Issue 30, July 2013

Pilgrim Youth

Issue 30, July 2013

Pilgrim Youth

Issue 30, July 2013

Pilgrim Youth

Desire for Approbation

By Ellen G. White The youth in general desire the approbation of those around them, and, rightly directed, this desire is commendable. It is an incentive to watchfulness and self-control, rendering them more anxious to manifest a right disposition in their association with others, and therefore more careful as to what they do and say. Those who desire to merit the approval of the wise and good, will not become impatient when their errors are pointed out. Rather, they will feel grateful to a friend so faithful as to show them their defects of character. They will search carefully to see if the faults mentioned do really exist, and will seek earnestly to overcome them. A youth who, when cautioned or advised, says, I dont care what others think of me, I will do as I please, manifests a recklessness and hardihood that should be shunned by all. He is sowing seed which will yield a terrible harvest for him to reap by and by.

We should all manifest respect for others, and should desire their respect in return. But at the same time there is need of discrimination as to whose approval is of real value. Evil-doers will not commend us unless we join in their sinful course. The approval of those who speak lightly of the Bible, or sneer at religion, is to be shunned rather than desired. Those who yield to the influence of this class, prove themselves unworthy of the favor of God. To obtain the good opinion of the proud, the vain, the pleasureloving, whose chief aim is to please and glorify themselves, is to become defiled and corrupted by their ungodliness. The approbation of God should be more highly prized than the praise of the whole world. It is of more value to young and old than everything besides. Let the youth candidly consider this matter, and seek to govern their lives by those principles that will be approved by God and by those who serve and honor him. The youth living in this age will have a stern battle to fight, if they make right principles their rule of action. It is the highest effort of a large class in society to do as others do, to shape their course according
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to the worlds standard. Like the empty bubble or the worthless weed, they drift with the current. They have no individuality, no moral independence. The approval of the world is of more value to them than the approval of God, or the esteem of those whom he esteems. Their only motive or rule of action is policy. As they do not value truth or act from principle, no dependence can be placed upon them. They are the sport of Satan's temptations. They have no true respect for themselves, and no real happiness in life. This class are to be pitied for their weakness and folly, and their example should be shunned by all who desire to be truly worthy of respect. But instead of this, their society is too often courted, and they seem to exert a fascinating power, well-nigh impossible to break. I warn the youth to avoid the society of these worthless characters; for their influence is detrimental to the best interests of society. In forming your opinions, and choosing your associates, let reason and the fear of God be your guide. Be firm in your purpose here, regardless of the opinions which others may entertain concerning
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you. When Gods requirements lead you to an opposite course from that which your associates are pursuing, go resolutely forward, whether you follow many or few. Whatever Gods word condemns, that reject, even though the whole world adopt and advocate it, and ridicule you as singular and fanatical. Listen to the voice of reason. Remember that we have each a soul to save or to lose. Worldly advantages or pleasures should not for a moment be placed in the scale against your eternal interests. Jesus, our pattern, lived not to please himself. Those who are drifting with the tide, who love pleasure and self-indulgence, and choose the easier way, regardless of principle so long as their desires are gratified,these will never stand with the overcomers around the great white throne. They will never hear from the lips of Jesus those precious words of greeting, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. The Judge of all the earth will never say Well done to those who have not done well. All are now upon the battlefield; every one must share in the conflict with the power of sin. We

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may conquer if we will put on the whole armor of God, and with faith, hope, and courage look steadfastly to Jesus, the Captain of our salvation. Dear youth, you lose much by not studying with greater earnestness and care the life of Christ. There you may learn the character which you must form in order to become his disciples; you may see the victories which you have to gain over selfishness, pride, vanity, and especially over unbelief, that you may win the precious white robe of a spotless character, and stand at last without fault before the throne of God. To him that overcometh, is the Saviours promise, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. taken from The Youths Instructor, October 10, 1883

The Man That Died for Me

For many years I wanted to go as a foreign missionary, but my way seemed hedged about. At last I went to live in California. Life was rough in the mining country where I lived, with my husband and little boys. While there I heard of a man who lived over the hills and was dying of consumption. The men said: He is so vile that no one can stay with him; so we place some food near him, and leave him for twenty-four hours. We will find him dead sometime, and the sooner the better. Never had a relative, I guess. This pitiful story haunted me as I went about my work. For three days I tried to get some one to go to see him and find out if he was in need of better care. As I turned from the last man, vexed with his indifference, the thought came to me: Why not go yourself? Here is missionary work, if you want it. I will not tell how I weighed the probable uselessness of my going,
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nor how I shrank from one so vile as he. It was not the kind of work I wanted. But at last one day I went over the hills to the little abode. It was a mud cabin, containing but one room. The door stood open. In one corner, on some straw and colored blankets, I found the dying man. Sin had left awful marks on his face, and if I had not heard that he could not move, I should have retreated. As my shadow fell over the floor, he looked up and greeted me with an oath. I stepped forward a little, and again he swore. Dont speak so, my friend, I said. I aint your friend. I aint got any friends, he said. Well, I am your friend, and

