everlasting-gospels.gif
letter-text.gif
line.gif
guide_img.gif

July 2 - In Search of Proper Education-7

guide_img.gif

 

line.gif

There is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Job 14:7, NIV.

In the spring of 1882 the young tree of Adventist education had not just been pruned. It had been cut down.

But the drastic step had not been in vain. From the stump would sprout shoots in several directions that would vitalize the system and help it immensely in its search for proper education. Battle Creek College itself would reopen in the fall of 1883 with the resolve to be mroe faithful to its mission. And it would make significant progress in that direction during the 1880s.

But perhaps even more important was the fact that the former leaders of the Battle Creek school had scattered across the country. Both had learned lessons that would help them in the future as they strenghened Adventist education.

Goodloe Harper Bell set up camp in Massachusetts, where he established South Lancaster Academy in the spring of 1882, which eventually evolved into Atlantic Union College.

Sidney Brownsberger, meanwhile, headed west, where in April 1882 he founded Healdsburg Academy, an institution that became Healsburg College and eventually Pacific Union College. Brownsberger vowed not to make the same mistakes twice. He began his tenure at Healdsburg with a very different educational frame of mind than that with which he had commenced his work in Battle Creek. After his experience in Michigan, he had resolved "never again to enter [denominational employment] except on the basis of the Testimonies."

Prominently featured in the Healdsburg announcements and catalogues during the Brownsberger years was the fact that the school sought to give a balanced education between the bookish and the practical, the mental and the physical. In short, besides academic it would prapare its graduates for the world of work. Beyond that, the school was designed "to provide instruction especially adapted to the work of young men and women desiring to prepare themselves to enter the ministry." A modified reform institution itself, Healdsburg College would have a good inflence on the one in Battle Creek.

"Old dogs can learn new tricks." And with God's help institutions and people can reform to more closely approximate His ideals. A start had been made, but the real revolution in Adventist education would come during the 1890s.

         line.gif
guide_img_bottom.gif guide_img_bottom.gif

The plant grows by receiving that which God has provided to sustain its life. It sends down its roots into the earth. It drinks in the sunshine, the dew, and the rain. It receives the life-giving properties from the air. So the Christian is to grow by co-operating with the divine agencies. Feeling our helplessness, we are to improve all the opportunities granted us to gain a fuller experience. As the plant takes root in the soil, so we are to take deep root in Christ. As the plant receives the sunshine, the dew, and the rain, we are to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit(COL 67).

line.gif