Where are the young men?

The following extract from a missionary’s letter makes truly serious reading. He says:

“During the year of our recent furlough. I visited 75 towns in England and America, and in each spoke of the great need for labourers in this part of Africa. So far as I know the result was NIL.”

“In 1925 two companies invited applicants for 882 situations in Belgian Congo as clerks, traders, mechanics, &co, and 15,000 young men immediately applied for the situations.”

 “In view of the fact that the Lord’s return is imminent, and that Christians know it, it does seem strange that there should be no young men ready to come to the Congo to serve the Lord. It would seem that when they read passages like John 3:16 they appropriate them and say, ‘That’s for me.’ But when, they come to a verse like Matthew 28:19 they say, ‘That’s not for me, let somebody else go.’ We wonder what the Lord will have to say to such unfairness.”

There is no doubt but that we have arrived at days of lukewarmness and indifference as foretold in what is said of the Laodicean church in Revelation 3:14-22. Such a challenge as our missionary friend has flung out is very arresting. It haunts one with its vivid contrast. His appeal for helpers in Belgian Congo in 75 towns in two continents and no response — the call for 882 secular situations to be filled in the same unhealthy part of the world and 15,000 applicants. The contrast is startling and illuminating.

On the other hand it would not do if all young men believing in John 3:16, were to come to the conclusion that they must be missionaries to the heathen. That would in our judgment be disastrous. The commission in Matthew 28:19 was given to picked men and men with apostolic gift, men who had had the inestimable privilege of seeing how the great Master did the work.

All the same there is plenty and to spare in the challenge to set us thinking and—acting. All are not fitted for this foreign field. Many a young man and woman under the spell of an earnest missionary address, when the imagination has been fired and the feelings stirred, has volunteered for the foreign held and afterwards wished they had not. When faced with “things as they are”—the arresting title of a well-known missionary book—the romance has been dispelled and the enthusiasm has evaporated. We believe missionaries need many qualities to be successful.

They need deep earnestness and spirituality, fervent love for souls, immense determination and common sense, the ability to get on with others. They must not be thin-skinned, jealous, quick to see a slight, and be ready to plod on and on, endure privation sickness, weariness, thirst, and esteem their service to God and the poor heathen more than a recompense for all these things.

All are not called to this service. The call, when it comes, will be inward and irresistible. It will assert itself more in the privacy of one’s heart than in public.

Further, the missionary who goes abroad will first be the missionary at home. Zeal does not grow by reason of taking a sea voyage and finding oneself under palm trees amid semi-nude savages. There must be that zeal that seizes the present moment, the present surroundings, the present opportunity.

Not all are called to be foreign missionaries. Some are needed at home. Unless the home fires are kept burning the foreign field will languish. But when God calls the call is imperative, and if the Lord of the harvest thrusts forth labourers all will be well.

But in face of our missionary friend’s challenge we may well be exercised, and shall the response be NIL for the Lord in face of the 15,000 applicants for 882 secular situations in needy Africa?

Whilst all cannot be missionaries to the heathen, we can and do appeal for earnestness, devotedness and surrender on the part of every young man. If these things characterized our young men there would be no lack of gift of home missionaries or foreign missionaries. All would be missionaries. If there were this spirit of the constraining love of Christ about our young men we should have no lack. Thank God, many of our young men are devoted, but we plead for all to be devoted and for a deeper devotedness where devotion exists. “For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves, but to Him which died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15). Let our motto be,

  “Not to ourselves, but UNTO HIM.”

We owe everything to our Lord and Master.

What examples of young men we have in Scripture:Daniel, Samuel, David, Joseph, Moses, Paul, Peter, John, Timothy, Titus and a host of others. God has ever used young men, taking up their physical strength and endurance, their brightness and zeal.

Daniel was but a youth in the Babylonian court when he purposed in his heart not to be defiled by the King’s meat and drink.

Samuel was but a boy when he got those wonderful communications direct from God.

David was but a ruddy youth when he was anointed to be King over Israel.

Joseph was about 17 years old when he was sold into Egypt, and stood for God when exiled from country and father and friends.

Moses when he came to years made the great decision and refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter.

And so we might range through Scripture and find a cloud of witnesses among the young men of Scripture. Above all we have the supreme example of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith . . . let us run with patience the race set before us” (Heb 12:1-2). The reward is coming, the goal is already in sight. Let us seek grace to answer to all that God is for us in Christ.

A.J.P.