Healdsburg College by J. N. Loughborough

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 15, 1885

Healdsburg College.

By J. N. Loughborough

Last week I spoke respecting the financial interests of our cause as related to the present hard times, calling particular attention to the publishing work, and showing how our people could render it efficient aid, if so disposed. I wish this week to speak of our school. It is called Healdsburg College, but it is in reality a Pacific Coast institution; for it is calculated to benefit all our Conferences on this coast. Our people in these Conferences should feel a deep solicitude for its prosperity. Already over thirty persons have gone forth from the College to engage as workers in different branches of the Master's cause. About sixty are already enrolled in the Biblical Class for this term. Most of these are from California and Nevada; but I see among them five from the North Pacific, and three from the Upper Columbia Conference. Our cause is one all over the world, and it should be especially our endeavor to move with unity of purpose and action in all these Conferences on the Pacific Coast. In order that we may move unitedly, in any matter, we should move understandingly. To do this, it is necessary that we acquaint ourselves with the relation the subject sustains to us.

Healdsburg College is not a money-making institution, and from its very nature and workings it never can be. Many of its students are, and will be, those who, while they have ability that can be turned to account in the cause, have not money to enable them to obtain the education necessary to qualify them for the work. For this reason there will ever be a necessity that such should be helped from some source; and as we are not by any means a rich people, the terms of tuition, etc., must be made as low as possible for all.

The price for board and tuition at this institution is only one-half that of other boarding schools on this coast. I refer, as samples, to McClure's Military Academy, Oakland; the Ladies' Seminary, Reno, Nevada, etc. The price for board and tuition at these institutions is $40 per month, while at Healdsburg College it is only $20 per month. Some have said, "If the students do a portion of the manual labor in the institution, why should not a deduction be made in their board and tuition?" That is just what is now being done. If persons were hired to do all that is now done by the students, it would be needful to add much more to the price charged; for at present prices, and with the students' labor free, the College but barely meets its running expenses.

I fear there are those who greatly mistake the nature and standing of this institution. Some who have nothing to depend upon for a living but their daily labor, suppose that if they move to Healdsburg they can get work about the College grounds for a livelihood, and at the same time board their own children and educate them. Others presume on getting labor in the place to support them. To all such we say, Healdsburg is only a small country place, with poor chance for day labor, and the College employs no such labor. All those proposing to come to Healdsburg to have the benefit of the school or church, should first correspond with Prof. Brownsberger, asking the information they need, and reporting their financial condition. Those who are poor, and come without doing so, are quite likely to be disappointed, and to be tried themselves, if they do not become a trial and financial burden to the church, which, by the way, is a poor church as far as this world's goods is concerned. If a few brethren of means and financial ability would move to Healdsburg, letting the College have the use of their means and counsel, it would be an acceptable arrival just at this time, and a great help in the growth of the institution.

The school needs our prayers, our sympathies, and our means. The professors, teachers, and the managers, need our encouragement in every possible way, while they, in the fear of God, are seeking to do all they can for the success of the work committed to them. We should not be satisfied with praying God to prosper the College, and giving it our good-will, but we should consider the finances of the institution, and see that we do our part to relieve it from financial burdens. To aid each in deciding as to his duty, I will make a statement of the situation as it appears upon the books of the College. The cost of land, recitation building, and the North College Hall (boarding-house), was a little over $40,000. To meet this there has been pledged, as College stock, $31,400. Of this stock, $17,000 has been paid. Of the remaining $14,400, there was $6,400 pledged last September and October, which will be due during this year. The balance of the pledges ($8,000) is all overdue since last October. If these overdue pledges could be paid, it would enable the College to pay off so much of its interest-bearing debt, and measurably stop that financial leak. If those who have pledges for this year, would pay them as rapidly as possible, it would render aid in this direction. I find the greatest economy is being practiced at the North College Hall, especially in utilizing all available room, so as to avoid, as long as possible, any outlay for additional buildings.

Some eighteen months since, it was proposed to raise an "endowment fund" of $25,000, to be loaned to some of our institutions, the interest to be applied in support of the Bible Course, and in part payment for some of the students who were preparing to labor in the cause, but were not able to pay full price for board and tuition. Of this fund $13,000 has already been pledged, $9,000 of which has been paid and put out at interest. This interest will afford aid to some during the present term of school. The other $4,000 pledged, I hope will soon be paid, and enter upon its important financial mission. I trust the time may soon come when it can be said that the whole $25,000 is not only pledged but paid. Let all who should have a part in that fund prayerfully consider their duty and act accordingly.

I hope none of us will rest easy with reference to our duty to this institution, making the plea that it is hard times. You may say, I designed to pay what I had pledged to the College stock this year, if I had made it out of my crops, fruit, etc. If you had acquired the means, over and above all expenses, to pay your pledge, would you have considered it a sacrifice to pay it? I fancy I hear you all say, No, I would have esteemed it a pleasure to pay it. I suppose, yes, I know with many, it would require some sacrifice to pay now. What are you going to do? Shall we, by our actions, say, Let the College pay interest? We know it is embarrassed, but we can't pay interest to help the College. Hard as the times are, if any of us had lost a horse by death, or a house by fire, we would not hesitate long before deciding to get another horse, or build another house, even if obliged to run in debt to do it, trusting Providence to open the way to pay for it. May it not be that the Lord has permitted hard times to come upon us as a people, while there are such strong financial demands upon us for our institutions, to try us whether we will really make sacrifices for the advancement of his cause?

We get an impressive lesson concerning offerings made to God, in that answer of David to Araunah the Jebusite, when he offered to give to David the threshing-floor, the threshing instruments, for wood, and the oxen, that David might make an offering of the oxen to God. "The king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price; neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing." 2 Sam. 24: 24. We may feel that it costs us something to borrow individually, at interest, to meet our pledges, but will it not look more like seeking first the kingdom of God, than to drift along in a careless manner because it is hard times, waiting for some time to come when we can make our offerings to God of that which requires no special self-denial.

Brethren and sisters, let us carefully and prayerfully consider this subject, and act according to our convictions.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.