Cowee Mountain School
WHAT ABOUT THIS
REPRINT...
photo-copy of the
original.This Cowee
Mountain School Bulletin was first published in 1918 and is being reprinted by
photo offset (Sept. 1981), from a
The bulletin was preserved for over 50 years
by interested persons in the community who had been pleased with the work done
by the school.
We feel that the Bulletin was miraculously
preserved for the benefit of this present generation who have had so little
opportunity to observe, in person, the methods of teaching and healing that
were given to Ellen White by Inspiration.
The photo copies of the original were in
surprisingly good condition. However, most all of the pictures were quite dim
as were the last three or four lines on the first six pages. Also the last
page, besides being all of it somewhat dim, had one word which was entirely
undecipherable.
The worst part has been retyped -- including
the whole of the last page. And the pictures have been re-touched, as best we
could decipher the objects represented.
As for the one undecipherable word on the
last page, we supplied the word "their" in parenthesis, with a
question mark following. But your guess is as good or better than ours as to
what the word should be, or really was originally.
The Cowee
Mountain School Bulletin
Office of
Publication Berrien Springs, Michigan
In This Issue:
Cowee Mountain School in Pictures
By H. B. Allen
"To Those bearing Responsibility at
Washington and Other Centers"
Ellen G. White
We have not
told as much truth in the past as we would like to
have told,
but we did tell ai much as we dared, and the Lord is
giving us
greater boldness every day to champion truth without
fear or
favor, even though it is not popular.
H. B. A.
Copyright,1918, by The Cowee Mountain School,
Incorporated
The Cowee Mountain School
Incorporated
Franklin, North Carolina
A vocational training school, where the mental and manual work has been
correlated in such a way that students can do regular school work, completing a
grade each year, and at the same time use their hands out of study hours
sufficiently at remunerative work so that they can earn their entire expenses
at the school, such as board, room, heat, light, laundry, and where the student
is exceptionally capable he can even earn his books. The school is not top
heavy, as our attendance is limited, and we can accommodate every student who
applies, up to the extent of our rooming space, with all the work he needs to
defray his or her expenses. The highest ideals are held up before the students,
and a fine spiritual atmosphere surrounds the school, conducted in strict
harmony with the principles of True Education and health reform. Students may
enter at any time, by making arrangements with the faculty.
Officers
Helon B. Allen, B. A. President
*Wilna B. Allen Secretary
George H. Ashbaugh General Manager
H. L. McCurdy Treasurer
Cowee Mountain School (pictures omitted)
(Then and Now)
[Picture]
This is the inviting looking outfit which the
founders of the Cowee Mountain School went up against seven years ago
and which has been transformed into a
self-supporting school plant, feeding and sheltering over eighty people.
It was during my senior year at Emmanuel Missionary College that I learned
that Ellen G. White was to visit the Madison School on the occasion of a large
gathering of self-supporting workers. I had heard the evil tales told about the
self-supporting "work by people who navigated in supposedly respectable
society, and I had also gotten hold of some of the testimonies in which people
were urged to take up that very line of work, and with these conflicts in my
system, I decided I had better go to Madison and see for myself. I eagerly
awaited the time when Mrs. White was scheduled to speak, find I can say frankly
that the things she told us and the outlines she gave us for the work in the
south were indeed an inspiration, and it was then and there that I dedicated my
life to the Lord's work in the south. This was in the spring of 1909. In th«
spring cf 1911 we located in Macon County, and the work of the Cowee Mountain
School was begun.
In selecting the place which was to be the scene of our future labors, we
did not choose the best farm In the community, but Instead we took an old run
down place of a hundred acres, and by proper methods of tillage it has been
rehabilitated until the year it is producing excellent crops. The one room
cottage, the old log barn, the pig sty, and the corn crib were the Cowee
Mountain School in embryo. This outfit did not forebode anything spectacular in
the future of the school, and to the average mind was quite a joke. Behind the
whole thing, however, there was a vision, which, by the way, has never grown
indistinct, and behind the vision an enthusiastic determination, and behind the
determination sufficient vigor to carry the vision into execution, and today
the Cowee Mountain School stands as a tribute--not to the genius of any man or
set of men--but it stands as a loving tribute to our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, who gave us eternal life through His precious blood, and Who has
commissioned men to go out into the highways and hedges and be co-workers with
Him in the great work of restoring the images of God in the human soul. The
school is named after the practically extinct tribe of Indiana who made life
intensely interesting for the early settlers of the region, and its entire
assets, now valued at more than seventy thousand dollars, are held in trust as
n perpetual legacy to the cause of human salvation in the Appalachian Highlands
of America. The charter under which the properly is held prohibits any part or
parcel or profit therefrom, from ever reverting to any private party or to any
private use.
[Picture]
A hastily constructed cottage, erected the
first year out. Primitive, it is true, but you
haven't any idea how glad we were to have the
room which it provided.
Well, anyway, we got busy on the Job, and soon other kindred spirits were
attracted to the work, something like they augmented David in the Cave of
Abdullum, and the work began to
[Picture]
A fine frame school house covered with metal
siding and a metal roof. Has class rooms, cloak rooms, etc., and seat
over one hundred students comfortably. Steam
heated; modern and sanitary in every respect.
grow, and with the gifts that have come in from time to time, the freewill
offerings of individuals from nearly every state in the Union, the work is
being put upon a solid basis. I said a little while ago that Cowee was not a
monument to any man or set of men, and I speak advisedly, for, while history is
unkind enough to record that the writer and his wife founded the school, and
are still to some extent directing its energies, yet the school has been made
possible because the Lord had a work to be done up here in the Appalachian
Highlands of America, and His power not only impressed men and women to give up
their means, but it is daily impressing others to say "Here am I, Lord,
send me," and the ranks of our faculty and student body are being
augmented continually by men and women, moved by the spirit of God to get out
of the old well established churches and enter a field that is calling for men
who know the Truth. Young men and women are coming from the remotest corners of
America to take up this work. Our latest arrivals came from California and
Pennsylvania--widely separated geographically, but unified in the great purpose
to aid in the redemption of humanity from sin. We are glad to welcome these
young people, Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Burdick
[Picture]
Crest House, a beautiful well-constructed
modern ten-room house with steam heat, bath, etc.
A model home for a teacher and group of
students.
of San Fernando, Cal., and Miss Ailene White of Ariel, Pa., to our ranks
and we hope that others will be impressed to take up work in this great field.
The school from its inception has been a work of faith. We believed that
the Lord called us to do this work and that He would see us through, and I am
happy to say that we have never been disappointed in His sustaining power.
We had no sooner gotten located than we had to start the school house, and
before it was finished, students from a distance began to apply for admission,
many of them living too far from the school to walk to and fro. In order to
accommodate boarding school students and develop our training school for the
training of Hill School Teachers, Crest House was started and Rain-on-the-Roof
was built, and I might say that with the taking of self-supporting students,
oho of the most acute problems in school finance began to assert itself--the
utilization of student labor in such a way that the student could by the work
of his hands sustain himself while in the school, without financial
embarrassment to the institution. We have worked the problem out to such an
extent that every student in the. school is self supporting at this time, and
we are able to offer the .same opportunity to every student who may apply, up
to the limit of our rooming capacity. ' We have exceptional cases where young
men arid young women who are preparing for the work, have not only earned their
board and room (all tuition Is free), but have also earned their books and
clothing. Our class work has been arranged so that
[Picture]
In the dining room at Cowee Mountain School.
Room is paneled in golden oak to the top of the windows and doors,
and plastered to the ceiling. Ceiling is
figured metal painted white. Water from the tank up in the mountainside
runs out of the rocks in the center of the
room and flows down into a pool, above which is a receptacle built in
the rocks, for plants. Designed and executed
by those at Cowee.
the mental and industrial are properly co-related, which accounts for the
earning power of our students, and at the same time they are doing the same
high grade work in their mental work. The work of all students is carefully
supervised and each student is paid as nearly as possible what he or she is
worth--the pay running from five to fifteen cents per hour, and as a result the
buildings on the place have been erected by students and teachers, and the land
has been brought under a better state of cultivation each year. Instead of
starting out with six hundred acres of land and ending up in a few years with
ten acres, Cowee started with one hundred acres, at the end of two years had
two hundred, and now has five hundred thirty-six, with prospects of a few more
hundred acres being added this fall. We have endeavored to follow out the lines
of education given in the Schools of the Prophets, and have combined the book
learning •with a moat intensely practical vocational training, and the latter
has been the more valuable on account of the actual problematical conditions
under which the warning was given.
[Picture]
Flashlight snapshot taken in living room of
Crest House, looking into the library. High stone fireplace, built by
the boys in the masonry department can be
seen in the edge of the picture at the right.
The buildings which we have erected are not just buildings, nor are they
just school buildings, but they are faculty and student homes in the highest
sense of the word. We have not tried to •lower ourselves to the level of our
environment, but have instead sought consistently to inspire our students with
the highest possible ideals of life and character growth. Believing that our
teachers who are giving their-lives to this work should have as pleasant living
and working conditions as it is possible to effect in this field, no efforts
have been spared to make the homes of the students and teachers everything that
they should be. I believe we have succeeded. There is nothing expensive about these
homes, but we have utilized the abundant native woods, working the timber up
into perfect interior finish in our wood working department, and these rooms,
some of them panelled in beautiful golden oak to the top of the door and window
casings, furnished with handmade 'furniture of the same material, blend into a
most pleasing cheerful whole, with an air of refinement, and I might say
elegance, that one would hardly expect to find out here in the hills, so far
away from the railroad. Every student room in the main buildings has a lavatory
with hot and cold water connections, and each student home has an indoor bath
room complete.
[Picture]
This is a very poor picture of
"Wee-Tot's" House, one of the most interesting
departments of the Cowee Mountain School.
Water is carried to the lavatories and bath rooms by a gravity water
system. High up on the side of one of the mountains on the school farm we found
two beautiful springs, and under these we built a ten thousand gallon concrete
tank. The sand and cement had to be "packed" up, a couple of bags at
a- time, on the backs of mules, the mountain side being so steep that it was
impossible for a team and wagon to go tip. Into this great hollow monolith,
both springs empty their pure water, and this water is drawn from the faucets
in the student rooms, bath rooms, kitchen, bakery, laundry, etc., etc., about
the school premises. Our main buildings are heated with steam boilers in which
is burned the wood carved from the mountain sides. This' saves all the dirt and
the endless carrying of wood involved where stoves are used. Take, for
instance, the new General Service Building. The wood is put into the basement
in three foot length's and fed into the boiler. This heats all of the forty
rooms in the building in the coldest weather, and the boiler uses about half
the wood it would ordinarily take to heat the building with stoves, and we are
saved the attendant fire risk that goes with the use of stoves.
Speaking of this new building reminds me that it is here that all the
domestic work of the school is. done. The meals are prepared and nerved, the
dishes washed, the bakery goods manufactured, the laundry work done, and the
other household duties too numerous to mention, performed. The school family
live-in the various buildings on the school farm, but they all come to the one
large dining room in this building to eat. The food is sold at a few cents per
dish, and it is the constant aim of the management to furnish an abundance of
the best food to be obtained, carefully prepared without the use of soda and
the other harmful
[Picture]
General Service Building. Forty rooms in the building have steam heat.
Designed and executed from cellar to garret, including the plastering,
steam-fitting, plumbing, electrical wiring, etc., by students and teachers at
Cowee. Contains dining room, kitchen, bakery,
laundry, and student rooms. All paid for, and covered with insurance to
the extent of fifteen thousand dollars.
adjuncts of cookery found in the average kitchen. The
girls are taught to do every branch of domestic work intelligently and with
dispatch, and the boys do the out of door work, such as caring for the stock,
doing the carpenter work, tending the farm and garden, and performing such
other duties as must be done around a going concern of this kind. We not
infrequently see the girls taking hold of the garden duties also in our efforts
to produce every thing we consume.
