OUR COLLEGE AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS.
By S. N. Haskell
About twelve years ago, when Eld. Stephen Pierce was in New Hampshire, he was asked when he thought the Lord would come. The reply was, “I don’t know; the truth must go to the different nations of Europe, and we must have some place to educate men and women in other tongues.” Some of the brethren thought, and it was whispered around, that he had not much faith in the near coming of the Lord; but only twelve years have passed, and what he anticipated has been accomplished. We may well say, “See what the Lord hath wrought.” The object which our College has in view is to fit men and women for usefulness in the cause of present truth. In this its success thus far has been wonderful. Individuals of different nationalities have gone from it, and are laboring with success in the cause of God. God’s providence has attended it. It has all the advantages of any worldly institution in teaching the sciences and common branches, and is especially adapted to those who design to labor in the cause of God. Such will find this College a means well calculated to prepare them for their work. The commercial department will be an important addition, and will constitute a great inducement to those who may be called to act as secretaries, clerks, librarians, or to fill any position in the cause requiring a knowledge of business matters. The business done by our Conferences amounts to many thousand dollars a year, in some as high as thirteen thousand; and as our Conferences are enlarging, this business is increasing. Our Conferences are suffering for want of those who know how to do business correctly. The Iowa Tract Society never made a better investment than when it sent Sr. Lizzie Hornby to Battle Creek to learn how to do the tract and missionary business. Kansas is pursuing the same course with its recently elected secretary. A correct understanding of the principles of book-keeping, and how to apply them to the different branches of this work, is absolutely essential, in order to make a success of sustaining any business relation to this cause. We have long seen and felt the need of it. There are scores in every Conference who might be of use in the cause, did they know how to correctly relate themselves to the work. We hope this department will prove a blessing to hundreds who hitherto have had no special interest in the College. May God bless the College and its Faculty, is my prayer.