How the Y. P. M. V. S. Aids in Supplying Workers
By H. R. Salisbury
IN a letter recently received from a State secretary of the Young People's Missionary Volunteer Society, comes this report: “I am glad to tell you that seventy-seven young people were converted last year as the result of work done by the Missionary Volunteer department.” What does this mean? To me it indicates that the young people's societies in that State are alive; that the majority of the members are active, earnest, resourceful, and zealous in their Christian life. In fact, in the story of these conversions is found the answer to the question, How can the Y. P. M. V. S. aid in supplying workers? These seventy-seven young people have given their hearts to God because some one has been living the Christ life before them. Some one has been on his knees before the throne of grace, and has learned to pray the importunate prayer, which continues until the answer comes. Some one has already become a worker for God. The very efforts to win souls within the circle of one's own friends is an assurance to the leaders of our work that they may look to the young people's societies as recruiting stations for regular workers, because the act of prayer and entreaty for one's associates, to win them from the way of evil and lead them into the paths of righteousness, is in itself laying a foundation for a life of service in the home land or abroad, wherever the call of duty may demand. When one has tasted the joy of being a fellow laborer with Christ and the angels in saving souls from eternal death, the pleasures of earth become empty, unprofitable, and undesirable in comparison. It was in the prayer band that John and Charles Wesley were freed from formalism, and found a gospel which could be understood and joyfully received by the common people. It was in the prayer band that the vision of the Christless millions was given to Judson and his associates, which materialized into the first foreign mission board in America. It is in these circles of prayer that one hears the call to service, and finds the Christian's secret of power for service. How the Reading Course Becomes a Factor in Supplying Workers
The idea expressed in the words, “By beholding we become changed,” is never more thoroughly fulfilled than during the plastic time of youth. At this period of life, the young person, perhaps without knowing it, is looking for a leader. He stands at the parting of the ways of life's journey, and the path he chooses in this formative period will largely be the future course of his life. It is at this time that a person reads with greater eagerness, and what he reads leaves a more lasting impression, than at any other time. The help that comes through carefully planned Reading Courses is almost incomparable. If he, like many others, becomes a reader of the cheap and sensational novels which everywhere abound, he will have for the companions of his thoughts the unreal, unprincipled, and degenerate characters that go to make up these stories of fiction, and then, unconsciously imitating them, the things of real worth, and results achieved by honest daily toil, become distasteful, and he thus becomes an idle dreamer of impossible things, or, selfishly ambitious and cunning, he seeks his own advancement at the expense and sorrow of others. If, on the other hand, the books which he reads contain the experiences of men and women whose lives have been a blessing to mankind and a glory to God, if he reads the story of a Bernardo or a Paton, he will be touched with the greatness of that life, and will find his pleasure in helping the unfortunate or forgotten ones. Thus day by day his character will be changed into the likeness of Him who left the ninety and nine to seek the one that was lost. As the young people read these lives of the truly great, their hearts are stirred, and their zeal is kindled; and the seed sown by these good books, falling into the virgin soil of these young hearts, watered by their tears of sympathy, and warmed by the sunshine of God's presence, will spring up and grow into a sturdy life of self-sacrificing service. A desire to go and seek among the Christless millions for the “other sheep . . . which are not of this fold,” will show itself in every plan; and, seeking companions with like hopes and desires, they will enlist in the noble army of those who have gone to the front to hold up the cross of Christ in the midst of heathen darkness, until “there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” Christian Help Work an Aid in Supplying Laborers
After one has prayed and worked for those nearest him, there comes a desire to push out and lay broader plans. In working for those outside of our own borders are seen the results of the influence of Christ, whose great heart of love beat for all humanity. If I were asked what would be a good beginning to encourage the young people toward a life of service for the Master, I could not think of anything better to answer than to say, Join the Christian Help band, and there get a real taste of the blessing of working for the indifferent and careless, the unfortunate and the outcast. In the prayer band, the Reading Course, and the Christian Help work, are found the natural way to develop in the young heart a love for the world for which Christ has died, and to implant within it an unselfish desire to place all upon the altar of service. Would you become a laborer in God's cause at this most solemn but glorious period of earth's history which was ever given man in which to work? Would you become one of those who by self-sacrificing effort are daily living the prayer of the beloved disciple, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus”? Then be faithful in those lesser duties given you, accepting every opportunity which presents itself for helping some one else; and some day you will find that in these things God has been calling you and using you; and, having passed through the training-school of youth's service, you will be prepared for the larger responsibilities of life, and accepted for its greater duties.19 “He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat;
O be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on!”