It was my ambition when I went up into the hills to found a training
school upon such a broad, comprehensive foundation that it would be able to
offer an education, and a fitting one for the work of God, to any energetic,
ambitious young man or woman who should apply, and while it has made us step
lively at times to provide accommodations for our growing student body,
nevertheless we have yet to turn away the first student who really wants to get
a preparation for the work. The school has grown rapidly, but solidly.
[Picture]
Modern dairy barn, 36x64 feet. This barn, as
well as all other buildings on the place except the first cottage we built and
the greenhouse,
is covered with metal roof. Silo is 10 feet
in diameter and 40 feet high, built of Natco Hollow Tile. Pronounced the best
job of
its size in the state. Holds 100 tons.
We are developing our farm and garden, and we have our sleeves rolled up
for some great results in these departments this year. Our General Manager
Ashbaugh has got what it takes to make things move, and he is one of the few
who did not have to catch the "Cowee wiggle" after arriving at Cowee,
as he brought some motion with him, and this accounts for his coming up through
the ranks of the student body to the general management of the corporation.
We have just purchased another team of mules which will add materially to
the efficiency of our farm operations, and this purchase was rendered necessary
as we were left very short of team help when Dan Haldeman, one of our capable
young men got the bright idea that he had been at Cowee long enough and that he
ought to get out and start a hill school, and took one of our teams with him.
We wished him God-speed, as that is just the course we are glad to see our
students pursue, got behind his
[Picture]
Our efficiency trio--greenhouse, cannery and
shop. The greenhouse does business the year round raising vegetables.
Our girls canned over 4,000 quarts of fruit
and vegetables last year without the new canner building, so you
may rest assured that with this new equipment
there will be some food saved this summers and fall.
Every piece of timber that goes into any of
the school buildings on the farm passes through the
shop and is worked into proper shapes and
sizes by wood-working machinery.
ambition financially, helped him purchase a fifty acre farm up at the
"Gap," sent him one of our fine young teams of horses, a wagon, and
other necessary farming implements, and in other ways helped him get started.
He now has a beautiful place up in the mountains a few hundred feet higher than
Cowee, and about five miles away, all paid for, and within a few weeks he will
be opening school in the new school house which he interested his neighbors in
helping him build, and inside of another year Dan Haldeman and Sudie
Burton-Haldeman, in their Su-Dan Farm School at Eulalie, N. C., will be another
of the self-supporting units in a great self-supporting organization for the
alleviation of human suffering and human woe, and another bright signboard in
the hills pointing downcast sinners to the Lamb of God that taketh away the
sins of the world.
If we can make some life better for having lived, if we can point some
sin-sick soul to the Lamb of God, our labor of love will not have been in vain,
and since we all see on every hand, the results of our work, we feel encouraged
to press forward to new victories and new achievements, which, I am confident,
and know in fact, that our many friends feel is possible to the little group of
workers who are making the Cowee Mountain School a life saving station in the
Uplands of America.
H. R. Allen
An Apology
At this point, we want to pause for an apology; an apology is always in
order when the tranquility of a scene is marred, and while Cowee has been
growing and developing and doing excel' lent work as time has passed, a
disturbing element comes in upon the scene against our wishes, and an element
that we are powerless to pacify. I refer to the opposition to the
self-supporting work in the south, as is evidenced openly by the article in the
Review of July 4, 1918, and which is reprinted in this issue of the Bulletin.
During all the years that Cowee has been growing, there has been a studied
purpose on the part of certain men to "kill" the usefulness of the
school. Jealousy, and the fact that they could not come in and disband it, I
believe, have been at the bottom of most of the misrepresentation, criticism
and opposition that has been manifested. We have not paid much attention to
this opposition, no more than we have been compelled to for self-existence, but
have gone ahead vigorously with our work in harmony with the instruction given
through inspiration. From time to time in the past we have, had written and
oral inquiries from people asking us what reason existed for the Conference
opposition to our work, and we have explained the why of it, but since the
article appeared in the Review, Cowee has been placed on the map all over
America and inquiries are coming from every corner of the United States, and to
save ourselves an endless amount of clerical work in answering inquiries, and
correspondence, we are simply reproducing three documents in this issue which
will cover the ground completely for those who are sincere at heart and are
willing to take their stand on the testimonies. The first is the article which
appeared in the Review, which clearly states why Cowee is being
opposed--namely, because we "persistently refuse" to obey the Loma
Linda recommendations. Second, we are reprinting that portion of the Loma Linda
recommendations which deals with the self-supporting work in the south, and,
third, we are printing in full the testimony, "To Those Bearing Responsibility at Washington and Other Centres."
Study the three documents carefully and you will see why Cowee is opposed, and
also you will get a glimpse of how sinful in the sight of heaven that
opposition is. Cowee is a school on the Madison order and is training students
to go out and establish hill schools, as Madison has been doing from the day it
was started. Inspiration says "In the training school for home and foreign
missionary teachers at Madison, Tenn., and in the little schools established by
the teachers who have gone forth from Madison, we have an illustration of a way
in which the message should be carried." We are at Cowee following that
illustration just as closely as possible, and as a result of our training school
work we already have one mission school established, out of debt, and doing
good work, but some of those who imagine their official position gives them a
monopoly on the Lord's work in certain given territories, .come into our field
of labor and tell us that we cannot run a school like Madison, because they
passed some rules a while back that forbid any more schools like Madison, and
ask us to accept those rules and discard and abrogate and consider null and
void the testimony given to them in behalf of the Madison School and schools
like Madison. The excuse is made that if we would run a hill school we would be
all right but to run a training school is not authorized in that testimony.
Read the testimony and you can readily answer that subterfuge. Madison hasn't
been a hill school one minute of its existence--it has always been a training
school for hill school workers and never anything else. Read Acts 5:38-39.
Well, Dear Reader, after studying the testimony, the Loma Linda
Recommendations, and the Review article, let's hear from you and tell us, if
you were building up a work in harmony with that testimony, and someone came
along to drive you from the field, using an instrument that looked like those
recommendations, what would you do? Would you skulk off, or would you ask for
some better authority for destroying the usefulness of a good work)
We want to co-operate with the conference, and we are to the fullest
extent that they will permit, and when they accept at its face value the
testimony addressed to them with reference to the self-supporting work they
will be in perfect harmony with Cowee and Cowee with them--absolutely no other
changes will be necessary on the part of anyone except that they accept this
testimony as meaning what it says. But, if co-operation, as it is interpreted
to us, means idleness, if it means the closing up of the Cowee Mountain School,
if it means the stifling of the self-supporting work in the south, we are not
going to grant that kind of co-operation so long as the Lord gives us life and
the ambition to do something in His vineyard, for inspiration says, "Those
who lend their means and their influence to help this work are aiding the cause
of God," and by giving up our work and closing our school we would be
aiding the cause of the other fellow diametrically opposed to God. "How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good
tidings."
H. R. Allen
Recommendations passed at Loma Linda
California at the Fall
Council of the North American Division
Executive Committee,
November 5-21, 1915
Recommendations on Independent Schools
Your committee appointed at the Council held at Takoma Park, October 25th
to November 3rd, 1914, to make a study of the independent institutions of the
North American Division Conference, would submit the following with reference
to school enterprises:
We have visited many of the independent, or self-supporting schools, as
they are variously called, of the Southern and Southeastern Conferences. We
made our investigations in this field because so many of these enterprises are
located close together in this territory, thus saving expense.
A sub-committee spent two weeks in visiting these schools and the whole
committee spent three days studying the situation together. During this time we
visited fifteen of these self-supporting enterprises. Our study leads us to
make the following general statements:
1. Your committee has sought earnestly and prayerfully to lay aside any
preconceived opinions and come to the study of this work with unprejudiced
minds.
2. We were Impressed with the spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice
manifested by these workers. They are living in the plainest of homes and in
some instances their self-denial falls little short of actual suffering, but
notwithstanding they seem possessed of a cheerful and uncomplaining spirit.
3. We believe there is need in the South-land for work of the general
nature carried forward by these schools. It appears to us that the character of
the people throughout large portions of the South, and particularly in the Hill
regions, is such as to demand a special effort toward permanency in our gospel
work. It seems to us that if we would develop our work and give stability to
it, it is necessary in many sections for gospel workers to live in the
community and become leaders in the religious activities. We do not believe
that people are to be brought into the truth solely by education, for the truth
must be preached in its simplicity and purity.
4. We find many of these workers doing medical missionary work in their community,
and as far as we were able to judge they have won the confidence and good will
of the people by their ministrations.
5. We discovered two distinct classes of schools; one whose purpose
primarily is to work for the people of the vicinity in which the school is
located, the other seems to have to a greater or less degree the purpose of
educating the children of Seventh-Day Adventists outside the community, even
soliciting students from other conferences from that in which the school is
located.
6. We find a lack of supervision of this work, different methods being
pursued in different schools, nearly every school seeming to be • unit, of
itself. A proper supervision would tend to greatly strengthen these schools.
7. In his prayer, as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, our
Saviour plead for the unity of the church until the end of time, and in
sympathy with this prayer it Is our desire that the utmost unity may be found
throughout the territory of the North American Division Conference, both in our
evangelical and institutional work in order that the blessing of God may be
seen and his Spirit poured out upon our work for its speedy finishing.
Based upon the foregoing, we recommend the following:
1. That this work be enlarged and strengthened, and that hereafter the
Madison School, and the efforts which have sprung or may spring from it, shall
be considered .a part of the regular work of the denomination, and that the
Madison School shall be regarded by the denomination is the training school for
workers for rural schools in the mountain districts of the South.
2. That the North American Division Conference, regularly provide and
support a Bible teacher for the Madison Training School.
3. That we encourage our Conference officers and our people to consider
and look upon the rural school work in the hill districts of the South as a
part of the regular work of the denomination, and that we encourage proper
persons in all our Conferences to enter the Madison School to receive a
training for this work.
4. That hereafter these schools be designated as the Rural Schools of the
South, and be promoted jointly by the local and union conference officials, and
by the workers in the Madison Training School, and that they shall be fostered
and superintended by the regular organized work, and be operated on what is
known as the self-supporting plan.
5. We recommend. That when funds for these schools are gathered from the
Seventh-Day Adventist people, the title to such school properties shall be held
in a manner agreeable to the conferences in which such schools are located.
When the funds are provided by the promoters of the schools, the property shall
be held by the promoters in such a manner as will safe-guard the interests and
future welfare of the school.
6. We recommend. That hereafter, when funds are solicited for this line of
work, we follow closely the General Conference recommendation in regard to
previously making satisfactory arrangements with conference officials.
7. We recommend. That funds for the establishment and operation of these
schools, when coming from our people, pass through the regular channels.
8. We recommend. That all our schools, where support Is supplied by
contributions to our people, keep an account of their receipts and
disbursements, and that the conference auditor shall annually audit the books
of such schools or provide for the same.
9. That in the Teachers' institutes hereafter held, the managers and
teachers in these rural schools shall have a part, and that provision be made
in the program for the consideration and instruction in the particular lines of
work in which they are engaged.
Review & Herald Article of July 4th, 1918
Our Rural School Work in the South
A Statement
For the last fifteen years or more, effort has been made to reach the
rural people of the mountain districts of the South, through the establishment
and conduct of Seventh-Day Adventist mission schools. This work was begun in
North Carolina; and has grown in several States, until these schools are now
about thirty In number. The Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute at
Madison, Tennessee, has been a strong leader in this work, and up to date has
been the only training school for teachers to man these schools.
