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Review and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 51.

The Object of Trials
Earlier text: The World's Christian Citizenship Conference at Philadelphia

Too Much of It

THERE is a rising feeling among some of the friends of the plan that the cause of church federation is being overdone. Speaking of the recent Episcopal convention, and the proposal it made for universal church unity, the United Presbyterian of December 8 says:—
What is contemplated by the proposed universal congress? Christian unity is a very indefinite term. Is it proposed to work for the organization of all Christian bodies in one organization? Such a union, beautiful in words, is altogether impracticable, and if accomplished, would be a blight on the church of Christ. The idea is without a single stone of foundation in the New Testament. There is wonderfully little said about the visible organization of the church, but very much about the church as the kingdom of God. The inspired history shows strong bonds of love, but nothing of episcopal powers centered on one person. Such concentration of power as a world-wide organization would soon lead to a despotism which finds its illustration in the Roman Catholic Church. Anything less than that is simply federation. That we have on as broad a basis as can be safely adopted at the present time. What more could a million-dollar fund bring about? The proposition comes from a quarter that does not give any encouragement to hope for good results. Until the Protestant Episcopal Church recognizes non-Episcopal ordination, it is useless to talk about church unity in anything more than brotherly love and simple co-operation. What we need now is spiritual endowment and burning zeal for the kingdom of God. All else will take care of itself.

Arkansas

By L. F. Hansen

Hot Springs.—As is generally known, Hot Springs is a popular health resort. Special provision has been made for caring for the large crowds that come to this place on holiday occasions, and for the nearly one hundred fifty thousand guests who visit the place in the course of a year. All classes of people are represented. The regular population is nearly fifty thousand, many of whom spend their entire time caring for the visiting invalids.
The third angel’s message has been introduced in Hot Springs, and there are a number of Sabbath-keepers, but they have no meeting-house in the city. Elder and Sister A. P. Heycock are looking after the interests of the work as well as their years will permit; but they need help. The holiday occasions should be taken advantage of for the presentation of the truth to the vast crowds that visit the city. Especially should the visiting sick have a reasonable opportunity to study the truth. They have much time to read, and booksellers are kept busy.
On a recent visit, I found Brother and Sister Heycock praying that the Lord would help them to take advantage of a good offer for a meeting-house. A church building belonging to one of the denominations was found too small for the congregation, so they are building a larger one, offering their former building for sale. The church is a frame structure, twenty-four by forty feet, in good repair and conveniently located on a suitable street. It is offered for twenty-two hundred dollars, the lot alone, in its good location, being worth close to one thousand dollars.
Here is a choice field for sowing the seeds of truth. For any information regarding the place, address A. P. Heycock, R. F. D. 2, Hot Springs, Ark. L. F. HANSEN.

Argentina

By C. E. Knight

Our conference will be held November 2-12. We have arranged it a month later than usual, that we may have Elder L. R. Conradi with us. At that time we expect to go over the situation in Buenos Aires very carefully. We must form better plans, that we may become more aggressive in our medical missionary work.
We are making efforts to secure funds for a church building in this great city. We have nearly five thousand pesos, or about twenty-two hundred dollars: but that will not even buy a lot in the location we desire. We shall need twice that amount for the chapel, and a few rooms for a mission family. At our coming conference, we are hoping to make the condition here appeal to our brethren from other parts of the conference; that is one reason why we wish the meeting held here, as Buenos Aires is considerably out of the center of membership.
Our financial condition has greatly improved. A year ago the conference was in debt about six thousand pesos: but we have been prospered so that we have a small surplus now, besides having another minister in the field.
C. E. Knight.

