The Passing of the Debt From Mount Vernon Academy
By B. G. Wilkinson
It will be a matter of interest to the readers of the REVIEW to know that this year sees the total indebtedness lifted from Mount Vernon Academy. An institution dedicated to the proclamation that Christ is soon to return is a precious one, and no one who loves the advance of the message can suffer it to be laden with the reproach of debt. It was under the distinct advice of the spirit of prophecy that the institution at Mount Vernon was converted from a sanitarium into an academy. But it was started with a heavy debt, and from that day to this it has labored under a heavy indebtedness. At times the interest to be paid was so heavy that the building suffered sad neglect for the want of repairs. Until 1908 the academy was managed by the Ohio Conference. That year the Columbia Union Conference was formed, and as Ohio entered the new union, it turned over the academy to union control and union possession. In 1909, when I became connected with the Columbia Union Conference, the debt of the academy was $32,951.21, with the building in need of immediate repairs to the amount of about $5,000. From the year 1909 there was, each year, an encouraging and growing improvement in the operating gains of the institution. The brethren throughout the union responded liberally to the call for donations, but the great need for repairs during the first few years did not permit these donations to effect great reduction in the debt. The constant appeals, however, throughout the field, began to show results, until the last two years the marked responses have enabled us to pay off the entire indebtedness. For this we offer our heartfelt gratitude to God. At the academy board meeting held three weeks ago, it was voted to request the faculty to arrange for a jubilee program to be held during the closing exercises at the end of the present school year, celebrating the victory achieved in clearing Mount Vernon Academy of its debt. At this board meeting the Columbia Union Conference Committee took up the question of the debt upon Washington Missionary College. It was voted to appropriate from the surplus proceeds of the missionary receipts for 1915, fifty per cent to apply on the debt of the Washington Missionary College. We hope this year to make a good showing in affording assistance to this splendid College, and also to clean off the last remaining portion of the old debt on the sanitarium at Philadelphia. When this is done, all the old institutional indebtedness of the Columbia Union will be gone. The record of the union on institutional indebtedness stands as follows:— |
Mount Vernon Academy |
Pennsylvania Sanitarium |
Total |
|---|
| 1909 |
$32,951.21 |
$ |
$ |
| 1910 |
30,675.47 |
82,075.39 |
112,750.86 |
| 1911 |
30,884.64 |
45,989.46 |
76,874.10 |
| 1912 |
28,332.88 |
17,107.76 |
45,440.64 |
| 1913 |
26,484.35 |
9,926.23 |
36,410.58 |
| 1914 |
18,000.00 |
9,926.23 |
27,926.23 |
| 1915 |
NOTHING |
9,926.23 |
9,926.23 |
When we consider that during the same period, the union has increased her tithe receipts from $70,585.50 in 1908 to $142,798.40 in 1914, and her weekly offerings to foreign missions from $18,679.56 in 1908 to $70,085.25 in 1914, we can readily see that God has been building up his work in this part of his vineyard. There has been a mind to work upon the part of all the laborers in the union. The united effort of all, workers and people, has lifted the burdens.