The work of these schools has been on a self-supporting basis, in the
sense that their managers and teachers have entered upon the work without an
established salary, depending upon what they can earn by the cultivation of the
soil and the pursuance of trades to assist themselves. For the equipment and maintenance
of the schools, however, these workers have solicited contributions of money
and materials from friends, relatives, and churches in the North. As the work
continued to grow, this plan of solicitation naturally brought in some
difficulties and misunderstandings, which tended to mar the spirit of unity and
co-operation that should exist in all enterprises that represent the
denomination.
To assist in remedying these conditions, it was decided about three years
ago that a joint committee of representatives from these schools and acquaint
themselves with conditions at first hand, with the purpose of seeking to
develop some policy that would be satisfactory all around.
This committee did its work of visiting and inspection, and made a report
at the autumn council in Loma Linda in November, 1915. At this council a set of
recommendations was drawn up covering the future policy and conduct of these
schools, by the terms of which these schools should be regarded as a part of
our regular organized work, and be conducted, so far as conditions permit, in
harmony with our educational policies in general. Provisions were made also
that Instead of solicitation in the North by representatives of these schools,
an annual offering should be taken in the regular way, and the receipts
disbursed to the schools through the regular channels in proportion to their
needs.
These measures were first presented tor these schools in a personal and
complete way at a convention of delegates from them, held at Baker Mountain the
same winter. The result was general good feeling and courage in reference to
the growth and prosperity of the schools, and a general acceptance of the plans
prepared at the Loma Linda council with representatives of these schools
present.
Since that time, however, some misunderstandings have crept in, so that it
seemed advisable to hold another council with representatives from the rural
schools, in December, 1917. At this council request was made that Mt. Pisgah
Industrial Institute--one of our rural schools near Asheville, North
Carolina,--become a training school for rural teachers, to supplement what is
being done at the Madison Institute. A full set of recommendations was
prepared, regulating the conduct of the school on the new basis. This plan has
been reviewed by the General Conference Committee, and approved, so that the
Mt. Pisgah Industrial Institute may now take up the work of training teachers
to man rural schools, in harmony with these regulations.
There is one very regrettable feature, however, that must be mentioned in
this connection. One of these rural schools, the Cowee Mountain School,
situated at Franklin, North Carolina, has persistently refused to follow the
lead of the other rural schools In adopting the plans of cooperation prepared
at the Loma Linda council and in local conventions. even after being given
repeated and ample opportunity to do so. This school has been developed by
Brother H. B. Alien, who is still its principal. Because of this refusal to
join in the plans of co-operation adopted by our other rural schools in the
South, it became necessary for the South-eastern Union and the North Carolina
Conference to take joint action to the effect that the Cowee Mountain School is
not affiliated with those conferences, t was also necessary for the General
Conference Committee to authorize this public statement that this school is not
recognized as part of our organized work, and therefore Is not entitled to
solicit students, families, or funds from our people, nor to share in the benefits
of the funds being raised to assist our rural school- work in the South, nor of
any other means of building up the work of these schools, so long as it's
management holds aloof from the plan of co-operation unanimously agreed upon,
with this one exception.
In closing we want to commend heartily the work of our rural schools in
the South to the interest and prayers and support of our people generally.
W. E. HOWELL.
On page twenty-nine of this issue is reproduced a letter which was sent to
Elder Wilcox on July 14th, with reference to the Review article of July 4th.
To date the writer has received no acknowledgment, and apparently no
action has been taken to correct the injury done through the misleading Review
article.
The letter to Elder Wilcox is self-explanatory.
To Those Bearing Responsibilities in
Washington
And Other Centers
Elmshaven, Sanitarium, Cal., January 6, 1908.
God has given me a message for the men who are carrying large
responsibilities in Washington and other centers of the work. This is a time
when the work of God should be conducted with the greatest wisdom,
unselfishness and the strictest integrity by every conference; a time when
there should be the closest observance of the law of God on the part of every
worker; a walking and working under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
God needs men and women who will work in the simplicity of Christ to bring
the knowledge of truth before those who need its converting power. But when a
precise line is laid down which the workers must follow in their efforts to
proclaim the message, a limit is set to the usefulness of a great number of
workers. I am charged to speak, saying, God seeth not as man seeth. Those who
occupy responsible positions need to place a lower estimate upon human wisdom
and to esteem more highly the sanctification of the Spirit revealed in the
lowliness and gentleness of Christ. They need to have the Holy Spirit come into
their hearts and minds, to control their wills-and to sanctify their tongues.
When soul and mind and body are converted to God, our physical strength and our
desires become working agencies for God. When the converting power of God
transforms the life, we shall be educated by God himself to speak his words and
work his works.
The law of God is to be magnified. Its claims must be presented by our
workers, in our books and papers, and through the spoken word. The knowledge of
its holy character is to become widespread. The message of Christ's
righteousness must be proclaimed from one end of the earth to the other. Our people
are to be aroused to prepare the way of the Lord. The third angel's
message--the last message of mercy to a perishing world--is so sacred, so
glorious. Let the light go forth as a lamp that burneth. Mysteries into which
angels have desired to look, which prophets and kings and righteous men desire
to know, the church of God is now to unfold.
An Illustration Ezekiel writes: (Here is quoted Ezekiel 47:1-12.)
This representation is an illustration of the way in which the truth for
this time is to go. A large work is to be done by many who have commenced in a
small way. Many souls will be reached, not through display, not through any
devising on the part of man, but because of the working of the Holy Spirit on
the hearts of the human agencies. The Saviour worked in this way. When His
methods become the .methods of his followers, his blessing will attend their
labors. Let us always remember that our schools are not to be conducted
after the worldly plan.
The Work of
the Madison School
In the work being done at the training school for home and foreign
missionary teachers in Madison, Tennessee, and in the small schools established
by the teachers who have gone forth from Madison, we have an illustration of a
way in .which the. message should be carried. I would say to the workers there,
Continue to learn of Christ. Do not be daunted. Be free, in the Lord; be free.
Much acceptable work has been done in Madison. The Lord says to you, go
forward. Your school is to be an example of how Bible study, general education,
physical education, and sanitarium work may be combined in many smaller schools
that shall be established in simplicity in many places in the Southern states.
My brethren in responsible places, mourn not over the work that is being
done at Madison to train workers to go forth into the highways and the hedges.
It is the will of God that this work should be done. Let us cease to criticize
the servants of God, and humble out own hearts before the Lord. Let us
strengthen this company to continue the good work in which they are engaged,
and labor to encourage others to do a similar work. Then the light of truth
will be carried in a simple and effective way, and a great work will be
accomplished for the Master in a short time.
When the Lord favors any of his servants with worldly advantages, it is
that they may use those advantages for the benefit of the work. As laborers
together with God, men are to keep constantly in mind the need of giving the
message of Christ's soon coming to the people who have not been warned. In this
we are not left to human intelligence alone, for angels of God are waiting to
encourage us in a life of patience and self-denial. We are to learn to be
content with simple food and clothing, that we may save much means to be
invested in the work of the gospel.
The gospel of Christ calls for entire consecration. The Christian sower is
to go forth to sow. But many by their fretting and contentions are
disqualifying themselves for labor. Their sluggish senses do not discern how
feeble are their efforts, and how strong is their unbelief. Let our church
members now arise to their responsibilities and privileges. Let them spend less
on self-indulgence and needless adorning. The money thus expended is the
Lord's, and is needed to do a sacred work, in his cause. Educate the children
to do missionary work, and to bring their offerings to God. Let us awake to our
need of denying self. Let us awake to a sense of the spiritual character of the
work in which we profess to be engaged.
I have said only a little-in comparison with what might be said on this
subject. But I call on our ministers, our teachers, and our physicians to awake
out of sleep, and see the opportunities for work that are within their reach,
but which for years have been allowed to pass unimproved.
Our lack of self-denial, our refusal to see the necessities of the cause
at this time, and to respond to them, call for repentance and humiliation of
heart -before God. It is a sin for one who knows the truth of God to fold his
hands and transfer his duty to another.
It is a sin for any to criticize and find fault with those who in their
manner of working do not exactly meet their mind. Let none blame or censure the
men who have labored at Madison. In the place of complaining at your brother's
work, take up your own neglected work. Instead of picking flaws in your
brother's character, search your own heart, confess your sins, and act honestly
with God. Let there be condemnation of self for the work that lies undone all
about you. Instead of placing impediments in the way of those who are trying to
accomplish something in the South, let your eyes be opened to see that time is
passing and that there is much for you to do.
The Lord works through various agencies. If there are those who desire to
step into new fields and take up new lines of labor, encourage them to do so.
Seventh-day Adventists are doing a great and good work; let no man's hand be
raised to hinder his brother. Those who have had experience in the work of God
should be encouraged to follow the guidance and counsel of the Lord.
Do not worry lect some means shall go direct to those who are trying to do
missionary work in a quiet and effective way. All the means is not to be
handled by one agency or organization. There is much business to be done
conscientiously for the cause of God. Help is to be sought from every possible
source. There are men who can do the work of securing means for the cause, and
when these are acting conscientiously and in harmony with the counsel of their
fellow-laborers in the field which they represent, the hand of restraint is not
to be laid upon them. They are surely laborers together with Him who gave his
life for the salvation of souls.
Brethren Sutherland and Magan should be encouraged to solicit means for
the support of their work. It is the privilege of these brethren to receive
gifts from any of our people whom the Lord impresses to help. They should have
means--God's means--with which to work. The Madison enterprise has been
crippled in the past, but now it must go forward. If this work had been
regarded in the right light, and had been given the help it needed, we should
long ere this have had a prosperous work at Madison. Our people are to be
encouraged to give of their means to this work which is preparing students in a
sensible and creditable way to go forth into neglected fields to proclaim the
soon coming of Christ.
The Lord directed Brethren Sutherland and Magan. as men of sound
principles, to establish a work in the South. They have devised and planned and
sacrificed in order to carry forward ths work there on right lines, but the
work has been greatly delayed.
The Lord guided his servants in the selection of the farm at Madison, and
he desires that it be managed on right lines, that others, learning from the
workers there, might take up a similar work and conduct it in a like manner.
Brethren Sutherland and Magan are chosen of God and faithful, and the Lord of
heaven says of them, I have a special work for these men to do at Madison, a
work of educating and training young men and women for mission fields. The
Spirit of the Lord will be with his workers if they will walk humbly before
him. He has not bound about and restricted the labors of these self-denying,
self-sacrificing men.
To those in our conference who have felt that they had authority to forbid
the gathering of means in certain territory, I now say: This matter has been
presented to me again and again. I now bear my testimony in the name of the
Lord to those whom it concerns. Wherever you are,, withhold your forbiddings.
The work of God is not to be thus trammeled. God is being faithfully served by
these men whom you have been watching and criticizing. They fear and honor the
Lord; they are laborers together with Him. God forbids you to put any yokes on
the necks of his servants. It is the privilege of these workers to accept gifts
or loans that they may invest them to help in doing an important work that
greatly needs to be done. This wonderful burden of responsibility which some
suppose God has placed upon them with their official position has never been
laid upon them. If men were standing free on the high platform of truth, they
would never accept the responsibility to frame rules and regulations that
hinder and cramp God's chosen laborers in their work for the training of
missionaries. When they learn the lesson that "All ye are brethren,"
and realize that their fellow-workers may know just as well as they how to use
in the wisest way the talents and capabilities entrusted to them, they will
remove the yokes that are now binding their brethren, and will give them credit
for having love for souls and a desire ta labor unselfishly to promote the
interests of the cause.
