A Student Movement by FREDERICK GRIGGS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 20, 1916

A Student Movement

By FREDERICK GRIGGS

The other day at Emmanuel Missionary College I had one of the most inspiring experiences I have ever met in our schools. It was the passing of their “$5,000 goal.”

Some months ago the Lake Union Conference set itself to the task of paying off the entire debt of the college. It is not to be doubted that the loyalty of the students had much to do in fixing this determination on the part of the union conference committee and the college board. On April 20, 1915, the students set five thousand dollars as the goal of their efforts in removing the debt. In apportioning the debt, the college board had decided to ask the school to raise this amount. But the students had held their meeting and set this goal for themselves before they knew the wish of the board, and their enthusiasm was naturally increased by the knowledge that they had just met that wish.

Now, five thousand dollars means something to a company of students the majority of whom are obliged to work their way either in part or in whole through their school course. It means sacrifice, and often a sacrifice that hurts. But it also means an education that is of far larger value than that obtained from books alone. Said Longfellow of his “Village Blacksmith,” “Something attempted, something done has earned a night’s repose.” The education gained from attempting and accomplishing a great work for God is of the “higher education,” and will truly earn an eternity of rest.

The goal set in April was never lost sight of. It was to be reached by Jan. 1, 1916. Throughout the spring and summer the Debt Committee was active in corresponding with students, former and prospective. In the churches, at the camp meeting, and everywhere the campaign was carried forward. But on November 10 the committee had to inform their fellow students that there was still lacking the large sum of $2,200. It was then that a flame of determined enthusiasm broke out, and at one sitting of the school this entire amount was pledged.

It is one thing to vow, and another to pay. Every night save Friday and Saturday the Debt Committee met for prayer and counsel. Tuesday and Thursday mornings the school separated into divisions for reports and study of ways and means of accomplishing their fixed purpose. But on November 30 it was found that but $300 of that $2,200 had been raised. The next morning, in chapel, a slogan of “One hundred dollars a day” was adopted. The student body was divided on the lines of the conferences in the union, and the debt apportioned accordingly, those from outside the union—the Foreign Band—bearing their respective part. Then the enthusiasm, a prayerful, wholesome one, reached its height.

There was only $100 remaining unpaid on the nineteenth of December, the day I arrived. That evening this amount and more was secured. This was not the first time in the campaign that the students had overstepped their goal. They had set for themselves a goal of $4,500 before the week of prayer, that during that week they might give themselves without reserve to the spirit of the week. And the night before the week of prayer began they had $4,800 raised.

December 20 the school held their jubilee meeting. It was a shout of victory. The speaking, and the singing expressed the joy of victors. They had striven, they had won. The $5,000 had been raised, and $324.22 more.

I was present at the meeting, and this meeting was the inspiring experience that I mentioned at first. The inspiration lies in this, that God can and will stir the hearts of our young people so that in a perfectly united way they will accomplish great undertakings for him. This spirit woven into the very warp and woof of their education can but make them powerful workers for God in their after-life.

The raising of this $5,000 is one of the greatest, if not indeed the greatest, work ever accomplished by one of our student bodies, and is an inspiring lesson to all. But this spirit of loyalty and cooperation is in our schools. While it has not often shown itself in just the way it did at Emmanuel Missionary College, yet it is present in all of them. Emmanuel Missionary College students have only raised a standard which will provoke others to greater and still greater undertakings. Let me suggest that one of these undertakings be the bringing of every young man and woman in each school territory into the school to which he or she belongs. Pay the debts and fill the schools.

FREDERICK GRIGGS.