Since " as He was, so are we in this world," I do solemnly promise in the name of my Master, for His sake and by His grace, at all times and in all places, to " speak as He would speak, to act as He would act," to study to show myself " approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed; " to be an " example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in Spirit, in faith, in purity," remembering that I represent the King of kings; to keep high and untarnished the standards of our faith, and whether in school or out of school, to serve our Lord, wherever, whenever, and in whatever He calls.
Concerning the origin of this covenant at the Southern California Junior College, the Bible Teacher, L. A. Wilcox, writes: " Our seminar reconvened with but twenty-five of the charter members present, but we have received forty applications for membership from new students. Fearful of becoming a popular organization, recognizing the danger in popularity, and determining not to lose the earnest spirit which pervaded the seminar last year, we have decided not to receive these forty new applicants as a whole, but to accept new members only upon full understanding of the consecration involved, which we have endeavored to set forth in the ' Seminar Covenant.' "
Further information is given by Elder Wilcox as to how the seminar operates: " We meet each Friday evening between sundown and the seven-thirty students' prayer meeting, as we did last year. The seminar is entering upon a very active period, which we hope may be a very fruitful one. The members will assist in a hall effort soon to begin in Arlington, a town some three miles away. Through the co-operation of our college departments, ministerial students taking music will be given credit for their aid in that line during the meeting. Those taking art will make posters for which they will get credit, and those studying journalism will endeavor to keep the newspapers supplied with news stories. Our ministerial department is approximately twice as large as last year. These are surely fine young people, who have caught the vision of student missionary work. Already, although the year is hardly started, some of them have been called upon to supply pulpits in neighboring churches. We have so many students wishing to engage in missionary work that we have hardly time or place to put them all to work as yet.
" An interesting feature of our endeavors this year will be our work among Spanish-speaking people. We have this morning been considering the starting of a Spanish Sabbath school in another community where Adventists have done no work as yet. Perhaps Sunday night meetings in English will be held in this locality also. There are other openings which were made by the Harvest Ingathering. Our Spanish teacher and our history teacher and most of the Spanish students, are very eager to enter upon missionary enterprises among these foreigners, of whom there are so many at our very doors. One student has been assisting for several weeks in open-air Spanish meetings, and is greatly thrilled over it.
" I am this week securing the names of ten or twelve people, both English and Spanish, living within a mile of the school, all of whom have been interested in the work of our local church people, and have either requested or will be willing to receive Bible readings. Our plan is to send our ministerial students to these homes, accompanied by some one of experience in that work, and to require of them a certain number of Bible readings that are actual, that are real, and that will accomplish some results. We are carrying on at present, in addition to others I have mentioned, two Sabbath schools followed by an after service in each place. So you can see we are endeavoring each year to go a little farther, to do a little more, to launch out deeper, and to reach a higher standard in consecration and efficiency."
Washington Missionary College.—Please enroll fifteen of our seminar students in the Ministerial Reading Course for 1929. We are interested in this course.
Edna E. Stoneburner, Secretary of Seminar.
Atlantic Union College.— The new leader of our ministerial band is Vasilli Tkachuk, a Russian. Our midweek chapel services and Friday evening meetings will go on much as usual this year, but a new feature is the organization of small groups of students to hold cottage meetings in near-by towns.
C.L. Taylor, Dean, School of Theology.
To gain efficiency through practical experience is the reason why the ministerial band of Atlantic Union College has been formed. It is composed of about thirty earnest young people, led by Mr. Tkachuk and Orville Wright, with Prof. C. L. Taylor as faculty advisor. The work of this band is divided into three phases. Our regular band meetings are held each Friday night at 6: 45. After the opening exercises and a brief report concerning the progress of our cottage meetings, the band separates into two divisions. each having its own chairman. Mr. Tkachuk introduces the two speakers for the evening, each speaker being allotted half the time, the subject taken by each usually being some point of doctrine. Thus actual experience is gained in explaining the points of our belief, and this, coupled with the critic's report at the close, gives each member some excellent experience in practice preaching. By this method of having two bands and two speakers in each band, four members have a chance to speak every Friday night. Much interest is shown in this phase of our work, and much improvement in the speakers is noted from time to time.
During the chapel hour on Tuesday it is the custom for all the Missionary Volunteer bands to meet, so our band meets at that time also, with as many visitors as care to attend. It is Mr. Wright's duty to appoint a speaker for this time each week, and to see that some of the other members of the band have a chance to get the actual experience of assisting in the opening exercises of a meeting. The talks given at this time are of an inspirational nature.
