***Emmanuel Missionary College,
By N. W. Kauble
Berrien Springs, Mich.*** The opening day for the Emmanuel Missionary College was Wednesday, September 13. The entrance examinations, the classification, the adjustment of program, and the assignment of lessons, along with the other work peculiar to the first days of a college year, were completed; and from this point of view every one seemed ready for earnest, thorough application to school duties in intellectual lines. But when teachers and students went to their duties in the various departments of physical labor, they saw acres of broom-corn to be topped and put under cover; they saw hundreds of bushels of tomatoes, peaches, pears, and grapes to be picked; they saw much of this fruit to be put into cans; they saw corn to be husked and berry bushes to be hoed; they saw rooms in North Hall for young men, and in Domestic Arts building for young women, to be plastered, papered, and finished for occupancy; and a new inspiration took hold of them,—an inspiration to come to this work and do it, and thus to fulfil the Saviour’s injunction, “Gather up the fragments . . . that nothing be lost.” Accordingly, on Monday morning the school unanimously voted to delay the carrying out of the intellectual program for one week in order to bring this work more nearly up to date. Surely there could have been no better initiation to the school work of the year. The number of students at present is about the same as the number enrolled during the first term of last year. Others are expected almost daily. While from the human standpoint we would wish that our enrolment were larger, yet we are consoled with the thought that character is of more worth than numbers. The spirit of colonization has not been cherished in connection with the establishment of this school, and as a consequence, the great majority of our students are in the college homes. Of the students at present in school more than half were in attendance last year. Of the past year’s students who are not with us this year, it is known that five have gone out as teachers in our primary and intermediate schools, five are in the employ of our other institutions, as nurses, cooks, bookkeepers, or stenographers, and two are in the canvassing work. It is the constant endeavor to make the institution self-supporting; but this task will not easily be accomplished until the numbers are sufficiently large to do the necessary work on the farm without infringing on the time needed for other regular school duties. Agriculture in its various phases, broom making, carpentry, cooking, and plain sewing constitute the manual training departments connected with the school. It is the design of the managers to admit only those students who by residence, education, or age, are fitted to enter a training-school for Christian workers. The grade of work being done will be shown by the subjects of study pursued, which are as follows: Aside from drills in reading, writing, spelling, and music, are the classes in grammar, advanced reading, literature, advanced English, pedagogy, United States history, general history, arithmetic, bookkeeping, algebra, geometry, physiology, chemistry, phonography, and the following Bible studies: Old Testament history; New Testament history; Daniel and Revelation, and doctrines; the law, the prophets, and the epistles; and New Testament Greek. Each student is permitted to carry three studies besides the drills, as regular class work. The present spiritual condition of the school is most encouraging. At the chapel services Wednesday morning, October 11, the Lord was pleased to bring into the school the spirit of confession; and ever since it is everywhere recognizable that the school has been raised to a higher plane of spiritual living. The present atmosphere is that of deep, thorough consecration to the spreading of the gospel of the third angel in any and all its departments, and especially in the nearest field.