Manuscript Releases, vol. 6 [Nos. 347-418]

Youth Work

What would I give for a minister that goes into the desk and preaches a discourse with the solemn truths that we bear at this time, and then goes out and his conversation is light, trifling, and narrow? His words carry no weight.... You should preach less; teach the Bible in the family; read and explain. You can do more at the family circle than in all the sermonizing.—Manuscript 10, 1891, 10, 11. (Sermon, August 2, 1891.) 6MR 51.1

We are in a world of sin and temptation, and youth are perishing out of Christ all around us, and He wants you to labor for the youth in every conceivable way that you can. If you have a house, and a pleasant home, then invite the youth that have no homes, invite the youth that are in need of help, that are in need of sympathy and kind words, courtesy and respect. They want all this. If you want to bring them to Christ, you must show your love and respect for the purchase of His blood, the souls whom He has ransomed by the infinite cost of His own precious life, and is not that enough to lead us as soon as we are a branch in the vine to bear fruit? ... 6MR 51.2

In heaven we shall see those youth that we helped, those youth that we invited to our house, those youth that we led from temptation, those youth that we tried to win away from being drunkards and tobacco users and wine drinkers and all these habits which are taking the underpinning out of the house, befogging the brain, and taking away the reason, and leaving men without a sound mind and a sound body.—Manuscript 43, 1894, 9, 10. (“The Vine and the Branches,” Sermon, October 27, 1894.) 6MR 51.3

We must help our young people to understand the important truths which make us a peculiar people, denominated by God. Those who work faithfully will gather most precious, enduring fruit.—Letter 190, 1903, pp. 4, 5. (To A. G. Daniells, August 27, 1903.) 6MR 52.1