Fireside Correspondence School by W. E. Howell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 21, 1910

Fireside Correspondence School

By W. E. Howell

Some Suggestions

THERE has been an appreciative response to our invitation to attend the Perennial Bible Institute. From as far west as Arizona, as far south as Florida, and as far north as Canada, requests have already come for particulars of admission. So much of our Bible study and reading is scattering and fragmentary that an opportunity to have the materials all simply arranged for us, a systematic course marked out, and our own knowledge of a subject tested and criticized by a sympathetic, experienced Bible teacher, looks very attractive. Those who have already made a beginning continue to express their appreciation of the value of their study. Note the uniform testimony of these three:—

“I am enjoying my study very much. It is an opportunity that I am glad I did not let go by unimproved.”

“I enjoy my study very much, and consider time and means well spent.”

“I value the course of study very highly.”

While these all speak positively, they are not content to speak in the positive degree. Neither will you if you will only taste and see how good it is.

A Suggestion

Let one member of the family—the brightest or most ambitious or most needy—subscribe for the course in either Bible Doctrines or The Life of Christ. Let a part of the assignment in the lesson be read aloud at morning and evening worship and be discussed as far as time permits. A few minutes’ regular reading twice a day covers ground surprisingly fast. By the end of the week, the lesson assignment will be completed, the memory verses learned, and the subscriber to the lessons can write out the Test Paper and send it in for inspection. Such a method would stimulate thought, be a blessing in all family affairs, accomplish something definite for all, and secure to the subscriber credit on a school course if so desired. Try it, and you too will “consider time and means well spent.”

Another Suggestion

Some feel that because spring has come, and because farm work is pressing, the weather better for canvassing or tent work or work in the trades, the evenings shorter, the sun warmer, the flowers blooming, the bees humming—the study is out of the question—“I think I’ll lay it aside or put it off till fall.” Question: How many hours in a winter day?—Twenty-four. How many in a summer day?—Twenty-four. Really! Full sixty-minute hours?—Yes. Settled.

Proposition: Suppose you store the dining-room table and the cook-stove in the attic till fall?—Why! I couldn’t! If you are going to starve the mind, why not let the body stand its share too, and wait till fall, when it will not be so busy?

Suggestion: Why not read the newspaper a little less if necessary; spend a little less time in idle talk; use every spare moment on rainy days, while waiting for dinner or a train or an appointment, while riding on the street-car, while the horses are resting, while others are sleeping or lounging; clip your time here and there on other things of less importance—any way so as not to neglect or postpone or interrupt that mental development of which you have felt the need so often and so long? Pardon the length of this suggestion, but it is hoped that you will take less time to decide favorably on it than it took you to read it. The easy way is to yield to the relaxation that warm weather brings uninvited, and to give way before some difficulties that loom up before us; but the right way, the really happy way, the Scripture way is, having put the hand to the plow not to turn back; and if the hand is not already on the plow, there is no time like to-day—to-day, if you will. In the winter “the sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold;” in the summer, it is too hot! There is only one time left—NOW.

One More Suggestion

Six months’ experience in the work of the Fireside Correspondence School teaches us that it is the really busy people, for the most part, who are most ready and ambitious to take up a study for self-improvement, and who send in their work the most regularly. Can you explain that? Look for the solution in the following truths culled from our announcement:—

“Upon the right improvement of our time depends our success in acquiring knowledge and mental culture. The cultivation of the intellect need not be prevented by poverty, humble origin, or unfavorable surroundings.”

“A resolute purpose, persistent industry, and careful economy of time, will enable men to acquire knowledge and mental discipline which will qualify them for almost any position of influence and usefulness.”

“The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.”

“The mill can never grind with the water which has passed.”

“Opportunity is the command of God.”

“The slothful man says, There is a lion in the streets.”

“Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”

“Be not simply good,—be good for something.”

“It is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings.”

“With God all things are possible.”

Our address remains: Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.

W. E. HOWELL, Principal.