Union College.—A growing interest has been manifest in our seminar from the beginning of our school year, and the second semester is opening up with increased devotion on the part of the young people. Two weeks ago the seminar conducted a service of a general character, a prominent feature of which was the setting before the whole student body of the working program and purposes of the seminar, and making report of the practical work being done in the surrounding country. There seemed to be a deep interest on the part of all, and the response to the call for new members was encouraging. Ellis P. Storing is the new leader of the seminar, and Miss Anna Martin has charge of the young women's Bible reading section. The young ladies are taking an active part in the seminar. The extent of our present field operations has made it necessary to ask for an increase in appropriations for field expense.
H. U. Stevens, Faculty Adviser.
Broadview College.—Broadview's ministerial students are supplementing their theoretical training with practical field experience, and are enthusiastically at work. Two of our seminarians are conducting an evangelistic effort in a town near by. They have secured a suitable, hall, and are putting forth earnest endeavor to reach the 12,000 inhabitants of the place. Fourteen of the students are assisting in the effort, by distribution of literature and personal calls. The meetings have been in progress six weeks, and a live interest is reported. Our students are always glad to respond to frequent calls for their services in the Chicago churches, and while seeking to impart to others, they are gaining a valuable experience in personal development and work.
M. H. Schuster, Dept. of Theology.
Walla Walla College.—During the first semester we have endeavored in our seminar to lay the foundation for field work by giving special attention to the method of conducting Bible studies in the home, and by way of demonstration I have taken the students with me each week to a rousing and interesting cottage meeting held in a town ten miles from the college. At this cottage meeting there are between twenty and thirty in attendance, and it affords an excellent opportunity for the students to learn by observation. Due to the many duties devolving upon me in connection with the college and the sanitarium, it has been impossible for me to lead out in progressive field endeavor by the students, as I desire to do. I am well pleased, however, with the type of work that we have been conducting in the seminar, and believe that it is of just as great benefit as that of any year we have ever had, and that it will bear fruit in the actual field endeavor before long.
We are giving special attention to the study of the minister's relation to the Missionary Volunteer department, our purpose being to equip the members of the seminar with a thorough knowledge of the Missionary Volunteer organization and its work. We are also bringing into our seminar an inspirational touch with the field, through lectures. For example, conference presidents have given lectures on (1) The Business of the Ministry,
(2) The Open Door of Opportunity,
(3) Organization. Returned missionaries have lectured on mission polity. Just now we are dealing with lectures on adolescent psychology, or the youth problem. Such lectures form a permanent part of the ministerial student's equipment for field work.
F.B. Jensen, Bible Teacher.
Emmanuel Missionary College.—For immediate study we have launched two symposiums, one on "The Ministers of God: Their Call and Commission," and another on "A Study of the Twelve Disciples." The young men are very enthusiastic about these studies, and I hope soon to have their manuscripts returned to me for final correction before they begin their private drill.
H. S. Prenie, Dean.
The young men and women who are members of the seminar at E. M. C. are confronted by the serious and searching question, How can we become more proficient in the science of soul winning? For a number of years it has been the policy of the officers of the seminar to invite men of wide experience in the field to give instruction to us, but this year the students have been more largely called upon to give short sermons and Bible readings, and thus we learn by doing. The classes in homiletics and field workers' training give the theory and formula for preaching, but in the seminar we work out our experiments before a kindly and sympathetic audience, who help us by constructive criticism.
The attendance at our seminar meetings averages over 100, and this not only encourages the ministerial group, but serves a good purpose in development and training for public work. The influence of the seminar is felt throughout the school, in fostering the Bible Year, the Standard of Attainment, and the Morning Watch, as a leader is appointed to take charge of each of these lines of endeavor. There is no joy comparable with the joy of rescuing men and women from destruction, and it is the primary purpose of the seminar to prepare young people to go forth into the darkness of the world, and lead souls to the light of the kingdom.
William Murdock, Seminar Leader.
Southern California Junior College. —It would be an inspiration to our seminarians the world around if I could pass on some of the thrilling incidents which are occurring in the missionary endeavors of our students here, but space will admit of only a brief report. With the beginning of a series of Sunday night meetings in the same place where our students held an effort two years ago, and the simultaneous beginning of an intensive missionary campaign in giving Bible readings in another settlement just over the hills back of the college, a new life has taken possession of our seminar. We have more calls for Bible readings than we are able to fill. Last Sabbath, thirty young people covered the territory adjoining the college, with the distribution of the Signs. They started out in the rain, which had no effect to dampen their ardor; and in view of the experience meeting in our seminar the night before, which brought inspiration to all present, I doubt if these students could have been kept away from the field, whatever the weather. One of the apparent results of this work is a cottage meeting where the people meet together to study the books of Daniel and the Revelation. They are deeply in earnest in their investigation of truth, and the students are thrilled with the joy of presenting the truths of the word of God to them.
Another group of ten or twelve students started in another direction, to hold Bible readings with interested people and to conduct a Sabbath school in Spanish. Between forty and fifty people attend this Sabbath school, one Mexican family coming a distance of eight miles.
It may be of interest to know something of the work of former seminarians in Southern California Junior College. One is now in charge of our Mexican work at Calexico. Another is assisting our evangelist at Phoenix, and one is connected with the evangelist in Los Angeles. One, while recovering from a nervous breakdown, has been blessed by God in doing soul winning. One is soon to go to the Southern States to engage in pastoral and educational work. The others are continuing their ministerial training at Pacific Union, Walla Walla, or other colleges.
As I think of the good these seminarians may do, and even now are doing, in various parts of the earth, I feel encouraged to multiply my own efforts in teaching others how to prepare for the work of an evangelist. My heart has always been in the evangelistic field, rather than in the classroom; but perhaps, after all, it is just as important a service to develop workers who can go into the wide field and do a work many times greater than any one individual can do.
L.A. Wilcox, Department of Theology.
