students there is divided into labor, study, and recitation hours; and the best of results are seen, both as to physical health, mental discipline, and progress in study."

The school at South Lancaster was first held in what had once been a carriage house, but was later used, first as a church, then as a tract society office. It measured only 20 x 25 feet, so it became necessary to furnish additional room even during the first term. The school was also conducted for a time in the

STUDENTS' HOME, SOUTH LANCASTER, MASS.

South Lancaster church building. Meanwhile S. N. Haskell had been raising money in the field, and by the autumn of 1884 a new academy building, 60 x 65 feet, and a students' dormitory, 36 x 88 feet, were ready for dedication.

Professor Bell continued in charge of the academy for about two years, being succeeded as principal by D. A. Robinson, who in turn was succeeded by C. C. Ramsay. In 1888 G. W. Caviness came from Iowa to take the principalship. During his term of service, covering six years, the school made a substantial growth in efficiency, while a very general interest in the principles of Christian education was awakened throughout the constituency. J. H. Haughey, Frederick Griggs, B. F. Machlan, and C. S. Longacre occupied the position of principal in succession following Professor Caviness, and under their guidance the institution continued to prosper. Sarah J. Hall, who succeeded

Professor Bell as head of the English department, occupied that position with distinction until her death, twenty-six years later.

Meanwhile the central college at Battle Creek had been training a goodly number of promising students. It, too, had developed industrial departments of the same general character as those at Healdsburg and South Lancaster, but it had given more attention to the college studies.

SOUTH LANCASTER FACULTY, 1884

In the autumn of 1885 W. H. Littlejohn was succeeded as president by W. W. Prescott, of North Berwick, Maine, a graduate of Dartmouth College. After completing his college course, Professor Prescott had taught for some years in the public schools, and at the time of his call to Battle Creek he was conducting a publishing business in Montpelier, Vt. He brought to his work not only a liberal education and good administrative ability, but high ideals of Christian service. During his ten years' term of office, Battle Creek College made rapid advancement both in numbers and in efficiency. Before that time there had been good individual teaching, but under his fostering care the work of the institution was unified and strengthened, and the whole brought up to a high level of efficiency.

As a result of the steadily increasing attendance it had been necessary to provide additional buildings. The first dormitory, known as South Hall, was erected in 1884. Two years later, in the summer of 1886, a large addition was made to the main building on the south, and in 1887 a handsome brick dormitory, known as West Hall, was put up for the use of lady students, South Hall thereafter being used exclusively to provide accom

BATTLE CREEK COLLEGE

At the time of its greatest growth and prosperity

modations for the young men. In the early winter a further large addition was made to the main building on the north.

In the year 1887 Professor Prescott was made secretary of the Educational Department of the General Conference, and began to devote his energies to building up the denomination's educational interests throughout the country. In this work he was very successful. The reports that he made from time to time to the General Conference, and the addresses delivered at camp-meetings and other large gatherings, created a widespread interest in Christian education, and really marked the beginning of a denominational program for the young people. The new schools which arose in course of time, and the further working out of the educational ideals of the denomination, will be taken up in a later chapter.

CHAPTER XVII

The Scandinavian Mission

IT fell to the lot of a little company of Norwegians in southern Wisconsin to form the first church of foreigners organized by Seventh-day Adventists. The story takes us back to the middle of the nineteenth century. In the spring of 1850 Andrew Olsen and Ole Hegland Serns, small farmers living near Christiansand, in southern Norway, emigrated with their families to America. They came, not as many others, to better their financial condition, but in the vague hope that in this new land of promise would be found the spiritual light that their souls longed for. For years they had felt oppressed by what they deemed an increasing coldness and formality in the Lutheran Church, and. had longed for something better. More recently they had also come to feel, partly through some words accidentally dropped by evangelists of the Society of Friends who had held meetings in their neighborhood, that the doctrines taught by the state church were not in harmony with the Scriptures. Especially did they question the validity of Sunday observance in view of the plain statement of the Bible that the seventh day is the Sabbath.