The
Character of the Work
The school at Madison not only educates in a knowledge of the Scriptures,
but it gives a practical training that fits the student to go forth as a
self-supporting missionary to the field to which he is called. In his student
days he is taught how to build simply and substantially, how to cultivate the
land, and care for the stock. To this is added the knowledge of being able to
treat the sick and care for the injured. This training for medical missionary
work is one of the grandest: objects for which any school can be established.
There are many suffering from disease and injury, who, when relieved of pain
will be prepared to listen to the truth. Our Saviour was a mighty Healer. In
his name there may be many miracles wrought in the South and in other fields
through the instrumentality of the trained medical missionary. Therefore it is
essential that there shall be a sanitarium connected with the Madison School.
The educational work at the school and at the sanitarium, can go forward hand
in hand. The instruction given at the school will benefit the patients, and the
instruction given to the sanitarium patients will be a blessing to the school.
The class of education given at the Madison School is such as will be
accounted a treasure of great value by those who take up missionary work in
foreign fields. My brethren, let no hindrance be placed in the way of men and
women who are seeking to gain such an education as those at the Madison School
are receiving. If many more in other schools were receiving a similar training,
we, as a people would become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.
The message would quickly be carried to every country, and souls now in
darkness would be brought to the light.
It would have been pleasing to God if, while the Madison School has been
doing its work. other such schools had been established in different parts of
the Southern field. No soul should be left in darkness if by any possible means
he can be enlightened. There is plenty of land lying waste in the South that
might have been improved as the land about the Madison School has been
improved. The time' is soon coming when God's people, because of persecution,
will be scattered in many countries. Those who have received an all-round
education will have the advantage wherever they are. The Lord reveals divine
wisdom in thus leading his people to the training of all their faculties and
capabilities for the work of disseminating truth.
Every possible means should be devised to establish schools on the Madison
order in various parts of the South; and those who lend their means and their
influence to help this work, are aiding, the cause of God. I am instructed to
say to those who have means to spare; Help the work at Madison. You have no
time to lose. Satan will soon rise up to create hindrances; let the work go
forward while it may. This is no time for weakness to be woven into our
experience. Do not spend your money for unnecessary things, do not waste it on
story magazines and cheap literature, but take your surplus means and say, I
will use this in employing men and women to give the last message of warning to
the world.
When the Holy Spirit is allowed to mold our hearts and lives, there will
be much more confidence expressed in the workers who are struggling with
difficulties in hard places. Let every one take his own individual case before
the Lord, and study his own faults instead of the fancied shortcomings of his
brother. We each need to realize our own weakness and -be constantly on guard.
Satan is watching to take us unawares, and many are ignorant of their own
defects of character.
We need to read and understand the message of Ezekiel 2;-- (Here is quoted
Ezekiel 2:1-8; and Ezekiel 3: 17-21).
The Lord is calling for men and women to guard their own houses and
families, and instead of watching their fellow-workers, regarding with jealousy
their outgoings and incomings, to turn their attention to self. The Lord has a
report to make of every soul who would restrict the liberty of another. There
is a Watcher who is taking the measure of character, and who will judge
accordingly. The jealousy revealed by some who claim to be in the truth,
plainly reveals that unless their hearts are changed they will never be
overcomers. Unless they respond to the subduing, sanctifying influences of the
grace of God, they will never wear the crown of life.
»Those who desire to wear Christ's yoke will heed the invitation,
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls." To all who would mark out a
certain course for their brother to pursue, the Lord says, Stand out of the
way. Satan and his emissaries are doing enough of this kind of work. We are
altogether too near the close of earth's history to seek to block the wheels of
the chariot of truth. God's workers are to come into line, to pray together, to
counsel together. And whenever it is impossible for them to gather for counsel,
God will instruct through his Spirit those who sincerely desire to serve Him.
(Signed) Ellen G. White.
[Picture]
A corner of the wood-working shop, showing
saw-table and planer in the background. In this shop all of the material for
the
school buildings is manufactured, and the
300.000 feet of lumber that will go into the sanitarium will pass through here.
[Picture]
Some of the "motive-power" at Cowee. The institution is being
rapidly equipped for an aggressive, self-supporting existence.
Notes
Compare the
statement in the Review article of 1916 (Madison, . . . . up to date has been
the only training school for teachers to man these schools), with the statement
made in 1915 in the report of the committee which said, "We discovered two
distinct classes of schools; one whose purpose primarily is to work for the
people of the community in which the school is located, the other seems to have
to a greater or less degree the purpose of educating the children of Seventh
Day Adventists outside the community, even soliciting students from other
conferences from that in which the school is located." Exactly--they found
schools like Madison, training Seventh Day Adventist young people for the rural
school work, and they found little schools that had been established by the
teachers who had gone forth from the training school. Pisgah was just starting,
Cowee was just entering upon its work, and Reeves (now deceased because of
"co-operation" with the conference) had a fine group of students in
training--one of the Reeves students now being General Manager of the Cowee
Mountain School. Yet in 1918 the statement is made in the Review, and people
are expected to accept it in good faith, that Madison, "to date is the
only school" doing the training school work! Shades of Night! What are we
coming to next?
We would call
attention to the fact that while the committee found hill schools and training
schools, they could not quite
[Picture]
One of the parlors at Cowee Mountain School. In this room faculty meetings
are held,
and it is also the scene of Saturday night good times.
accept the
testimony that there should be other training schools, and so it. the last part
of paragraph two of the recommendations they tersely stated that "The
Madison School shall be regarded by the denomination as the training school for
workers for rural schools in the mountain districts of the south," and
since Cowee "persistently refuses" to close its doors it isn't a part
of the Southeastern, Union nor the North Carolina Conferences. It is the first
time that we ever had it called to our attention that we had to violate the
word of God, disregard the testimonies, and pay obedience to some man-made
rules and regulations in order to, be in Rood standing in the church, but I
have known for some time that in order to be-like the conference "nations
round about u»" we would have to throw the testimonies overboard for the
sake of "harmony," but "harmony" bought at that price it
too much like harmony on the first day of the week, Sabbath, and we will be
obliged to pass it up for the present at least.
Did you notice the
first sentence in the Review article) It says as soberly and candidly as you
please, "For the last fifteen years or more, effort has been made to reach
the rural people of the mountain districts of the south, through the establishment
and conduct of Seventh Day Adventist mission schools. This work was begun in
North Carolina, and has grown in several states, until these schools now are
about thirty in number." One would think to read that statement that the
conference had been behind the work all the time pushing it, when as a matter
of fact they have done everything possible for the last fifteen years to kill
the work which consecrated self-supporting workers have been doing--as the
article states--to reach the mountain people of the south. They started in with
Elder Shireman, gave Sutherland & Magan a liberal helping and now they are
at Cowee.
Read what Sister
White said to the President of the North Carolina Conference in 1901, in behalf
of Elder Shireman, a self-supporting worker in that conference who was being
heckled by the Conference President, in his efforts to drive him from the
field:
"I am greatly
troubled in behalf of Brother Shireman, whom 1 know the Lord loves. 1 was shown
Brother Shireman in great sorrow, suffering from the criticism of those who had
done nothing to build up his work. God is displeased with the spirit you have
manifested. Your insinuations and criticisms are most unbecoming. When you
ought to be a teacher, you have need that one teach you. Do you know that you
are criticizing the work of a man that has been visited by the angels of the
Lord) Who has sent you to a field where a good work is in progress, to show
your zeal by tearing it to pieces) If this is working in the 'regular lines,'
it is high time that we worked in irregular lines. Can it be that our brethren
think their criticisms are the production of the Holy Spirit) There should be
many at work in what are called 'irregular lines.' If one hundred laborers
would step out of the 'regular lines' and take up self-sacrificing work, such
as Brother Shireman has done, souls would be won to the Lord. And the workers
would understand by experience what it means to be laborers together with
God."
Right is right,
whether people believe and live up to it or not.
We do not believe
two wrongs make a right, nor do we believe that right and wrong are co-existent
and synonymous. If the testimony that there should be many schools like Madison
in the south is right, then the recommendation forbidding other schools like
Madison is wrong, and if it is wrong we have as Christians a perfect right to
shun it. If those who help in establishing schools on the Madison order are
aiding the cause of God, then those who lend their influence to destroy and
hinder schools being established on the Madison' order, are helping the cause
of the devil. There is no neutral group and only one right.
We hope every
Seventh Day Adventist in America will study carefully the principles underlying
the self-supporting work in the south, and study to find what spirit is
governing the opposition to the work which uses the weapons of falsehood,
misrepresentation, criticism, etc., etc., in its propaganda. This issue of the
Bulletin is replete with useful information. The next issue will be better
[Picture]
Some of the boys in the forest covered camps at Cowee.
This is their "busy" day. Mr. Ashbaugh, near the tree.
still. If you are
not sure that your friends are getting it, send us their names and addresses
and we will see that they get it. It is sent free of charge anywhere in the
United States and Canada, and the cost of the publication is made up by the
free-will offerings of our brethren who are interested in Truth, interested in
the living testimony in the remnant church, who know that one of the signs of
our degeneracy lies in the abrogating, denying, and lack of obedience to, the
testimonies. Read early writings, under the article, "The Shaking,"
and in that connection read Volume 5 from the bottom of page 75 to the end of
the chapter. Preserve this issue as you may never have access to the complete
testimony herein published, which, by the way, is the first time it has ever
been printed in its entirety to my knowledge, and watch for -future issues
which will contain other information which you can ill afford to be without in
these trying times.
"Cry aloud!
Spare not I Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their
transgression, and the house of Israel their sin." Did it ever occur to
you that when you call sin by its right name you are not showing a "bad
spirit." Did it ever occur to you that, when you are doing a work that the
Lord would have done, and some people are trying to upset your work in the
minds of others, by means of falsehoods, concealment of testimonies authorizing
your work, etc., etc., if in your efforts to induce others to come and help you
do the work, you tell the truth and reveal the falsehoods of the other fellow
who is interested in destroying your work, that you are not necessarily
manifesting a bad spirit) If you produce the testimonies which authorize your
work and they go a little hard with the fellow who has been trying to destroy
your work, you are not necessarily manifesting a "bad spirit," are
you? Some people are keen to suggest that anyone who points out the sins of the
priesthood is actuated by a bad spirit, but let's hark back to the days of
Christ, or Martin Luther, or anyone else who protested against the corruptions
of their age, and we will find narrow-minded people steeped in the bigotry of
the times, who were loud in their exclamations of "bad spirit." It
seems to me if there is any real "bad spirit," it is in those who
originate falsehoods, misrepresentations, etc., etc., against a work that is
winning souls to Cod. Don't you think so) Surely one who stands for right,
doing what Cod would have done, and in the way the Lord has asked that it be
done, should not be compelled to continually refute falsehoods from people who
profess to be Christians. Cowee Mountain School ought not be compelled to waste
energy doing that thing.
Will ail friends of
Cowee please notice that Cowee will not receive anything from the annual
collection taken for the rural schools in the south (we have never received
anything in the past from that collection), and you will therefore, as in the
past, be compelled to make remittance direct to the school of any gifts which
you feel constrained to make to help along the good work we are doing. Our
workers are all, in spite of a diminutive salary, tithe payers and this goes
through the regular channels into the North Carolina Conference. In fact, I
think there were only seven or eight churches in the whole N. C. Conference
that paid as much tithe per capita as the Cowee Mountain Church, and then, too,
we came along with offerings, special collections, etc., etc. Sad to say,
sacred funds have been used by the Union Conference for postage, clerical hire,
stationery, etc., to destroy our work, but we are not worrying very much about
that, at the other fellow will have that score to settle. However, our friends
will do v/ell to remember our needs in the way of money, books, clothing, etc.,
and all gifts should be sent to Cowee Mountain School, Franklin, N. C. It is
perfectly orthodox to remit direct as you will notice from the following:
"The people to whom God has given His means are amenable TO HIM
ALONE." It is their privilege to give direct aid and assistance to
missions. It is because of the misappropriation of means that the southern
field has no better showing than it has today."
