Do NOT DELAY by George H. Bell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 14, 1882

Do NOT DELAY.

By George H. Bell

The announcement of a Seventh-day Adventist school in New England has come upon our people so suddenly that many will think it impossible for them to attend it before next fall. Now with some, this may be true; but in the case of others, the obstacles which prevent their immediate attendance might be removed, if the importance of such attendance were fully understood. Seeming impossibilities have many times been accomplished. We can do great things when we set to work resolutely and untiringly, especially if we are fully convinced that the object is a worthy one.

It may be thought by some that this spring term will be but little more than an experiment, and consequently of no great value. Such a view is wrong, as will be proved, if in the providence of God the school is permitted to open and proceed according to present intentions. Instruction will begin the very first hour, and from that time on, the teaching and studying will go vigorously forward. Teaching is not an experiment with those who are expected to start the school, and they will be ready to begin their work as soon as they see the material they have to work upon.

Again: some may think that there will scarcely be time to more than make a beginning, before being broken off by the summer vacation. This might be so under some methods of teaching, but we feel confident that it cannot be so under the proposed system of instruction. The minds of earnest students will be put upon trains of thought which they can pursue after they leave school; and the vacation will afford time for reflecting upon what has been taught, so that when the fall term opens, those who have properly improved the advantages afforded by the spring term will have a start of fifteen or twenty weeks, instead of ten or twelve.

No very extensive preparation will be needed for so short a term, and the vacation will give opportunity for a more ample preparation for the coming year. Come as you are. What though social and business relations have to be rather abruptly severed? When the war of the rebellion broke out, thousands of young men left everything on much shorter notice. It was an hour of peril. So, also, the cause which calls for recruits to be drilled in this school is an important one. The demand is urgent. Satan is neither slack nor dilatory in carrying on the work that is fast ripening the earth for destruction, and there should certainly be no delay on the part of those who would share in the work of saving souls.

It would be gratifying to teachers to have under their instruction during this first term a respectable number of sober-minded pupils, in order that there might be a fair chance to show the effects of their teaching, and thus establish faith in the efficiency of the school. No pains will be spared in furnishing, at the outset, all that is indispensable to success. Many have gone through life without an education, simply because they were always waiting for a better opportunity. May God give faith and courage to all who can reasonably step into the opening that now presents itself. G. H. Bell.