Earlier text: C. B. RULEA Stirring Day
By M. E. Ellis
SABBATH, October 20, was a good day for the church at College View, Neb., and for Union College. The Young People's Society has voted to support Elder J. C. Rogers in Nyassaland this year, and by request he and his wife were with us. By a providential coincidence Brethren Jay and Robert Nethery, with their wives, who are on their way to Egypt, and Elder W. C. White, were also here. At the forenoon service, Elder Rogers spoke briefly on the greatest need of the mission fields—the need of earnest prayer from understanding hearts. Elder White followed with a few stirring comments on the text, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” A male quartet sang “Who'll go to save the lost?” Brother Jay Nethery was ordained to the gospel ministry. Prof. C. C. Lewis offered the prayer, and Elder E. T. Russell gave the charge. It was a most solemn, impressive, and inspiring service. At the afternoon meeting Elder Jay Nethery spoke to us for a short time, and Elder Rogers told us more about missionary work in Africa. At the beginning and close of the service, prayer was offered, and as the congregation bowed in silent devotion for a few minutes before the audible prayer began, a remarkable hush came over the crowded church, and all present felt the sacredness of the hour and the presence of God. After the benediction the departing missionaries stepped to the main entrance, and the whole congregation, as they passed out, were introduced to them by Professors Lewis and Kern, and gave hearty hand-clasps and Godspeeds to our recruits for the front. In the evening a reception was given by the Young People's Society, in the South Hall parlor, for Elder and Mrs. Rogers, which proved a very interesting and profitable occasion. We believe that as a result of this day's work a greater interest in missions has been awakened, a larger effort will follow, more prayers for missions will be made, and the coming of the King hastened, because the workers will be strengthened to greater efforts, and their work sooner finished. M. E. ELLIS. The Conference and the School
By F. G.
Not long ago I overheard one of our workers, home from a foreign field, say to another worker, who had been in foreign lands, “Our conferences do not risk much, after all, in employing young men and women who have been in attendance at our schools.” This remark came in the midst of a discussion as to why a large per cent of our young men and women who have attended our schools, do not engage in actual denominational work, and was made in response to the remark that our conferences are afraid to risk taking young men and women on their pay-roll. Recently, one of our oldest educational workers in one of our largest training-schools, said he thought that not over twenty-five per cent of those who attended our training-schools throughout the United States actually enter upon gospel work after leaving the school. If this estimate be a fact, it is certainly one to be greatly lamented by all who are interested in the finishing of the work of God in the earth, and only a little thought is necessary to produce the evidence that leads us to fear that the estimate is not far from right. This being so, we are certainly correct in saying that something is radically wrong. Either the schools are not doing the work which they are designed of God to do, or the home conferences of these young men and women do not look after them while in school and after they leave school. It is possible that the difficulty may arise from both causes. On the part of the schools it can be said, with a good degree of truth, that there was never a more earnest effort put forth by our educational workers to bring our schools into direct conformity to the needs of the message than there is at the present time. This is evidenced by the strong missionary tone which was given to the educational convention recently held at College View. There must be the closest sympathy from now on, between the conferences and the schools in an earnest endeavor to have a large per cent of all the young men and women who attend the school enter upon gospel work when they leave the school. There are some lessons to be learned, perhaps, in this matter from one of our training-schools outside the United States. The board of management of this school is the union conference committee, and the members of this committee are, of course, chosen to their position, with a view, at least partially, to the duties of the management of the school. Before the close of the year this conference committee, together with other prominent laborers in the union, meet with the members of the faculty, and consider the case of each student in the school, to determine his fitness for some branch of the work. These students are then taken under the direction, and in many instances the direct employ, of these conferences in the union, and their work, whether during the vacation, or regularly if they have completed their school work, is closely watched and fostered by these conferences. It must be apparent at once that such a mode of procedure will give an opportunity for every worthy and proficient young person to find his place in our denominational work. While this may not be the best mode of proceeding in all our training-schools to get their young people into the work, it is certainly a very suggestive one. Our conferences, indeed, do not risk much in employing the young men and women from our schools. They have shown a desire for advancement, and many of them have put forth great effort in the gaining of knowledge. These very things mark the right spirit to be seen in our workers, and give confidence that fruit will result from their labors. We earnestly bespeak a closer relation between all our schools and the conferences tributary to them, this coming forth year, for this close relation will be one of the greatest means of forwarding and making effective this great missionary movement, which