The Washington Missionary College
By I. H. Evans
It gives me great pleasure to meet with the friends of this school, the students, and the faculty at the opening of the present school year. As I have been asked to make a few remarks on this occasion, I have chosen as my theme “The Washington Missionary College.” For the first time in the history of the school, the Washington Missionary College has the opportunity for development which rightfully belongs to every college. It has an excellent constituency, a large territory in which it is the representative school of the denomination, and the possibility of a constructive, continuous policy. I call these benefits the opportunity of the College. The wise man said: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” It is certain he believed in opportunity, and that he attached great importance to the fullness of time, when important things should be done if success is attained. Pliny the Elder once said: “It is a maxim universally agreed upon in agriculture, that nothing must be done too late; and again, that everything must be done at its proper season; while there is a third precept which reminds us that opportunities lost can never be regained.” The wise Diogenes said, “Watch your opportunity.” The opportunity for this school to make good has arrived, and we expect large things from it. There are certain elements contributing to the success of a college which are primarily essential, and especially is this true of the Washington Missionary College. I will mention three things which I consider as vitally important to the success of this school:— First, a friendly constituency. A strong, loyal constituency is an invaluable asset to any school. It is a sort of market for its products, an employment bureau for its graduates, a recruiting ground for new students, and is really a guaranty for its success. We cannot see, as far as numbers are concerned, why this school has not a grand opportunity for making good. Of course, we are conscious that numbers alone cannot make the school a success. In order to be strong and efficient, a school must have friends, true friends, who stand loyally by it, who breathe its atmosphere, partake of its spirit, suffer with it in its troubles, and rejoice with it in its successes. No school can succeed without friends. A school is not a business concern. It is not a commission house or a business corporation. It is not created for the purpose of going into the markets of the world and speculating in buying and selling for gain. Schools, and especially denominational schools, must be largely philanthropic institutions, supported by friends, receiving donations, bequests, and legacies. The support of a school and its success depend largely upon its friends and benefactors. The constituency must think of the school as their school. Its needs must appeal to their hearts; and in all their plans they must consider that their school needs and must have their support and cooperation. Few objects are more worthy or in greater need of bequests and gifts than a school organized and operated to educate young men and women whose means are limited, and who are anxious to get through school with the least possible outlay of funds. This school should especially appeal to the believers in Washington. It is a great privilege to have a college in our community. To have a large number of educated, trained men meeting with us in our churches, visiting in our homes, and associating with our young men and women is a privilege to be highly esteemed. The College presents to our young people an opportunity for attending instructive lectures, and offers a large variety of educational advantages which should be and will be highly appreciated. No school can long exist with its supporters in a state of rebellion against its policies, talking against the management, and criticizing the faculty. This does not become a true friend of an individual, an institution, or an organization of any kind. Few schools have been benefited by the criticisms offered by the community in which the school was located. Criticism is not the best means to help a school. Why should we not resolve that if there is anything sufficiently wrong to cause comment we will go directly to the head of the school or to the chairman or the secretary of the board, and, by talking the matter over, get a true insight into conditions and facts rather than spread criticism in a public way? There is nothing more harmful to a student than for the believers living in the vicinity of a school to join with that student in his complaints against the faculty or some one teacher on the faculty. As friends of this school, let us keep our hands off, and be absolutely silent in regard to offering criticisms and finding fault with those who are in charge. Let us encourage every student to submit to discipline, to apply himself diligently to his studies, and to obtain from the school the training, both in discipline and in the acquirement of knowledge, which will help to make him a reliable, substantial worker. The second element contributing to the success of the school is the student body in attendance. This school has not the capacity for a large number of students. We do not have the buildings, nor do we have the means with which to enlarge the buildings we already have. Therefore we desire to draw to this school only those students who seek training and discipline for efficient service. With its limited capacity for accommodating students, this school cannot afford to receive or retain those students who have need of severe corrective discipline. We desire the attendance of those whose purpose is to qualify for efficient labor in helping to finish the work of the third angel’s message. We desire to see this school filled with consecrated, energetic, strong young men and women who have determined their field of activity, and, like soldiers recruited for army work, willingly submit to the regulations and discipline of the school, that they may become qualified for service. The college life, with its discipline and associations, gives a training for field work not to be obtained save in the more expensive school of experience. This college training subordinates the student to the student body, and the student body to the college discipline and regulations. Often students fancy that their rights are invaded when they are restrained from doing as they please. Nothing could be more unfortunate for any student than to be permitted independent action. College life is of necessity a community life. There must be restraint, regulations, and discipline. Happy is that student whose tendencies are so held in leash that his life blends with the community life about him. Such will generally be good mixers among men, and will be able to lead where leadership means cooperation. He who has never learned to obey is not qualified to command. - A real school is composed of pupil and teacher. It does not consist of an expensive outlay. Garfield said that Mark Hopkins at one end of a log and himself at the other was a university. The pupil must be a seeker after knowledge. No teacher can force a student to learn. No teacher can impart knowledge to a listless, indifferent student. Jordan, one of the greatest teachers of the young in our day, said: “The fool, the dude, and the shirk come out of college pretty much as they went in.”
