Earlier text: T. H. DAVISThe Washington Sanitarium
By W. A. Ruble
IN view of the fact that Seventh-day Adventists throughout the world are watching with interest the development of the sanitarium work in Washington, a few words regarding the progress of the new institution and plans for the management and needs of the work will not be out of place. The Sanitarium is located six miles north of Washington, on one of the highest points of land for miles around, and at an elevation of three hundred feet above the city of Washington. The front of the building, facing the setting sun, overlooks a deep valley through which the babbling Sligo merrily leaps from rock to rock, making melody for the “good Samaritan” on its banks. Beyond, in the distance, may be seen the nation’s Capitol, and the Washington Monument, ever pointing upward as did the life of the great man whom it commemorates. To the east, a stone’s throw, is the Washington Training-school, with which the Sanitarium is to co-operate in preparing well-equipped men and women to go forth into all parts of the world to represent the great Medical Missionary. On every side is a virgin forest of chestnut, tulip, oak, fir, maple, birch, and cedar in its natural beauty, stretching for miles in some directions. The sanitarium grounds comprise thirty acres. The new building is fast nearing completion. Owing to delay in securing material, it will not be ready to occupy until May 1, instead of April 1, as was desired. The architecture is somewhat more elaborate than on some of our other sanitariums, but not more so than the location justifies. Local requirements have been considered in its construction, which demand extensive verandas, wide halls, and spacious public rooms. On three sides of the building, on the first floor, and at the east approach are wide verandas, supported by square piers, and surmounted by columns supporting the balcony above. Opening off the west front veranda is the foyer, with the business office at the left and the reception room at the right. This foyer leads back to the elevator, stairways, and treatment rooms. These latter occupy the east wing of the building, the women’s bath being on the right, and the men’s on the left. The wide corridors lead to the left and to the right from the foyer, the former to the dining-room, and the latter to the parlor. Off these corridors are the waiting-rooms, offices, and reading-room. The second floor is given almost entirely to individual guest-chambers, with the exception of a lounging-room, over the front entrance, and two offices. The third floor also is designed for guest-rooms, but also provides for operating-room and small ward, as well as a lounging-room. The fourth floor may be used as a ward, and has a number of individual rooms. The basement accommodates the laundry under the women’s bath, the heating plant under the men’s bath, the kitchen under the dining-room, the gymnasium under the parlor, with helpers’ dining-room, stores, etc., under the offices and waiting-rooms. Appropriate approaches, including steps and inclines, are provided at the four entrances. The building will be heated with steam, and will be lighted with electricity and gas. Takoma Park is reached from Washington by electric cars, which run every half-hour, or by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The Sanitarium is a mile and a quarter from the terminus and station. Private carriage service to and from Takoma Park will be maintained for the accommodation of patients. After obtaining the best counsel possible, and having provided the Drs. Richards for the Wahroonga (Australia) Sanitarium, it was decided to ask Dr. D. H. Kress to connect with the Washington Sanitarium as its superintendent. Dr. Kress is expected to arrive sometime in April, and will be ready to take charge of the institution from the start. No comments are needed regarding Dr. Kress, as he is well known by almost every Seventh-day Adventist as one of our best qualified and most devoted physicians. His experience in starting an institution under similar circumstances in Australia has given him a preparation especially adapted to the situation in Washington. The work in Australia has been well provided for by the arrival of the Drs. Richards to take charge of the Sydney Sanitarium. Other physicians are in preparation for English territory, and will soon, it is hoped, be ready for active service. Having a superintendent in whom we all have confidence, a beautiful new building well equipped, ideal location and surroundings, and a most important field, we wish to call for consecrated, efficient helpers for every