as the Southern Junior College. Its annual enrolment is upwards of 250.

Academic and intermediate schools have been started and are being conducted in practically all the conferences.

Simultaneously with the growth in educational institutions and the number of students attending them, there sprang up in the denomination generally a new interest in the fundamental principles of Christian education. The movement received a definite impetus from an educational convention held in Harbor Springs, Mich., in the summer of 1891. This convention was the first gathering of its kind held by the denomination. It was

conducted under the general leadership of Prof. W. W. Prescott, much important instruction being given by Mrs. E. G. White. The spiritual character of the work of the denominational teacher was clearly brought out, and likewise the importance of making our educational institutions contribute very definitely to giving the message to the world. A large number of our leading educators were in attendance at this gathering, and they went back to their work with a new inspiration and a broader vision of its great possibilities.

Another step in the development of our educational system was taken when President Prescott, on his return from a trip. around the world, gave a series of chapel talks before the students of Battle Creek College, on the schools of the prophets. The talks were based on the Bible and the writings of Mrs. E. G. White, and following their delivery an attempt was made to bring the work of the college more directly into line with the denominational needs. Renewed emphasis was placed upon the Bible classes, and greater efforts were made to make the Bible in spirit and purpose the basis of all the teaching.

Some of these ideas, owing to favoring circumstances, were carried out more fully in the new college at Walla Walla than in the older institution at Battle Creek. E. A. Sutherland, in giving a report of the Walla Walla school at the General Conference of 1897, mentioned certain concrete features of the class work which seemed to the delegates to be a successful carrying out of certain principles which the denomination had been seeking to embody in its educational work. Professor Sutherland was accordingly invited to take the presidency of Battle Creek

SOUTHWESTERN JUNIOR COLLEGE

College, in order that the experience he had gained in directing the work of the smaller institution in certain channels might become more widely available in connection with the leading denominational college. Prof. G. W. Caviness, who had served as head of the institution for nearly three years, accepted a call to missionary work in Mexico.

The school continued in Battle Creek for about four years, efforts being made to strengthen the industrial branches, and in other ways to make it a more effectual instrument for the preparation of workers. It was then decided, in order to develop more fully the industrial features of the institution, that the college should be removed to a rural district. A suitable tract of land containing 272 acres was finally bought near Berrien Springs, Mich., in the summer of 1901. The summer term of school was conducted in tents, and for the remainder of that first school year the instruction was given in the old courthouse of Berrien County. Meanwhile the most necessary buildings were being erected by student help, under the direction of an experienced architect, and in the course of a few years the

institution, which had received the name Emmanuel Missionary College, was fairly well equipped for its work, and was carrying on a full course of training, in which industrial features, chiefly various lines of agriculture, were strongly emphasized.

Another feature of the work that received special attention was the training of church school teachers. The educational plan of the denomination did not, to begin with, include church schools. Colleges and academies had been carried on for about

twenty years before a comprehensive plan was adopted for giving the little children of the denomination the privilege of Christian schools. It was in 1894 that Mrs. White first called attention to this need. Three years later, when E. A. Sutherland was placed in charge of Battle Creek College, a definite plan. was inaugurated for the building up of a system of church and intermediate schools. Earnest efforts were made to stir up the churches to a realization of their need of denominational teaching for their children, in order that they might be willing to furnish the needed moral and financial support. At the same time a movement was set on foot to gather in Seventh-day Adventist teachers employed in the public schools, and imbue them with a true missionary spirit, so that they would be willing to take charge of church schools and work hard to make them a success at a salary considerably less than they had been receiving. Normal work was carried on at Emmanuel Missionary College, to train teachers for this important line.

All these efforts were in a measure successful. The churches responded heartily to the call; they put up buildings, and raised money to pay the teachers' salaries, and then gladly sent their children to these schools. The teachers on their part, if not so fully versed in the principles of Christian education, had the spirit of the work, and made a willing sacrifice of time and money in order to put the schools on vantage ground. As a result of all-round co-operation the church school propaganda went rapidly forward, and in a few years hundreds and then thousands of Adventist children were enjoying the benefits of a Christian education.

In the year 1904 the college at Berrien Springs having been placed in a position where its future seemed assured, E. A. Sutherland and P. T. Magan, who had been closely associated in the work of building up that institution, resigned in order to undertake educational work for rural districts in the South. After considerable looking around, they finally purchased a 400-acre farm near Madison, Tenn., about two miles from the Gallatin Pike and ten miles from the city of Nashville. The farm had an old dwelling house and barns, and a few cattle. The soil, originally good, was much the same as that of a great many other farms in the South, where neglect to vary the crops has caused needless deterioration.

In taking up their new work, Professors Sutherland and Magan were joined by two other members of the faculty of Emmanuel Missionary College, and by a few students. With this nucleus they opened their school in the autumn of 1904, naming it The Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute. The institution had for its chief aim the training of teachers who were to go into the most needy portions of the South, and establish rural schools of a certain kind. They were to be schools which would not confine their attention to the ordinary book studies, but would teach the boys and girls, and as far as might be possible, their fathers and mothers, how to make the land productive, and also to solve other practical problems having to do with the daily life. It was decided that needed buildings at the Madison School should be put up as the way opened, and by student labor. Meanwhile teachers and students made the best of existing conditions.

Practical farm problems received prompt attention. In the school dairy herd unprofitable animals were gradually replaced with blooded stock, and in the course of a year or so the dairy products had obtained recognition for their quality in the leading stores of Nashville. Other problems have been dealt

with in a similar way, the students thus having daily object lessons in scientific farm and dairy management.

The rural schools started and carried on by young men and women trained at this institute have already run up into the thirties, and their work is telling strongly for good in many different communities.

The sanitarium connected with the Madison school had a small beginning. "When the school was first started," writes Professor Sutherland, "there came to its doors from the city of Nashville a sick man who begged to be taken in for the sake

COLUMBIA HALL, WASHINGTON MISSIONARY COLLEGE

of the fresh air, quiet life, and wholesome diet he could get there. From this simple beginning there has developed the medical department of the institution, which consists of plain, one-story cottages accommodating fifteen or twenty patients, and affording them rational treatment at a moderate expense. The buildings were erected by the students of the school."

Very soon after the removal of the denominational headquarters to Washington, D. C., in 1903, there arose a demand for an educational institution that could supply the needs of near-lying fields. Washington Missionary College was accordingly incorporated in July, 1904, and opened its doors for the reception of students the following November. It was then known as Washington Training College, and later, when giving its attention especially to the training of workers for the foreign field, it bore for some years the name of Foreign Mission Seminary. At the General Conference of 1913 it was decided that the institution should resume its status as a senior college.