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M. E. KERN

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Sep 22, 1904

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 38.

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M. E. KERN

By M. E. Kern

The School, the Young People’s Work, the Homes—No. 2

M. E. KERN

A RECENT writer says that the American people have made a success of every business except the business of training children; that in the mad rush for gold and glory the average father turns his children entirely over to the mother and the schools; and in the recent days of woman’s clubs and conventions and business activities, the mothers in turn are giving over their sacred charge to the servants and the street. It is unfortunate that many Seventh-day Adventist fathers and mothers are doing practically the same thing.
The Saviour, in his tender love, has given us the warning: “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” Many parents will be asked in that day, “Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?” We must see more earnest study and prayer before the hearts of the fathers and children are turned to each other.
“It is the nicest work ever assumed by men and women to deal with youthful minds,” yet many are ready to assume such sacred responsibilities without any preparation, while men are required by law to spend years in preparation to deal with the physical being.
The home is the unit, and our churches and institutions will be largely what our homes make them. “Happy the home when God is there.” Shall we not pray for a reformation in our homes, that the message of Elijah may be received?
Our schools are inseparably connected with the young people’s work. They are, or should be, centers of influence in the important mission of inspiring and training the youth for definite work. But the schools, however good, will fail to accomplish proper results with the young people, when their training as children has been deficient.
The great and dominating purpose before all our teachers, from the primary to the training-school, must be, first of all, “the restoration of the image of God in the soul.” A secondary purpose will naturally follow; namely, a preparation of workers for the cause of God.
In behalf of our young people, two great objects must be kept before us in respect to education; first, to educate our people to appreciate the value of Christian education; and, second, to make the schools what they ought to be for the symmetrical development of the minds and hearts of our youth. To accomplish the great purpose for which our schools are founded, they must be taught by men and women who understand young people, whose whole hearts and lives are in this message, and who are willing to spend and be spent in this service. What, in all our work, is more important than the mold that is placed upon our workers?
In the REVIEW of Oct. 15, 1903, Sister White says, “The work of our colleges and training-schools should be strengthened year by year.” And in a recent testimony this striking statement is made in reference to the most urgent need of the hour: “We first have a work to do at home. All our institutions—our sanitariums, our publishing houses, and our schools—are to reach a higher standard. Then workers sent to the foreign fields will reach a higher standard. They will be more earnest, more spiritual, and their labors will be more effective.” If the students that are sent out from the institutions are to be more earnest and spiritual, I take it that the institutions themselves are to be filled with a new life and power from God. To this end we must all work and pray.
When the schools are doing what God desires them to do for those in their care, when all the workers arouse to the needs of the children and youth, and encourage our people to give all their children the benefits of a Christian education,some of the perplexities of the young people’s work will be solved.

Organization Called For

About ten years ago we were clearly instructed to take steps to organize companies of young people for such service as they could perform. The young men and women who really love Jesus are called upon to organize somewhat after the order of the Christian Endeavor Society, to see what can be done by each accountable human agent to save souls from ruin. One result of this work is to be the preparation of missionaries to give the warning to the world. Ministers have been instructed to “use all their ingenuity in devising plans whereby the younger members of the church may be led to co-operate with them in missionary work.” This is not to be done by long sermons, but through fertile plans for enlisting the young in the work. “Train the young to do what is appointed them.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, pages 35, 36. This work, one of our State workers suggests, has not been done. In reply to the question, “What is in your mind the greatest hindrance to the progress of the young people’s work?” this same worker says, “I am convinced that the greatest hindrance in our State is the condition of the churches, and their attitude toward the young people. The young people are simply ignored by the officers and members of the church. There are some exceptions, but this is the general rule.”
There is no question in my mind but that our people need to be aroused as to the dangers that threaten the young, and the need of more vigorous and sympathetic efforts to save them from the world, and to enlist their efforts in the cause of God. I firmly believe that the time for the message of Elijah has fully come, that the hearts of the fathers may be turned to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers.
In “Christian Education,” pages 45, 46, we read: “There are numbers that ought to become missionaries who never enter the field, because those who are united with them in church capacity or in our colleges do not feel the burden of labor for them, to open before them the claims that God has upon all the powers, and do not pray with them and for them; and the eventful period which decides the plans and course of life passes, convictions with them are stifled, other influences and inducements attract them, and temptations (to seek worldly positions that will, they think, bring them money) take them into the worldly current. These young men might have been saved to the ministry through well-organized plans.”
There is great need of consecrated men and women who have a burden for this work, and who shall find relief only in faithful, earnest labor for the lambs of the flock. I do not understand that our young people are to imitate the form of the organization of any of the young people’s societies, but proposed to conduct a young people’s training-class in connection with the special course offered by Union College next winter.