Solusi Mission

By M. C. Sturdevant

NEVER in the history of the old Matabeleland Mission Station has the work been so prosperous as during the past year. Eighteen months ago our boarding students numbered between forty-five and fifty at the most; to-day we can report one hundred three boarding students, and the usual number outside. Our buildings are all crowded, from the church building to the last corner for sleeping. We are forced to enlarge. Therefore we began this month to make brick for more buildings. We want to make one hundred thousand brick if possible, before the rains and the planting season come on.
Besides the home-school work, we have eight out-schools. These do good work, and feed the home school. Excellent work is being done, and I do not see how the interest could be better. The spiritual interest in the home school is also high. Many are asking for baptism. We shall start a class soon for that purpose. More girls are attending our schools than ever before. We are glad for this, although it means more work for us. The girls are much harder to control than the boys. Having always been slaves at home, when they do break loose from that restraint, they become proud and stubborn. It takes patience to hold them. But the girls must have a share in the gospel. When consecrated, they become good workers.
The health of our mission workers was never better than the past year. The white workers have all kept exceptionally well, notwithstanding the continual strain, and there has not been the usual fever among the natives.
Mrs. Sturdevant and I had a very narrow escape, July 4. While on our way to Bulawayo, thirty-three miles distant, our horse stumbled and fell, throwing us both from the cart. I landed upon my feet, and so was not hurt, but my wife did not fare so well; her fall fractured three ribs, jarred the lungs and brain, and bruised her body quite badly. We were ten miles from town, and had to ride that distance before help could be obtained. It was a very painful ride, yet she bore it bravely, and I got her into the hospital as soon as I could, where all possible help and kindness were shown her. As soon as she was able, I brought her home, and now she is able to enter again upon her duties, though not without pain. This was a severe trial, as she is the only white woman on the place.
The Lord has also provided for the temporal needs of our mission. Ourcrops were fair, though not the best. Our corn crop was good; other produce, such as potatoes, beans, and peanuts, was not nearly so good as in the past. We shall have plenty of food for the mission, but not so much to sell this year as formerly.
We earnestly entreat the prayers of our people that we may have grace, courage, and strength to continue till the work is finished, and Jesus comes to redeem his people. We earnestly desire a part with them then. Our interests are also with our brethren in all parts of the world, and our daily prayers ascend to God for them.
M. C. STURDEVANT.

Looking for Christ

By L. D. Santee

L. D. SANTEE
My hope, my heart, my treasure, are in heaven, Whence Christ my Lord will come to claim his own. A crown of life will to the saints be given, A heavenly mansion in the Father's home.
The azure dome the Bridegroom is un- folding; Still months and years roll onward as before; And though I gaze with eager eyes be- holding, No tidings come from that far, shi- ning shore.
The fleecy clouds drift slow across the heavens, But in the blue I see no angel band; No vision to my longing soul is given, No scenes of brightness from the bet- ter land.
Tearful, I'm waiting for some glad re- vealing, When chains of earth no more shall bind me down, When Christ, the secret of the heavens unsealing, Will bring each waiting one a robe and crown.
His promise stands, his waiting church receives it,— The Lord will come in his appointed time! This blessed truth, if we will but be- lieve it, Lingers to cheer us like some sweet old rhyme.
Moline, Ill.

Louisiana

By E. L. Maxwell

The work in this State is going forward nicely this winter, as the following notes from the workers will indicate:—
“Two new believers are to be baptized in New Orleans next Sabbath.”
“We have organized our home missionary society here in New Orleans, and are planning to give the truth to our large city. We are arranging to use a great deal of our literature in connection with our work.”
Another writes: “I find more interested ones than I can visit and read with.”
Still another says: “I now have sixteen readers. Many of them are very intelligent, and manifest a good interest. It is truly encouraging to give readings to such people.”
The Sabbath-school, Missionary Volunteer, and conference secretaries report increasing interest in their departments.
A brother recently come to the truth, once a professor in a denominational college, and now sixty-five years of age, is having unusually good success selling our books in one of our large cities. He writes that he praises the Lord morning and night for the privilege of helping to carry this precious message.
Louisiana offers the best kind of field for the canvasser.
E. L. MAXWELL.

