In This Generation by L. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 5, 1906

“In This Generation”

By L. A. S.

UPON the banners of two great armies of the Lord are inscribed these words, significant of the aim toward which the energy and enthusiasm of each is directed. Upon the banner of one of these armies is the motto, “The evangelization of the world in this generation.” Upon that of the other is the inscription, “The end of the world in this generation.” Both aim to accomplish their work “in this generation.” And in the end it will be found that they have been working together, both aiming at the same result. For only the evangelization of the world—the proclamation of “this gospel of the kingdom” to all the world—in this generation is needed to bring the end of the world in the same period of time.

What began some years ago as the “Student Volunteer” movement, and is now known as the “Student Christian Federation,” is a mighty power working for the world’s evangelization. More than one hundred thousand students and professors are numbered in this movement. Of the evangelizing work accomplished by this Christian army the Bombay Guardian (India) says:—

The foreign missionary cause owes to this movement a debt it can never pay; A band of students who “volunteered” for work in the mission field, gave it its name, and true to its origin, it has sent out thousands of “student volunteers” into that harvest-field which is so plenteous, while the laborers are so few. . . . It is not too much to say that this movement has been the most powerful agency in missions, not merely for recruiting the forces in the field, but more especially in changing the mission cause from “a mere wrecking expedition” to “a war of conquest.” The early prayer of the church was that the heathen lands might be opened to the missionary. The later prayer was that men might be found to go. Both these prayers have been answered. . . .

The decade just closed has been a most notable period in evangelistic work and results among students. . . . Nothing has characterized the decade more than the unprecedented advance made in Bible study. In 1895 there were not more than eleven thousand students in all nations engaged in voluntary Bible study in connection with student Christian societies. During the past year over fifty-eight thousand students were enrolled in the regular Bible classes of the various student movements. . . .

Prior to 1895 about nine hundred and sixty student volunteers had gone out to the foreign mission fields under the regular missionary societies, and most of these had gone from the United States. Since that time the number of sailed volunteers from North America and Europe has increased to thirty-five hundred. Equally encouraging is the fact that an even greater number of students who are not volunteers and who are planning to spend their lives in Christian countries, have been led by the student movements to feel a like burden of responsibility for promoting the success of the foreign missionary movement.

Of the various fields to which these student volunteers have gone, it is stated that over eight hundred have gone to China, six hundred to India, Burma, and Ceylon, three hundred to Africa, and nearly three hundred to Japan.

When this movement first began, President McCosh of Princeton University was greatly impressed by it, and said:—

The deepest feeling which I have is that of wonder as to what this work may grow to. Has any such offering of young men and young women been presented in our age, in our country, in any age or in any country, since the day of Pentecost?

It is indeed a significant movement, belonging to a time when God’s work is to go in the world as it has not gone since Pentecost. And why has this student army set itself to accomplish its work “in this generation”? There is

surely a significance in this which these students themselves may not perceive, but which is plain to the student of prophecy. The work of God must all be accomplished in this generation. In this generation the “mystery of God” is to be finished, as his prophets have declared. He is about to “finish the work and cut it short in righteousness.” We are nearly at the end of “this generation.” L. A. S.