Missionary Volunteer Department

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 16, 1915

Missionary Volunteer Department

M. E. KERN General and N. Am. Div. Secretary C. L. BENSON Assistant Secretary MEADE MACGUIRE N. Am. Div. Field Secretary

For Ministers, Church Elders, and Workers

1. What special efforts should ministers and workers make at this time?

“The special efforts of ministers and of workers all through our ranks, for this time, should be to turn away the attention of the youth from all exciting stories to the sure word of prophecy.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. V, page 510.

2. What peril of the young calls for this special effort?

“The young are in great danger. Great evil results from their light reading. Much time is lost which should be spent in useful employment. Some would even deprive themselves of sleep to finish some ridiculous love story. The world is flooded with novels of every description. Some are not of as dangerous a character as others. Some are immoral, low, and vulgar; others are clothed with more refinement; but all are pernicious in their influence.”—Id., Vol. II, page 236.

3. What classes of reading are recommended to the young?

“How precious are the days of youth as a preparation for the life work! Help them to see what treasures there are in the Word of God, in the book of nature, and in the records of noble lives.”—“Education,” page 248.

4. Aside from the Bible, science, and biography, what other line of reading is very important?

“It is acquaintance that awakens sympathy, and sympathy is the spring of effective ministry. To awaken in the children and youth sympathy and the spirit of sacrifice for the suffering millions in the ‘regions beyond,’ let them become acquainted with these lands and their peoples.”—Id., page 260.

5. On what question pertaining to our young people was the mind of Mrs. E. G. White exercised during her last illness?

“In the night season I was selecting and laying aside books that are of no advantage to the young. We should select for them books that will encourage them to sincerity of life, and lead them to the opening of the Word. This has been presented to me in the past, and I thought I would get it before you and make it secure. We cannot afford to give to young people valueless reading. Books that are a blessing to mind and soul are needed. These things are too lightly regarded; therefore our people should become acquainted with what I am saying.”—Mrs. E. G. White, in Review and Herald, April 15, 1915.

6. The preceding quotation indicates that we are to select books for the young. Is anything being done along this line?

Yes, the Missionary Volunteer Reading Courses have been in successful operation for eight years. The department endeavors to select the very best and most profitable books for our children and youth. Our Missionary Volunteer secretaries do what they can to get all our young people to take one of the courses. But we realize that, in harmony with the first quotation given, all our ministers and workers have a blessed part to act with us in this work.

7. What wrong habit of reading will this Reading Course help to correct?

“Those who have indulged the habit of racing through exciting stories are crippling their mental strength, and disqualifying themselves for vigorous thought and research.”—“Christian Education,” page 186.

“If you should read with the one object in view, to improve the mind, and should read only as much as the mind can comprehend and digest, and would patiently persevere in such a course of reading, good results would be accomplished.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. III, page 265.

8. What are the Reading Course books for 1915-16?

Senior Course No. 9: “Things as They Are,” by Amy Wilson Carmichael, a classic of missionary literature; “The Sabbath in History,” part 2 of the “History of the Sabbath,” by J. N. Andrews and L. R. Conradi, containing truths very essential for our young people to know in this testing time: “History of William

Miller,” the life of the pioneer of the advent people, with which our advent youth should be thoroughly familiar.

Junior Course No. 8: “Livingstone the Pathfinder,” by Basil Mathews, a book of throbbing interest on the life of that noble man of God who lived and died for Africa; “Friends and Foes in Field and Forest,” by Vesta J. Farnsworth, a book of nature which tells many strange stories about many common things; “Sketches of Bible Child Life,” by Mary Alicia Steward, a book of peculiar charm to boys and girls, dealing as it does with boys and girls of long ago.

9. What is the cost of these courses?

Every one ought to have the Youth’s Instructor, in which the assignments are made and questions are given to assist in the reading, beginning in the issue of September 28. It costs $1.25 a year, or less in clubs.

The special Reading Course prices on the books are as follows: Senior Course (in the order mentioned above), 75 cents, $1, $1, or the set for $2.35, postpaid; Junior Course, 60 cents, $1, 75 cents, or the set for $1.75, postpaid.

10. While we endeavor to, and do, select books that are especially interesting to the young, should this alone determine our choice, and why not?

“There are books that are of vital importance that are not looked at by our young people. They are neglected because they are not so interesting to them as some lighter reading. We should advise the young to take hold of such reading matter as recommends itself for the upbuilding of Christian character.”—Mrs. E. G. White, in the Review and Herald of April 15, 1915.