"I have to
say, my brother, that I have no desire to see the work in the south moving
forward in the old regular lines."
Mrs. E. G. White.
Helon B.
Allen, B.A. Horace P. Parker, M.D. George H. Ashbaugh
President Medical Director General Manager
The Cowee Mountain School
Incorporated
Franklin,
North Carolina
Office of
the President
Mr. F. M. Wilcox, Editor, New York City,
Review and Herald, July 14, 1918.
Washington, D. C..
My dear Brother Wilcox:
I feel impelled to write you a letter, calling your attention to an
article that appeared in the Review of July 4, 1918, over the signature of W.
E. Howell. I had known for months that the political combination in the
Southeastern Union, which has been for years trying to destroy the usefulness
of the Cowee Mountain School, had planned to use the columns of the Review in
their campaign. In fact, this threat was made to the writer to force him to
give up the work in the south. I do not blame Brother Howell in the least for
the article, for he is absolutely ignorant of what Cowee is or is not, never
having inspected the work which the school is doing, he having taken the false
statements made to him by the union officials and others jealous of the growth
and work which Cowee is doing. Nevertheless, 1 rested perfectly easy in the
matter, Brother Wilcox, feeling that you, as editor of the Review, would not
permit misleading articles to appear in the church paper, and especially such
an article as the Southeastern Union sought to have inserted, as I knew you
stood squarely for the testimonies, and 1 felt sure you would nip in the bud
any insidious propaganda against a work which is in positive harmony, and
carried on under the direct instruction contained in testimonies sent to the
general brethren. Sister White says that the' transaction is a positive sin, on
the part of those having a part in it. "it is a sin for any to criticize
and find fault with those who in their manner of working do not exactly meet
their mind." You will notice, Brother Wilcox, that this testimony was
given when the conference officials were so bitterly opposing the Madison
School, on the same grounds that they are today opposing Cowee --the work did
not just suit them, and was not carried on in harmony with their rules.
The article in the Review is not only misleading in the impression it will
leave in the minds of sincere Seventh Day Adventists, but many of the
paragraphs contain statements that are untrue. In the first paragraph of the
article where Brother Howell speaks of the Madison School being "up to
date . . . the only training school for teachers to man these schools," he
either consciously or unconsciously uttered a falsehood, for Cowee has been
doing that very work for the past three years or more, and the fruits can be
seen by anyone who wishes, at the Su-Dan Farm School located near Eulalie,
N.C., where Mr. Dan Haldemann and Mrs. Sudie Burton-Haldemann, both students
from Cowee, have started a hill school, have a fifty acre farm paid for and
everything out of debt and well equipped, and are doing good work. Those
General, Local and Union Conference brethren who visited Cowee January 1, 1918,
know how utterly false that statement is, for one of them inquired if our
plant, etc., was as large as Madison. They saw a score or more of prospective
self-supporting hill-school workers getting their training at Cowee--so you can
see that Brother Howell's statement reveals either a gross lack of knowledge or
a willful perversion of the facts; in either ca«e, it does not seem to me,
there is much excuse. It is the duty of anyone undertaking the task to write
such an article for the Review to at least get at a semblance of the facts
before he wades off into thin air. At this late day, Brother Howell may try to
qualify his statement that Madison was the only "recognized" school
doing that work, and even at that the qualification would fall flat, for you
well know, Brother Wilcox, that during the first ten or twelve years of the
life of the Madison School when they were working aggressively and starting
hill schools, they were fought at every turn, and everything possible was done
to hinder that work, as is now being done to hinder the work of Cowee, and thus
recognition or non-recognition has nothing to do with the untruth of that
statement.
1 am glad that Brother Howell stated clearly and truthfully the reason why
the Southeastern Union Conference is fighting the work which the Cowee Mountain
School is doing, and that statement of reasons convinces me more fully that you
did not see the article before it appeared in the Review, for I am sure with
your knowledge of those testimonies which were given by Sister White to our
General and Union and Local Conference executives, you would never have
permitted the article to appear, knowing that in the face of those testimonies,
the men who are opposing the self-supporting work in the south, are taking a
position squarely in opposition to the plain statements of the testimonies. In
the light of those testimonies you could not help knowing that our position was
correct when, as Brother Howell says, we "persistently refuse" to
follow the Loma Linda recommendations. How could we follow those
recommendations and be good Seventh Day-Adventists, when those recommendations
compel us to throw overboard the testimonies with reference to the work in the
south, and consider them obsolete, out of date, etc., etc., Isn't it a part of
our creed that Sister White's writings are inspired, and that naturally these
writings come above the rules and regulations framed by men. Then, when the
Loma Linda Council decreed that Madison should be THE training school for the
southern field, to the exclusion of all others that might then be existing, or
might be started in future, do you blame us for refusing to close our doors
when asked to do so by the Union Conference president, and going on with our
work in harmony with the instruction contained in that testimony, "To
Those Bearing Responsibility at Washington and Others Centers," which
inspiration says, "In the work done at the training school for home and
foreign missionary teachers in Madison, Tenn., and in the small schools
established by the teachers who have gone forth from Madison, we have an
illustration of a way in which the message should be carried." Madison was
to illustrate how work should be done in the southland--that is what the Lord
says. Man says, Not Madison must do it all. There is no room for Cowee and
other schools like Madison, for we decreed at Loma Linda that Madison should be
the training school. "My brethren, let no hindrance be placed in the way
of men and women who are seeking to gain such an education as those at the
Madison school are receiving. If many more in other schools were receiving n
similar training, we as a people would become a spectacle to \he world--to angels,
and to men." I would like to ask, Brother Wilcox, how our conference
officials expect students to receive a "similar" training in
"similar" schools, if they fight every "similar" school and
do everything possible to turn students away from schools in which that
"similar" training is given. In that same testimony, Sister White
says, "It would have been pleasing to God if, while the Madison School has
been doing its work, other such schools had been established in different parts
of the southern field. There is plenty of land lying waste in the south, that
might have been improved as the land about the Madison School has been
improved. Every possible means should be devoted to establish schools on the
Madison order in various parts of -the south; and those who lend their means
and their influence to help this work are aiding the cause of God." How
can men who profess to believe the testimonies go directly contrary and try to
stifle every training school in the south except .Madison. If men who lend
their influence to establish schools like Madison are helping the cause of God,
what arc men doing who use the columns of the church paper to kill schools like
Madison.
In the face of that positive testimony, could you ask me to close the
doors of our school to S. D. A. students who want to get a training to enter
the work, thus granting the request of the conference brethren? Do I cease to
be a good loyal S. D. A. when I refuse to throw the testimonies overboard and
take instead for my compass and chart the man-made rules and regulations drawn
up at Loma Linda, and drawn in direct contradiction to the then existing
testimonies which were withheld from circulation} With my own ears' I heard
Sister White beg our people to start schools in the south on the Madison order,
and then later on I received through private channels a copy of the testimony
from which I have been quoting, and in direct response to the oral and written
testimony given through inspiration, Mrs. Allen and myself went down into the
mountains of North Carolina and founded the Cowee Mountain School. On January
1, 1918, Elder W. H. Bran-son, president of the Southeastern Union; Prof.
Frederick Griggs, and four Local and Union Conference officials came to Cowee,
with the avowed purpose, according to Eider Locken's confidential statement to
a self-supporting worker, of closing Cowee up. They found the school full of
students, but they asked us to close our doors to all S. D. A. students who
might apply, and turn those away already there, as soon an the current session
closed, in order, as they stated, to be in harmony with the Loma Linda
recommendations, which provided that Madison should be the only training school
for the hill-school work. Can you blame us for refusing politely and frankly to
grant this request) Well, this is exactly what our students and faculty did
through a vote taken in the presence of those conference brethren, and we
plainly brought to the attention of these conference brethren their
un-scriptural procedure, and stated to them frankly that we considered the
voice of God through the testimonies as of more force and more entitled to
obedience than the voice of men in the recommendations framed at Loma Linda.
Any unbiased thinking person, upon reading the Loma Linda recommendations
and knowing how the self-supporting work in the south has been fought from its
very inception, could .see that those recommendations had been framed with the
idea of curtailing and controlling the growth of the work in the south. Notice
the reading--"Madison shall be regarded by the denomination as THE
training school for workers for rural schools in the mountain districts of the
South." Doesn't sound much like Sister White's statement, "Every
possible means should be Revised to establish schools on the Madison order in
various parts of the south," does it) It took some of our conference
officials nearly twelve years, during which time they were bitterly fighting
Madison, to realize that they could not kill a work which God himself had
started, and so they took a half-step and "recognized" the Madison
School, and couched the recognition in words which would commit them to a fight
on schools like Madison, that were already in existence when they passed the
recommendations that "recognized" Madison. It is indeed sad, and to
say the very least, unfortunate, that other schools like Madison must pass
through the same vale of tears that Madison passed through in order to carry
out the instruction the Lord has given concerning the work in the South; and it
does seem a pity that the denomination must continue to .be torn by the
jealousies and the contentions that have been engendered in the past by the
unsanctified opposition of the enemies of the self-supporting work in the
south.
We cannot--we dare not let men come in and stop our work. They can hinder
it--they have hindered it greatly in the past. We have lost many workers who on
their way to Cowee have had their minds poisoned against the school by
conference officials in the south. Many people have been turned away from the
school and from the work in the south generally by such cunning falsehoods as
"You won't be a S.D.A. in a little while if you go south." I have in
my possession, over the signature of W. H. Branson, president of the
Southeastern Union Conference, the lie that Cowee does not teach the principles
of the Seventh Day Adventist denomination fully. These reports he has
circulated far and wide in his campaign to destroy the school, with the cole
purpose of turning workers from Cowee, where they could get a training to enter
the self-supporting hill-school work. 1 am fully satisfied that those who have
circulated these lies about Cowee will have to make their confession as full
and as widely circulated as have the falsehoods been, or they will be outside
the city where their class is found in large number among the murderers and the
other classes enumerated in Rev. 22:15..
You have never visited Cowee, and therefore you cannot know what we teach.
But I want to say to you, Brother Wilcox, that I most cordially invite you to
make an inspection, and if you do not find that Cowee is more strictly a
Seventh Day Adventist school than any conference owned school in America, we
will be very glad to pay your transportation both ways on your trip of
investigation, and so report in the Review, and if you will advise me of your
desire to make the trip I will be pleased to send fifty dollars to you for that
purpose, with the understanding that if you go there and find things not right,
you are to so report, and if you find things absolutely in harmony with the
teachings of the testimonies in every particular, you will also so report
through the columns of the Review--and it seems to me that this is the only way
that you can make right the unfair advantage that was taken of you by the Southeastern
Union Conference officials. The writer will be in New York for the next few
weeks and you are urged to go there during his absence and question the
students and teachers and find out just what our teachings are, and then make a
faithful report in the Review.