Walla Walla College Harvest Ingathering Campaign

By M. E. Cady

THE Walla Walla College teachers and students feel it a privilege to identify themselves with every missionary movement inaugurated by our people. Accordingly, the recent Harvest Ingathering campaign received their earnest consideration and hearty support.
Thursday all school work was laid aside, except in the normal department, and about one hundred twenty-five teachers and students spent a day in visiting the people in the city of Walla Walla and ten of the surrounding towns, telling them about our work in foreign fields, and soliciting donations in its behalf. Those visiting the outlying towns spent both Thursday and Friday in this work.
Before going out with the papers, one period of the daily program for three days was spent in the study of the Harvest Ingathering number of the REVIEW and also in a study of the methods of presenting the paper, and of soliciting gifts from the people. The Missionary Volunteer society took the burden of this effort, and planned and carried forward the work in a very commendable way. Those taking part in this work were divided into bands. For each band a leader was appointed, who distributed the members in such a way that the territory assigned was thoroughly worked.
The church missionary societies of College Place and Walla Walla co-operated with the Missionary Volunteers in carrying forward this missionary campaign, and each received a great blessing in so doing.
On Friday evening a meeting was held to hear reports from the workers. The earnest words of praise and appreciation for an opportunity of service for the Master in behalf of the foreign missions indicated plainly that God had richly blessed those who had taken an active part in the work. Some who had not received anything in the way of gifts from the people testified that they had been greatly blessed by the Master with the gift of his Spirit and presence with them as they visited the people, and told them what God is doing to save souls in heathen lands. Many reported that they had found persons who were interested in the truth and desired to read our literature, and some wished to have Bible readings held in their homes.
The work of the day opened to them doors of opportunity for missionary work, which they plan to carry on during the school year. Truly the entering into this missionary campaign with heart and soul has brought a rich blessing to the college, and has resulted in a still greater measure of the missionary spirit in our school. It also helps to better qualify for efficient service those of our number who will be called to go to distant fields. While we appreciate the help the gifts received will be to the foreign mission fields, we also greatly prize the blessing received by the school. Such service makes the school more like what God desires it to be, an institution baptized with the missionary spirit, because its teachers and students have more of the spirit of Him who went about doing good.
The gifts received by the members of the Missionary Volunteer society amounted to about two hundred dollars, which is considerably more than was received last year. This is partly due to the fact that a better preparation was made before going to the people, and partly to the better organization of the work in general. The people received the workers more favorably this year than last. As it becomes known that our people are sending men and means to convert the heathen in distant lands, the people of the world respond more liberally to our pleas for help.
Walla Walla College teachers and students have pledged themselves to help carry forward every missionary effort which has for its aim the carrying of the gospel to the whole world in this generation, and their faces are not so deeply buried in books that they can not change their program, and drop their work for a day or two now and then, to second and support every movement that will result in lifting the burdens and gladdening the hearts of those who are laboring for souls in foreign fields.
M. E. CADY.

Progress of the Message in Lower Japan

By W. L. FOSTER.

AFTER seven and one-half months of earnest work, we were compelled, on account of my wife's health, to seek a cooler place for the summer. Now we can see how the Lord was leading us.
Soon after reaching Nagasaki, an old Japanese lady began to keep the Sabbath. She has been present at every meeting from that time to this, and has just asked for baptism. As time passed, I learned something of her history, and found that she was once the wife of a daimio (feudal lord), and had long been a Christian.
There was once a noble Japanese whose title was “Wakasa no Kami.” In the course of his duties as guard of Nagasaki harbor, he found a little Dutch New Testament floating on the water. He learned enough from its beautiful contents to fill him with a deep longing for more, so he sent a man to China for a Chinese translation.
All this occurred before Christianity had gained entrance into Japan. He was the first to accept Christ, and our aged sister is his daughter. She understands some things which we do not; for her faith was very precious to her in those early times, even during the days of great persecution. She is the oldest living Christian in Japan.
We are now holding a series of tent-meetings here in this illustrious old landmark in the history of Japanese missions. Our canvassers have been doing quite well, but there is a great lack of suitable literature. The meetings were opened only one week ago, but we have already received the names of twenty-five inviting us to their homes to teach them, and several have asked for baptism.
Before opening the meetings, we distributed twenty thousand invitations, and the attendance is good in spite of bad weather. We gave one of the daily papers an account of our meetings, and the same day the leading reporter, an educated man, who said he and his family are Christians, asked Brother H. Kuniya to come and teach them. Then the typesetter became interested, and his family is studying to know the better way. A merchant came from his native island on business, and was staying in a small hotel near the place where we pitched our tent. He subscribed for the paper, has been taking all the time he could with us for study, and has invited us to open up work at once in his island of ten thousand houses, where Christianity entered for the first time last year. There are at present pressing calls for help from all points of the compass.
I hope this winter will mark such a grand change in our work in this country that no one will ever be tempted even to think that we have spent a dollar in vain for Japan. Our people are becoming thoroughly awake, and are working for souls from the extreme south to a thousand miles north.
I remember hearing, several years ago, the calls for the Orient, but I did not know how much the writers meant by what they said. But if you, my brethren, are ever called upon to stand in a place like this, you will know, as I have learned to know, what these calls mean. Japan feels the deep moving of God's Spirit as never before. We long to be always where we shall hear his voice when he calls.
W. L. FOSTER.