we believe was started by our educational convention at College View. F. G. We are presenting very cheering reports from some of our schools. We had hoped to have a report from every one of our training-schools for this month; but though we have urged the matter, we have not received reports from all. However, those schools which have reported, do indeed speak most hopefully for the outlook for this year's work. These full schools, in some instances fifty or sixty per cent larger than last year, are in themselves an encouraging omen of the advancement of our work. Not only do the schools have a full enrolment, but the students seem to be earnest in their work. Already in some of our schools have there been marked manifestations of the working of the Spirit of God. The Lord has laid upon this people a grave responsibility in thus bringing out a large company of young men and women whose chief aim is the spread of this message. It does not remain alone for the teachers to do their work faithfully and well, but the duty also rests upon our people everywhere to pray for the success of the schools and the salvation of these students. Thus, with this most cheering outlook, this year should witness a greater development and expansion of our school work along all lines than has ever taken place in any year of the history of our educational institutions. F. G. THE serious misfortune which befell the Oakwood Manual Training-school will undoubtedly be known to our people before they read this. This is our only school for the training of colored workers, and the loss of their chapel and dormitory for their young men is indeed a most serious one. This loss calls not only for sympathy on our part, but for a hearty contribution in the upbuilding of new and better accommodations for their work. We have no other training-school where the accommodations are so meager as at Huntsville. This school has a great and important work to perform, and it should have suitable quarters in which to carry it on. We should not only pray for the recovery of their loss, but we should work while we pray. God has a great work for this school to do. Let us all help it in performing its work.
F. G. Educated Ability in the Mission Field
By J. L. Shaw
Young men and women of education and training are needed in the mission field. It is a mistake to think that workers with a meager training can do as efficient work in the mission field as those who have taken time to get a preparation for their work. Our field is the world, and the hardest corners need the most skilled labor. A poor farm requires a trained farmer in order to get the best results. It requires a sharp ax to cut a knotty tree. The same ax which haggles the tree when dull, cuts clean when sharp. It will take time for our young people to get a training, but it will pay in the end. In India we have the educated classes and the uneducated masses, and trained minds are needed to carry the light of present truth to each. It is no light undertaking to learn an Oriental language, requiring, as it does, anywhere from two to seven years. Is it not reasonable that the very best ability among us should be given to this work? As a denomination the time has come to lay siege to these tongues as never before, and some of the brightest and best-trained minds among our people should consecrate themselves to this work. One secret of the success of Carey, Judson, and Morrison was in giving themselves, in the beginning of their work, to a careful study of the languages of the people for whom they expected to work. The study of a language of a people leads the worker to understand, as he can in no other way, those for whom he expects to labor. As the bright minds of our young people surrender all they have to God, and train and prepare themselves for the work in these hard places of the earth, our missionary work will go forward as it has never gone before. We have recently visited educational institutions at College View, Mt. Vernon, and South Lancaster. It is an inspiring sight to see so many young people getting ready for the Lord's work. After being in the mission field and going through the crowded cities, where multitudes of people are in heathenism without the light of the gospel of Christ, it is an encouraging sight to turn and behold hundreds of young people whose desire is to go and carry the truth to these benighted people. Again and again while in India, as we have looked into the faces of men and women who know not God, and have seen them prostrate themselves before idols of wood and stone, we have said, How can this sea of people receive the message for this time? Our hope lies in the young people among us; and it has been a great pleasure and source of inspiration to us to visit these different schools, and come in touch with earnest young hearts who are preparing themselves for the work. But let us encourage them to be thorough, that they may be workers needing not to be ashamed. At the present time in India there should be those who have the ability to learn a language, studying some of the prominent tongues in that field. There are the Marathi, Gugerati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telegu, Kanarese, and other languages spoken by millions of the people who have no representative of present truth among them. Should not some of our best-educated young people turn their eyes toward these different nations? Should not strong and devoted men and women, having a love for souls and an ability for learning languages, go to India and study these different tongues, and become able to translate or help in translating the truth into the languages of these people, so that the message can quickly go to those who are able to read? We feel sure that as this plan of effort is carried out by the blessing of God, the march of our mission work in India will be more rapid than in the past. The Schools and the Missions
By W. A. Spicer