department to co-operate with the management, under God, in making this a model institution for the treatment of the sick, a training-school for workers, and a light in the world by upholding the third angel’s message at the nation’s capital. We want men and women who are willing to share responsibility, sacrifice selfish interests, and work for the advancement of God’s work in the earth. We have had no direct correspondence with any regarding this matter, but now desire to enter into correspondence with any who are willing to help this work to be all that the Lord desires it to be in this place. Remember we want only people who are strong spiritually, physically, and professionally. Please give several good references in writing. Those who come must expect to meet difficulties. An institution at headquarters is at the center of the firing line, but we can also be assured that it can be at the center of communication and at the base of supplies. Who of our most faithful workers—nurses, helpers, cooks—are willing to volunteer their services to carry forward the work in Washington? In addition to the corps of regular employees, a goodly number of young people will constantly be in training for various fields of usefulness. Nurses’ courses are in progress at present in connection with the Branch Sanitarium at 1 and 2 Iowa Circle and the Washington Training-school. A new class will be started in the near future, and correspondence with those contemplating such a course is invited. The Washington Training-school assuring systematic , thorough didactic work, the Iowa Circle institution, with its associated city experience together with the clinics and hospitals in Washington, are a few of the advantages offered by the Washington Sanitarium to those desiring to take the nurses’ course. Address the writer at Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. W. A. RUBLE. Medical Missionary Department
Conducted by the Medical Department of the General Conference MARION COWAN is nursing in Wakopa, Manitoba. Miss Bessie Glenn has for a time been doing private nursing in Brayton, Tenn. Dr. Charles R. Knox has connected as physician with the sanitarium conducted by Brother F. W. Patterson, at Colorado Springs, Colo. Dr. B. B. Kinne, of the Middletown (N. Y.) Sanitarium, at 10 Benton Ave., Middletown, N. Y., after calling for nurses to assist in the institution at that place, says: “We are nicely fitted up in our new sanitarium now, and we expect to do a good work the coming summer. Our sanitarium is located sixty-seven miles out of New York City.” Mr. R. B. Craig, of Decatur, Ill., in a letter dated February 20, says: “After being graduated from the nurses’ course in 1897, we went to Peoria, Ill., and began general missionary work. This resulted in a very nice sanitarium and a church of over forty members when we left there two years ago. We now have a thriving business here, and are still doing all that we can for the church as well as for those who are seeking physical help only. The Lord blesses our labors and waters our souls, although it is unnoticed by men. We have given our lives wholly to the promotion of this glorious message.” Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Robishaw, of 2532 Park Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, write: “After two years’ nursing in connection with the Mt. Vernon Academy, we connected with the bath rooms in the city five years ago. Shortly afterward, with two nurses, we went to Newark, Ohio, and started a sanitarium there. We remained until last fall, when the call came for workers at Cincinnati, and our board at Newark decided to take up this work, and asked us to come here and take charge. We are getting quite a good start in the work at this place. We realize that God is blessing us that we may be a blessing to others, and trust that with his help we may do all that he expects of us.” After mentioning the names and addresses of the medical workers in China, giving those of Dr. and Mrs. Salmon, Hsiang Cheng Hsien, Honan; Mrs. Dr. Perrine-Laird, Changsha, Hunan; Dr. Law Keem, Canton, China, care of British Post-office, Dr. H. W. Miller, of Sin Tang Cheo, in a letter of January 10, says: “I now have a graduate from the Mt. Vernon Academy, Mr. Orvie Gibson, and my brother with me, who are preparing for work in this land. They will assist in the dispensary and study at the same time. Besides this they are already helping in other lines of our routine work. Thus we hope to see many in the future join us, receiving the more important part of their preparation here in the field.” W. A. R. Educated Missionaries
By F. G.