God, and he cursed him. I tried to speak of Jesus and his death for us, but he stopped me with his oaths, and said: Thats all a lie. Nobody ever died for others. I went away discouraged, saying to myself that I knew it was of no use. But the next day I went again, and every day for two weeks. He did not show the gratitude of a dog, and at the end of that time I said that I was not going any more. That night as I was putting my little boy to bed, I did not pray for the miner. My little boy noticed it and said: Mama, you did not pray for the bad man. No, I answered, with a sigh. Have mama? you given him up,

Yes, I guess so. But the oaths came quickly, and he said: You aint my friend. I never had any friends, and I dont want any now. I reached out, at arms length, the fruit I had brought for him, and stepping back to the doorway, asked if he remembered his mother, hoping to find a tender place in his heart; but he cursed her. I spoke of
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Has God given him up, mama? Ought you to give him up till God does? I could not sleep that night. I thought of the dying man, so vile, and with no one to care! I rose and went away by myself to pray; but the moment that I knelt, I was overpowered by the sense of how

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little meaning there had been to my prayers. I had had no faith, and I had not really cared, beyond a kind of half-hearted sentiment. I had not claimed his soul for God. O, the shame of such missionary zeal! I fell on my face literally, as I cried, O Christ, give me a little glimpse of the worth of a human soul! Did you, Christian, ever ask that and mean it? Do not do it unless you are willing to give up ease and selfish pleasure; for life will be a different thing to you after this revelation. I remained on my knees until Calvary became a reality to me. I cannot describe those hours. They came and went unheeded; but I learned that night what I had never known before, what it was to travail for a human soul. I saw my Lord as I had never seen him before. I knelt there till the answer came. As I went back to my room, my husband said: How about your miner? He is going to be saved. How are you going to do it? he asked.

The Lord is going to save him; and I do not know that I shall do anything about it, I replied. The next morning brought a lesson in Christian work which I had never learned before. I had waited on other days until afternoon, when, my work being over, I could change my dress, put on my gloves, and take a walk while the shadows were on the hillsides. That day, the moment my little boys went to school, I left my work, and, without waiting for gloves or shadows, hurried over the hills, not to see that vile wretch, but to win a soul. I thought the man might die. As I passed on, a neighbor came out of her cabin, and said, I will go over the hills with you. I did not want her to go, but it was another lesson for me. God could plan better than I could. She had her little girl with her, and as we reached the cabin, she said, I will wait out here. I do not know what I expected, but the man greeted me with an awful oath. Still it did not hurt; for I was behind Christ, and I stayed there; and I could bear what struck him first.
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While I was changing the basin of water and towel for him, things which I had done every day, but which he had never thanked me for, the clear laugh of the little girl rang out upon the air. Whats that? said the man eagerly. Its a little girl outside waiting for me. Would you mind letting her come in? said he, in a different tone from any I had heard before. Stepping to the door, I beckoned to her; then, taking her hand, said, Come in and see the sick man, Mamie. She shrank back as she saw his face, but I assured her with, Poor sick man! He cant get up; he wants to see you. She looked like an angel, her bright face framed in golden curls and her eyes tenter and pitiful. In her hands she held the flowers that she had picked from the purple sage, and bending toward him, she said: Im sorry for ou, sick man. Will ou have a posy? He laid his great, bony hand beyond the flowers, on the plump hand of the child, and tears came to
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his eyes, as he said: I had a little girl once. Her name was Mamie. She cared for me. Nobody else did. Guess Id been different if shed lived. Ive hated everybody since she died. I knew at once that I had the key to the mans heart. The thought came quickly, born of that midnight prayer service, and I said, When I spoke of your mother and your wife, you cursed them; I know now that they were not good women, or you could not have done it. Good women! O, you dont know nothin bout that kind of woman! You cant think what they was! Well, if your little girl had lived and grown up with them, wouldnt she have been like them? Would you have liked to have her live for that? He evidently had never thought of that, and his great eyes looked off for a full minute. As they came back to mine, he cried: O God, no! Id killed her first. Im glad she died. Reaching out that taking the poor hand, I said, The dear Lord

