Secretaryship as a Life Work by C. L. B.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 22, 1914

Secretaryship as a Life Work

By C. L. B.

— No. 1

For the Christian young man or woman, no hour is more critical than that in which he determines his life calling. His life is his most precious possession: yet it is not his; it belongs to his Lord, and he is to give an account of it as of a sacred trust. Only a few short years are his for its investment. How shall he make them tell with the greatest power in order that he may realize the largest possible returns? What supreme opportunity is presented in the surroundings he is called upon to face? At the very threshold of life these great questions confront him. Well may he pause before the doors that are opening to him, to inquire which among them promises the greatest returns upon the investment he is to make of his life's powers.

No work, however universally desirable, offers a life work to every young person. But it may be said without reservation that for some the secretaryship fulfills the essential requirements to a very marked degree.

Let us consider the secretaryship of the Missionary Volunteer work as a life work. This is a specialized ministry to young people, for young people. We shall study,—

1. The relation of this work to the development of the Missionary Volunteer movement, and the opportunities which it affords for a career of surpassing usefulness in the service of God.

2. The growth of this office and its various characteristics.

3. The kind of men and women needed to fill it,—their qualifications and characteristics.

4. The preparation which a person ought to make in order to render the best possible service.

First, let us consider the relation of this work to the development of the Missionary Volunteer movement, and the opportunities which it offers for a career of usefulness in the service of God.

The secretary is to the movement what a general is to the army, a teacher to the school, a cashier to the bank, a pastor to the church. His relation to the development of the movement is vital. He is its administrative officer. The influence and advancement of the movement are limited only by the consecration and ability of the men and women in charge.

The question arises, Does the Missionary Volunteer movement afford opportunities commensurate with its demands? The secretaryship offers a broad range of activity. The secretary is walled in by no narrow ground of duty. His activities are as varied as the human need. The secretary is not restricted to a single field. He holds a unique position with reference to every young person, every father and mother, every worker, every young people's society, and every church in his field. It is his privilege to serve them all at their point of greatest need. He is a specialist on young people's problems. By counsel, by inspiring leaders, by organizing, he may multiply manyfold the influences of his life.

"It is a holy thing," said Disraeli, "to see a state saved by its youth;" but it is still more impressive to us to see our youth filled with a passion to give their lives to spread the third angel's message. The church is only beginning to realize the great possibilities of childhood and youth. The energy necessary to secure the cooperation of an adult advanced in years will kindle the enthusiasm of a score of young people. The plan that enlists and sets the youth to work tells for victory. "In youth the heart is like wax in its impressiveness, like bronze in its retentiveness." The majority of conversions occur between the ages of twelve and twenty. According to statistics, the year of most frequent conversions for girls is the sixteenth, while most boys are converted in their seventeenth year. As these years pass, the prospects decrease, and after twenty-two very few become Christians, as over ninety per cent of the members of the different Protestant churches in America were converted before they reached their twenty-third year. Less than five per cent of those who leave college unconverted ever become Christians; while only two per cent of the people of the United States who reach twenty-three years of age unconverted ever give their hearts to God.

If we admit the preceding facts, shall we not recognize youth as the harvest time of souls? For during this period the foundations of a Christian life are laid, the student life is determined, and the trend for greater usefulness is established.

"The devil would never ask anything more of a minister than to have him feel that his mission was chiefly to the grown-up members of his congregation, while some one else was to look after the children."

"The key to the hard problem of evangelization lies in the puny hand of the little child."

"The importance of work for children cannot be overemphasized. The schoolboys of Bourges, in the early French Revolution, bore a flag displaying in shining letters the words, 'Tremble, tyrants; we shall grow up.' O that these words, 'We shall grow up,' would ever ring in our churches. They will grow up and make tremble the enemy of our God, or grow up and make us tremble. The Romanists are wont to say, 'Give us the child until he is ten years old, and you may do what you can with him after that.' Trebonius, the instructor of Martin Luther, always uncovered his head in the presence of any of his boys. He was accustomed to say, 'Who can tell what man may yet rise up amid these youth? There may be among them those who shall be learned doctors, sages, nay, princes of the empire.' Even then there was before him the great leader of the Reformation, that 'solitary monk that shook the world.' The children must increasingly receive the attention, thought, and care of the church."

Because of the vast possibilities of our dear boys and girls, the secretary should leave no stone unturned to become an authority on the best methods of reaching and cultivating this part of the field. He should study how to reach the youth of all ages from the kindergarten age to the young manhood and womanhood. The child of today is a man tomorrow.

Psychologists claim that the impulses and instincts ripen in a certain order, and if the proper incentives are applied at the seasonable periods, the character can be shaped and molded for a life of usefulness: but if neglected, oftentimes the impulse dies out, and our most earnest efforts meet with no response.

In this day of specialists and trained workers, religious instruction cannot hold its own unless here, too, are found specialists; and in no field are trained, studious, consecrated workers needed more than in working for our children and youth. Adaptation is the secret of all success in this work; but adaptation is possible only to the extent that we understand our young people.

A mechanic will spend months studying and working that he may become perfectly acquainted with the delicate mechanism of an engine before he will attempt to operate it; but perhaps that same man will spend only fifteen minutes or half an hour preparing to instruct a child, giving no thought to the delicate organism upon which he is to work.

Many of our young people are leaving our ranks today and enlisting in the world, not because of our lack of interest in them, but because we are woefully void of knowledge as to how best to adapt ourselves and methods to them, so that their interests will be aroused and their cooperation secured.

The secretary has, or may have, the confidence of the majority of the young people in his conference. The secretary may penetrate, if he will, the outer crust that encases the normal boy and girl and makes them misunderstood and unappreciated; he may draw aside the curtain and look behind the screen, there to find the hungry boy and girl waiting to be understood and sympathized with. What a privilege to stand by the side of a

young man during the critical formative years of his life, with the facilities for helping him through the storm and stress period when he is up on the mountain top today and down in the valley tomorrow. One day he desires to be a physician, the next an electrical engineer, the next a farmer. One day he is sure every one understands him, and everything is moving along all right; the next day he is positive no one understands, he hasn't a friend on earth, he doesn't understand himself, and wonders why he was born. At this strenuous period the young people's secretary may possess his confidence. To understand him is to win him. Who will attempt to measure the possibilities of such a relationship? Is it worth doing?