God can use all classes of men and all grades of intellect in his service. But our schools are established to stand for and to give that training which will enable the gospel worker to do his work most effectually — most quickly and most thoroughly. We have reached the time of the year when our schools are revising their courses of study for the next year's work. It is well for us to keep steadily in mind the purpose of our courses of study; it is to prepare, in the shortest possible time, those who can do the greatest work possible. Because God can use all grades of intellect, it is not necessary that every student should reach the same standard of perfection in scholarship before he devotes himself to the work of the gospel. There are to be plans definitely laid for those who are advanced in years whose experience has been an education in itself, but whose school advantages have been limited. There is a work which God has for them that they can do to great advantage by a short course of study in our training-schools. Their experience in solving the problems of life, coupled with even the limited school advantages which they can get, makes them most valuable workers in certain branches of the cause and with certain classes. For this class, which is not a small nor unimportant one, very careful plans should be laid. That there is a dearth of well-educated men and women — those who can edit our papers, man our training-schools and our intermediate schools, who can present the message to the most highly educated classes of the world — is apparent to all observers of our denominational work. This is made so because of the rapid strides which our work is taking. Here is a call for many well-educated workers in new fields. To this call our schools must give earnest heed. This applies to the work accomplished even in our church-schools. It must be well arranged and thoroughly done, and so with our intermediate schools. But it is to our advanced schools that this call comes most loudly. Our training-schools have laid upon them the burden of presenting to these young people, whose age and opportunities are such that they can do so, such thorough lines of study as will abundantly qualify them to fill those places in our work where well-educated workers are needed. Not only are these lines of study to be planned and presented to the young people, but a most earnest effort should be made by the advanced schools to fill the faculties with such competent instructors as will lead to a thorough execution of these plans. From our advanced schools there should be graduated each year an army of workers whose education is so advanced that they can readily take up the study of the languages of the peoples of the other lands, and carry to them this saving message. From this army of graduates other schools can be established and supplied with competent faculties for the preparation of still other workers. Thus laborers will be rapidly multiplied to finish the great work given us to do. The old saying, “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” has a deal of truth in it, and it is nowhere more applicable than in the schoolroom, the school buildings, and the surroundings. God could have made all things of one form and of one color. But he did otherwise, for he delights in beauty. He filled the earth with all that was beautiful and good, with all that would delight the senses. Now the Christian is to have a heaven here on this earth before he has a heaven in the earth made new. His heaven here is to be found largely within his own heart. But the heaven within his heart may find expression upon his surroundings, and may lead him to beautify them in every consistent way. His home and all that pertains to it is ever neat and orderly. Neatness and order are two of the first subjects which should be taught in our schools if we would have them Christian schools. These important subjects can not be taught alone by theory, though the teaching of the theory is not to be neglected. They are taught most by clean buildings and pleasant surroundings. The walls of all school buildings should be free from writing. Whitewash and paint will help to keep them so, for pupils are slower to write on clean walls than on those already discolored, and disfigured with writing. These remarks have a foundation in the fact that the walls of some school buildings are quite covered with writing, which in some cases is, in itself, of a very improper nature. In our school homes the students’ characters are directly affected by the care given to the floors, the walls, the windows of the whole building in general, and every feature of their own rooms in particular. Every consistent effort to beautify the surroundings of our school buildings should be made. Good lawns, neatly trimmed walks, shrubbery, and flowers should abound in orderly and artistic arrangement. A very plain building may be made attractive by its beautiful surroundings. There is, of course, an expense attached to making and keeping beautiful the surroundings of our school buildings, but if good judgment is used, the expense is not considerable. From the point of expense it is much cheaper to keep our buildings in good repair, for “a stitch in time saves nine,” quite as truly in a building as in a garment. So, altogether, there is every reason for the management of our schools to surround the pupils with that which will delight the senses. In the end, it is not only more economical, but it makes directly for beautiful character. F. G. The Great Need of the Hour
By L. R. Conradi