Alabama

By James Bellinger

SHEFFIELD.—Two months ago Brother Elliott and myself and wife came to Sheffield, and began a tent effort. The Lord has blessed our labors. We held forty-five meetings in the tent, and as a result eight have signed the covenant, and others are keeping the Sabbath. Many others are interested, and are still studying; we hope these will yet take a stand for the truth.
Brethren C. F. McVagh and E. G. Hayes were with us a few days at the close of the meetings, and their help was greatly appreciated.
We are now holding our meetings in an old church building, which we have rented for the purpose. Our Sabbath-school numbers twenty-four at present. Pray for our work in this needy field. JAMES BELLINGER.

Field Notes

SABBATH, November 5, three persons were baptized and taken into church fellowship at Delta, Ohio.
As the result of meetings since the first of October, at La Harpe, Kan., eight are now keeping the Sabbath, and others are interested. At Sylvia two have taken their stand for the truth.

Missionary Volunteer Day

The General Conference Committee has appointed Sabbath, Jan. 7, 1911, as Missionary Volunteer day. Our churches everywhere are asked to give the time of the regular service for that day to a prayerful consideration of the young people's work. How the local churches can best enlist the energies of their youth in service, is a problem that merits much study. The youth of our denomination constitute the inexhaustible gold-mine of the church. The enemy is ever waiting to dash in to steal the precious nuggets. They must be speedily mined, assayed, and coined into currency that will be legal tender anywhere and everywhere in heaven's commerce for the salvation of men. Below is given the suggestive program for January 7. The general articles appear in this paper. The letters from the conference presidents and Missionary Volunteer secretaries will be sent direct to each church. Let no church nor company fail to observe the day. It is those who co-operate with God in earnest, prayerful effort to whom the promise of Isa. 49:25 is given.

Program

SONG: “Christ in Song,” page 548, new edition.
PRAYER.
SCRIPTURE READING: Joshua 1:1-11.
SONG: “Christ in Song,” page 571, new edition.
PAPER: “How the Missionary Volunteer Work Aids in Supplying Workers.”
PAPER: “Value of the Missionary Volunteer Work to the Conference.”
SPECIAL MUSIC.
Greetings From Your Conference Missionary Volunteer Secretary.
A Message From Your Conference President.
SONG: “Christ in Song,” page 604, new edition.
Report From Your Local Missionary Volunteer Society.
PAPER: “The Great Need of Co-operation in This Work.”
SONG: “Christ in Song,” page 544, new edition.

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.
“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!”
H. R. SALISBURY.

Young People's Work

By M. E. Kern; Matilda Erickson

Conducted by the Young People's Missionary Volunteer Department of the General Conference
M. E. KERN                                     Secretary MATILDA ERICKSON     .     Corresponding Secretary

Pass It On

By Henry Burton

HAVE you had a kindness shown? Pass it on! 'Twas not given for thee alone— Pass it on! Let it travel down the years, Let it wipe another's tears, Till in heaven the deed appears— Pass it on!
HAVE you found the heavenly light? Pass it on! Souls are groping in the night, Daylight gone! Hold your lighted lamp on high, Be a star in some one's sky, He may live who else would die— Pass it on!
Love demands the loving deed— Pass it on! Look upon your brother's need— Pass it on! Live for self, you live in vain; Live for Christ, you live again; Live for him, with him you reign— Pass it on!
— Henry Burton.

