02.04. The Pastor among the Youth

IV. THE PASTOR AMONG THE YOUTH.

He who builds the church of Christ must save the children. K we save the children, we save the world. The world is most easily and effectively saved in childhood. The best Christian workers are largely taken and consecrated to lives of benevolence and sacrifice and service from circles of Christian youth. Dr. Bushnell tells us of the out-populating power of the Christian stock, exceeding all other in its quality and influence over men and nations. The advanced cohorts of Christ’s army in every field of work and in all lands were once the children of the temple. Life and death are in the training of children. The generation which takes the most children along with it for Christ will do most to build his kingdom, and to thin the ranks of the opposition. Out of well-trained children we are to rear the strongest defences of Christianity, — a soldiery of godly souls, true to the great Captain. The Holy Land is a barren, shadeless land for the want of fresh young trees. The church without the young ingathered and trained is a deserted field. Though aged palms are found in the courts of the Lord’s house, we need, as well, the straight and beautiful rods of youth there. Wise kings these days plant young forests in all waste places; so wise pastors will be busy setting plants in the gardens of the Lord. Shepherds increase their flocks by carefully nursing the lambs; so pastors enlarge their folds by caring for the young. The question is being earnestly asked, “ How can we bring the men to Christ?’’ Bring in the boys, then you will have the men. The boys will come if we seek them on their own ground, meeting thoughts and hearts with thoughts and hearts that are kindred and congenial. Seek the children early, seek them faithfully. The pastor’s best work will be in giving direction to their life at the start. The pointing of the gun determines the entire course of the ball.

There is no escape from these truths. The charm and beauty of Eden still cling to the children, yet they possess a sinful nature, and must have a new heart from above. Selfishness and disobedience and anger stain the sparkling fountain of youth, except the Spirit of God renew and redeem their lives. No human training can take the place of this. It is the new life in Christ which makes the culture availing and successful. Though God has gladdened the earth with little children, if we would be spared the pain of seeing them drop in the blossom, their feet must surely be directed to Christ and never misled. The beginnings of the divine life must be put in their hearts before the world gets in.

Many are the ways in which the pastor may reach and guide the children. 1. He will first secure them through the home. His own example and teaching will, under God, make each household a joyous, living church of Christ. There will be daily family worship at the altar, bright with psalm and song. Obedience will be cheerful and prompt; kindness and forbearance the atmosphere. The spirit of Christ will abide in father and mother, leading all hearts into loving unity. Good-will and helpfulness one tq another will abound, and every duty will be taught and remembered in its time. Reverence for God and his Word and day and house, faith in Christ,- regard for the truth, love of right-doing, sorrow for sin, true manliness, desire for usefulness, self-sacrifice for others, and every excellence desirable in the Christian will be planted in the child. The pastor, thus, by seeking to make a true Christian home, will secure the conditions of a successful start in the Christian life among the children. They will bear the marks of the home through life.

2. The pastor will reach the children through the Bible-school; that is not the children’s church, but it is the church and pastor mingling with the children, and laying out all their experience and wisdom and spiritual power on them for their instruction in righteousness. The pastor is always in the Bible school. He thus brings the adults and youth together, retaining the older scholars in the school, and all bound together by mutual interest. That great and widening gulf between adults and children, so harmful to each, is in this way prevented. The Bible-school places an acting-pastor in the person of the teacher over each circle of youth. It affords a work to do which blesses both teacher and pupil. It keeps the heart warm in service, and prepares the whole church for usefulness. It prevents any gap occurring in the services of the church. The young worship with the parents, the adults study God’s Word with the young, and all grow up together, homogeneous. The Sabbath-school becomes a constant feeder of the church; the church becomes a garden enclosed about the children. Is not this God’s order?

3. The pastor will save the youth through the pulpit. They must be made to feel that they have a place in the service, and a part in the worship; that their presence is desirable, and their absence regretted. An entire sermon to the young is good now and then. So is a five-minutes’ talk, if it be fit and good for adults also. A special hymn for the young, a psalm read responsively, repeated recognition of children in sermons, the chanting of the Apostles’ Creed, children joining, the keeping of texts through the year in a little book adapted for the purpose, and other methods which the pastor will easily devise — all this always bearing directly on their conversion and nurture and not on their diversion, will constantly secure most beneficial results. Given a pulpit to stand in, and a Bible, and a Saviour, and the Holy Spirit, and a group of bright immortals fresh from the hand of God, with the sunny gleam of heaven still on their faces every Lord’s day in the year, and if he does not lead many of them to Christ as the days go on, God have mercy on his soul! He has not yet taken his stand on the heights from which he can see eternity. The pastor will gather the young on certain stated occasions for doctrinal instruction, laying down the great landmarks of Christian truth, seeing that the youth of his charge are established firmly and intelligently on the Rock of Ages, and duly warned against the pitfalls and dangers of this present evil world. And if he have in his hand a catechism outlining for substance of doctrine the royal path along which millions of God’s children have walked securely and rejoicingly home to glory, nobody will be hurt by this. The pastor will wish to have young people’s meetings and gatherings for Christian endeavor where workers may be trained for special lines of usefulness, the study of missions, the practice of benevolent giving, and the art of gathering in the straying. He will give them printed matter to read. He will guide them to habits of usefuhiess. He will enlist every young person’s service in some fit way, where a responsibility will develop the character by sound and healthful growth. His motto will be: “ A work for every boy, and a boy for every work.”

Among the objects which the pastor will keep uppermost, is the search among the young for those who shall become missionaries and ministers and teachers and devoted workers in the Church of God. To this end he will labor and pray diligently, never content till his church is in that state of spiritual life, that shall be constantly yielding young men for the college and the ministry, and daughters for the seminary, and minute-men for all the diversities of service called for by the church. A church bearing such fruit is happy and blessed above all the households of faith. Beginning with the young, every pastor may do this, and end the famine in the ranks of the ministry.

There is great advantage here through personal intercourse with the young as Providence opens the way. The Timothies who have known the Scriptures from a child, and been taught the faith at the mother’s knee may, in a sacred hour of personal communion with the pastor, decide, to preach the glorious gospel at home, or to bear the cross over strange seas to the dark places of the earth.