The Layman's Rural School and Treatment-room.
By E. A. Sutherland
“Go ye therefore, and teach,” is the Saviour's direct command. Every genuine Seventh-day Adventist should possess in large measure the teaching spirit. Some have the idea that all teaching must be done by professors, ministers, colporteurs, and Bible workers. But there are other ways of teaching which can be carried forward by multitudes who have not been in the habit of calling themselves teachers. Consider the rural school work as one of these ways, providentially provided for the common people. There never will be a more opportune time than now for large numbers of our people to enter this work. A wave of reform is passing over this country, and especially over the South. It calls for practical, substantial education, particularly in the rural districts. There are large sections of the South in which the State is as yet unable to provide the necessary facilities for a practical education. Here a school properly equipped and conducted for the benefit of the community, even though a private enterprise, is thankfully received. A farm with simple school facilities and a place for taking care of a few sick people is within the reach of thousands of Seventh-day Adventists who are standing spiritually idle in the market place. Such Christian farmers can teach, by theory and practice, how to till the soil and make it productive; how to use the implements of agriculture to cultivate the various crops; how to plant and care for gardens and orchards. They can help the poor to make homes on the land. Such a farm school, operated by carpenters, blacksmiths, and those efficient in cooking, sewing, and the care of the sick, affords a most excellent way for teaching the people the gospel. This very method has been outlined for us in the Spirit of prophecy:— “Missionary families are needed to settle in the waste places. Let farmers, financiers, builders, and those who are skilled in the various arts and crafts, go to neglected fields, to improve the land, to establish industries, to prepare humble homes for themselves, and to help their neighbors. . . .” “This is the work we are called to do. Even the desert places of the earth, where the outlook appears too forbidding, may become as the garden of God. . . . By instruction in practical lines, we can often help the poor most effectively. . . . Our own homes and surroundings should be object lessons, teaching ways of improvement, so that industry, cleanliness, taste, and refinement may take the place of idleness, uncleanness, coarseness, and disorder. . . . Speak words of hope and courage to the poor and the disheartened. . . . Simplicity, self-denial, economy, lessons so essential for the poor to learn, often seem to them difficult and unwelcome. . . . Christian workers are to meet the people where they are and educate them.”—“Ministry of Healing,” pp. 104-108. These principles have been accepted by some, and have been put into operation20through rural schools and treatment-rooms for the sick in the Southern States. Three families with their children heard this call several years ago. They came South and purchased 115 acres of land. It was not considered the best land in the South. The price was low. They renovated the old buildings on the place, making them suitable for school work. The transformation was a lesson to the neighbors. It was also a blessing to those conducting the school. They had read in the Testimonies many things pertaining to simplicity and economy. They were now given an opportunity to put these principles into practice. Sometimes the way seemed hard, but they persevered, and today they have an institution that would be a credit to any community. In a quiet and unostentatious manner they have become the leaders of the neighborhood. The children attending the school have obtained from these teachers some knowledge of the third angel's message. This they have imparted to their parents, their relatives, and their friends. A desire for more truth has taken possession of many in this neighborhood, demonstrating the scripture that “a little child shall lead them.” Every adult member of the three families had some part in this enterprise. Some were not qualified to teach the regular school branches, but they have fitted themselves to teach some trade or some form of agriculture or domestic science. The school is in a sense a miniature university. It has opened up to the children of that neighborhood, and through them to the adults, many avenues of activity that before were closed. For instance, the experimental work on the school farm has led many a farmer away from the single-crop idea. It has brought to the tables of the people fresh garden vegetables and luscious fruits. The cooking classes in the school have opened up new ideas concerning the preparation of foods. The object lessons given by repairing the old buildings and applying paint and whitewash, have stimulated many to improve the appearance of their places, making their homes more attractive, and thus preventing their children from going to the city because they were dissatisfied with the country home. Gradually the people ask for our literature and for Bible studies. Thus minds are prepared to receive the gospel. This group of workers has been a blessing to the neighborhood in many ways, but the greatest blessing has come to the workers themselves. It has been a great school to them. The mental and spiritual exercise made necessary by the demands upon them has given them strength of mind and largeness of soul. They see that the South has been a greater blessing to them than they have been to the South. Here is another illustration: Two families secured 140 acres of worn-out land. In part their experiences were much like those of the group I have just mentioned. However, they have developed one aspect of their work further. They found it necessary to do more than go to the homes of neighbors to treat the sick. By increasing the size of the original company, they were able to erect a small health home which will accommodate five or six patients. It is fitted with simple facilities for hydrotherapy treatments. Some of their company are nurses. The local physicians have become interested, and cooperate with them. This group of workers cling to the old Adventist idea, so common in the early days of the message, that every Adventist home should be a miniature sanitarium. They stepped out by faith on this principle, and today they are actually seeing their home a haven of refuge for the sick. They are setting before our people an object lesson which ought to encourage thousands to prepare themselves speedily to unite with their rural schools a simple place for caring for the sick. This little health home has demonstrated that the people will come with their money if we Adventists will only do what God for years has been calling upon us to do. A number of the rural schools are seeking as rapidly as they have means, to equip themselves with facilities for doing the same kind of work. If we believe the promises of God, and will seek a speedy preparation, and will go into some needy place like the South, we may become leaders along all these lines. Prejudice is like a cork in a bottle, letting nothing in or out; and such missionary work as is represented by the rural school and the health home is a most effective means of removing prejudice, so that the blessed third angel's message in its fulness may have access to the people. Where are the volunteers for training who will consecrate their property to finance these humble enterprises in this field? The words of Elder A. G. Daniells, as they appeared in a recent issue of the REVIEW AND HERALD, should arouse our people. He says:— “Devout Seventh-day Adventists have bought land, built simple, healthful homes, and when friendly relations have been established, have started schools for the youth and children, free of charge for tuition. That the need for such schools is great is shown by one case where there are eighty families within two miles of the school, of whom seventy-five per cent cannot read or write. “These schools are practical. The children are taught the regular school subjects, and with these are given lessons on the cultivation of the soil, cooking, sewing, the care of the body, and other things that will build them up physically and mentally, and that will improve their financial condition. With other things they are taught the gospel message. “These schools are having an excellent influence, are raising the surrounding communities to higher standards of life, and gaining souls for the Lord. But there are not enough of them, and those that have been started are poorly supplied with necessary facilities. They are worthy of encouragement and assistance, for they are doing an important part in the giving of the last warning message in a difficult yet fruitful field.” Professor Griggs, writing for the REVIEW of February 3, says:— “With the hearty cooperation of our conferences in the North as well as in the South, and with wise, careful management, we look for the rural schools of the South to be a valuable means of advancing the third angel's message in that portion of the United States.” Elder I. H. Evans, writing for the June Missionary Readings, quotes the following recommendations of the North American Division Council concerning rural school work:— “That this work be enlarged and strengthened, and that hereafter the Madison school, and the efforts which have sprung or may spring from it, shall be considered a part of the regular work of the denomination, and that the Madison school shall be regarded by the denomination as the training school for workers for rural schools in the mountain districts of the South. . . .” “That we encourage our conference officers and our people to consider and look upon the rural school work in the hill districts of the South as a part of the regular work of the denomination, and that we encourage proper persons in all our conferences to enter the Madison school to receive a training for this work.” Elder Evans then says, “This means that there is to be cooperation between the rural schools and the organized conference work. . . . It would seem a proper thing for conference officials to look carefully over their list of suitable men and families available to undertake this work, and to recommend to the Madison school and to the conference officials of the Southern and Southeastern Union Conferences, suitable persons for this line of work.”