If ever the words of our Saviour, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few,” had their proper application, it is at the present time. In the first place, the world never was such a great world, and the harvest, therefore, never was such a great harvest, as at present. When the Saviour spoke these words, Rome ruled the world; but that empire, in the height of its glory, covered only half of Europe, the northern part of Africa, and a small portion of Asia. What was its population of perhaps one hundred and twenty millions compared with the four hundred and23twenty millions of Europe, or the eight hundred and twenty-six millions of Asia? Even dark Africa, with its great deserts, musters one hundred and thirty-three millions. And since the time of Christ the great continents of America and Australia have been discovered; not only have they been brought within the vision of man, and opened to the gospel, they have also become strong factors in carrying the gospel to the world. So we may truly say that to-day the world is greater, and the harvest is greater, than ever before. Special significance is to be given to the conditions in our time, if we note the progress that the last century has seen. It was once quite an achievement for a man to make a trip across the ocean. Vast regions of the world were yet unexplored. But to-day not only are Europe and America covered with railways, but the Asiatic continent, six thousand miles from west to east, is crossed, and the iron horse is running to and fro in China, Japan, and India, and railways are getting to be more and more the fashion in Turkey. Hundreds of steamship lines are entering and leaving the many ports of every continent. Perhaps most marvelous of all is the development of Africa. Not long ago, it was known in truth as the Dark Continent, whose interior was wholly sealed to the outside world. To-day only a few hundred miles more remain to be finished, and then the Cape-to-Cairo telegraph line will be completed; in fact, wireless telegraphy will make it unnecessary to finish putting up the wires. In the wake of the telegraph follows the Cape-to-Cairo Railway, over two thousand miles of which are in full operation from the south, coming as far north as Broken Hill, near the Kongo boundary. From the north the line is in operation from Alexandria to Khartum, a distance of seven hundred miles. There is the Uganda Railway, having not only six hundred miles of track, but so connected with the lake steamers that inside of two weeks from the coast the missionary may land on the other side of Nyanza, right into the very heart of Africa. France, Germany, and Portugal are all building, or planning to build, hundreds of miles of African railways. I have just read that the emperor of Abyssinia is hardly able to wait until the railroad will reach his capital; it is already half way up there from the sea. What wonderful advantages this generation has over any previous generation, in being able to make a short work of carrying the everlasting gospel! The needs of the wide world appeal to us for ministers, physicians, nurses, and teachers. We believe that our greatest lack is not the means to send the men, but it is the properly trained men, fitted to answer the calls that come to us from Europe, Africa, and Asia. It may be true that a goodly number of young people, in their fervor and zeal to see these countries and their peoples, are willing to offer themselves to go; but, after the excitement and novelty of sight-seeing have worn off, and they are confronted by the rigors of the climate, by the difficulties in their way, and by the degradation or apathy of the people for whom they have come to labor, then they begin to think, “How nice it was back home! How much better I had it there than I find it here! I shall return.” What we need to-day is men and women so constrained by the love of Christ, and so inured to hardship, that they will gladly face all hindrances and obstacles that may come to them in a new and untried field, and, having inscribed on their banner the words of Paul, as a motto, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” they may be able to overcome the hindrances that are before them. Note for a moment what the “all things” were that Paul could do. Let us all learn the great lessons that he learned in the school of Christ. He could say: “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” He had learned to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Students who have finished such a course are called for in the cause of God to-day. In every country we have entered, we need young men and women who know what it is to fight the good fight of faith, and to teach others how to fight it. A whole army of such youth are needed. As the young people flock to our schools, our earnest prayer is that they may there be able so to submit to the will of God for them, that they shall come forth sharpened and prepared for the struggle against darkness, superstition, unbelief, ready to respond to the Master’s call, and willing to remain at their post until they have finished the work he has committed to them. A Call from the Northland
By P. A. Hansen