Great pressure was brought to bear upon us January 1st when the six
conference brethren were at Cowee. Elder Branson was the spokesman, and the
Loma Linda recommendations were fully explained to our faculty and training
school students. The blessings of obedience to the will of the conference were
enumerated quite fully, but when our students who were in training for the hill
school work asked Elder Branson questions with reference to the operation of
the "recommendations" in our case, it developed that in future we
could take no young people into the school for training, and would have to
dismiss those S. D. A. students who were being trained for the work, at the
close of the present session. After listening carefully to Elder Branson's exposition
of the recommendations, the •writer, absolutely without comment or remarks,
placed the matter before the faculty and training school student body, and
asked them what they -would have done in the matter. Naturally, being students
of the prophecies, they had no hesitancy in voting a point-blank rejection of
the suggestion that we adopt the recommendations. You may not think it
possible. Brother Wilcox, but at that meeting insinuations were dropped that if
we did not fall in line with the recommendations and close up our training
school work, the Cowee Mountain Church would be disbanded, 'or at the very
least, Prof. Allen would be "churched," but we stood firm through the
ordeal and asked the conference brethren in the kindest way possible to show us
from the testimonies wherein we were wrong, so that we could straighten up and
get into harmony with the conference. They could point to nothing but the Loma
Linda recommendations. We told them we felt that the words of inspiration ought
to be of more force and more entitled to obedience than the words and rules and
recommendations of men, and we read to the brethren the testimonies, which
authorized and commanded the work we are doing, and to be done, and to no
avail. The matter did not stop there, as will be seen by the following incident
which 1 want to tell you:
During the year the workers at the school had raised up a company of
nineteen who had asked for baptism. I had arranged with Elder Evers, the
president of the North Carolina Conference, to bring his baptismal suit with
him when he should come to the rally the first of January, in order that he
might baptize the class. He brought his suit with him, but after Elder Branson
had made no progress the night before in closing up the school, the brethren
expressed their desire to make a very hasty get-away in the morning. Well, at
morning worship on the 31st day of December, the day after Elder Evers arrived,
the baptismal candidates were asked to rise to their feet so that Elder Evers
could get acquainted with them, question them at his leisure, and thus prepare
for the ordinance of baptism. When 1 perceived the brethren were in such haste
to get oft, I asked Elder Evers if he were going to remain over to baptize the
class, and he replied I would have to ask Elder Branson. 1 asked Elder Branson,
and he told me that they were not going to baptize them, but that they would
take the matter up with the "Union Conference Committee." They all
went away, leaving the baptismal class standing there in open-mouthed wonder.
Those asking baptism were thoroughly versed in the Bible and the testimonies,
and in their Bible classes had studied about Philip and the Eunuch, and one can
readily imagine their surprise that three ordained ministers should visit the
school, one coming with the express intention of baptizing them, and all •
walking away in the face of their request for baptism without performing that
ordinance, and without ever questioning them to ascertain whether or not they
were fit for baptism. You may think, Elder Wilcox, that I am narrating a
happening in the dark ages, but this happened in the year of our Lord nineteen
hundred eighteen on the second day of January.
We waited for the "Union Conference Committee" to report. We did
not know just exactly how a "Union Conference Committee" could
function in a case of this kind, as we didn't have any record of Philip going
up to Jerusalem or to 169 Bryan Street, Atlanta, to ascertain whether or not he
could baptize a convert who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; but, anyway, we
waited as patiently as we could, knowing that this was simply another lever to
be used by the Union Conference president to disrupt the school by discouraging
the teachers and workers connected therewith, by the refusal of the Union to accept
the people who had accepted the truth under our labors. We would have been
waiting yet for that "Union Conference Committee" to report, but the
close of school was drawing on, and something needed to be done. Some of those
who had accepted the Truth came from homes whore there were no other believers,
and wishing to have them cemented in the bonds of church fellowship in order to
strengthen them to meet the trials and temptations which we knew were ahead of
each one, we invited Elder C. N. Martin from Tennessee, to come over and
baptize the nineteen converts, which he did. We are told that "By their
fruits ye shall know them," and 1 want to ask you, Brother Wilcox, if you
think this whole affair looks as if there were Christians in control of the offices
of the Southeastern Union Conference? It seems to me a sad thing that the
church is to be led from her high and holy calling into such depths of
political infamy, by. men who are temperamentally and spiritually unfitted for
the offices which they hold. You may be interested to know that it was just
three weeks to a day from the time that Elder Evers walked away leaving the
baptismal class unbaptized, bowing to Elder Branson's coercive measures against
Cowee until he was a corpse in Asheville, N. C. There may be, and undoubtedly
there is no significance in that fateful coincidence, but it at least ought to
set some of the officials, of these conferences to thinking, and in the midst
of their cogitations, they ought to be able to perceive the end to which their course
is leading them.
Brother Wilcox, we want to co-operate with the conference, we have tried
to do so, but they simply will not let us, except in one way, and that is to
close our doors and stop our work which the Lord has given us to do. We cannot
do that, for it is in violation of the Spirit of Prophecy, and we recognize
that there is a power ruling in the affairs of men higher than the Loma Linda
Council, higher than the Southeastern Union Conference, and higher than any
combination of men, and to that power--the Word of God-- we humbly bow. If
conferences ask us to go contrary to that word we must politely refuse, but I
can assure you when the official of the Southeastern Union come to us with the
testimonies in their hands and ask us to be obedient to them, we will have a
reverential ear and there will be no trouble in reaching agreements that will
bring in perfect harmony, but when they come asking us to consider the
testimonies obsolete, out of date, inapplicable, etc., etc., how can we
consider that they are actuated by the spirit of God. Sister White warned us we
would have these things to meet, and gave us our bearing through the following
testimony:
"And in reference to our conference, it is repeated o'er and o'er and
o'er again, that it is the voice of God, and therefore everything must be
referred to the conference and have the conference-voice in regards to
permission or restriction or what shall be and what shall not be done in the
various fields. Now from the light that I have, as it was presented to me in
figures: There was a narrow compass here; there within that narrow compass is a
king like, a kingly ruling power. Here the outlets are blocked. And the work
all over our field demands an entirely different course of action than we have
had. We have heard enough, abundance, about that 'Everything must go round in
the regular way.' When we see the regular lines are altered and purified and
refined, and the God of the Heavens' mold is upon the regular lines, then it is
our business to establish the regular lines "
I feel that you, Brother Wilcox, and the General Conference brethren
should do something at once to curb the terrible outburst of jealousy and
political ambition that has engulfed the Southeastern Union Conference, for if
something is not done to remedy this terrible condition, the lay members of the
church, who are, as a rule, firm believers in the testimonies, will lose all
confidence in conference officials, for they will, and must, conclude that all
who sanction and permit the presentation and the malicious misrepresentation of
a work in the south that is carried on in strict harmony with the testimonies,
are themselves out of harmony with the testimonies, and consequently out of
harmony with God, and as a natural consequence unfit leaders of the flock. The
people cannot have confidence in those who do not follow the testimonies, and
unless this condition is corrected at once and those conference and Union
Conference presidents, who place their own ideas and political ambitions above the
word of Cod, are either converted or retired to private life, it is going to
cause a condition most terrible in this denomination, the evil effects of which
you or I cannot begin to comprehend.
This opposition to Cowee is only a repetition of the Madison School
affair. Madison endured the opposition for years, until the school got so
strong that the opposition cut no figure, and then in order to "save their
faces" those who opposed the school so bitterly, "recognized"
the institution, but added sin to sin by circulating the falsehood broadcast
over the country that "the conference now owns and controls Madison"
so that it is all right, giving to the people the plausible but false excuse
for their change of position. 'Getting by with the falsehood made it appear
.that Madison was all wrong until after it was. turned over to the conference,
and now that the conference owns it every one can shout for Madison. It does
seem strange that professing Christians should hatch up such a fabrication of
falsehoods to bolster up their reputations lost by reason of their opposition
to a work which the Lord started in the south, especially when they might have
known that sooner or later the truth would come out. The conference does not
own Madison school any more than you or I do. Madison is held just as it was
held when it was started, and just as Cowee is held today--by a benevolent
corporation--the property forming a trust estate always to be used for the
purposes set forth in the charter. The falsehood is given great publicity that
Prof. Allen and his wife own Cowee and that it is their private property--and
that this accounts for the persecution of Cowee, while Madison is all
right--owned by the conference. Prof. Allen owns Cowee just about as much as
Dr. Sutherland owns Madison--they are presidents of the respective institutions
and neither can take a dollar from the assets of their respective corporations.
When the conference brethren were at Cowee they eulogized Madison over how
well it was behaving, and seemed to manifest most fervent affection for it,
etc., etc. We at Cowee were deeply impressed by this manifestation of brotherly
love, and longed to yet into the fold of the conference embrace, and
accordingly we offered to do anything that Madison had done, agree to anything
that Madison had agreed to, etc., etc.. ad infinitum, in order to get into
harmony with the Union Conference brethren, but they said "No I" the
Loma Linda recommendations provided only one training school and that at
Madison and, therefore, it was out of the question for us to get into harmony
on that basis, the only basis being to close our doors to S. D. A. students.
Well, would you believe, Bro. Wilcox, that these conference men went from Cowee
over to Pisgah, and in direct violation of their own much beloved Loma Linda
recommendations made Pisgah a training school? The very recommendations which
they used as a club over us to make us close our doors, they themselves
violated in making Pisgah a training school! But the funny part, Pisgah, like Cowee,
had been a training school for years, and yet Brother Howell in his article in
the Review coyly states, "Mt. Pisgah Industrial Institute may now take up
the work of training teachers to man rural schools," just as if they could
take up the work of doing something which they have been doing for several
years. We are glad Pisgah can now take up the work of training rural school
teachers--and when they "let" a few more schools that are already
doing it, do it, we will begin to see a fulfillment of the testimonies which
say that there should be many like Madison in the south.
When the Southeastern Union "recognizes" Cowee and straightens
up the falsehoods they have been circulating, their troubles with Cowee will be
over, for we are anxious to harmonize with the conference, but we also would
like to be in harmony with the testimonies.- but if we have got to be out of
harmony with either, it will not bo the latter, I can assure you.
I beg of you, Brother Wilcox, to take some energetic and immediate action
in this matter, for we cannot allow the injury to continue that is being done
the Cowee Mountain School, and the work in the south, by the article in the
Review, and I want to assure you that J shall be glad to co-operate with you in
every way possible to bring about the end of this internecine warfare that is
doing no one any good, and everyone positive harm.
Will be glad to hear from you at your earliest convenience. Most
faithfully yours,
(signature) H. B. Allen
Address me:
Hotel Martinique, New York, N. Y.
Copy to Elder A. G. Daniells.
Between You and I
The Cowee Mountain School was established in response to the appeals made
through the Spirit of Prophecy that work of the character which Cowee is doing
should be done in the Appalachian Highlands. Since the school was started in
answer to this appeal, it is natural that its managers should try to ascertain
the will of the Lord in the matter of its direction and its development.
The character of the field, the special work the school has to do, and a
hundred and one other items enter into the conditions which must govern the
school's character and policy. We could never have established a
"regulation school" at Cowee and made a success of it--our conditions
and the peculiar needs of the field made it imperative that many things be
different than found in other schools.
Instruction has been given that our schools should be out in the
country--away from the cities and towns--and we have obeyed this advice and
great blessings have been the result. Instead of locating adjacent to some
little town, or selling our land off. to brethren who wanted to locate near the
school, which would have soon created a hamlet, we got out in the country, and
then refused to let any other people buy little tracts and locate near us. So
emphatic have we been in this policy that if anyone violates the school's wish
in the matter, their children will not be allowed to attend the school. We want
families to come south, and if they wish, get their training at Cowee, but we
do not want them to come south and buy land adjacent to Cowee and do the
"missionary" (?) work for us that is being done for some schools that
we know of. The Lord has given His people light--great light---and if people
will walk in the light they will reap the blessing that comes through
obedience, but if not, their harvest will be disappointment, trouble, factions,
etc.
That idleness is sin, no one disputes, and -so Cowee has endeavored to
develop in such a way that all students may be supplied with constructive
effort that will keep them employed. To do this, something besides mental work
is required, and so, guided by Inspiration, we have developed a system of
education, which, in its results is proving to be everything we had hoped.
