<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

AudioVerse

Norman McNulty

Madison College—Remembering the Former Days

Well, good morning to all of you and happy Sabbath.

And I want to say that it's certainly a privilege for me to be speaking for the Madison College Alumni Church Service.

Growing up in Portland, Tennessee, Highland Academy, of course, Highland came from Madison originally as Fountainhead School and I was thinking about how nearly everywhere that I've lived maybe with the exception of College Dale when I went to Southern there's a direct or indirect connection to Madison, so including my time at Highland where I graduated from Academy in 1996, Loma Linda of course there's a connection there, And then even down in Lawrenceburg where I live now, there was the sanitarium there for many years that came from Madison.

And the Madison nursing students would come down there for rotations.

So Madison has certainly had an influence.

Albert Diddus, attended here from 1933 to 1936.

And I believe my grandmother also did some graduate work here at 1 point.

And even my wife Joelle went to watch at a Hills Academy with the Clarks and remembers Saturday evening worships where Dr.

Clark would read from God's beautiful farm.

And so we certainly have a deep appreciation for the rich history that comes from this institution.

And before I go any further, I'd like to offer a word of prayer and then we'll get into our message for this morning.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you so much for bringing us here today and for this Sabbath where we can worship you and where we can remember the days from the past where you worked in a mighty way on this campus.

And the work that was started here has spread so far.

Lord, we thank you for what has happened here and how you're continuing to use that influence.

And I just pray that you would be with us now in the the remaining part of this worship service, that the Spirit would speak to our hearts because we are living in very interesting and momentous times of this earth's history.

And we believe that Jesus is coming soon.

And we just pray that we would carry the spirit of the Madison pioneers to the conclusion of this earth's history, I pray in Jesus' name.

The title for the message today is Remembering the Former Days, based on the scripture reading from Hebrews chapter 10 where it says, call to remembrance the former days.

You know, it's amazing to me that despite the fact that this school closed 51 years ago, here we are still today, all these years later, because there is something uniquely special about Madison.

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but there's something uniquely special about Madison.

And it's not a coincidence that the work that began here and the experiences of so many people, the students, the faculty, and the guests that came through the sanitarium and hospital.

It's not a coincidence that what happened here was so significant.

Because it was here at Madison, and I know it was touched on earlier this morning, that the self-supporting work began in the Adventist church.

And despite the fact that there were some political challenges with the nature of that work at that time, as we all know, Ellen White believed in this work so much that this ended up being the only institution of which she served as a member of the board, validating the self-supporting work from that point on to the close of this earth's history.

And the significance of that is that God has worked not only through denominational lines, but through the self-supporting work to sustain a line of Adventists who still believe and support the Bible and the spirit of prophecy.

That is why God blessed Madison in such a powerful way.

You know, Sutherland and McGann certainly had their faults along with their many strengths.

And of course we know some of the history connected to their time, well Sutherland's time at Walla Walla and their time together at Battle Creek College and then they moved to Berrien Springs and then their sudden resignation in around 1904 and of their movement here to the south.

And I'm sure most of you know most of this history, but as someone who was born 13 years after the school closed, I have to rely on the books rather than personal experience to know what happened.

And as I've read the history, and I've read more than 1 book about Madison, 1 of the things that really stood out to me was that Sutherland and McGann made a commitment that they would follow everything that inspiration said.

What an example that lives on to this day.

And many of us would avoid a lot of the problems and a lot of the challenges that we run into if we would simply follow all of the counsel.

You know God has been good to us as a church.

And Sutherland and McGann saw the value, and they were tested on that very principle, as we know, at the very outset because their idea was to go to East Tennessee or to somewhere in North Carolina, and they wanted to get away from, as far as they could, from the type of work that they had been involved with.

They wanted to just go out to a small far off place, have a few students do a small training school, and get away from the major frustrations and challenges they had just gone through.

And as we know, Ellen White told them, if you go far away and you leave opportunities behind where you can train a large number of students, you will be burying your talents in the earth.

You know, sometimes I wonder how many of us are burying our talents in the earth.

How many Sutherland and McGanns could be out there today if we would simply follow the counsel that God has given us and utilize the opportunities that God puts in front of us.

Because there is no question that when Sutherland and McGann faced this test, They get stuck at Neely's Bend and Sutherland had already seen the property and he didn't want to see it again, but Sister White wanted to see it and she says, this is the property that I was shown that you should buy.

They sat down and wept Because they didn't want a piece of property full of gulches, a barren hillside, and lots of rocks.

But God in his infinite wisdom saw that a school located close to Nashville, to a larger population area, was just the place that this school could prosper and flourish.

And so, Sutherland and McGann were certainly true to their commitment to follow the counsel of the Bible and the spirit of prophecy.

I want to read a famous statement from Life Sketches, page 196.

In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of advance to our present standing I can say, praise God, As I see what the Lord has wrought, I am filled with astonishment and with confidence in Christ as leader.