No faculty, however capable, can cause indifferent students or willfully neglectful students to make progress or to become qualified for efficient work. A student desiring knowledge and thirsting for training will have little cause to blame his teacher for his lack of progress and intellectual growth. Socrates once said, when an inquirer sought knowledge of him, that his first work consisted in convincing the pupil of his ignorance. This is but another way of stating that, to learn, one must appreciate knowledge and desire instruction. Confucius, the greatest teacher China has ever had, said that when a man came to him for instruction, and he gave the inquirer one side of a proposition with five parts, he dismissed him as incapable should he fail to find the other four. The influence of a student upon a school, through the information that he sends home to parent, guardian, or friend, is great indeed. Every student attending college should be loyal to the school, true to its best interests, and should never pass a word of criticism or faultfinding to the second party. He should remember that his future standing is more or less involved in the training which the school gives him. Therefore he should be true to its best interests, loyal to its regulations, and earnest in building up its influence. In “Counsels to Teachers” we read this valuable instruction: “Students should be willing to work under those of experience, to heed their suggestions, to follow their advice, and to go as far as possible in thought, training, and intelligent enterprise; but they should never infringe upon a rule, never disregard one principle, that has been interwoven with the upbuilding of the institution. The dropping down is easy enough; the disregard of regulations is natural to the heart inclined to selfish ease and gratification.16It is much easier to tear down than to build up. One student with careless ideas may do more to let down the standard than ten men with all their effort can do to counteract the demoralizing influence.” “Failure or success will be read in the course the students pursue. If they stand ready to question rules and regulations and order, if they indulge self, and by their example encourage a spirit of rebellion, give them no place. The institution might better close its doors than suffer this spirit to leaven the helpers and break down the barriers that it has cost thought, effort, and prayer to establish.” “Let every student realize that he is in the school to help his fellow students to cooperate with God, to cooperate with the prayers that are rising in their behalf. In sympathy and love he should help his associates to press heavenward. “Students, cooperate with your teachers. As you do this you give them hope and courage, and at the same time you are helping yourselves to advance. Remember that it rests largely with you whether your teachers stand on vantage ground, their work an acknowledged success. They will appreciate every effort made by you to cooperate with their work. “Students should have their own seasons of prayer, when they may offer fervent petitions in behalf of the principal and teachers of the school, that they may be given physical strength, mental clearness, moral power, spiritual discernment, and be qualified by the grace of Christ to do the work with fidelity and fervent love. They should pray that the teachers may be agents through whom God shall work to make good prevail over evil. Every day the student may exert a silent, prayerful influence, and thus cooperate with Christ, the missionary in chief. “Students, make your school life as perfect as possible. You will pass over the way but once, and precious are the opportunities granted you. You are not only to learn but to practice the lessons of Christ. While obtaining your education you have the opportunity to tell of the wonderful truths of God’s Word. Improve every such opportunity. God will bless every minute spent in this way. Maintain your simplicity and your love for souls, and the Lord will lead you in safe paths. The rich experience you gain will be of more value to you than gold or silver or precious stones. “You know not to what position you may be called in the future. God may use you as he used Daniel, to take the knowledge of the truth to the mighty of the earth. It rests with you to say whether you will have skill and knowledge to do this work. God can give you skill in all your learning. He can help you to adapt yourself to the line of study you take up. Make it your first interest to gather up right, noble, unifying principles. God desires you to witness for him. He does not want you to stand still; he wants you to run in the way of his commandments.” The third element in making a successful school is the faculty. The influence that teachers have upon the future of the student body, and especially of individual students, is beyond utterance. Nearly all noted men, who were not born geniuses, give credit to some wise teacher who guided them and who helped to shape and mold their lives while under his tutorship. In speaking of the greatest influence that came into his life, Booker T. Washington says of the late Gen. Samuel C. Armstrong, who had charge of Hampton Institute when Washington entered: “I have