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didnt want her to be like them. He loved her even better than you did, so he took her away. He is keeping her for you. Dont you want to see her again? O, Id be willing to be burned alive a thousand times over if I could just see my little girl once more, my little Mamie! O friends, you know what a blessed story I had to tell that hour, and I had been so close to Calvary that night that I could tell it in earnest! The poor face grew ashy pale as I talked, and the man threw up his arms as if his agony was mastering him. Two or three times he gasped, as if losing his breath. Then, clutching me, he said, Whats that you said tother day bout talkin to some one o sight? It is praying. I tell Him what I want. Pray now, quick. Tell him I want my little girl again. Tell him anything you want to. I took the hands of the child, and placed them on the trembling hands of the man. Then, dropping on my knees, with the child in front of me, I bade her pray for the man who had lost his little Mamie, and

wanted to see her again. As nearly as I remember, this was Mamies prayer: Dear Jesus, this man is sick. He has lost his little girl, and he feels bad about it. Im so sorry for him, and hes sorry, too. Wont you help him, and show him how to find his little girl? Do, please. Amen. Heaven seemed to open before us, and there stood One with the prints of the nails in his hands and the wound in his side. Mamie slipped away soon, and the man kept saying: Tell him more about it. Tell him everything. But, O, you dont know! Then he poured out such a torrent of confession that I could not have borne it but for One who was close to us at that hour. By and by the poor man grasped the strong hand. It was the third day when the poor, tired soul turned from everything to him, the Mighty to save, the Man that died for me. He lived on for weeks, as if God would show how real was the change. I had been telling him one day about a meeting, when he said, Id like to go to a meetin once.

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So we planned a meeting, and the men from the mills and the mines came and filled the room. Now, boys, said he, get down on your knees, while she tells about that Man that died for me. I had been brought up to believe that a woman should not speak in meeting, but I found myself talking, and I tried to tell the simple story of the cross. After a while he said: Boys, you dont half believe it, or youd cry; you couldnt help it. Raise me up. Id like to tell it once. So they raised him up, and between his short breathing and coughing, he told the story. He had to use the language he knew. Boys, he said, you know how the water runs down the sluice-boxes and carries off the dirt and leaves the gold behind. Well, the blood of that Man she tells about went right over me just like that. It carried off about everything; but it left enough for me to see Mamie, and to see the Man that died for me. O boys, cant you love him?

Some days after, there came a look into his face which told that the end had come. I had to leave him, and I said, What shall I say tonight, Jack? Just good night, he said. What will you say to me when we meet again? Ill say, Good morning, over there. The next morning the door was closed, and I found two men sitting silently by a board stretched across two stools. They turned back the sheet from the dead, and I looked on the face, which seemed to have come back nearer to the image of God. I wish you could have seen him when he went, they said. Tell me about it. Well, all at once he brightened up, bout midnight, an smilin, said: Im goin, boys. Tell her Im going to see the Man that died for me: an he was gone. Kneeling there with my hands over those poor, cold ones, which had been stained with human

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blood, I asked that I might understand more and more the worth of a human soul, and be drawn into a deeper sympathy with Christs yearning compassion, not willing that any should perish. taken from Stories Worth Re-Reading

The Lord Knows Why

I may not know the reason why Dark clouds so often veil the sky, But, though my sea be smooth or rough, The Lord knows why, and thats enough. I may not know why I am led So often in the paths of dread; But, trusting Him, Ill press my way. The Lord knows why, I will obey. I may not know why death should come To take the dear ones from my home; But, though mine eyes with tears be dim, The Lord knows why; Ill trust in Him. So, though I may not understand The leadings of my Fathers hand, I know to all he has the key; He understands each mystery. Oh yes, He knows. The Lord knows why These things are ordered from on high; And, though dark clouds may hide the sun, The Lord knows why His will be done. ~ Johnson Oatman ~

"At all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all afflictions, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone, the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith. Circumstances may separate us from every earthly friend; but no circumstance, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always at our right hand to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer" (DA 669, 670).