“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” The Word says that the angel flies in the midst of heaven. Flying represents speed. Time is getting short, and the dragon is getting more and more angry; but thanks be to our Lord, who has all this in his hands, for he sends additional help. See Rev. 18:1. Another angel with renewed strength joins the force, and the earth is lighted by his glory. We rejoice when we see the Comforter coming into our hearts and filling them with love and peace. John 14:26. We have just closed the week of prayer in the Scandinavian Union. Never, in all my experience with God’s people, had I witnessed such a powerful demonstration of the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit, which has convinced of sin, of righteousness, and even of judgment; and so I have seen that as this additional angel, spoken of in Rev. 18:1, joins its force with the third angel’s proclamation, it puts an end to sin in our hearts, making it possible for the Comforter to abide within us. In order that the message may go so rapidly, it is necessary that the servants of God be quickened by his Spirit. This glorious proclamation is at present printed and sent out in more than twenty-five different languages here in Europe. Compare this with ten years ago, and even less, and then let us thank our Lord for the speedy way in which it swings over land and sea. It is pressing into every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Never since 1844 has there been such a move. Think of the grand openings in nearly every land; and even in the darkest countries we hear the Macedonian cry. It goes in spite of all our shortcomings and failures, and when we hear these calls, we are compelled to say, in sadness, that our arms are too small, and we are not prepared. O that God may lay a burden on our people, as in the first angel’s message, to leave plow, shop, and home, and to join the ranks! There is an urgent call to-day to every Seventh-day Adventist, the youth and the aged, and that call is, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” God calls scores of young people into the lines of preparation. We have started our first union school, which is well filled with a class of intelligent students; and it proves to be the best mission school I think I have ever visited. An excellent spirit prevails throughout. Students and teachers seem to be bound in chains of love. We feel anxious to press forward the educational work in Scandinavia, for we know that it is the crowning work of the message. O for more of God’s knowledge among God’s waiting people! Hosea 4:6. Our Training-Schools Great Missionary Centers
By L. A. Hoopes
OUR training-schools are established as great centers of missionary impulses. There would be no good reason for their existence should the missionary idea be dropped out. Unconverted persons may be connected with these schools for a time, and afterward be converted and become mighty factors in the Lord’s work. These schools are not established for self-servers, for the shiftless, the careless, and the indolent, who care not to uplift their fellow men. These schools must ever have the preponderance of influence on the side of missionary effort. The missionary idea that obtained at the College View convention is what must be in every training-school. In the missionary training-school the student may gain a precious missionary experience. He may have the consciousness while at school that he is gaining a real soul-winning experience, just such as is needed in every mission field. He may labor for unconverted students or others outside of the school. Every principle and every phase of missionary effort is to be considered in our training-schools. Revivals, special prayer, visiting the sick, the distribution of literature, all form the very foundation of our schools; for what is the training of the intellect or the hand if this training is not to be used in the salvation of mankind? Missionary work must be done wherever there are men and women who need to know of the saving grace of Christ. With this in view, every means of grace needs to be studied. So every phase of gospel work is considered in our training-schools. These the missionary should study before leaving for the heathen land; for there he will have many important questions to decide, and will have no one to counsel with concerning them. Sabbath-school work, organization of companies and the appointment of leaders,24and many other questions he must be familiar with. The school is supposed to give instruction on all these points. The training-school is an integral factor of every mission field in this wide world. In many features of the work the pupil may be engaged in the field of his choice even while he is pursuing his literary studies. The mission fields look to the schools for trained laborers, and in a certain sense the missions furnish a large share of the instruction by way of furnishing data which are essential for the missionary to know before embarking for his field of labor. It is the studied aim of the management of all these schools to bring in all the information possible concerning missions. Every department of the cause, whether in one country or another, is in need of trained laborers; and it is to the training-schools that every institution and organization of our cause is looking for laborers. God has need of every entrusted talent. There is a place for every one to fill. He says to each one, Go and improve the gift. Truly, “of all the institutions in our world, the school is the most important.”—“Special Testimony on Education,” page 187. L. A. HOOPES. The Bible in Our Schools
By J. E. Tenney