THE sound of that educational convention at College View, which proved to be first of all a missionary convention, has gone out to our furthermost mission fields. It was a joyful sound, for it meant recruits for the missions. It cheers the hearts of our missionaries to know that the teachers, who have the training of the youth, have their eyes also upon the fields. I know this, for I was with some of our workers in mission fields when the report of that strong movement among the schools came over the sea. We know that the stand the teachers have taken means more than enthusiasm for missions. It means downright hard work and thorough training of our missionaries. The product of our schools must be hardened, sensible, steady plodding workers, ready to go and do for the Lord. To put briefly just one phase of our mission problem: We are getting where the call comes more and more urgently for thoroughly trained students—with the fervor and spirit of missions in every fiber of their being, yet young people who can master hard tasks—to go out into various lands to grapple with the learning of most difficult languages. We are sadly lacking just here. The hardening in study that equips for such work is really the training needed by the ministerial worker everywhere, at home or abroad. It is a grand spectacle to get a perspective view of our educational system,—the church-school, the intermediate school, and the higher training college,—all teaching the missionary idea, and the finishing of this work, with the world-wide field stretching before them. As intermediate schools develop promising young workers, perhaps youth who have their eyes upon the ministry, I hope conferences will encourage such to go straight on into the higher schools, and resist the temptation to secure immediate service at the expense of more thorough equipment. The connection between the intermediate and the higher school must not be weakened. Just here is one of the most important points in our educational system, it seems to me. The mission fields want to see strongly equipped students going into home conference service, for they look to the home conferences to test and develop such and pass them on. The Missionary Idea in School
By Wm. Covert
OUR young people should attend school with a zealous purpose to work for the Lord. One of the first lessons to be learned by a Christian student is that this world was planned and created for man. This truth, understood, will, with the thoughtful, create a desire to see the world made better. Such a desire, intensified by the Spirit of the Lord, begets and maintains an interest in missionary study and missionary expansion. Since the earth was given to man, every member belonging to the family of man who recognizes the gift, and who seeks to please the Giver, will shape his school studies and school work with a view to help improve the condition of things in the earth. When the nearness of Jesus’ coming and the unreadiness of the people everywhere to meet such an event is considered in our schools, why should not all our young people in these schools prepare to teach the world the truth with reference to this coming? Should not this be done? Our denomination and our schools stand for this idea. They exist to do this work. Let our young people place themselves in the missionary current, and drink from the missionary stream. Make the geography lessons blend with the missionary idea, and have the history impart missionary information. Teach them to know about the lost and benighted condition that prevails in all lands, and inspire them with a willingness to consecrate their lives and their entire interests to rescuing the perishing. The chapel talks, the Bible studies, and the social worship in our schools should have their source in the great missionary fountain. These can be made rich with the word of life, and weighty with zeal for souls. A mighty host of capable and earnest laborers for God and the truth can soon be made ready to wield the sickle in the whitened harvest-field through the instrumentality of our institutions of learning if the Lord’s way is followed. To accomplish this very desirable object, love of sinners and a burden for their salvation will need to be impressed upon the learner’s conscience in such a manner as to cause these things to become important factors in the mind of every member in all the classes. Schools would greatly facilitate the missionary idea if they would organize and maintain a systematic and well-directed correspondence with our missionaries who have gone to other lands to proclaim the third angel’s message. Such a department in a school would help to acquaint the students with the real object for which our schools have been created. Should the missionary spirit become thoroughly inculcated in our schools, the entire question of success would be wholly settled in a righteous way, and soon the earth would be lighted with the glory of God, and the end be reached. If the twelve or fifteen thousand students now in our schools should become fully aroused to the needs of the hour, and could be led to seek God for the essential preparation to accomplish that which yet remains to be done, the great deliverance would come soon. Shall we not all plan to work and to pray for such a result? The Education Needed
By E. K. Slade