Value of the Missionary Volunteer Work to the Conference

By Mrs. R. W. McMahan

THE primary object of Missionary Volunteer work is the salvation and development of our young people as workers in the cause of God. It is a training-school in which those who are young and inexperienced may become laborers together with God for the salvation of souls. With the love of Christ constraining them, our young people are being taught to labor not only for those not of our faith, but also for those who profess to be Sabbath-keepers. “With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world.”
One part of the Missionary Volunteer work is to seek out the young people in the conference, and help them to qualify for service where they are. Instead of feeling that they must wait for a training in one of our schools before entering the work of the Lord, they are encouraged to consecrate themselves to God, and begin at once their training in service, by laboring for those around them. Thus they are entering upon the successive steps that lead toward the place that awaits them when they are fitted for it. Helpful Reading Courses are provided for them, that their minds may be developed along right lines, and strengthened for the greater problems of life. The young people who are taking advantage of their opportunities for self-culture, are having their minds prepared for a broader education in our academies and colleges. The Morning Watch Calendar, as an aid to systematic, personal Bible study and prayer, is cultivating in them a commendable spirit of devotion and consecration.
The organization of the Missionary Volunteer Department has created a training-school in which to enlist the young people where they are, in the army of the Lord, and give them an elementary training in his service. These young people are being inspired by a great purpose, that will enable them to “endure hardness as good soldiers” in carrying the message of truth to all the world in this generation. This work reaches, then, the real base of supplies,—the young people where they are. Relative to this we have the following instruction:—
“That which is needed now for the upbuilding of our churches is the nice work of wise laborers to discern and develop talent in the church,—talent that can be educated for the Master’s service. Those who shall labor in visiting the churches should give the brethren and sisters instruction in practical methods of doing missionary work. Let there be a class for the training of the youth as well. Young men and women should be educated to become workers at home, in their own neighborhoods, and in the church.”—Stewardship Series, No. 1, page 8.
As conference laborers co-operate with the Missionary Volunteer Department in carrying out this instruction, we shall see a mighty impetus given to the work everywhere; and in this local missionary work, our young people will receive a training that will fit them for broader fields of service.
The value of this department of work to the conference is apparent. Our young people are the greatest asset of this denomination. They must be sought out where they are, and their minds and talents directed from the worldly influences which surround them, to the idea of devoting their lives to the upbuilding of this cause.
But this work can not be done by the Missionary Volunteer Department alone. It can not be done by the secretary and his assistants. It can not be done by the young people themselves. This work needs the earnest co-operation of all our ministers, conference officers, and our brethren and sisters in all our churches. As our young people recognize the great fact that God has a work for each one to do in giving this message to the world, they are led to give themselves and their talents to his service. In every department of our work there is opportunity for strong, God-fearing young men and women to render valuable service to this cause.
In the great missionary campaigns with the special Harvest Ingathering number of the REVIEW, our Missionary Volunteers have gone forth with youthful zeal and energy, to circulate the “gospel of the kingdom,” and solicit offerings from those not of our faith. In the home tract and missionary work the Missionary Volunteers may be depended upon to act their part in scattering the message-filled literature “as the leaves of autumn.” Thus in every kind of work that is inaugurated by our conferences for the advancement of the cause of God, our young people are being trained to take their places as soldiers of Christ in the army of the Lord.
It is estimated that ninety-five per cent of the conversions and baptisms at our camp-meetings are from the young people. Here, too, they render helpful service according to their ability. In prayer bands and personal effort for other young people they exercise talents that will develop evangelistic workers in the near future. The value of this kind of work was manifested in the carrying out of well-laid plans for helping the young people at our last camp-meeting.
The Indiana Missionary Volunteers have made a beginning in some branches of work, which, if faithfully carried out, will bring good results, and hasten the work of giving the message in this State. They are placing the INSTRUCTOR in the public libraries, and sending Liberty to the young people’s societies of other denominations.
The holding of short Missionary Volunteer conventions, in connection with the general meetings, has been of value to the conference, in that an increasing interest in this important branch of the work has been created, both among our laborers and among our lay brethren and sisters. They see in our young people an army of workers, from whom laborers for every branch of the cause may soon be drawn.
It is impossible to estimate the value that Missionary Volunteer work will be to our conferences when all our churches awake to their responsibility to train and develop the young people among us. May the Lord help us, as stewards who must give account, to take hold of this work in earnest, “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
MRS. R. W. McMAHAN.

The Great Need of Co-operation in This Work

By M. E. K.