We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us and is teaching in our past history.

And you know, we're living at interesting times of Earth's history right now.

As God's people, from a human standpoint, you could almost say we have much, from a human standpoint, if God wasn't in the equation, there would be much to fear for the future.

Are we going to live in a country where our freedoms as Christians, as Adventists, will be respected so that we can exercise our religion with freedom of speech without the fear of being called bigoted and of losing our tax-exempt status for practicing what we believe the Bible teaches.

But we are told we have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us and his teaching in our past history.

A lot of times we're good as Seventh-day Adventists at remembering the history, but we forget the teaching.

And if Sutherland and McGann were alive today, they would certainly encourage us to not only remember the history of this institution, but to remember the teachings that they followed that made this institution what it was.

It wasn't just history that makes Madison special, it's the teaching that was here at Madison that makes it special as well.

And I want to go to our scripture reading Hebrews chapter 10.

But call to remembrance the former days in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions.

Partly while you were made a gazing stock or a spectacle, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while you became companions of them that were so used.

You know, when we think back to the former days when Madison started and the conditions were so primitive in the early days, we're not talking about the golden age when the hundreds of thousands of dollars had come in through the industries that the school had raised up.

We're talking about the early days when faculty were making $13 a month and people were using dry good boxes for their their clothing drawers.

What sacrifice, what commitment to Christ and to a message and to a method of education to prepare young people to be workers on this earth, not to be rich, famous, and prestigious, but to be workers for God.

After ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of affliction.

And in the immediate context, Paul is speaking to the Jews who, after they accepted Christ, they went through persecution.

But there's certainly application to anybody who chooses to follow Christ completely.

And in verse 34, it says, "'For you had compassion of me and my bonds "'and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, "'knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven "'a better and an enduring substance.'" You know, it would be hard to find too many people on planet Earth today who would be willing to go through the privations and the difficulties that the early pioneers of Madison College put up with.

And yet, the Apostle Paul, speaking to the Hebrew Christians, gives them a commendation because he said, when you accepted Christ, and when you decided to commit your life fully and completely to the message of Christianity, you took joyfully the spoiling of your goods.

The early Christians lost everything that they had for the cause of Christ, and scripture says they took it joyfully.

And when you look at the spirit of the early pioneers of Madison, as they were living in these primitive conditions and making a very low salary, They had a spirit of commitment to the cause of God.

And of course Things eventually expanded and developed and grew.

Eventually a nursing school and a sanitarium were developed here.

And the amazing thing is that Madison, as has been well chronicled and described, hit its golden age just as the United States at the Great Depression.

So as the economy of the United States started tanking, the industry and the expertise of the godly young people that came out of this institution was such that while the nation suffered, Madison and its graduates flourished.

When students came out of Madison, as you well know, they were required to know 2 trades in addition to their schooling or education that they had.

So when hard times came to this nation, the students were well equipped to handle a bad economy.

If 1 job didn't work out, well, they have another trade that they've learned, and they can just shift gears from 1 trade to another trade and sustain themselves.

And they had a Christian knowledge to go with it and as you probably well know, Floyd Borelli did a survey of about 1, 000 students that were out on their own during the Great Depression and of those 1, 000 students not 1 of them had to seek aid from the government during that time.

I want to read this famous statement from manuscript releases, volume 11, pages 192 and 193, written by Ellen White, January 6, 1908, 107 years ago.

She says, if many more students in other of our schools were receiving 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 light." And this was written to those bearing responsibilities in Washington and other centers.

And of course, this concept of being a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men is coming from 1 Corinthians 4, verse 9.

And certainly, Madison College fulfilled that prophecy.

Because by the 1930s and 40s, it was featured in Reader's Digest.

Eleanor Roosevelt also sent people to check out what was happening here.

Because it was so amazing that a self-supporting institution where students gave a $35 deposit as they came, and when they graduated, they got their deposit back.

But because of their industry, they allowed this school to prosper through the money that came in through the industry.

This was truly a model institution of what can happen when God's people follow His instruction.

And so I certainly consider it a privilege to be the grandson of a graduate of Madison College.

And my grandfather thought the world of Dr.

Sutherland is 1 of the people that I want to meet in the kingdom.

Interestingly, his great grandson, Eddie, is a member of my church in Lawrenceburg, so at least I know some of his family.

Back to Menu

Madison College—Remembering the Former Days

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

When the Earth is Filled with the Glory of God

1h 14m

Building the Church

56m

The Inevitability

53m

United

Partners in a Finished Work

1h 14m

Packing Orders: Revelation 11

57m

Essential

05 Building Blocks of a Mason

38m

Plenary

Amish/Adventist

1h 37m

Last Day Events

A World in Crisis

1h 4m

ASI 2014 Plenary Sessions

Town Hall

1h 13m

Business & Management

Race For the Crown

1h 10m

A Living Sacrifice

The Last Generation and the Cross of Christ

52m

Sound Doctrine