The education needed by the people of God will be just as different from that of the world as God's ways and thoughts are different from the ways and thoughts of this world. We are told that they are as different from ours as the heavens are higher than the earth. This language often seems an exaggeration, but when we come to know better the ways of God and to see how diametrically different they are from the ways of this world, we can easily see the truthfulness of that expression recorded in Isa. 55:9. Many of our youth have not been awakened to the great importance of entering fully into the privileges that are offered in our educational work. Not only do those who are planning to enter public work of some nature, need the benefit of this higher education, but every one who hopes to have a home in the kingdom of God should gladly embrace the opportunity of entering the school here, that will lay the foundation upon which to build for all eternity. I wish to speak of the more practical phase of the subject. Just now, the cause is demanding every available young man and woman in our ranks. The Lord has led our conferences to establish intermediate schools and training-schools in almost every section of the country. A most excellent corps of teachers has been fitted up for the work, so that each of our schools is manned with a faculty well fitted for the work for which the school stands. It has been gratifying to know that the attendance at our schools is better this fall than formerly, yet there are many of our young people of talent and ability who are not availing themselves of the opportunity of attending our schools. Does it not fall upon local conference officers, church elders, and parents everywhere, to take this matter up with the young people, and help them to plan to enter college? Many have felt that it would be impossible for them to do so, on account of a lack of means. I have often said that if young men or women having health really desire to get an education, they will get it. They need to be helped to desire this more than anything else. When it becomes the supreme object in the life of a young person to be trained in harmony with the principles underlying our whole work, it will be hard to place in the way obstacles that will defeat. I recall cases of young men and women, having nothing in the world but their own hands to help them, who during the past summer have sold books enough to more than pay for a year's schooling. There are hundreds of young people in our ranks who can do this just as well as they did. The very work of selling the books may be counted as the first course in their education, and of as much importance as any course that will ever follow it. What we are needing to-day is to have an education that will train for service. We should not countenance as true education anything that does not train to toil. An army is needed at this time, that will be fitted to endure hardness, as good soldiers. The idea is not to feel that one is to be fitted to fill some high position far above the practical things of life, but to be an effective worker in coping with the conditions that must be met in the great work committed to us as a people. Anything that tends to inflation or headiness does not belong to the education that our cause needs. When one is brought to realize that all wisdom and efficiency come from above, and that the knowledge attained is not secured through any mental power or process of reasoning that we may possess, there is no chance for that puffing up, or the mere desire to excel, that is so foreign to true education. I wish to appeal to our young people, by this means and through those who may read these lines, to have a fixed purpose to secure the education that is needed just now for the great work before us. If you will set your faces like a flint for the accomplishment of this end, I know of nothing that will stand in your way to turn you aside. E. K. SLADE. Opening of Washington Training College
By J. W. Lawhead
The Washington Training College opened September 19, according to announcement, and at the present writing the school is well organized, and the prospect is good for a prosperous year. While the enrolment is not so large as we had hoped, yet there is an increase over last year. The students are also of more mature years and of much better mental development, so that they are able to take hold of the work of the school with energy and with promise of success. Every student is a Christian, and almost every one is here for the purpose of preparation to engage in some particular department of denominational service. This is the most gratifying fact in connection with the work of the new year; and as our students have been drawn from seventeen States and two foreign countries, and are mostly planning on returning to the home fields when school is over, the influence of the College will not be localized. Shortly after the opening of the school, the General Conference Council was held here at the College buildings, thus affording excellent opportunity for our young people to meet and become somewhat acquainted with the leaders of the denomination, and to get their ideas adjusted to conditions as they exist to-day. This was helpful in indicating the lines of study necessary for preparation. The enrolment is steadily increasing, and many earnest inquiries are being received from individuals who are hoping to connect with the school at no distant date, so that the outlook for the future is encouraging. As we do not receive young students, it follows that one who is through school is of sufficient age to enter the work; and it therefore seems that the denomination will at no distant day receive the measure of benefit expected when giving money for the erection of this institution. In fact, our young men are actively at work at the present time in holding Bible readings and presenting the truth as they have opportunity. Others of our young men have arranged to visit some of the near-by churches to hold meetings with them on the Sabbath, thus gaining a valuable experience for themselves as well as being able to render some help in the churches. Because of all these facts and conditions, the managers of the school feel to rejoice and praise God for what has been given, and are of good courage for what they believe will be accomplished in the days to come. South Lancaster Academy
By Sara J. Hall
Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since the founding of the South Lancaster Academy, now the Atlantic Union Conference school; but no year in all this number has found so many earnest young men and women within its walls at the beginning of the school year. It is evident to the faculty and those acquainted with the spirit of order and quiet prevailing throughout the school, as well as by the unusually large number in attendance, that the missionary key-note, struck at the educational convention held at College View, has found a hearty response in this Eastern country. A genuine missionary spirit prevails among the students in the planning of all their work and study. This good spirit has been strengthened by the visits of Elder Wm. Guthrie, president of the Maritime Conference, and Prof. J. L. Shaw, who is on his way back to India, there again to take up the work he has been obliged to leave for a time. The talks of these brethren have been inspiring and helpful to both teachers and students. The friends of our school, as well as all who are interested in these far-away mission fields, will be glad to know that another member of the academy, Miss Bertha King, a graduate of last year, will accompany Professor Shaw to India, there to join Dr. Marsh in her work for the people. Dr. Lucinda Marsh, one of our former teachers, is a missionary to India, sent, and supported at present, by the members of our Young People's Society. Many others of our students are looking to this needy field, studying and planning to go when their preparation is finished, and the call comes for them. Naturally, this great field lies very near to the hearts of all our people in South Lancaster; for here, as teachers in the school, Brother D. A. Robinson and his wife, who have given their lives so nobly to the cause in India, lived and labored. But other fields, too, are not forgotten,—the needy Southern field has its earnest student preparing for the work there; a class in Spanish has been provided for those desiring to prepare for fields where this language is needed. Last year there went out from the school over forty young men and women, to engage in various branches of our denominational work. We are hoping that this number may be more than doubled the coming summer. There is a great work to be done in the finishing of this message, even in the Eastern portion of the United States; and from our schools here, there must go forth, each year, an earnest company of workers to spread the message in the home land, and so prepare to carry it to foreign lands.25 The Lord seems to be blessing us, not only by giving us a large school, but by working upon the hearts of the students by his Holy Spirit, and thus preparing them for service in the cause of the Master. Already there have been remarkable conversions. Some of our pupils whom we have taken to the Lord in prayer for years, have just decided to give their lives to the Master; and on the Sabbath, October 20, in our little church, seven were baptized, thus witnessing to the world of their faith in a crucified and risen Saviour. The Lord was with us, and the day was one long to be remembered because of the sweet, solemn influence of his Holy Spirit. The faculty feel that their pleasures and privileges are great. To be co-workers with our students in preparing the world for the coming King, in helping to send the gospel of peace to the dark corners of the earth, is no ordinary work. One feature of our school which may be worthy of mention, is our seminars. There are three of these,—one for the young men, one for the young women, and one for those who are preparing for teaching. The young men in their seminar consider the work of the ministry and preaching; the young ladies study the Bible work and the giving of Bible readings; the teachers study the methods of conducting successful class recitations and the management of schools. These seminars meet at least once in two weeks. The young men deliver sermons and addresses, under criticism, and discuss the plans and methods of best prosecuting the work of the ministry. The young ladies work along the same line, giving Bible readings. Those who are preparing for teaching do actual class work, under criticism. Members of the faculty are associated with these students in their work, and as a result the students are not only benefited in a practical way, but there is a live spirit begotten in our school in these important lines of denominational work. These seminars have been conducted for several years, and have been of much help to our students and to the school. Opening of the Emmanuel Missionary College
By N. W. Kauble
The opening of Emmanuel Missionary College for the year's work, September 12, was most encouraging. The enrolment was exactly double that of last year, and students have been coming since, until at the present time the enrolment is nearly triple that number. Students are present not only from many of the States of this country, but from Macedonia, from Barbados, from Jamaica, from England, and from Japan. It would be hard to find anywhere a more promising class of young people. The faculty of the college has been strengthened, and two departments have been added,—a normal department and a department for the training of nurses. Since the Board decided to open a small sanitarium here for the training of nurses for the cause, this phase of the work is becoming a substantial part of the training. Quite a number of young people are taking the normal course, and a larger number are taking the ministerial course than we ever had before. The one encouraging feature of this year's opening is that the students, with scarcely an exception, have a definite aim, that aim being to work in the cause. That this is a well-fixed purpose in their minds is in evidence in their every-day experience. The attendance at all the religious services is much better than the ordinary. The management is greatly encouraged, though at times perplexed to know how to furnish room sufficient for those who come; however, the work has gone so well that in no case has it been found impossible to make the students comfortable when they arrived. A number of cottages have been remodeled, fitting them to accommodate families who desire to attend school. Quite a number of young men and their wives are in attendance, taking a short course preparatory to entering some branch of the work. Every branch of the Lord's work is represented by a respectable number of students, who are earnestly laboring to fit themselves in the very shortest possible time for the work. Union College and the Missionary Movement
