Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-04-19
NEW CENTURY ARMY.
THE HOSTS OF ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN
YOUNG PEOPLE.

/
of the Worlds EvangeIization - Address
| by Rev. e. N. Thomas Before the County
Y.P. 5. &. Il. Convention.
The following address was delivered
by Rev. G. n. Thomas of Bristol at the
Christian Endeavor county convention
held at Ferrisburg on Feb. % last
! Mr.. President and Members of the
Convention: If | shall begin my brief
talk to you on the subject assigned me on
the program by the quotation of text
of scripture, you will not, trust, settle
down to the conviction that am going
to preach sermon or any part of one.
Not this at all even though you dis
cover that have unrolled some leaves of
paper after the manner of the preacher
who uses his manuscript in the pulpit
| quote the text simply and only to help
YOU quickly to see beautiful picture.
The Scripture words are these, "Who
are these that fly as cloud, and as the
doves to their windows?" They are the
young people enrolled in the army of
Christ in this the beginning of the new
century. 1t may not be that the pro-
phet who uttered these beautiful and sig
nficant words of prophecy concerning
the great ingatherings of the people to
the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ
had any distinct vision or any definite
thought of young people as such. But
surely it requires no stretch of the i'm
agination, it is no possible perversion of
the truth, to see in these words the
imagery that most fifty sets before us
the actual facts as they appear in the
great movements of the young people at
this present time.
Let us first take what we may call a
birds-eye glance at the picture-I mean
that of the young people in their dis
tinct organizations. We shall not at
tempt actually to count them nor even
name all the departments or divisions of
the great organized forces which they
constitute. We shall gain our object as
well if we place before our minds the
general facts of the greatness of this
army and its peculiarly favorable equip
ments and opportunities.
Looking out then upon the broad field
where young people are organized for
the noble work of saving themselves and
! their fellowmen from the powers of sin,
saving to the best kind of life for this
present world and that which is to come,
the first thing that strikes US is the size
of the army. What vast numbers. A
million people is great body, but here
we see so many millions that we fail to
appreciate the vastness of the number ,
Almost four millions under one banner,
that bearing the significant letters Y. p.
S. &. f. And well on toward the En-
deavOrers in the count come the hosts of
the Epworth League and the Baptist
Young Peoples Union and the Young
ferent branches, and the Young Women's
Christian Association, and the Boys
| Belgrade and the great variety of Junior
| Societies, Mission Bands and other forms
of classes for instruction and forces for
work. And then we should observe in
| this sweep of vision the more special or
CARNATIONS of our higher schools and
| seminaries. The fact is not so generally
known that there Is rapidly growing
organization called the Worlds Student
Christian Federation, started only five
years ago, having for its object the
bringing together in more effective
Christian work Christian students. To
this organization is due the very growth
of college Y. NJ. c. associations, so that
now they enroll over $4,000 members.
Nor should we fail to call attention in
this connection to the Student Volunteer
Movement. that has now on its records
over 5000 students who are looking to-
wards the work of foreign missions and
from whose ranks more than 100 have
already gone.
But the picture of the greatness of
this army of young people in organiza-
ton is not more than half drawn till we
put in the greatest of all the special
organizations now in action for the
spread and the making effective of gospel
truth. | refer of course to the Sabbath.
school. Not so recent in organization,
not perhaps so much in observation be-
cause not so new thing, yet who does
not know that for noble results, for per-
manent and abiding helpfulness to the
onward march of gospel truth, as the
nursery and recruiting office of the
church for which all these minor organ
izations are at work, the Sabbath. school
must unquestionably stand first. Its
millions will double and perhaps treble
all the Others counted together 1t is
true that in this count large numbers are
included which are not young people.
But abstract from the whole body the
elderly people and you will still find the
Sabbath school greatly in the lead as to
numbers.
See then what we have in the way of
organized forces of young people with
which to begin this new century, What
a change from the beginning of last cen
fury, when it was actually considered to
be disgrace for young man in college
to be a church member. When not one
in twenty of Yale or Harvard students
made any profession of piety or even of