p. 28 | The Closing Exercises of Bethel (Wis.) Academy

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 4, 1909

The Closing Exercises of Bethel (Wis.) Academy

By A. W. Spaulding

BETHEL ACADEMY has its school year correspond with the agricultural year; that is, the school year opens in the spring, continues through the summer, and closes with the fall term in December. There is an extra term in the winter, in which also regular school work is done.

The closing exercises for the academy for the year 1908 were held in the Bethel church Sunday evening, December 20. The program rendered by the students was designed to emphasize the nature and importance of different parts of the message God has given this people,—a message which it has been the endeavor of the school to put into the lives of its students. God's purpose in giving us truth; how far we have spread it over the world; our responsibility as Christians in social life,—these were some of the topics treated. We believe that every one in the school has felt, to a greater or less degree, the impulsion represented in the focus of the decorative design that night,—a lance and a white shield bearing the motto, “God Sends.”

Following is the program:— Organ Voluntary. Prayer. Remarks by the Principal. Address: “Why God Gives Us Truth.” Girls’ Chorus: “Stars O’erhead Are Softly Gleaming.” Talk: “The Progress of the Message.” Male Quartet: “Lord, I’m Coming Home.” Paper: “God’s Purpose in Discipline.” Ladies’ Quartet: “We Are Going Down the Valley.” Dialogue: “The Relation of Diet to Life.” Violin Solo: “Silent Watchers.” Paper: “Dressing for Health.” Talk: “God’s Word about Dress.” Vocal Duet: “Rock of Ages.” Address: “The Social Life of the Christian.” Vocal Solo (with humming accompaniment by Girls’ Chorus): “Through the Shadows.” Benediction.

We have had a good experience this fall, full of hard things, putting to the stretch all our energies. During the winter term, which is an extra session of the school, there is promised a very full attendance. We have planned our school homes to take no more than twenty-two or twenty-three each; for we wish to keep the home atmosphere. Thus the limit of attendance, aside from local students, is about forty-five. At present we are holding school in “The Castle,” the two-storied, tar-paper-covered structure which was erected on a part of the ruins, just after the fire, for a girls’ home the first year.

Next spring we shall begin the erection of our main school building, a block cement structure forty by forty-eight feet, which will contain the chapel and six class rooms, besides offices and cloakrooms. Now, while the sleighing is good, we are hauling sand from the river; we shall make the blocks in a steam-heated building during the winter, and shall begin the erection of the building as soon as the spring opens. We expect to complete it during the summer, so as to have it ready for occupancy at the beginning of the fall term. It has been proved, however, that a school does not consist of buildings, but rather of a company of teachers and students filled with a purpose to be fitted for the greatest possible usefulness in the cause of God. For such a fitting we are earnestly seeking, and in that work we are finding comfort and progress.

A. W. SPAULDING.