The Foreign Mission Seminary by H. R. SALISBURY

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 18, 1908

The Foreign Mission Seminary

By H. R. SALISBURY

The first year's work of the Foreign Mission Seminary is just finished, and we have great reason to thank God for his guidance, and for the prosperity granted us during the session. Our enrolment was seventy-seven for the year. The actual attendance remained almost unchanged, but three students leaving the seminary after December to the close of the year, aside from those who were sent to fill definite appointments in home and foreign fields.

While the work has been new, it could not be called experimental; for though we had no school among us to follow as a pattern, yet the great and positive need that brought the seminary into existence was of itself a guide to definite lines of study. With this need before us, we had but to arrange our courses to satisfy the demands. Briefly put, these requirements were as follows: (1) an advanced and thorough presentation, by recitation and lecture, of the great Biblical themes that make us a peculiar people, and give us a present-truth message; (2) practical and experimental knowledge in the treatment of simple diseases, and also of special diseases which are met with in the different countries to which the foreign missionary is preparing to go: the courses in tropical hygiene and diseases, hydrotherapy, sanitation, advanced physiology and anatomy were taught by physicians from foreign fields; (3) studies in modern languages, as, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, etc., taken by students who were planning definitely for the fields in which those languages are used; and work in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew for those who were preparing as ministers, teachers, and translators.

It is almost unnecessary to say that the missionary spirit was excellent, and all the studies, lectures, and meetings had as their objective point the preparation of the foreign missionary. During the first part of the year we were crowded for class room, but several weeks before the session closed, we were able to come into the new seminary building, where we now greatly enjoy those conveniences which make it possible for us to carry on our work with the most favorable surroundings.

Besides the regular lines of work carried on by the instructors the past session, our location at headquarters has made it possible for us to receive special lines of instruction in organization, religious liberty, missionary qualifications, etc. The officers of the Mission Board visited the seminary very frequently, and became personally acquainted with all the students.

All the students this year have been planning for the regions beyond, or have been taking a thorough training in a course which would give them special fitting for the gospel ministry. The seminary has made special plans to have a strong ministerial course, covering every possible subject necessary for preparing young men to be efficient in that line of work. That this course of study is necessary, need not be argued here; for it is apparent to all that one of the crying needs of this denomination is a stronger ministry, composed of those who have had special fitting for this line of work. The coming year we are planning to strengthen that course, as well as our course in foreign mission study.

The young men and women who have not already gone to foreign fields, but who are planning to return the coming year to continue their studies, are definitely engaged in the work of this denomination. One third of the students are out working for scholarships. The others are working in the ministry, or in the Bible work, or are connected with our institutions.

Already numerous applications have come in from those who will attend the coming session. Many of them have already been assigned to definite fields by the Mission Board, and will be here to spend one year on their way to their fields. The new building and facilities provided by the Mission Board, the strengthening of our faculty, the commendation and co-operation of our leading men throughout America, gives promise of a most successful session, and encourages us to believe that a large number will go out at the end of the next school year to grapple intelligently and understandingly with the conditions which they must meet in the regions beyond. H. R. SALISBURY.