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Home Duties
By Ellen G. White Dear young friends, Let me point you to the life of Christ, to his compassion, his humility and love, his inexpressible tenderness. You are to copy his example. God has given you life and all the rich blessings that make it enjoyable, and in return he has claims upon you for service, for gratitude, for love, for obedience to his law. These claims are of the first importance, and can not be lightly disregarded; but he requires nothing of you that will not make you happier, even in this life. He requires you to control passion, to restrain selfish thoughts and actions, and to leave fretful words unspoken. Would Jesus require this self-control, if it were not for your real happiness to practice it? No; he wishes you to cultivate such traits of character as will bring peace to your own hearts, and enable you to brighten other hearts and lives with the sunshine of love, joy, and cheerful contentment. If you are truly converted, if you are children of Jesus, you will honor your parents; you will not only do what they tell you, but will
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watch for opportunities to help them. In doing this you are working for Jesus. He considers all these care-taking, thoughtful deeds as done to himself. This is the most important kind of missionary work; and those who are faithful in these little every-day duties are gaining a valuable experience. Would it not be well to talk these matters over when you are together, and see what plans you can devise to become home missionaries? By cheerful obedience and manifesting a loving, helpful disposition in the home circle, you lighten the cares and burdens of your parents, and thus show true love for them, while exemplifying the grace of Christ. Take your older friends into your counsel, and see what you can do in this direction. Many children go about their home duties as though they were disagreeable tasks, and their faces plainly show the disagreeable. They find fault and murmur, and nothing is done willingly. This is not Christ-like; it is the spirit of Satan, and if you cherish it, you will be like him. You will be miserable yourselves, and will make all about you miserable. Do not complain of how much you have to do, and how little time you have for amusement, but be

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thoughtful and care-taking. By employing your time in some useful work, you will be closing a door against Satan's temptations. Remember that Jesus lived not to please himself, and you must be like him. Make this matter one of religious principle, and ask Jesus to help you. By exercising your mind in this direction, you will be preparing to become burdenbearers in the cause of God, as you have been care-takers in the home circle. You will have a good influence upon others, and may win them to the service of Christ. Some young persons who have the privilege of attending school, do not improve their advantages. They would like to read and write accurately, but the price of excellence is hard work, and they will not pay it. They remind me of the youth whose father sent him to school, and gave him every advantage for gaining a good education; but he neglected to study, saying that his father was able to give him a liberal education, and he was not going to bother his brains about it. You will all say at once that he would remain ignorant, for there is no royal road to learning. But wishing for a healthy religious experience without making earnest, self-

denying effort, will be equally useless. Sighing over your ignorance of divine things will never make you wise unto salvation. There are ten thousand sluggish tears and sighs toward heaven that will never win one smile of approval from Jesus. Do not think that a Christian experience will come to you of itself. When you make up your mind to do something on which your heart is set, you do not give up for difficulties, but try again and again. Put the same energy and determination to succeed into the service of Christ, and you will not fail of a reward. I point you, dear young friends, to Jesus. I commend you to his grace. He invites your confidence; and if you trust him in the simplicity of faith, he will come into your heart, and take up his abode with you, and will be to you an ever-present help in every time of need. Will you comply with the conditions laid down in his word? Will you come to Jesus? Many of you profess to be his followers; will you not begin now to imitate him in your lives? taken from The Youths Instructor, January 30, 1884

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A Note From Us to You

It was a pleasant Sabbath afternoon. My family joined another dear family from church for a walk. At the approach of a car, one of my younger sisters turned to the youngest walker, a little 3-year old girl, and announced, Look... a cars coming! With her hand trustingly in her dads hand, she sweetly replied, Dont worry. Im holding Daddys hand. How beautiful that little girls sweet and confiding trust in her Daddy! Dear friends, as we walk through life, how much do we trust our Heavenly Father? When things before us look alarming, can we trustingly, with our hands securely placed within those of our Heavenly Father, say, Dont worry. Im holding His hand? His love is as far above all other love as the heavens are above the earth. He watches over His children with a love that is measureless and everlasting. HM 482

As I behold that love that is measureless, that love which is greater and more powerful than anything else, a love that constrains and embraces me, what a privilege indeed it is to clasp His hand, whatever may be before us! So with our hands in His, what if there are obstacles in our path, if circumstances appear darkened or things dont go as we hoped? Well, we can still trust His abundant care! In the future life the mysteries that here have annoyed and disappointed us will be made plain. We shall see that our seemingly unanswered prayers and disappointed hopes have been among our greatest blessings. MH 474 To all who are reaching out to feel the guiding hand of God, the moment of greatest discouragement is the time when divine help is nearest. They will look back with thankfulness upon the darkest part of their way. DA 528 Oh, then, through every step of life, let us trust ourselves to the hands of Him Who has promises to withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly!
Hand in Thine we trust in Thee: Our loved Friend eternally!

~ Liesl Scheman ~
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