spoken of the impression that was made upon me by the buildings and the general appearance of the Hampton Institute. But I have not spoken of that which made the greatest and most lasting impression upon me, and that was a great man, the noblest, rarest human being that it has ever been my privilege to meet. I refer to the late Gen. Samuel C. Armstrong. It has been my fortune to meet many of what are called great characters, both in Europe and in America, but I do not hesitate to say that I never met any man who, in my estimation, was the equal of General Armstrong. I shall always remember that the first time I went into his presence he made the impression upon me of being a perfect man. I was made to feel that there was something about him that was superhuman. It was my privilege to know the general personally from the time I entered Hampton until he died, and the more I saw him, the greater he grew in my estimation. One might have removed from Hampton all the buildings, classrooms, teachers, and industries, and given the men and women there the opportunity of coming into daily contact with General Armstrong, and that alone would have been a liberal education. The older I grow, the more I am convinced that there is no education that one can get from books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women.” Jordan says: “There is but one thing that can make a college strong and useful, and that is a strong and earnest faculty. All other matters without this are of less than no importance. Buildings, departments, museums, courses, libraries, catalogues, names, numbers, rules, and regulations do not make a university. It is the men who teach. . . . Go to the men who know, the men who can lead you beyond the primary details to the thoughts and researches which are the work of the scholar.” Speaking of the teacher, Dr. Weldon said: “He cannot be greater or nobler than himself. He cannot teach nobly if he is not himself noble.” Sala said: “If the teacher is to train others, still more must he train himself. The teacher’s influence depends not on what he says nor on what he does, but on what he is.” Another writer said, “It is worth ten years of your life to know one great teacher.” It was said of Dr. Nott, of Union College, that he “took the sweepings of other colleges and sent them back into society pure gold.” Such was his influence on young men. Another noted educator says, “The college professor should be the best man in the community, always pointing the way upward.” Many a worldly school has been made famous by having one noted teacher in charge of some important department. It has mattered not so much which department was thus favored. One gifted, strong, efficient teacher has given many a school a leading place, and has won for it both success and renown. The board has secured for this school a corps of teachers of whom they may justly feel some degree of satisfaction. Judged from a worldly standpoint, none of us are great. But we measure ourselves not by the world, but by the consecration and loyalty which we manifest toward the principles which we, as a people, hold; and I shall be greatly disappointed if the faculty that we have secured do not help to build this school into a strong, educational institution for the finishing of our denominational work. I have long desired to see this school become strong in training men for the ministry. Here is a wide field for leadership and an opportunity for specific work. But in order to accomplish this high purpose there must be clustered around the school a group of teachers who conceive the same grand central aim, and every department in the institution should be an auxiliary contributing to the attainment of this end. Benefit of a College Education
I wish to say a word in regard to the benefit of a college training to young men and young women. Ofttimes we do not fully appreciate the real value of a thorough training for definite work. We are a poor people. Most of the fathers and mothers of the young men and women who make a success in this work have little of this world’s goods. It is a great sacrifice for parents to send their children to our schools. I feel, however, that we have not fully appreciated the real value of a thorough course of training, and have been content to go into the work without suitable schooling rather than undergo the sacrifice and discipline necessary to finish a regular college course. Many believe that they cannot finance themselves through college, so they leave school when they have reached the eleventh or twelfth grade. Twelve grades is but the beginning of an education,—the foundation,—and there is scarcely a young man or young woman in ordinary health who is not capable of putting himself through school if he but sets himself to that purpose. Mirabeau once said: “Why should we call ourselves men, unless it be to succeed in everything, everywhere? Say of nothing, This is beneath me, nor feel that anything is beyond your powers. Nothing is impossible to him who can will.” And really it is a pity for a young man to quit school simply because he does not have ready cash to pay his way as he would like. “The boys who are sent to school,” says one head of a university for juniors, “do not amount to much. From