What the Young People’s Work Means to the Young People
By E. M. James
In many ways we can see that God has blessed this movement, which is leading young men and women into Christian service. First, their associating from week to week in the society meetings is binding them more securely to the cause of God. It gives them some definite place and interest in the Sabbath services. As they take part in the programs, their own characters are strengthened. Perhaps we can best illustrate this by quoting from a letter recently received from a young girl, a member of one of our country societies. She wrote: “I conducted a missionary meeting some time ago, and my subject was ‘Spare Moments.’ So now I have to be careful how I spend my spare moments, or I shall be condemning myself.”16 Not so long ago a mother was telling of her anxiety for her boys, and how hard it was to interest them on Sabbath afternoons and to keep them from the street. In response to this call for assistance, a society was organized for the boys and girls of that church, and now the very boys who were so great an anxiety are busy, and deeply interested in their society and its workings each Sabbath afternoon, even acting as officers of the society. These meetings do much to interest the young people and to hold them in the church until they have made their decisions for God. As the mind and hands are occupied with the young people’s work, the heart is won. Then there are the doctrinal studies, of which so many have spoken, telling how those studies have helped them in giving a reason for their faith. They enable these prospective church members to become intelligent on the Bible doctrines, and better prepared to stand the tests before us. It is too early to measure the influence the Reading Course is exerting. But there is abundant evidence that it is fulfilling its intended purpose. One girl, speaking of the book “Christ’s Object Lessons,” says, “I have learned from it to love God more.” Another says: “I used to be an Adventist because my parents were, but since I read ‘Great Controversy’ I am an Adventist because I know it is right.” A young man who is now in a foreign field attributes his choice of his life work to a Reading Course book. These studies, though on a small scale, have acted their part in stimulating the young people to study further by attending our schools for preparation for service in a wider sphere. Even now many of our young people are asking us to pray that God will open the way for them to go to school. Giving to missions, praying for missionaries, and working to earn money for mission work, must have some influence on the minds of those who have not yet decided upon their life work. Their missionary activity, too, gives them a taste of the true joy of service, leads them into Christian work, and gives them experience for future efforts. This means much to those growing up in the message, for “the salvation of our youth depends largely upon their own efforts to save others.” Only last Sabbath those who said farewell to our new missionaries to the Cook Islands, Brother and Sister Hill, saw something of what the young people’s work means to the young people. Mrs. Hill, before her marriage, acted as leader for the young people’s society in her home church. She was so faithful in her work, and so earnest in what she did, that the Lord called her to work in a wider sphere in the conference, and later she was sent to Queensland, and took charge of the young people’s department in that conference; and now, just a little later, we find her sailing to the islands, with her husband, to continue her work for God in the mission field to which he has called her. One young man who is now a minister, told from the pulpit that had it not been for his experience in speaking in young people’s meetings, he would not have been able to give the message to strangers. His work in the young people’s meetings encouraged him to enter the ministry, and he is proving himself very efficient in bringing others into the truth. A brother and sister now in a mission field testify that it was while members of a young people’s society that they felt a burden to give their lives to the work of the Lord, and it was through the direct influence of the young people’s work that they are now in the field. Many show their adaptability to the work right in the home society, so that workers are being developed. During the last few years some of our young people have gone into café work, some into the sanitariums, some into the canvassing work, others into the conference offices. From our correspondence with the young people in the one hundred and twenty isolated homes of this State, we learn something of what this missionary movement is doing for our young people. Letters telling of the Christian experience, the battles for the right, help us to realize that the Lord is speaking to young people today, and calling them from the world to work and walk with him. One young girl is keeping the Sabbath alone in her home in the country. She finds it hard to keep the Sabbath while her mother is working, but she cleans the entire house and does everything that can be done on Friday, so that she may be free on the Sabbath. How good it is that some effort is being made to encourage such in their struggle for the right. Even letters from the parents show how this movement is helping. One mother writes: “I received your letter, for which I thank you very much. It has strengthened my resolve. I have made up my mind to keep hold of the Sabbath, and also to help the children to become Seventh-day Adventists.” What the young people’s work means to the young people is really summed up in the testimony of one young woman who says: “Since I have become a member of the young people’s society, my interest in the cause of truth has grown more intense, and I have been given an inspiration to dedicate my life to the Lord’s work. It is giving me a constant desire to press onward, and a better realization of the importance of the times in which we are living. My view of the necessity of a preparation for the Lord’s work has been broadened and deepened into a desire to have an active part in the giving of the message to a darkened world.” She continues, “What could a society do more?”