Bible Training School

The Bible Training School was an independent publication produced by Stephen N. Haskell (1834-1922), financed by himself and his supporters. It was issued monthly from June 1902 through August 1919.¹

Purpose and Features

Despite the title the periodical did not have a formal institutional school function associated with it. From the beginning its subtitle declared it was “devoted to house to house Bible work.”² In 1901, Haskell and his wife, Hetty (1857-1919), undertook evangelistic work of this type in New York City, enlisting and training local church members. The periodical’s columns served as source material for the use of lay Bible instructors.

Each issue sold for five cents. The annual subscription was 25 cents. Most issues contained 20 pages. The first numbers were quite plain in appearance but they soon became more attractive with a single-color illustrated cover. Illustrations for the inside pages appeared later. Haskell made appeals for financial support in view of the fact that the publication was a personal enterprise.³ He reported in 1904 that the periodical’s print run varied from 3,000 to 5,000.⁴

Background

Haskell, aged 70 when he launched the Bible Training School, was a prominent, veteran leader who had done much to develop Adventism’s publishing ministry.⁵ Before he came to New York, turbulence surrounded his work as the Bible teacher at the Avondale School for Christian Workers in Australia. He had no formal training as a teacher and his classroom style was prosaic. His personality could be prickly at times, causing friction with colleagues. Eventually Avondale staff members resisted efforts to have him continue in his teaching role, and he returned to the United States quite discouraged and searching for a suitable niche in which to minister.⁶

After he and his wife developed their evangelistic project in New York City, Haskell helped develop self-supporting work in the American South. Over the following years he did further evangelistic work in Nashville, Tennessee; San Bernardino and Oakland, California; and in Portland, Maine. He also served as president of the California Conference, 1908-1911, before returning to his home base in South Lancaster, Massachusetts, in late 1912.⁷ Throughout all of these frequent moves he maintained the publication of Bible Training School. The first few issues were printed in New York and mailed from there but then Haskell opted for a printer in South Lancaster, Massachusetts, and from there the papers were subsequently posted.⁸

Content

The contents of the earliest issues, when Haskell was located in New York, followed the style of a conference newsletter with some leading articles of a religious nature together with reports of ship mission work⁹ and street missions in New York CIty.¹⁰ Additional articles reported the activities of those whom the Haskells had trained and who had then transferred to other parts of America to engage in house to house evangelism.¹¹

Haskell customarily featured an article by Ellen White on the opening page of every issue.¹² The columns also offered regular articles by his wife, Hetty Haskell,¹³ John Loughborough¹⁴ and Haskell himself.¹⁵ Each issue outlined a Bible study using the proof-text method¹⁶ and occasionally a health topic appeared.¹⁷

The Haskells introduced a “Question Box” in later years that at times was of doubtful value. For example, in dealing with the question “Where did Cain get his wife?” they replied: “The same place Seth and the rest of Adam’s sons secured their wives.”¹⁸ Such a response could not have been of much help to anyone with sincere questions about the matter. In response to another question, the use of “crisping pins” by the “haughty daughter of Zion” described in Isaiah 3:16-26 (KJV) was cited as a biblical proscription against women curling their hair. This strained interpretation took the passage out of its context of judgment on Israel’s national haughtiness and wrongly construed “crisping pin” as an implement for curling hair (Other translations, including the American Standard Version available at that time translate the term as satchel, money bag, or purse).¹⁹

A prominent feature of all issues were the pages advertising Haskell’s own books: The Story of Daniel the Prophet, The Story of the Seer of Patmos, and The Cross and It’s Shadow.

The last extant copy of Bible Training School was dated August 1919. This termination reflects the sad personal experience that Haskell was enduring at the time. Hetty’s health was rapidly deteriorating. She passed away only a few weeks later, October 1919, and Haskell himself died in 1922.

Sources

Bible Training School. General Conference Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research, Silver Spring, Maryland. Accessed September 28, 2021. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/Forms/AllFolders.aspx.

Wheeler, Gerald. “Haskell, Stephen Nelson (1834–1922).” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 29, 2020. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=69G2.

Hook, Milton Raymond. “The Avondale School and Adventist Educational Goals, 1894-1900.” Ed.D. diss., Andrews University, 1978.

Notes

1. Most issues are archived in the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Online Archives, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/Forms/AllFolders.aspx.↩

2. Title, Bible Training School, June 1902, 17.↩

3. “Read This,” Bible Training School, January 1904, 126.↩

4. “From 3,000 to 5,000 . . . ,” Bible Training School, January 1904, 128.↩

5. Gerald Wheeler, “Haskell, Stephen Nelson (1834–1922),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, January 29, 2020, accessed April 18, 2022, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=69G2.↩

6. Milton Raymond Hook, “The Avondale School and Adventist Educational Goals, 1894-1900” (Ed.D diss., Andrewes University, 1978), 207-214.↩

7. Wheeler, “Haskell, Stephen Nelson.”↩

8. “The management of the Bible Training School . . . ,” Bible Training School, December 1903, 112.↩

9. J.L. Johnson, “Ship Missionary Work,” Bible Training School, July 1902, 28.↩

10. W. R. Uchtmann, “Sixty-second Street Mission,” Bible Training School, July 1902, 28.↩

11. “Letters recently received . . . ,” Bible Training School, January 1903, 128.↩

12. For example, E. G. White, “Present Help,” Bible Training School, January 1912, 161-162.↩

13. For example, [Hetty] Haskell, “The Twelve Tribes of Israel,” Bible Training School, January 1909, 9.↩

14. For example, J. N. Loughborough, “Experiences in the First Angel’s Message,” Bible Training School, August 1903, 36-38.↩

15. For example, S. N. Haskell, “Revelation,” Bible Training School, July 1903, 20-21.↩

16. For example, D. Dalton, “The New Birth,” Bible Training School, January 1905, 126-127.↩

17. For example, “Nuts,” Bible Training School, January 1909, 27.↩

18. “Question Box,” Bible Training School, January 1919, 140.↩

19. “Question Box,” Bible Training School, August 1919, 60.↩