BATTLE CREEK COLLEGE by M. Bessie De Graw

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 16, 1900

BATTLE CREEK COLLEGE.

By M. Bessie De Graw

The week of prayer was another eventful period in the lives of many of the students in Battle Creek College. The week began with meetings of the most quiet character, but everywhere was felt a longing for a nearness with the Saviour. For some time, the subject of Christ’s kingdom in the heart had been studied; and as students realized the fact that before we need look for Christ in the clouds of heaven, he must be enthroned within us, the hope of glory, there was a longing to open the heart to the inflowing of the Spirit. As a people, we are in danger, so we are told, of repeating the history of the Jews. That people failed to recognize the first coming of Christ, and looked ever for the setting up of his temporal kingdom, and, not seeing that, they missed all. To-day we may preach the second coming in glory, and fail to learn of his advent as “Immanuel, . . . God with us.”

Never had there been manifest such an intense desire to be in harmony with God; to have our lives in tune with the Infinite. And the realization that this experience would bring the latter rain, or power to work, led many to take a different view of their physical and mental conditions. The message of health reform is intended to teach us so to care for our bodies that the highest physical development may be obtained, and to make nerve and fiber responsive to the influence of the Holy Spirit; for it is possible to be so gross physically that spiritual things fail to appeal to us. Christian education deals with our mental nature, and fits us to grasp living truth by faith. This puts us mentally in touch with the Spirit of God, and enables the eye to see and the ear to hear those things which entirely escape the faithless man.

These two great avenues to the soul had been touched; and many responded. With hearts full of glorious truth, a large number volunteered to go out in small companies to tell the things that they had seen and heard. Thursday and Friday of that closing week of the year saw students leaving in twos and threes, going out without purse or script, believing that they were sent forth as were the seventy, ‘into every city and place, whither he himself would come.’ Augusta, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Charlotte, Marshall, and other towns within easy reach of Battle Creek were visited. In some places the work done was canvassing; some students visited from house to house, and others met with the church. In every case a blessing was realized.

Tuesday morning, when school work was resumed, it really seemed as if the return “with joy,” had been repeated; for there was a ring to the words spoken that went to the heart of every listener.

The jail at Marshall has often been visited by companies from Battle Creek, and the young men said that as they stood within those iron bars facing criminals, it seemed as if their songs must have been swelled by angel voices, so loud and clear was the singing. The hearts of prisoners melted as they heard from youthful lips the story of redemption.

It is utterly impossible to convey the spirit of rejoicing which filled the hearts of those who were out. One young man had for several weeks been having, as he expressed it, “a hand-to-hand conflict with the devil.” Since his return his words have had a different ring. A colored brother who feared the cold, for it was almost zero weather, and he had always lived in the South, walked twenty-five miles with two companions. His testimony was that they did not suffer from the cold, and their hearts were so filled with joy that they sang and prayed while journeying.

Many who could not, because of duties, leave the city, visited the poor in Battle Creek. It was the prevailing sentiment that it was the best week of the year, and that more lasting lessons had been learned in a few days’ actual work with the Master, where it seemed that they must stand with him, and him alone, than in any other way.

M. BESSIE DE GRAW.