the boys who go to college come the leaders of the future.” The student who pays his own way through college by hard work and economy receives a double training. The industry, economy, perseverance, and self-denial which he must practice are worth more than book knowledge. They become elements of character, and are capital stock which is ever at a premium. The value of a college education can hardly be appreciated by those who have got along in life, satisfactory to themselves, without an education. An education is not simply for the purpose of helping to obtain a livelihood with less physical work than would otherwise have to be put forth. The college course is to intensify the individuality of man. It17trains him to think, to act, and to depend upon himself, and to have confidence in his ability to do work requiring skill and training. “Counsels to Teachers” tells us that “the true object of education is to fit men and women for service by developing and bringing into active service all their faculties.” A college training teaches self-reliance and qualifies a man, both physically and mentally, for the highest service of which his powers are capable. In speaking of a liberal education, Huxley said: “Those who take honors in Nature’s university, who learn the laws which govern men and things and obey them, are the really great and successful men in this world. The great mass of mankind are the ‘Poll,’ who pick up just enough to get through without much discredit. Those who won’t learn at all are plucked; and then you can’t come up again. Nature’s pluck means extermination. Thus the question of compulsory education is settled so far as Nature is concerned. Her bill on that question was framed and passed long ago. But, like all compulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and wasteful in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as willful disobedience — incapacity meets with the same punishment as crime. Nature’s discipline is not even a word and a blow, and the blow first; but the blow without the word. It is left to you to find out why your ears are boxed. “The object of what we commonly call education — that education in which man intervenes and which I shall distinguish as artificial education — is to make good these defects in Nature’s methods; to prepare the child to receive Nature’s education, neither incapably nor ignorantly, nor with willful disobedience; and to understand the preliminary symptoms of her displeasure, without waiting for the box on the ear. In short, all artificial education ought to be an anticipation of natural education. And a liberal education is an artificial education which has not only prepared a man to escape the great evils of disobedience to natural laws, but has trained him to appreciate and to seize upon the rewards, which Nature scatters with as free a hand as her penalties. “That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth-working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself. “Such a one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He will make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely; she as his ever-beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious self, her minister and interpreter.” In “Counsels to Teachers” we read: “The first great lesson in all education, is to know and understand the will of God. We should bring into every day of life the effort to gain this knowledge. To learn science through human interpretation alone is to obtain a false education; but to learn of God and Christ is to learn the science of heaven. The confusion in education has come because the wisdom and knowledge of God have not been exalted. The students in our schools are to regard the knowledge of God as above everything else.” “Today young men and women spend years in acquiring an education which is as wood and stubble, to be consumed in the last great conflagration. Upon such an education God places no value. Many students leave school unable to receive the Word of God with the reverence and respect which they gave it before they entered. Their faith has been eclipsed in the effort to excel in the various studies. The Bible has not been made a vital matter in their education, but books tainted with infidelity and propagating unsound theories have been placed before them. “All unnecessary matters should be weeded from the courses of study, and only such studies placed before the student as will be of real value to him. With these alone he needs to become familiar, that he may secure the life which measures with the life of God. As the mind is summoned to the consideration of the great themes of salvation, it will rise higher and higher in the comprehension of these subjects, leaving cheap and insignificant matters behind.” The Japanese idea of college training is well set forth by one of their noted writers, Uchimura. In speaking of the education in old Japan, Uchimura says: “We were not taught in classes then. The grouping of soul-bearing human beings into classes, as sheep upon Australian farms, was not known in our old schools. Our teachers believed, I think, instinctively, that man (persona) is unclassifiable; that he must be dealt with personally — that is, face to face, and soul to soul. So