The Week of Prayer at College View by R. C. PORTER

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

The Week of Prayer at College View

By R. C. PORTER

It was a great pleasure to me, after more than seven years’ labor in heathen lands, to renew old acquaintances and associate with friends of former days in a week of prayer service.

On arriving, I thought to organize the faculty and school for a practical campaign of spiritual work before beginning the week of prayer services. I was much pleased to find that the faculty had completed the organization I had contemplated, and were already at work in preparation for a spiritual revival during this prayer season.

They had reduced their class work to half time in order to allow more time to be used for spiritual work. Two hours a day were set apart for public services. One was used for the reading, and one for a Bible study. Each day, personal work with students desiring to renew their consecration, or starting for the first time, was carried on, resulting in sixty conversions. The larger share of this number had previously started in the service of the Lord, but had lost their hold on God; the remainder were starting for the first time. The teachers all joined in this work, and their united labor was rewarded.

The senior class and the mission band of over a hundred, with scarce an exception, expressed themselves as ready for appointment to fields in need of their services as soon as their preparation was completed. Seventeen offered themselves for baptism.

A few union services were held, embracing the college, the sanitarium, and the church. In all of these services, the same revival spirit was seen, showing that the same kind of practical work was being carried forward by Elder Trubey in the sanitarium and Elders Underwood, Christian, and House, in the church. Elder Bernstein, who with his associates is conducting a very successful series of meetings in the city of Lincoln, joined in the closing services of the week at College View.

The sanitarium food factory is preparing an excellent quality of foods, and the sanitarium and college are both doing excellent work in training workers for the great world field. A successful campaign to relieve the college indebtedness is nearing completion.

The spiritual side of the work, which is always one of the most important features in the training of workers, is given a large place in the work of these institutions.

The week of prayer was a season of refreshing in College View. It will mark a new era in the lives of many, as the time when they planted themselves firmly upon the side of Christ by an unconditional surrender, and a victorious faith which brought peace, rest, and joy into their daily experiences.

I had the pleasure of meeting two of my brothers at this meeting, one of whom I had not seen for nearly thirty years, who had but recently given his heart and life to this message. These are bright spots in our pilgrimage, which renew our courage, strengthen our faith, nerve us anew for the conflict, and revive our hope, that with the victors we shall soon stand triumphant, more than conquerors through Christ.

R. C. PORTER.