IOWA T. AND M. INSTITUTE by Stephen Nelson Haskell; L. McCoy

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 6, 1879

IOWA T. AND M. INSTITUTE.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell; L. McCoy

The T. and M. Institute at Sigourney, Iowa, was opened Jan. 13, 1879, and closed Jan. 24. The school occupied eleven days, two sessions of three hours each each day. Eld. S. N. Haskell was chosen president and L. McCoy secretary. L. McCoy and W. H. Hankins were appointed a committee on supplies.

Eld. Haskell set forth the necessity of more thorough work in our tract societies, and stated that the object of this Institute was to give instruction in the proper manner of doing missionary work.

The class was organized with forty members, and afterward increased to fifty. The exercises consisted in the actual transaction of business. The librarian's, district secretary's, and State secretary's work was taken up in order. The class was instructed in making lists of members, taking inventory of supplies on hand, ordering supplies, writing letters, reports, etc., balancing books, and sending statement of accounts. Although this was a sham, yet it proved to be real work before we got through with it. All letters and reports were criticized by a committee appointed for the purpose, and lessons were illustrated on the blackboard.

The regular attendance was interrupted by a kind of epidemic influenza, which attacked a greater part of the members, and kept quite a number from attending.

At the closing session the following resolutions were unanimously passed:—

Whereas, In the providence of God Eld. Haskell has come to our State to hold this Institute, which has been ably and profitably conducted, therefore

Resolved, That we hereby express our gratitude to God for sending him to give us instruction in the tract and missionary work, and that the thanks of the members of this Institute are due him for his untiring labors in our behalf.

Resolved, That we recognize in the T. and M. Institute a long-felt need, and that we feel no hesitation in recommending the same to other tract societies as the most efficient means within our reach of obtaining a thorough and practical knowledge of this branch of the work.

Resolved, That we who have attended this meeting from abroad extend our hearty thanks to the Sigourney church for their kind and generous hospitality.

At a subsequent meeting, the members of the Sigourney church passed the following:—

Resolved, by the Sigourney church, That we express our gratitude for the privilege we have had of throwing open our doors to brethren and sisters from abroad during the T. and M. Institute.

Winter weather, long distances, and scarcity of money, kept many from attending who would gladly have come. Our time was well occupied, and two weeks more would have been profitably used in similar exercises. All were pleased, and felt the blessing of God upon them.

S. N. Haskell, Pres.

L. McCoy, Sec.

Sigourney, Jan. 28.