Every student in the school has the day divided between mental and industrial
work. Early in the morning the book work is taken up, every day throughout the
year, and each student is able to finish a grade in a year. One study is
carried at a time, and completed before another is taken up. The mental work is
finished in time for a 9:30 breakfast and by eleven the students and teachers
are ready for the industrial part of their day. Students and teachers alike
sustain themselves by the work of their hands. Paul was a tentmaker, Jesus was
a carpenter, and they both WORKED at their trades. In the schools of the
prophets the students and the teachers sustained themselves, we are told, by
manual pursuits.
As a result of our firm stand on this rational system of education, it is
possible for young people to come to Cowee and get a training for aggressive
work, which they could not do were it not for the
[Picture]
inspirational scene at Cowee Mountain School,
Franklin, N.C., taken this spring when
nineteen were baptized and taken into the Cowee Mountain Church.
self-supporting principles upon which the school is founded, for here they
can. out of school hours, earn enough to defray all their expenses while in the
school. The school offers plenty of work to every student who is willing to
work, and the rate of pay varies from five to fifteen cents per hour depending
upon the worker's 'ability, enthusiasm, etc., etc. The students who leave Cowee
to enter a mission field will not have to send for a carpenter, or a mason, or
a plumber, or a farmer--they are all that and more besides. We expect every
student who attends Cowee to defray at least seventy-five per cent of his
expenses by his labor at the school, and we are glad when the student works one
hundred per cent of his way.
Our land holdings today are nearly seven times what they were when we
started, and the end is not yet, by a long ways. We are intensifying our
farming methods and building up a strong agricultural plant as a basis of
self-support for the school, and as a solid foundation for a fine group of
self-supporting students. No stone is being left unturned to bring our
production up to the very maximum. By the erection of a silo, greenhouses in
which to grow vegetables the year round, and other modern adjuncts to
successful farming, we are not only making it possible for our students to be
self-supporting, but we are producing the food supplies that will make the
school economically independent. This summer our girls are making a desperate
effort to fill the ten thousand quarts of glass cans which are a part of the
school equipment, and, judging by present appearances and the reputation of
Cowee students, I think they will succeed. Great quantities of garden stuff
will be dried in the new evaporator which was built last year, and this year looks
as if the gradual and steady improvement which Cowee has been making would be
continued with accelerated momentum.
Cowee is beautifully located about three thousand feet above sea level,
and is in a most strategic location for the training school work we are doing.
Its location is ideal for health, and we are taking advantage of this in
building our sanitarium here. Our attendance is limited, which allows for
individual contact and attention for each student. The home plan is worked out,
and Cowee is really one big family. An excellent spiritual atmosphere surrounds
the school, and the highest ideals are held before the students. There is a
fundamental understanding at Cowee among teachers and students, which has been
a most potent factor in leading the school upon its high platform of truth, and
that understanding is that if any teacher or student or visitor calls attention
to anything which the school is doing or failing to do which is out of harmony
with the words of Inspiration, that practice or omission will be corrected.
This was a mighty decision to make, but it has led to the banishment of harmful
foods from the tables, dress reform, proper methods of eating, etc., etc.,
which I do not suppose exist in very many schools. The fruit of such a
consistent course is seen in the large number of young people who became
Christians and asked for baptism. Nineteen, with a total enrollment, including
teachers, of eighty is quite a high percentage.
Cowee especially encourages mature young people who want to get a preparation
for the work. There is great need for trained workers,'and one of the greatest
of these needs is along medical evangelical lines. We are establishing a strong
course in this department of our work, and in two years an ordinary student,
while sustaining himself in the school, can complete the Medical Evangelistic
Course, and be well qualified for work at Cowee, in some out-station, or
anywhere else in mission fields. About a year' ago the management of the Cowee
Mountain School found that it would be possible to spare enough money from the
operating funds of the school to establish an occasional branch school, and as
fast as we can train suitable students to take charge of these schools they
will be started. Already we have one school operating, and strangely, it seems
to take after its parent, for it started out with fifty acres of land, and now
owns ninety. Back to the land seems to be the slogan of Coweeites. None but
those of the very highest type of character will be placed in charge of these schools,
and while taking the two-year evangelistic course at Cowee, the management can
get acquainted with the student and know whether or not he has the elements of
success in his system, and also whether or not he would "stick" if he
went out and started a hill school plant. Those students who feel called to
that work, if they have demonstrated their fitness industrially, and
spiritually at Cowee, will be sent out into the hills and their enterprise will
be financed by the parent school. Those who have means of their own and can
themselves finance their project can do so, of course. The main thing is to get
the work done, and Cowee finances projects where others do not.
[Picture]
This group of people have accepted the truth,
been baptized, and were taken into the Cowee Mountain Church, but there are
people
today like John of old who would forbid the
work going on, "because they follow not with us." The Lord rebuked
John,
and he will seriously rebuke those adopting
those tactics today.
In this connection, we want to utter a caution: Don't expect' to come to
Cowee and the very next week be given two or three thousand dollars in cash,
and be sent out to spend it. Cowee is an institution conducted upon business
principles. Come and demonstrate your fitness to be entrusted with the Lord's
money---demonstrate your ability, your willingness to work, your fidelity to
principle, your firmness for truth, etc., etc., and then you will be given the
responsibility of a hill school. The reason we pass this caution out is that
some have come to Cowee, and instead of demonstrating their willingness to take
hold and lift, have instead demonstrated their willingness to lie in bed in the
morning until the other fellow had most of the lifting done--they are not now.
Others have come and wanted to set up housekeeping on the school premises so
they could slaughter animals to satisfy their carnivorous appetites--they, too,
are not now. But all who come with the resolve to play square, be true to God
and to their fellow men, and who want to get into the work, will find a quick
preparation at Cowee, and when they have their preparation they will be
established, if it is their desire, in a permanent field of usefulness.
A new Medical Evangelistic Course class starts September 9th of each year.
Elsewhere in this issue of the Bulletin will be found the outline of work
required each year. A class in the various academic grades starts September I
st of each year, and every three months thereafter throughout the year.
Each student should bring pillow, pillow slips, sheets, quilts, towels,
etc., etc., for his or her own personal use and such other personal belongings
as may be desired in rooms.
For any further particulars, address,
Cowee Mountain School, Inc.,
Franklin. N.C.
Outline of 'the Medical Evangelistic Course
First Year
Study of Medical Evangelistic principles ............ 180 hours
Anatomy and Physiology.................. ...... 135 hours
Practical Hydrotherapy ...................... ... 50 hours
Massage................................ ..... 30 hours
Obstetrics .................................. .. 5 hours
General Diseases ........................... ... I 50 hours
Bacteriology and Hygiene ..................... .. 25 hours
Dietetics.............................. ....... 60 hours
Red Cross and Emergency drill. ............... ... 30 hours
Second Year-Bible and Health Reform principles. ........... .... 180 hours
General Diseases............ .................. 150 hours
Principles of Hydrotherapy............... ...... 60 hours
Surgical Nursing........................... .... 55 hours
Obstetrics, Infant Feeding and Gynecology.... ...... 100 hours
Medical Ethics .......................... ...... 15 hours
Materia Medica ............................. .. 15 hours
Laboratory and Chemistry ............... ....... 60 hours
Advanced Physiology ................ .......... 150 hours
Children's Diseases .......................... .. 25 hours
Cooking................................. .... 30 hours
The Regular Lines
Phariseeism in the Christian world today is not extinct. The Lord desires
to break up the course of precision which has become so firmly established,
which has hindered instead of advancing the work.
For years the same routine, the same "regular way" of working
has been followed, and God's work has been greatly hindered. The narrow plans
that have been followed by those who did not. have clear sanctified judgment
has resulted in a showing that is not approved by God. God calls for a REVIVAL
and a REFORMATION. The "regular lines" have not done the work which
God desires to see accomplished. Let revival and reformation make constant
changes. Something has been done in this line, but let not the work stop here.
No I Let every yoke be broken. Let men awaken to the realization that THEY HAVE
AN INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY.
The present showing is sufficient to prove to all who have the true
missionary spirit that the "regular lines" may prove a failure and a
snare. God helping His people, the circle of kings who dared to take such great
responsibilities shall never again exercise their unsanctified power in the
so-called "regular lines."
We look to see whether new fields have been worked, whether the barren
portions of the Lord's vineyard have received attention.
WE SEE THAT MOST OF THOSE WHO HAVE SOUGHT TO BEGIN WORK IN NEW REGIONS, AS
BROTHER SHIREMAN HAS DONE, HAVE BEEN DISCOURAGED by those at the heart of the
work, for fear that they would need money from the treasury.
There are many who, with proper encouragement, would begin in
out-of-the-way places to make efforts to seek and to save that which is lost.
The Lord blesses these self-sacrificing ones, who have such a hunger for souls
that they are willing to go anywhere to work. But, in the past, HOW MUCH
ENCOURAGEMENT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO SUCH WORKERS BY THEIR BRETHREN. Many of them
have waited long for something to do. but no attention has been given to them.
IF THE MINISTERS HAD GIVEN HELP AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO THESE MEN AND WOMEN,
THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN DOING THE WORK APPOINTED THEM BY THE LORD. (Note: Since
instead of doing this, SOME have discouraged men and women who have sought to
get into the work, who has been appointing them their work.)
Shall men go to the "regular lines" to see whether they will be
permitted to labor, or shall they go out and work as best they can, depending
on their own abilities and on the help of the Lord, beginning in a humble way
and creating an interest in the truth in places in which nothing has been done
to give the warning message?
The Lord has encouraged those who have started out on their own
responsibility to work for Him, their hearts filled with love for souls ready
to perish. A true missionary spirit will be imparted to those who seek
earnestly to know God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. The Lord lives and
reigns. YOUNG MEN, GO FORTH INTO THE PLACES TO WHICH YOU ARE DIRECTED BY THE
SPIRIT OF THE LORD. WORK WITH YOUR HANDS THAT YOU MAY BE SELF-SUPPORTING, AND
AS YOU HAVE OPPORTUNITY PROCLAIM THE MESSAGE OF WARNING.
I have to say, My Brother, that 1 have no desire to see the work in the
south moving forward in the old regular lines.
(June 28, 1901) ELLEN G. WHITE.
"1 have been shown that the spirit of the world is fast leavening the
church. You are following the same path as did Ancient Israel. There is the
same falling away from your holy calling as God's peculiar people. Your neglect
to follow the light will place you in a more unfavorable position than the Jews
upon whom Christ pronounced a woe. I have been shown that unbelief in the
testimonies has been steadily increasing AS THE PEOPLE BACKSLIDE from God. It
is all through our ranks, all over the field." "There are only a few
who, like the stars in a tempestuous night, shine here and there among the
clouds." "What can I say to arouse our people) 1 tell you not a few
ministers who stand before the people to explain the Scriptures are defiled.
Their hearts are corrupt, their hands unclean." "If all of those who
come together for meetings of edification and prayer, could be regarded as true
worshippers, then might we hope, though much will still remain to be done for
us. BUT IT IS IN VAIN TO DECEIVE OURSELVES. Things are far from being what the
appearance would indicate." "THERE IS A SPIRIT OF OPPOSITION TO THE
PLAIN WORD OF GOD, AND TO THE TESIT1MONY OF HIS SPIRIT." "If all that
appears to be divine life were such in reality; if all who profess to present
the truth to the world, were preaching for the truth. AND NOT AGAINST IT. and
if they were men of God, GUIDED BY HIS SPIRIT-- then might we see something
cheering amid the prevailing moral darkness." "1 know that many think
far too favorably of the present time." "We have been inclined to
THINK that where there are no faithful ministers, there can be no true
Christians; but this is not the case. God has never made the flock wholly
dependent upon human instrumentalities. But the days of purification of the
church are hastening on apace. God will have a people PURE and TRUE. In the
mighty sifting soon to take place, we shall be better able to measure the
strength of Israel." (Note: This was written in I 882, so the shaking was
future at that time, and we are apparently about to enter it now. Study in this
connection "The Shaking" in Early Writings.) "Those who have
trusted to intellect, genius, or talent, will not THEN stand at the head of
rank and file. THEY DID NOT KEEP PACE WITH THE LIGHT. Those who have proved
themselves unfaithful will not then be entrusted with the flock. In the last
solemn work few great men will be engaged. They are self-sufficient,
independent of God and he cannot use them. THE LORD HAS FAITHFUL
SERVANTS. WHO IN THE SHAKING, TESTING TIME WILL BE DISCLOSED TO
VIEW." "Many a star that we have admired for its brilliancy, will
then go out in darkness. Chaff like a cloud will be borne away on the wind,
even from places where we see only floors of rich wheat. All who ASSUME THE
ORNAMENTS OF THE SANCTUARY,, but are not clothed with Christ's righteousness,
will appear in the shame of their own nakedness."s)-- (Volume 5, page 75
and onward.)
