Strike While the Iron Is Hot
By E. A. SUTHERLAND
SOLOMON tells us that there is “a time to every purpose under the heaven,” and fortunate are the people who can do the right thing at the right time. An eleven days’ march from the camp at Mt. Sinai would have put the children of Israel in the Promised Land; they took forty years to make the trip. The same principle holds true today. The world is compared to a vineyard of ripened grapes. Some varieties ripen earlier than others. The wise fruitman gathers the earlier varieties first. Some fields of grain ripen ahead of others, and the wise farmer reaps the early ripening grain before the later grain. To the disciples the Saviour said, “Look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” And then in telling them how to harvest the world, he directed them to go to Jerusalem, then to Judea, then to Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the world. In the great movement to reach the world with the last message, the South is our Judea or our Samaria. And everything seems to point to the fact that the South is now ready for this very message. Politically and socially the South is ready for the gospel. The doors are open to all who have a truth to proclaim. Forty years or more have passed since the attention of this people was directed to the needs of the Southern field. At that time we could not see the things that would shortly come to pass, but the Lord knew, even in that early day, that the eyes of the whole world would soon be directed to this part of the United States. The opening of the Panama Canal has made the Western Hemisphere the center of the world’s interest. This is just the beginning of events that will unite the Occident and the Orient preparatory to the culmination of the world’s history, and in these closing years God has wanted his people to stand as light bearers. A few days ago, in connection with one of the highland schools of the South, in a little center where a few families are holding up the light of truth, a community meeting was held in the interest of health, sanitation, and education. This brought together the very best people of the community for the study of vital principles. One of the speakers was a member of the State board of health. And as that physician told those people in the simplest way the great truths of the gospel of health, one could not help wishing that many more of our own people were in a place to unite in such a movement for the uplift of the people about us. There are many indications that the time is ripe for carrying health principles to the South, and that our people should open sanitariums and treatment rooms in many places. The indications are just as strong that we should spare no effort to establish schools. This is the time for us to lead out according to the instruction the Lord has given us through the spirit of prophecy. When the summer school was in session last August, the teachers from the highland schools who met in convention at Madison, received the following letter from the head of the United States Department of Education, Dr. P. P. Claxton, who had then recently visited a number of the highland schools as well as the training school at Madison. Dr. Claxton wrote as follows:— “I wish very much that it were possible for me to be present at the meeting of teachers and nurses of the hill schools which you are holding at Madison this week. I am greatly interested in the work which these schools are doing. The work which you are doing at Madison is remarkable and worthy of high praise. If you succeed permanently in maintaining the school on its present basis, it cannot fail to accomplish great good. The work which you are doing is highly practical, and seems to me to be based on important fundamental principles of education. The same is true of the small schools which I visited, and I shall watch their progress with the greatest interest. I believe that you will succeed in accomplishing what you have in mind. “All education must grow out of the life of the people educated. You and the teachers you are sending out are wisely recognizing this principle. In order to educate children, parents must be educated also. All real education must be education of the whole community, and it must take hold of the life which the people live, making them more intelligent about this life. It is difficult and practically impossible to attain better conditions until existing conditions are understood. “All the schools we visited are in primitive and backward country districts where the people own their homes, though the land is not fertile. Therefore the education must be simple in its nature. The fact that the people are simple farmers and own their own homes gives to the schools an opportunity which they could not have in communities made up of large landholders and homeless tenants. The fact that the people own their homes makes the kind of work you do still more important. The practical knowledge of farming, gardening, orcharding, and care of live stock can all be applied to advantage in the home.” That was the doctor’s message to the teachers. It comes from the highest educational authority in the country; and strange as it may seem, the very wording reminds one of the instruction given to us as a people concerning the school work we are to do in the Southland. It is certainly the opportune time for us to start schools. Shall we strike while the iron is hot? E. A. SUTHERLAND.