“As an educating factor the Bible is without a rival.” Many evidences of the truthfulness of this statement can be produced. It is said that after three and one-half years of association with Christ his disciples “had come to be like him in mind and in character.” This is a wonderful statement. Men who were absolutely unlearned had in such a comparatively brief time become like their great Teacher in all that goes to make a complete education—perfection of mind and character. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth.” The Scriptures were written by inspiration of God. In the study of the Scriptures the human mind is brought in contact with the divine mind. “It is only life that can impart life.” “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” It is therefore only as the mind is brought in contact with God’s mind that life is imparted. There are two forms, or methods, of Bible study. One may be called argumentative, the other spiritual. It is true, of course, that in the study of the prophecies, and those portions of the Scriptures which furnish a foundation for other pillars of our faith, there is a blessing. We are told to be always ready to give to every one that asketh a reason of the hope that is in us; but there is in a study of the Bible apart from all argument a study in which we compare text with text, and search as for hidden treasures,—a power and a blessing that no other form of Bible study can impart. Of this latter method of study there is too little in our schools. Pupils acquire the ability to prove the different points of our faith, and yet have received but little of that vitalizing power which the study of the Scriptures is designed to give. It is doubtless true that our students could be prepared for efficient service in the cause in a shorter time if some unimportant and mind-taxing subjects now in our courses of study were to give place to more of the practical study of the Bible. If this were done, our students would never feel that they had been educated above any branch of the Lord’s work. Graduates would be willing to canvass or to teach church-schools without feeling that it was belittling their attainments. Let us have more Bible study in our schools, more practical, spiritual Bible study, and less of that which caters to human pride and encourages worldly ambitions. J. E. TENNEY. The Importance of Industrial Training in Our Schools
By Florence Howell
WHEN I speak of industrial work, I am conscious of the fact that we do not all experience the same mental effect. It is an ambiguous term to many—something which may, and does, suggest various things, to as many minds. There are some who think of it as meaning the manufacture of articles for commercial purposes; other minds refer at once to gardening, floriculture, general farming, or—to use a word that covers all these—agriculture; again we distinguish it as cooking, sewing, housekeeping, domestic hygiene, and the physiological sciences; while to still others it is merely the construction of those fancy articles, more or less useful, classed as the manual arts. It is this phase of the subject that has taken such strong hold upon the people of the public schools, and is now being almost generally used throughout the country to the exclusion, in part or in whole, of its other important issues. With this diversity of ideas concerning the subject, it would be well to come to some conclusion as to the sense in which the term should be used. Industrial training includes all these things and more; it embraces every subject that relates to the physical, mental, and moral well-being; and there is scarcely a subject pursued in any school or college which is not included in, or can not be correlated with, industrial training. “It means knowledge through the exercise of brain, bone, and muscle. The greatest curse of our world in this our day, is idleness. It leads to amusements merely to please and gratify self. The students have had a superabundance of this way of spending their time; they are now to have a different education, that they may be prepared to go forth from school with an all-round education.”—Mrs. E. G. White. God has given to every man the privilege of working. It is an endowment bestowed upon him by his Creator. To shun labor is to go back to the blanket stage; and the educational system that does not fit both mind and body for some special duty in life is not the system we desire. A father was once heard to say, “I want my son to go to school and be educated so that he will not have to work as hard as I did.” No! that was not what he wanted. He didn’t want his son educated so that he wouldn’t have to work, but educated so that he could work, and accomplish more than his father did. A distinction should be made between work and drudgery. In the early days of this country every man was his own farmer, blacksmith, miller, carpenter, and cabinet-maker; and every woman not only made her own clothes, but wove the cloth and spun the wool and flax. In exchange for benefits conferred by civilized society the average man must work. If all are obliged to labor, then clearly the joy of living must be found in one’s daily duties. Work is God’s panacea for trouble. Drudgery is synonymous with ignorance. In early times when soils were rich, implements crude, and keen competition unknown, there was necessarily much drudgery connected with farm life; muscle ruled in those days. There was but little draft upon gray matter. Conditions have undergone radical changes, however. Soils have become more or less impoverished; competition has arisen in every line of production; insect enemies that prey upon crops have increased, as well as fungus diseases—all of which but signifies that successful agriculture requires the highest type of ability. Success under present conditions implies an intimate knowledge of soils, plants, animals, insects, and diseases of animals and plants. All these things but go to prove that our people must work in a scientific way. There is a cause for every effect. God put it there, and he desires that we shall understand and work in harmony with these forces of nature. If the people of the world are beginning to see the importance of this, how much in advance ought Seventh-day Adventists to be, who have had instruction along this line since Jesus set the example in his Galilean school. FLORENCE HOWELL.