At the present time active work is being carried on in four near-by towns: (1) In Sterling, the Harvest Ingathering work has been followed by literature and personal visits, and as a result a series of cottage meetings is being held. (2) In Clinton, our leader, Vasilli Tkachuk, is doing a good work among the Russian and Polish people. A series of public meetings will be held very soon, as the outgrowth of the personal visiting now being carried on. (3) In Leominster, eight of our young men are doing personal work and holding meetings, with the hope of reorganizing the church, which was disbanded some time ago, and adding new members. (4) In South Lancaster, our four colored boys, under the leadership of Clifton Cluff, are doing a good work for the colored people of South Lancaster. They hold a public meeting each night on " Narrow Lane," and report a good interest and attendance.
Mary E. Bartle, Secretary.
Walla Walla College.— In the college Ministerial Association this year we have thirty-six members, and in the Bible workers' group there are twenty-five. Both groups meet at eight o'clock on Sabbath morning, and the object of their meetings is to foster deep spiritual life among the members and keep uppermost the highest ideals for the ministry and the Bible work. On Sabbaths the students go out two by two and visit the near-by churches. We endeavor to co-operate with the Pre-medical Association, by arranging for these students to accompany seminarians in the field and assist in public work. Several of our young men are under conference appointment to render help in the churches during the coming Week of Prayer. Fourteen subscriptions to The Ministry have been handed in by the students.
F.M. Burg, Dean, School of Theology.
Pacific Union College.—The activities of our gospel workers' seminar are just beginning, and we have high hopes for greatly increased service. At present, two carloads of young people visit near-by towns once in two weeks and distribute- literature, but within two or three weeks we plan to have from four to six carloads of students engaged in weekly systematic literature distribution. Our personal workers' band is endeavoring to strengthen the spiritual life of the students in all departments of the college, and we hope that this endeavor will bring good results during the Week of Prayer and prove to be permanently effectual.
Chester E. Westphal, Student Leader of Seminar.
Broadview College.— We are endeavoring to organize thoroughly and develop our seminar work, and in a couple of months we hope to be able to make a satisfactory report of our activities. Elder Schuster is planning definite work for the young people who can speak the German language, and Elder Anderson will direct the students in work for the Swedish-speaking people. Other groups of our seminar students will work for the Russians, Hungarians, and Czechoslovakians.
Thomas W. Steen, President.
River Plate Junior College, Argentina.— The seminar students are given opportunity for field experience by being assigned to churches where they are expected to take charge of the Sabbath morning service. In a city twelve miles distant from the school, we are just beginning a series of evangelistic meetings, and find increasing public interest and a very gratifying attendance. We also hold services in the penitentiary on Sunday mornings. Forty Bibles have been given to the prisoners, and several of the men give evidence of being deeply interested in religious things.
A.E. Thoman, Student.
Union Springs Academy.— A few words about our gospel workers' band. We were not satisfied with the results obtained last year. The meetings were too much like a duplicate young people's meeting,— too much time taken in opening exercises and special music. We also found that too many joined the band who did not take the matter seriously enough to prepare properly, thus not much help was obtained by them or by their audience. This year we started on an altogether different plan, and thus far the members are quite enthusiastic. We made request in chapel exercises for the names of those definitely planning on making the ministry or the Bible work their objective, and the names secured in this way served as the foundation of our band. A few of the more serious-minded students were added by invitation. We shall probably not have more than fifteen members. We meet from seven to eight on Saturday night, as we did last year, but in our meetings we follow an altogether different plan.
I have lent a book on the subject of the ministry to each member of the class, with the request that each read as much as he can, taking notes and shaping material to present to the band. As the material is presented by the different members, questions are asked, and at the close'of each talk I usually add some illustration or some helpful observation from experience.
After spending thirty or forty minutes with these reports, I review a chapter from the book entitled, " Effective Speaking," by Phillips, and the students take notes. All seem to feel that they are getting a great deal more than they did last year. The members of the band have opportunity to use their talents in the young people's meeting, Sabbath school, girls' hour, Measure-of-a-Man Club, prayer bands, et cetera. There is also opportunity for practical experience in preaching, as seems desirable. But our present seminar program, although something of an experiment, is going well so far, and we will write more about it later in the year.
Harold E. Snide,
Biblical Department.