"The foundation of Christianity is Christ our righteousness. Men are
individually 'accountable to God, and each must act as God moves upon him, not
as he is moved upon by the mind of another; for if this manner of labor is
pursued, souls cannot be impressed and directed by the Spirit of the great I
AM. They will be kept under a restraint which allows no freedom of action or of
choice."
"The Lord has shown me that men in responsible positions ARE STANDING
DIRECTLY IN THE WAY OF HIS WORK, (BECAUSE THEY THINK THE WORK MUST BE DONE AND
THE BLESSING MUST COME IN A CERTAIN WAY. AND THEY WILL NOT RECOGNIZE THAT WHICH
COMES IN ANY OTHER WAY." (If nineteen converts accept the truth under the
labors of self-supporting workers they are refused baptism because men are
standing in the way of God's work.)
"God has his appointed channels of light, BUT THESE ARE NOT
NECESSARILY THE MINDS OF ANY PARTICULAR SET OF MEN."
"When men shall cease to PLACE THEMSELVES IN THE WAY, God will work
among us as never before."
"Do not impose upon the people RULES AND REGULATIONS, which, if
followed, would leave them as destitute of the Spirit of God as were the hills
of Gilboa of dew or rain."--(Vol. 5:725-727.)
"In His great purpose of advancing the cause of truth in the earth,
He designs that every part of His work shall blend with every other part. The
workers are to draw together in the spirit of Christ. IN THEIR DIVERSITY THEY
ARE TO PRESERVE UNITY. One institution is not to be brought under the control
of another, but all are to exercise their powers harmoniously. THE WORK OF
DIRECTION IS TO BE LEFT WITH THE GREAT MANAGER, WHILE OBEDIENCE TO THE WORD OF
THE LORD IS TO BE THE AIM OF HIS WORKERS."-- (Ellen G. White. March 10.
1907.)
"The worker who considers himself in a -position of such high
responsibility that he allows the members of the churches to look to him to
voice their decisions and control their actions, is educating men and women to
wear a human yoke. They are not learning of the divine Teacher. To the one who
is being led to have such an experience, I would say, Go to Christ; ask Him to
give you an experience: learn, to emulate his faultless character, and do not
look for experience of guidance to any human being, who is as liable to err as
yourself. There are reasons why we should not put our trust in men who are
placed in positions of large responsibility."--(Ellen G. White, "Go
Not to Human Agencies," October 3, 1907.)
"Those who give their influence to sustain an evil work are doing
Satan's drudgery. ACTIONS REVEAL PRINCIPLES AND MOTIVES. The fruit borne by
many that claim to plants in the Lord's vineyard, shows them to be but thorns
and briars. A whole church may sanction the wrong course of some of its
members, but that sanction does not prove the wrong to be right. IT CANNOT MAKE
GRAPES OF THORN-BERRIES."--(Vol. 5:104.)
"When the individual members of the Church shall act as true
followers of the meek and lowly Saviour, there will be LESS COVERING UP and
EXCUSING SIN. All will strive to act a. if in God's presence."--(Vol.
5:147.)
"The church has turned back from following Christ her leader, and is
steadily retreating towards Egypt. Yet few are alarmed or astonished at their
want of spiritual power. Doubt and even disbelief of 'the testimonies of the
Spirit of God, is leavening our churches everywhere. Satan would have it thus.
Ministers who preach self instead of Christ would have it thus. THE TESTIMONIES
ARE UNREAD AND UNAPPRECIATED. God has spoken to you. Light has been shining
from his word and from the Testimonies, and BOTH HAVE BEEN SLIGHTED AND
DISREGARDED. THE RESULT IS APPARENT IN THE LACK OF PURITY AND DEVOTION AND
EARNEST FAITH AMONG US."-- (Vol. _5_:2|7.)
"Some of our leading brethren are inclined to indulge the spirit
manifested by the apostle John when he said, 'Master, we saw one casting out
devils in thy name; and we forbade him, BECAUSE HE FOLLOWETH NOT WITH US.'
Organization and discipline are essential, but there is now very great danger
of a departure from the simplicity of the gospel of Christ. What we need is
less dependence upon mere form and ceremony (organization), and far more of the
power of true godliness. If their life and character are exemplary, let all
work who will, in any capacity. ALTHOUGH THEY MAY NOT CONFORM EXACTLY TO YOUR
METHODS. NOT A WORD SHOULD BE SPOKEN TO CONDEMN OR DISCOURAGE THEM. LET NOT
THOSE WHO PREACH THE WORD LAY THEIR HANDS UPON THE HUMBLEST WORKER, AND SAY,
'YOU MUST LABOR IN THIS CHANNEL. OR NOT WORK AT ALL.' HANDS OFF, BRETHREN. LET
EVERYONE WORK IN HIS OWN SPHERE. WITH HIS OWN ARMOR ON, DOING WHATEVER HE CAN
DO IN HIS HUMBLE WAY. STRENGTHEN HIS HANDS IN THE WORK. THIS IS NO TIME FOR
PHARISEEISM TO CONTROL. LET GOD WORK THROUGH WHOM HE WILL. THE MESSAGE MUST
GO."--(Vol. 5:461.)
"If wrongs are apparent among His people, and if the servants of God
pass on indifferent to them, they virtually sustain and justify the sinner, and
are alike guilty, and will just as surely receive the displeasure of God; for
they will be made responsible for the sins of the guilty." "WRONGS
MUST BE CALLED WRONGS. GRIEVOUS SINS MUST BE CALLED BY THEIR RIGHT NAMES."
"THE PLAIN STRAIGHT TESTIMONY MUST LIVE IN THE CHURCH, or the curse of God
will rest upon His people as surely as it did upon Ancient Israel because of
their sins."--(Vol. 5:676.)
"The truth of God is not in harmony with the traditions of men, nor
does it conform to their opinions." "Many have corrupted their ways
before me. Envy, hatred of one another, jealousy, evil surmising, emulation,
strife, bitterness, is the fruit that they bear. And they will not heed the
Testimony that I send them." (It would have been pleasing to God, if,
while the Madison School has been doing its work, other such schools had been
established in different parts of the Southern field. Those who lend their
means and their INFLUENCE to help this work are AIDING THE CAUSE OF GOD.)
"A man's truthfulness yesterday will not tone for his falsehood
today." "H you seek to turn aside the counsel of God to suit
yourselves; if you lessen the confidence of God's people in the Testimonies he
has sent them, you are rebelling against God as certainly as were Korah, Dathan
and Abiram. You have their history. You know how stubborn they were in their
opinions. They decided that their judgment was better than that of Moses, and
that Moses was doing great injury to Israel." (Cowee must close up.) The
Lord, it is true, has said that such schools should exist, but out at Loma
Linda we passed some regulations that supersedes the Lord's instructions, and
Madison shall be regarded as THE training school for the work in the south.)
YOU HAVE THEIR HISTORY"--(Vol. 5, page 62 and onward.
My heart aches day after day and night after night for our churches. Many
are PROGRESS1NG but in the BACK TRACK. The path of the just shineth more and
more unto the perfect day.' Their march is onward and upward. They progress
from strength to strength, from grace to grace, and from glory to glory. This
is the privilege of all our churches. But, oh, how different has it been with
them. They need divine illumination. They must square about. 1 know what 1 say.
Unless they shall become Christians indeed, they will go FROM WEAKNESS TO
WEAK-NESS, DIVISIONS WILL INCREASE, and many souls will be led to perdition.
All I can say to you is, TAKE UP THE LIGHT WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN YOU, AND FOLLOW
IT AT ANY COST TO YOURSELVES. THIS IS YOUR ONLY SAFETY. YOU HAVE A WORK TO DO
TO COME INTO HARMONY (not in harmony with man-made rules and regulations, but
with God). AND MAY THE LORD HELP YOU TO DO IT EVEN IF SELF IS CRUCIFIED. GATHER
UP THE RAYS OF LIGHT THAT HAVE BEEN SLIGHTED AND RESTORED. Gather them up with
meekness, with trembling, and with fear. THE SIN OF ANCIENT ISRAEL WAS IN
DISREGARDING THE EXPRESSED WILL OF GOD AND FOLLOWING THEIR OWN WAY ACCORDING TO
THE LEADINGS OF UNSANCTIFIED HEARTS. MODERN ISRAEL ARE FAST FOLLOWING IN THEIR
FOOTSTEPS, AND THE DISPLEASURE OF THE LORD IS AS SURELY RESTING UPON
THEM."--(Vol.5, page 93.)
"The Lord often works In a manner which is not in accordance with the
ideas of the men who are in responsible positions . The' speculations and
calculations of human minds are not always the wisdom of God. Some move
altogether too slowly, and (their?) caution is a defective spoke In the wheel,
keeping it from rolling.
Again, others may devise and plan how this one and that one shall work,
when the Lord has other work for these men to do, other places where He wants
them to fill In as His a-gents.
His plans are not built on any foundation that is laid by man, but as the
high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity, He lays the foundation, and erects
the structure, in lofty Independence through those who will be worked by Him.
The Lord Jesus takes those that He finds will be molded, and uses them for His
own name's glory, to meet His own spiritual conception. He sees material that
others would pass by, and works all who will be worked.
Through very simple means a door is opened in Heaven, and the simplicity
of the human agent is used by God to reveal God to man.... His work upon human
hearts is not to be interfered with by men. All men must keep their place, and
let God work upon hearts and minds, and enlighten the understanding."
(Signed) E. G. White,
Cooranbong, N. S. W.,
March 12, 1897
Epitaph
It is a fact that most good things on this sin-cursed planet come to an
end. But one of the saddest points of history is when that end is brought about
by careful planning and artful skill that might have been employed for better
purposes.
We are told that Cowee Mountain School did come to an end. The myriad
rumors of corruption may or may not have had any foundation. Yet the threats
that were given, and the reason behind those threats makes it obvious that the
"Arsonists" who "Lit" anil encouraged the fires of
gossip.-- The agents who put financial pressure on, and discouraged students
from attending, were not so concerned about the accuracy of the propaganda, or
with what was wrong with Cowee, but that the school refused to submit to
control -- refused to relinquish the local autonomy and operating principles
that were the very reason for its existence and prosperity.
That Cowee Mountain School was a tremendous success, many then and now
attested to. In fact, the vigor, with which the campaign to destroy such
schools was carried forward, attests to the fact that they were a serious
threat to those who believed in big centers of healing, education etc. -- and
above all -- CONTROL -- control from the Headquarters of the Denomination.
Some may ask: Why did not God protect His own? Perhaps the best answer is
found in the Cross of Calvary. As Christ died, so have many of His disciples.
Perhaps the death of Cowee Mountain School will yet bear a harvest that it
never could otherwise have done.