Our Young People by Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Feb 23, 1905

Our Young People

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

The young people, youth, and children in the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists constitute a large and exceedingly important factor.

Our church-membership is reported to be seventy-five thousand. But this does not include all who are directly represented in our denomination. It is estimated that there are twenty-five thousand children and youth in our ranks who are not church-members. This makes one hundred thousand persons who are intimately associated together in this cause, and it is safe to say that one half of these are young people, youth, and children.

An army of this size and character certainly constitutes a great factor. It is one that should receive more attention and better service from the older members than it has heretofore.

The salvation, the education, and the personal service of this splendid young company call for the very best help that can be rendered by ministers, teachers, church officers, and parents.

The first and most important consideration is their salvation. What is the spiritual condition of the fifty thousand children, youth, and young people in our ranks? How many of them have been converted? How many who have been born from above are holding on and growing in grace? How many are receiving a Christian education? How many are planning definitely and intelligently to devote their lives to God for the proclamation of the advent message to all the world in this generation?

These are questions of great meaning to the souls of those of whom they are asked. Surely every parent, teacher, church elder, and minister in our ranks should give them the most serious and consistent consideration. Let us think soberly, and count up the number of youth who are under our care, instruction, or influence. Where do they stand? How many are unsaved? How many are drifting? How many are losing hope? Dear friends, how are you reckoning with these matters? Are you troubled? Are you wrestling with God for the lost? Are you striving to live a beautiful, godly life before them, that they may be won to Christ? Are you patient with them in their weaknesses? Do you try to help them to overcome their faults? Do you give them unmistakable evidence every day that you love them, and want them to be Christians?

Parents, teachers, church elders, and ministers hold the key to this situation. Their influence for good or for evil over the young is almost unlimited. O brethren, shall we not weigh and measure with new care and interest the vast and sacred responsibilities we have assumed? Let us realize how much of the right or the wrong that marks one's after-life is the outgrowth of the living experience of childhood and youth.

Education

What is the education the fifty thousand young people in this denomination are receiving? I do not refer alone to the technical instruction given in school. What are the ideas, impressions, and lessons they are receiving in their homes, in the churches, and in the schools? Are they being taught the truth of the

gospel as it is revealed in the third angel's message?

The ideas and impressions made on the minds of the young regarding the time in which we live, and the work God has raised us up to perform, do not come alone from the Sabbath-school, nor the day-school. It is exceedingly questionable whether the strongest impressions are made in these schools. As we reflect upon childhood experiences, many of us can bear witness that our deepest and most lasting ideas of our time, our message, and our work came from the earnest sermons of our devoted preachers, the conversations of God-fearing brethren and sisters, and the well-defined plans of parents and believers generally to make everything contribute to the advancement of this cause.

We well remember how careful all the church-members were to take the REVIEW, Instructor, and Signs, and how eagerly they read them each week. We remember, too, how promptly they sent for the latest book, pamphlet, or tract announced in our papers. And how clearly we remember the plans laid each fall for earnest missionary work through the winter. The latest tracts were ordered in large quantities, and were carried to the neighbors for miles around the churches. We can remember how conscientiously our parents reckoned up their possessions that they might pay what was called the systematic benevolence. Later, when the tithing system was brought to light, it was universally adopted.

These and many other details of Christian life were worked into the warp and woof of our being. And this was not done so much by formal teaching as by the daily deeds of the believers. Our Sabbath-schools were simple compared with those we have now. We had no church-schools, and only one or two colleges. Most of us were exposed to the evils of the worldly schools. But the power of the home and church influences that were constantly exerted upon us fortified us against influences of the world.

We would not undervalue the aids brought into the Sabbath-school, nor the advantages of church, intermediate, and training-schools; but we would emphasize the value of right home and church influences. The third angel's message must be clearly understood, fully received, and conscientiously lived by parents and church-members if we would have the fifty thousand children, youth, and young people in our ranks receive the education that will hold them in this cause, and lead them to devote their lives to the finishing of this work. They must be made to feel that the preachers are deeply in earnest. They must be made thoroughly conscious that the church believes that Christ is coming in this generation. And they must see in every plan of father and mother that they are counting on the closing of human history in their day. These influences must be so strong and all-pervading in the church and in the home that they will breathe them into their spiritual being as they breathe the air into their physical frames. This vitalizing breath will give them a sturdy Christian experience that will not only hold them in the truth, but prepare them for valiant service. A. G. DANIELLS.