(To be concluded) Learning to Speak a Foreign Tongue
By W. C. Fatterbert
I READ with much interest, in the Bulletin of the educational convention at College View, the discussions concerning the study of Latin and modern languages, and would venture an opinion concerning the matter. The study of any second language makes that of a third easier and more interesting. This seems especially true if one has learned two languages in childhood. Here in Mexico are thousands of Americans, of whom quite a number, especially the missionaries, are well educated, yet it is a luxury to hear Spanish well spoken among them. There are several reasons for this. Some come here after middle life, and so find it hard to master another tongue. Another cause seems to be inherent,—the average American is satisfied with English, and prefers to let others learn it to exerting himself to learn Spanish. Mexicans learn English, which is much more difficult than Spanish, and learn it well, with less opportunity for practise. Then those who come here, as a rule, come either as missionaries or to seek wealth, and are too anxious to get to work to spend sufficient time in study. The more patient German gets a grammar, hires a teacher, mingles in Mexican society, and soon learns to use the language quite correctly. Americans are inclined to be clannish. Now our schools give courses of two or three years in various languages. Some of the teachers are not even natives of the country of which they teach25the language. One fourth of the student's time each year is spent on one of these languages. The classes are generally large ones, and he gets but little practise for tongue or ear. I believe he should have at least two years of Latin, which, of course, he must get in school, but that he had much better get his modern language from the people among whom he expects to labor. There he can devote his whole time, for from six to nine months, to hearing, reading, writing, and speaking,—to learning the language as it is spoken by the people. There, too, he will learn, what is almost as important, the manners, customs, and habits of thought of the people, without a knowledge of which he ought not to begin work as a missionary among them. These can not be learned from books, nor from travelers, for these are too narrow to be reliable. I learned Spanish in college, from text-books, with the so-called Castilian pronunciation, which I forgot while crossing the Rio Grande; then I had to forget most of the remainder before I could learn to speak at all correctly. I believe I would speak it much better now had I studied it all here. In six to nine months one will not have learned Spanish or any other language, but will have acquired a correct basis for future study, and will understand nearly all the conversation he hears. With the house servant, the street peddlers, at the market, everywhere, he will be hearing and learning. What is saved in time and money at college will more than make up for the added expense in the field. A Lesson Which the Wires Teach to Teachers
The head of a great electrical company said recently, “The chief difficulty we encounter is that of keeping our wires in repair and in good working order. The motive force at the terminus is easily controlled; it is the defects in communication which impair our work.” To how many relations of life would the same words apply! A man at the head of a great business has capital, intelligence, a thorough knowledge of his trade, and a kindly feeling to his operatives. But he fails to reach or influence them. His manner is harsh, brusk, dogmatic, or timid and cold. His men dislike and distrust him. The wires between them are not in working order. In how many homes are there coldness and jealousy and alienation between parent and child, or brother and sister, whose hearts are yet full of affection for each other. The love is there deep and warm, but hidden out of sight. No spark passes from one heart to the other, to give out cheer and life. Mr. Newell, the president of the Lake Shore Railroad, was very undemonstrative and stern, a man who worked tremendously hard, and seemed to expect the same of all who were connected with him. When C. P. Leland, the auditor of the road, was stricken with his last illness, Mr. Newell was solicitous about him, and visited him often. One morning the sick man is reported to have said to Mr. Newell: “Mr. Newell, I know that the end of my life is very near. The doctors have known it for some time, but they told me of it only to-day. If my work is ended here, I am ready to go, but before I go, may I ask you just one question? I have held an important position under you for many years. It was a work to which my life has been given, into which my whole heart entered. What I want to ask you is this: In all that work, in those long years of service, has there ever been one thing of which you approve?” “Leland,” answered Mr. Newell, “you know that your work was well done, and that it always met my approval.” “Then why did you not tell me so?” Mr. Newell took the hand of the dying man, and with tears in his eyes, said: “I have tried to do these things, but I can not. They will not out. That is the only excuse I have. I thought you knew how your work had always seemed to me. I ought to have told you so. Is it too late that I tell you now?” In the winter of 1864, an old Quaker lady visited Lincoln at the White House, and took the long-suffering giant’s down-stretched hand. She had to rise on tip-toe, and as she did it, her sweet voice uttered some words difficult to catch. It is not possible to give the words of26either exactly, but this is their purport:— “Yes, friend Abraham, thee need not think thee stands alone. We are all praying for thee. The hearts of all the people are behind thee, and thee can not fall. The Lord hath appointed thee, the Lord will sustain thee, and the people love thee. Yea, as no man was ever loved before, doth this people love thee. Take comfort, friend Abraham. God is with thee. The people are behind thee.” The effect of the words was easy to see. As when the lights suddenly blaze behind a cathedral window, so the radiance illumined those rugged features and poured from the wonderful eyes. The gaunt form straightened. The mouth became beautiful in its sweetness, as it said to her: “You have given a cup of cold water to a very thirsty and grateful man. You have done me a great kindness.” There is a world of meaning in James Whitcomb Riley’s verse— “Afterwhile—and one intends
To be gentler to his friends.” “You know,” George Eliot says, “I not only like to be loved, but I like to be told that I am loved—the realm of silence is deep enough beyond the grave!”