That young people have an important part to act in the closing work of the gospel, must be clear to all; that they can not do their part of this work without hearty co-operation on the part of those who are older, must be equally apparent. “The Lord has appointed the youth to be his helping hand;” yet it is the duty of those who have been longer in the service to encourage, counsel, and train these younger workers. The work that our young people do, and, in fact, their salvation, depend largely on their being properly directed and encouraged.
Co-operation is an essential element in God's work. While there are many kinds of work to be done, requiring varied talents and experience, and while there are several departments of the Lord's work, the cause is one. “The eye can not say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” By all members and departments doing their appointed work, and with the active sympathy and co-operation of all other members and departments, the work will be quickly finished.

Co-operation in the Home

In no part of God's work are these principles more clearly illustrated than in our young people's work. The infant comes into the home a helpless and dependent individual; and God has endowed parents with ability to mold and control the child. It is the nicest work ever given to mortal man to train the delicate, growing mind for eternity. The child must be taught obedience to constituted authority; yet the will must not be broken but trained. And as the child approaches the age with which our Missionary Volunteer work has to do, and desires to do some definite task of his own, he should be encouraged and guided. This marks the development of one of God's greatest gifts—reason and individuality.
It is an important and solemn truth that character is largely made or marred by the home life. How important, then, that father, mother, and child, constituting earth's holy trinity of relationship, should co-operate in this sacred work of character-building! How important that the home should be a place where “love lives and reigns and trains”! How important that the members of this miniature home church should unite together in doing missionary work! Parents with such ideals as these will welcome any help which can be obtained from the church or the Missionary Volunteer Department, and will keep themselves informed on the plans of the church for the upbuilding and training of the youth. With parents and homes like these, the work of the church and of the conference will be comparatively easy.

Co-operation in the Church

That the older members of the church, and church officers especially, should keep themselves informed in regard to our denominational young people's work, and should seek to co-operate with the young people in carrying out these plans, is so apparent that it scarcely needs stating. This would seem to be the very least they should do. But how often we find a lack of such interest and co-operation! Earnest efforts are being put forth by the General Conference and by the local conference Missionary Volunteer department to provide suitable Reading Courses, and to plan for Bible study, and missionary effort; yet how often these plans fall flat in the local church, for lack of earnest prayer, careful planning, and hearty encouragement on the part of church officers!
While as older members we should exercise care not to wholly do the work which the young people should do, because we might do it better, we should often be found in the young people's meetings, assisting by our presence, our prayers, and our words of encouragement. Young people are helped by words of approval. Sometimes it is necessary to reprove, but let us first commend. Go to the young leader who perhaps thinks he has made a failure, and cheer him with some words of warm approval. By so doing you may win for the church a good worker, whose efforts will bring many others to the fold. “Just an earnest whisper in the ear of a young boy or girl who has given some stammering testimony may decide the child's whole future.”
Close acquaintance with the work of the Missionary Volunteer society will prevent the repetition of some blunders that have been made when the church came to select officers for the society. The present plan of electing officers is believed to be the best and safest; but the only way that it can be successfully carried out is that the church shall be intelligent about the work of the society, and that the young people shall be represented, or have a chance to express themselves, on the nominating committee.

Conference Co-operation

All that has been said concerning the co-operation of church officers in this work could be repeated concerning conference workers. As the minister, church-school teacher, Bible worker, or canvasser goes among the young people, he should be a storehouse of information on the young people's work, and should be filled with zeal to see the young people making a success in life. He should be able to advise the youth with reference to getting an education, and how they can act a part in God's work for this time. It is not sufficient to condemn the pernicious reading indulged in by many of our youth. We should present to them a better class of reading, and be able to show them that it is better and really more interesting. It is not sufficient that we should exhort the young people to have a knowledge of the Bible and denominational history. Let us help them to get started in the Standard of Attainment plan.
Aside from stirring up all the workers to co-operate in Missionary Volunteer effort, the conference can co-operate by appointing a wide-awake missionary secretary, and by giving him opportunity to spend his energies in the solution of this tremendous problem. The conference president will see that such a secretary has opportunity to make use of the Missionary Volunteer literature provided for this work, and that his time and efforts at camp-meeting, that golden harvest-time of the year, are spent in active efforts for the youth. A conference Missionary Volunteer secretary is a necessary link between the General Conference Missionary Volunteer Department and the young people.
The conference that will actively and sympathetically co-operate with this Missionary Volunteer movement will have canvassers, Bible workers, teachers, and ministers for its own needs, and will have precious sons and daughters to give to the world-wide work.
M. E. K.
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