Broadening The Work In Christian Education

Christian education reached a high point of interest and activity among Seventh-day Adventists in the late 1890s and early 1900s. For 20 or 25 years the church had been operating colleges, but except for elementary schools in connection with these institutions of higher learning, little or nothing had been done for small children by way of “church schools” till just before the turn of the century.WV 410.5

Ellen White's counsels on education were published in 1893 by the International Tract Society in Battle Creek in the form of a 255-page book titled Christian Education. Its messages of instruction were eagerly read and began to influence the membership. Four years later Special Testimonies on Education in its 240 small pages added emphasis to the subject. With Ellen White calling the church to action and with instruction on the conduct of schools available, Seventh-day Adventists began to act.WV 411.1

In 1896 and 1897 at Battle Creek College, where G. W. Caviness served as president and Frederick Griggs headed a 12-grade preparatory school, dedicated instructors developed a normal school for the training of elementary teachers. (See A. W. Spalding, Origin and History, vol. 2, p. 361.) The next year, withWV 411.2

E. A. Sutherland serving as college president, several church schools were opened in Michigan. The church school movement spread rapidly. All this intensified the interest of Seventh-day Adventists in Christian education and made the preparation of an Ellen G. White book on the subject particularly timely.WV 411.3

Work on the book Education was begun in Australia by Mrs. White and Sarah Peck. Considerable appropriate material was drawn from the two books just mentioned and from other sources such as her Review, Signs, and Youth's Instructor articles. Her addresses on education and letters of counsel to educators added more. Then she wrote new material to fill in where needed. Writing on April 11, 1900, while still in Australia, she reported:WV 411.4

I have been reading some chapters of the book on education. Sister Peck has been gathering this matter from a mass of my writings, carefully selecting precious bits here and there, and placing them together in harmonious order. I have read three chapters this morning and I think the arrangement is excellent.WV 411.5

I want all our teachers and students to have this book as soon as they possibly can. I can hardly await the process of publication. I want the principles contained in this book to go everywhere. We must take a higher stand on education (Letter 58, 1900).WV 411.6

P. T. Magan made a bid to publish the book at Berrien Springs. He argued that it would be produced more economically there than at our regular denominational printing plants, and that it would thus have a larger circulation. The proposal was tempting, but on the basis of light she had received from God concerning independent publishing, she declined. The manuscript for Education was submitted to the Pacific Press and has been a publication of that house from 1903 to the present. Ellen White, especially led by God, refused to take steps that would bypass the divinely established organizational procedures that governed the publication and distribution of the literature of the church.WV 411.7