The Spiritual Needs of Our Young People by S. Lela Hoover

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 16, 1909

The Spiritual Needs of Our Young People

By S. Lela Hoover

“And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 18: 2-3.

In teaching the principles of truth, our Lord often used the illustration of the life of a child to teach the relation that exists between God and his children. And indeed the needs of the spiritual life may well be compared to the needs of the physical life. As in the life of the child the first important need is birth, so in the spiritual life the first great need is conversion, or spiritual birth. “Ye must be born again” is the message to every one who would become a child of God, received and adopted into the heavenly family.

It is the privilege, and must be the experience, of all of our young people to know the Son of God, not only as a Saviour from sin, but also as a loving, compassionate friend. Their experience should be that of one of God’s noble workers, who said, “The presence of my Saviour is more real to me than that of any human friend.” They must know him as one to whom they can tell their joys, their sorrows, their disappointments, and their perplexities, and from whom they can expect and receive the counsel necessary to guide the feet of inexperience over the quicksands of sin.

After conversion has been experienced, and Christ Jesus has been received into the life by faith, the next thing to be considered is—

How to Abide in Him

The helpless infant brought into the world may be a beautiful and promising child, but unless this new life is nourished daily, it will soon languish and die, and all that it may have promised to the world will be forever lost. In the spiritual life, the same truth is applicable. If the soul that is born again is not fed daily with the bread from heaven, it will soon falter, and will finally settle back into the darkness whence it came.

I have in mind three young people, who, together with a number of others, were converted at one of our camp-meetings, but because they were not properly instructed as to how to retain the spiritual life, after trying to exist for about six months on their camp-meeting experience, gave up and went back to the world. This was before the Missionary Volunteer methods were operative in our field. Our young people must have definite instruction, that after they have received Christ Jesus, they may know how to abide in him daily, that the babe in Christ may grow into the good soldier of the cross, enduring the hardness with unflinching courage.

Learning to Do

This is another necessity in the spiritual life. The little child, to be kept happy, healthy, and contented, to deepen his respect and increase his love for parental authority, must be taught to have a part in the home duties, bearing a responsibility in the household of which he is a part. Again this truth applies to the spiritual life. Every heaven-born child has his specific duties in the household of which he has become a member, and the sooner he applies himself in the spirit of love to the duty assigned him, the sooner will he experience the joy of the new life and enter fully into the blessed relationship that is alone to be found in the family of God. Every youth must be taught, not only to be good, but also to be good for something.

But the all-important thing in the spiritual life is the—

Entire Surrender of the Will

If the little child whom we have taken for example, had grown strong and beautiful physically as a result of nourishment and care, and had arrived at the age when it could begin to exercise its will, we would think it anything but a lovable and amiable child, should it persist in having its own way and doing its own will regardless of its parents’ wishes. Therefore, wise parents begin early to train the young will to bend in harmony with their wiser and more mature wills, that it may learn to render loving obedience, delighting to do the things that its parents will it should.

This is a lesson that some children seemingly never learn, and one that it sometimes takes the Christian years to

learn. However, until the young Christian has learned the necessity of submitting his will in all things to God, he can never make any real spiritual progress, for upon this entire surrender depends the reception of the Holy Spirit, which the Lord has promised to them that obey him. But when he has learned to make God’s will his will, and to leave in his Father’s hand all that he can not understand, he has found the peace that the world can not give, neither can take away; and he will find himself a channel through which God can work for the salvation of souls.

S. LELA HOOVER.