By C. C. Lewis
THERE can be no question that the missionary movement which was started at the late educational convention has already begun to affect favorably the attendance upon our schools and the character and purpose of the students who present themselves for matriculation. Union College, doubtless with our other colleges, is feeling the effects of this influence in a larger attendance than usual of earnest men and women who desire to fit themselves for service in the closing missionary effort of the world's history. Last year the enrolment the first day was one hundred and sixty-five. The present year it was two hundred and four. At the close of the ninth school day, the time of writing, it was three hundred and three. In the boarding department we have about as many students as we had last year in midwinter, when the attendance was greatest. There are also over one hundred students in the church-school. We see quite a change in the age, the attainments, and the character of the students. There is a larger number of more mature students who have completed or have gone beyond the academic course. We notice, furthermore, a larger number who express their determination to remain several years in school, or until they can complete a good, strong course of study. Perhaps the missionary spirit is seen more clearly in the plans laid by the faculty for carrying forward the missionary and other religious work, and in the response given by the students to these efforts. In order that the religious work may not be crowded out by the recitations, the faculty has reserved forty-five minutes in the midst of the program each day for exercises bearing specifically upon the progress of this missionary movement. After brief devotional exercises and announcements, this time is devoted on Mondays to general exercises, on Tuesdays to prayer-meetings, on Wednesdays to English, Scandinavian, and German missionary meetings, on Thursdays to various Christian bands, and on Fridays to Sabbath-school teachers' meetings for the English, German, and Scandinavian Departments. These different lines of work have as yet only been organized, and therefore we can not report definitely the results. One interesting omen for good is seen in the result of the call for the organization of Christian bands. Some time was taken in presenting this subject before the school, and it was announced that bands would be organized for Bible workers, ministers, young people's workers, medical missionary workers, evangelistic canvassers, and for a missionary reading circle. Rooms were designated in which those who desired to join these different bands might meet, and the students were then dismissed to go to the bands of their choice. When the results were ascertained, there were found to have been eighteen who entered the Bible workers' band, fourteen the ministers', thirty-two the young people's, thirty the medical missionaries', thirty-two the canvassers', and ten the missionary reading circle. It is probable that other bands will be formed as the work develops. The young people's band mentioned above is not to be confounded with the Young People's Society. This band is composed of young people who are making a special study of the young people's work, and are preparing themselves to carry forward this work as they go out into the field. Other important plans have been put in operation which promise to give good results. The Young People's Society has been reorganized. Two sections are formed, one for ladies and one for gentlemen. The members are all Christians, who declare themselves willing and anxious to do personal work. These sections hold separate meetings for prayer and counsel, and lay plans for the general young people's meeting, which is held on Sabbath afternoon. Heretofore two such meetings have been held, one in the college and one in the church; but this year these two meetings have been united in a general meeting to be held in the church. In the past the church young people's meetings have been well attended during the summer; but when the college opened in the fall, they have been largely broken up because their members have gone to the college young people's meeting. Hereafter it will be the church young people's Society running strongly throughout the entire year, and grandly re-enforced at the opening of the college. We were fortunate in having Elder and Mrs. Shaw with us on the second Sabbath of the school year. Brother and Sister Shaw had charge of the young men's dormitory for several years in the early history of the school. Some ten years ago they were called into the missionary field, and had not returned to Union College since their departure for their first missionary field in Africa. Professor Shaw spoke Friday evening to a hastily gathered congregation, consisting almost entirely of students. On the Sabbath some twelve or fifteen hundred people must have been present in the Tabernacle, who listened with deepest interest to a thrilling appeal from him in behalf of the people of India. At the26 same hour Mrs. Shaw addressed the church at Lincoln. In the afternoon the Tabernacle at College View was again well filled while she spoke on the theme, The Women of India. Following her remarks, Brother Shaw pointed out on the map the places where missionary efforts are in progress, and spoke personally of our workers and their work in that distant field. We believe that these indications at the opening of our school year point to a greater missionary interest among teachers and students, and we hope and pray that the Lord will make this the best year that Union College has ever enjoyed. C. C. LEWIS.