Our Colleges by Frederick Griggs

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 31, 1916

Our Colleges

By Frederick Griggs

Our Schools and Our Work

WE live in an enlightened age, intellectually speaking. The printing press, the telegraph and telephone, the means of rapid transit, have brought in an era of discovery, invention, and research which has made the world intelligent. Knowledge has indeed been increased during the last century, and this increase of knowledge has been confined not alone to material and temporal things. Knowledge of the Word of God has been increased. Today the Word is printed in about seven hundred languages, and yearly more than 15,500,000 copies of the whole and of parts of the Bible are sent out to a needy world.

All these conditions demand a high standard of education for those who would successfully take part in the world's work. Great issues are before the world. History is making as never before. The world's map is being changed. Back of this outward strife of men and nations lies an unseen but mighty intellectual force. The present great war finds its origin in the work of the schools of the Old World. For a quarter of a century certain great scholars have been teaching and writing a philosophy of war that has been most effective in the present national cataclysm.

There is no measure of the effect of the teacher upon any great movement. Luther recognized this power in the work of the Reformation. His work survived and in great part grew because of his appreciation of the effect of education on the child. In speaking of this, Painter says, “The necessities of the Reformation gave Luther an intense interest in education. The schools of the times, already inadequate in numbers and defective in methods, were crippled during the early stages of the Reformation by the excited and unsettled state of society. A new generation was growing up without education. The establishment of schools became a necessary measure for the success and permanence of the Reformation. . . . With Luther education was not an end in itself, but a means to more effective service of church and state.” D’Aubigné says, “It was not public worship alone that the Reformation was ordained to change. The school was early placed beside the church; and these two great institutions, so powerful to regenerate the nations, were equally reanimated by it. It was by a close alliance with learning that the Reformation entered into the world.” He further says that “Luther felt that to strengthen the Reformation it was requisite to work on the young, to improve the schools, and to propagate throughout Christendom the knowledge necessary for a profound study of the Holy Scriptures. This accordingly was one of the objects of his life.”

What was true of the relation of education to the cause of the Reformation has ever been true of any great work of God. At the time of the removal of the Israelites from Egypt and their establishment in Palestine, specific direction was again and again given regarding the education of their youth. In the establishment of Christianity the early church gave good heed to its duty, realizing the possibilities to its cause of truth from a properly educated youth. Mosheim says, “The Christians took all possible care to accustom their children to the study of the Scriptures, and to instruct them in the doctrines of their holy religion; and schools were everywhere erected for this purpose, even from the very commencement of the Christian church.”

Without controversy the second advent movement is the greatest work God has ever undertaken for man, or men for their fellow men. Error is engaged in its last struggle with truth; and into this struggle error is throwing all the darkness of all the ages, and truth, all the light. This greatest cause of all times demands of its believers the highest equipment, physical, mental, and spiritual. No effort is to be spared to bring to a speedy issue this greatest undertaking of all times. In the nature of the struggle, truth will triumph, but it requires of all believers that they make it a quick triumph.

If the church of God throughout all time has had a duty to educate its youth for service, it has a double duty in this hour. This last message is to go to all peoples and languages. Young men and women, strong of body and mind, and of consecrated heart, can best endure the hardship of this pioneer work. But they cannot get their training for this work in those schools whose aim is worldward instead of heavenward. A preparation to carry the saving gospel to men is not the work of a moment. It is a matter of “precept upon precept; line upon line.” It is a work of growth.

In the educational convention of 1906, held at College View, Nebr., the following resolution was voted:—

“That it is God’s purpose to finish in this generation his work in behalf of mankind.”

“That the primary object of our training schools is to afford young men an opportunity to study for the ministry, and to prepare young persons of both sexes to become workers in the various branches of the cause.”

“Today we face a great missionary problem. Notwithstanding all that has been done to finish this work, there are still vast fields unentered, millions of men and women unwarned, and many pressing Macedonian calls unanswered.”

“In view of this situation, we feel deeply impressed that the time has fully come when we should put forth the highest efforts of which we are capable to place in the field the number of qualified workers required to finish the Lord’s work according to his purpose.”

In order to accomplish this end, it was recommended that an active propaganda be undertaken in schools and conferences in behalf of the work of foreign missions, and that the burden of this work be pressed home upon the young men and women who are preparing for service, leading them to take as their motto, “The advent message to all the world in this generation.”

This is our work today as truly as when this resolution was adopted. It was interesting to note that the enrolment in our schools the year following this convention was nearly twenty-five per cent greater than the year previous. God seemed by this token to set his seal of approval upon our declaration of purpose in the conduct of our school enterprises along the line of mission endeavor.

This work of educating for the ministry of God’s word is not confined to our advanced schools, but is the fundamental work of every grade, from the first of the primary to the last of the college. Neither is missionary work confined to foreign lands. It is at our very door all the time. The possibilities of Christian help work in all its phases are immeasurably great. Such work produces workers for Christ. Our schools have done much in this sort of education. Its effects are seen in the body of men and women who are bearing the brunt of the work of this message in this and other lands. Almost without exception they have been in attendance at our schools, many of them all their school life. There they have found the inspiration for the service in which they are now engaged. It is the great duty of our schools and their high privilege to train for this service. May they perform this duty and improve this privilege to their full measure. FREDERICK GRIGGS.