Our Educational Society and School Building.
By Geo. I. Butler
THE friends of the cause who have an interest to watch its progress doubtless read Bro. Smith’s short notice of the incorporation of the S. D. A. Educational Society, in last week’s REVIEW. The notice was very brief, but the step taken about which the notice was written, was a very important one. Another important monument is thus erected in the progress of this cause. The Seventh-day Adventist Educational Society of Battle Creek, Mich., is now a legal corporation, capable of suing and being sued, holding property, and doing those things necessary for its prosperity. The Certificate of Incorporation, duly signed and sealed, has been placed in the office of the Secretary of State, and thus the whole matter is consummated in accordance with the laws of Michigan, and pronounced upon as correct by the proper officer. As soon as the press of business will allow, those who have paid in money will receive certificates of stock, the sum of ten dollars being the price of one share. The present Board of Trustees are Geo. I. Butler, Harmon Lindsay, Ira Abbey, U. Smith, Benn Auten, E. B. Gaskill, and Horatio Lindsay. It was necessary that all who were elected should be present, that they might sign the Articles of Incorporation. The Trustees are elected annually much the same as the Trustees of the Publishing Association. The Trustees have voted to proceed to put up a school building the present season. After considering the matter, it is thought best to erect one at a cost of about twenty thousand dollars, three stories in height, capable of holding four hundred scholars, or more. We are constrained to do this by many weighty considerations, among which are the following: The Publishing Association already needs the building occupied by the school, and it would seriously retard the work to have no school building finished before a year from next fall. We shall absolutely require a building the coming autumn. If our school should increase as fast the present year as last, our present quarters would be insufficient to accommodate those who desire to attend. We have purchased the ground at a heavy expense, and every reasonable consideration would require the work to go on. There seem to be no good reasons for delay. Time is short, and we have none to lose. Our young people everywhere should be preparing themselves for usefulness, and qualifying themselves to labor in the cause of truth. A suitable building for our school should therefore be immediately prepared. We are certain that all those who have so liberally subscribed for this purpose will be anxious to have the house go up at once. They would feel sad at any delay. The season of the year has now come when the work should be entered upon at once. A large amount of lumber has been purchased very reasonably, and now stands ready for use. The stone and brick should be purchased at once and the foundation immediately laid. Why, then, it may be inquired, do you not take right hold and put the building up? There is only one thing to hinder. That is the lack of money. Had those who pledged to pay by the first of January done so, we should have no trouble at all in going forward. But there has been a lack in paying those pledges. The Trustees have appointed their building committee. They have nearly concluded upon a plan. And now if there is a delay, we want all our friends to know upon whom the responsibility of it will rest. To the friends of the cause, we would say, These men whom your action has put into office to carry out your wishes stand ready on their part to put this thing right forward. Just send in the means which you subscribed last summer, and which has been due three months, and there will be very little embarrassment. More than ten thousand dollars of this is still unpaid. We believe that our friends who have subscribed, when they learn that the Trustees are waiting for them, and that the responsibility of delay rests upon them, will nobly respond. We would say further, that if there are those who signed for the year 1874 who can pay their pledges without serious embarrassment, the Trustees will feel very grateful to them if they will do so. We do not ask this as a right, for their money is not due till next January; but we are so anxious to see this work go on without delay that we make this request. If there are those among us who have money which they are willing to loan to the Educational Society, for a time, without interest, it will be a great help to the cause for them to do so. The purchase of the land and the putting up of the large building bring our principal expense at the beginning of the society’s legal existence before the pledges are nearly all due. This is the only reason why we make such a request. The society will be amply able to do all it proposes to do when the pledges are paid. Subscriptions of a bona-fide character have been made to the amount of $54,000, all of which is to be paid by the first of next January. We have found in the past that subscriptions made by S. D. Adventists for such purposes are good for at least ninety-five per cent. This is a legal society, owning twelve acres of land in the city of Battle Creek, worth at least $16,000, and its notes are perfectly safe. If our friends are willing to help us in this matter till the pledges come in, they will do a good and noble act, and help forward an important enterprise which otherwise may be delayed. We have worked hard in the past for the prosperity of this society by pleading for it before the people. Pecuniarily, it is not of the slightest benefit to us. But we do desire to see the good work move right forward. We believe the friends of the cause feel likewise. We ask them, therefore, to pay up their pledges now due at once; and that those whose pledges are not due will accommodate us as far as they can do so consistently; and that others who can loan us means without interest to help till pledges come in, and till the building is finished, will also accommodate us, that there may be no delay in the good work. In behalf of the Trustees, Battle Creek, Mich., March 26, 1874.