached.”

We believe the Washington Missionary College offers exceptional opportunities to our young people desiring to finish a college course. The libraries, museums, and other facilities of the nation’s capital make it second to no city in America from an educational point of view. It is also the headquarters of our own work, which adds to the possibilities of the College.

The ministerial course covers four years, having as a prerequisite twelve grades academic instruction, and is, therefore, the same length as the college course. It seems no more than reasonable that young men preparing for the ministry should be offered as much training as workers for other lines, if not more. The student for the ministry will be expected to do the required amount of practical field work during his course, including Bible readings, cottage meetings, and the conduct of church services.

A change in the personnel of the faculty has been made necessary since issuing the calendar. Prof. C. L. Benson, who was engaged as history teacher, is to give his entire time to work in the Young People’s Department of the General and North American Division Conferences. Prof. C. M. Sorenson, who has been teaching Bible and history at the Seminary, has been asked to act as history teacher. His knowledge of Bible and his experience in teaching it will enable him to teach history from the viewpoint of the message and the prophecies of God’s Word. Releasing Professor Sorenson for history has made it necessary to secure an instructor for Bible, and Elder S. M. Butler has been asked to act in that capacity. Brother Butler was Bible teacher at Union College, and left his work at that institution to become president of Mount Vernon College, where he served for a number of years. The last year he has been principal of Oak Wood Academy, Nevada, Iowa. His ability as a Bible teacher is recognized by all who know him.

It will be the continued purpose of the institution, while doing regular academic and college work, to train evangelistic laborers. At the last constituency meeting, the following resolution to this end was passed:—

“Believing that the hour has come when the messages of Revelation 14 are to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and God’s work in the earth is to be finished; seeing the whitened harvest fields, both in the homeland and in heathen countries; knowing that our conference committees are wholly unable to answer the imperative demands for efficient evangelists to preach the messages to the millions in our larger cities; and appreciating to some extent that our hope, under God, of finishing this work in this generation, and filling the opening providences of God at this time, lies largely in a well-trained, consecrated, godly ministry,—

“We therefore recommend, That it be the policy of this College, while conducting lines of college work, especially to emphasize the training of evangelistic workers for service in all parts of the world,—

“1. By the selection of a faculty each member of which shall be chosen because of his special fitness to contribute in his department to the carrying out of this policy.

“2. By arranging a curriculum especially adapted to these ends.”

The effort of the Foreign Mission Seminary in training young people for mission fields has been a great stimulus both at home and abroad. This line of work will be continued as a department of the College, with the same determined effort to prepare workers for foreign fields. As the secretary of a leading missionary society recently said: “We are reaching a third stage in mission work. The first was an endeavor for territory, trying to get into the world; the second for resources of men and money. Now we have come to the third stage, that of efficiency.” The same is true to some extent of our own work. The recruits for the mission fields are called to reach a higher standard of attainment. The purpose of the Seminary Department of the College will be to that end. Students in this department, as heretofore, will be drawn from various parts of the United States and Canada. A good class of students under provisional appointment of the Mission Board is expected for the year 1914. Those having foreign work in view, willing to answer the call to a foreign field, are requested to write to the College. The line of advance into mission fields must continue in growing strength. The great needs of the regions beyond, together with the message we bear, make it necessary that we hasten on the message in the dark corners of the earth.

In speaking of the future work of the institution, the spirit of prophecy said, years ago, that “from the Washington Training College missionaries are to be sent forth to many distant lands.” It will be the purpose of the foreign mission department of the College to assist earnest, consecrated young men and women in preparing themselves as missionaries to carry the gospel of present truth to other lands.

J. L. S.