they schooled us, one by one, each according to his idiosyncrasies, physical, mental, spiritual. They knew each one of us by his name. And as asses were never harnessed with horses, there was little danger of the latter being beaten down into stupidity, or the former driven into valedictorian’s graves. In this respect, therefore, our old-time teachers in Japan agreed with Socrates and Plato in their theory of education. So, naturally, the relation between teachers and students was the closest possible. We never called our teachers by that unapproachable name, Professor. We called them Sensei, men born before; so named because of their prior birth, not only in respect of time or their appearance, but also of their coming to the understanding of the truth.” And this is one great gain in the highest college training,—that the students are not trained collectively, but individually, to use their God-given powers to the best possible advantage. We should never educate ourselves away from the Word of God. Whatever this school may or may not stand for, it must stand for an earnest, open, unprejudiced study of the Word of God. We must seek for truth and not for theory. Extremists, fanatics, unbelievers, and opposers of the truth are made when we place theory above truth. Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” It is the Word of God that will give us liberty and make us free indeed. It must be our aim to thoroughly study the Word, to correctly interpret its prophecies, and to instill such faith into the students who seek training here that they shall never have cause to say, It was in that school that I lost my faith. On the other hand, we must lead them into an experience of faith and complete dependence upon God. In order to accomplish this the Holy Spirit must be the source of power. Not alone by precept but by actual, personal experience we must demonstrate the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the daily life. After a denominational existence of more than fifty years, with numerous schools scattered throughout the country, easily available to our young men and women, it is a pity that more have not taken a thorough college course. The report of the statistical secretary shows that last year only thirty-five students having completed sixteen grades of work were graduated from our schools. Speaking of thorough training, we read in “Counsels to Teachers:” “What is worth doing at all, is worth doing well. While religion should be the prevailing element in every school, it will not lead to a cheapening of the literary attainments. It will make all true Christians feel their need of thorough knowledge, that they may make the best use of the faculties bestowed upon them. While growing in grace and in a knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, they will seek constantly to put to the stretch their powers of mind, that they may become intelligent Christians. . . . Those who give all diligence to make their calling and election sure, will feel that a superficial knowledge will not fit them for a position of usefulness. Education balanced by a solid religious experience, fits the child of God to do his appointed work steadily, firmly, understandingly. . . . As a people who claim to have advanced light, we are to devise ways and means by which to bring forth a corps of educated workmen for the various departments of the work of God. We need a well-disciplined, cultivated class of young men and women in our sanitariums, in the medical missionary work, in the offices of publication, in the conferences of different States, and in the field at large. We need young men and women who have a high intellectual culture, in order that they may do the best work for the Lord. We have done something toward reaching this standard, but still we are far behind where we should be. “As a church, as individuals, if we would stand clear in the judgment, we must make more liberal efforts for the training of our young people, that they may be better fitted for the various branches of the great work committed to our hands. We should lay wise plans, in order that the ingenious minds of those who have talent may be strengthened and disciplined, and polished after the highest order, that the work of Christ may not be hindered for lack of skillful laborers,18who will do their work with earnestness and fidelity.” Believing that the time has come when, as a denomination, we should give more attention to encouraging our young men and women to finish a college course, we look forward to the future of Washington Missionary College with high hope. We believe it has a bright future. For territory, a constituency, opportunity for research work, situation, and natural advantages, nothing seems to be lacking. We hope that many young men and young women will go from this school to engage in our denominational work in all parts of the great harvest field, giving better service and doing more efficient work for their Lord and Master because of the training they have received while here. We bespeak for the faculty the confidence of the constituency and also of the students of this school, and trust that all present tonight will silently pledge to support the school, both by their means and by their prayers.