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HAVE very decided convictions concerning the education of the young. In the first place, as far as possible, I would have young persons to really know thoroughly what they do know.

     My own education was defective in this respect. I had no thorough foundation when I went to the university and hence I was continually at a disadvantage.

      In order to erect a splendid building we must lay the foundation in a proper manner.

      I have seen men handicapped all my life because their knowledge was not such that they could put it to use. They had vague ideas and opinions, but they did not know.

      I have wished a thousand times that I could start to school again in the kindergarten and really master the principle of knowledge. But I cannot do it; my time has passed.

      I call upon the young to take warning by my mistake. Another point I would emphasize. In order for a person's education to be helpful, it must be practical. We are not up against a theory in this world, but really actual conditions face us at every step.

      I cannot see why the great teachers of the present day lay out the course for our young people that they do. They tell us that we must study mathematics and that we must dig for years into Greek roots in order to have the mind properly disciplined.

      I have seen many a time since I came out of college that I would give almost anything to have been able to exchange some of the knowledge I possessed, which had wholly to do with the impractical, for something that I could use today.

      There is something radically wrong here with the education of our young people. They come out of high school and college in many cases absolutely helpless.

      More than that, they come out with false notions and ideas, bringing with them expensive tastes and destructive habits, and in fact are utterly unable to make their own way in the world.

      What shall they do? They will not dig and to beg they are ashamed.

      I have been more stirred up on this subject of recent years than any other that has come to my notice.

      The faith of our young people in the modern university is impaired, if not destroyed. In many cases our sons and daughters leave our homes with pure characters, believing in God and His holy work, and they return to us very frequently impure and fallen in character, and with their faith in the Bible destroyed.

      They are practically infidels. May God have mercy on the teachers and instructors of the young of the present day!

      These teachers in many cases set the young an example in the use of tobacco, in remaining away from the house of God and in holding very liberal views of our relation to God and our obligations to Him.

      I have come to the conclusion that I would prefer that my little daughter never go to the university if she is to be returned to me with ideas of the modern young lady and with the principles a great many of them seem to have.

      The great defect in the education of the present day in my opinion is that the true conception of God is left out of it.

      Our young people must know about God; He is the foundation of everything. Our young people must live according to the principles taught in the oldest and best book in the world, viz., the Bible.

      That is to say, they must believe in and reverence God and serve Him. I find that men do not fail in this world because of a lack of knowledge, but they fail because they do not think right and do right.

E SHOULD strive earnestly to know ourselves and others.

      First, to know ourselves. The wise men among the ancients emphasized this point. In particular was this true among the Greeks.

      They rang the changes on this sentence, "Know thyself." We ought to find out our fitness and liking so as to choose our business wisely.

      We ought also to guard ourselves where we are weakest and most liable to fall. We should strengthen ourselves by a lofty aim here in this life and we ought to exercise our wills in the holding of ourselves to a fixed and noble purpose.

      But I would especially emphasize the point that we should get acquainted with other people. My defective knowledge and acquaintance with respect to others is great. I have of late become really acquainted with a number of people who have absolutely surprised me.

      Some of these have been of different nationality from myself; they have been of different religious faith; their calling and station in life was very different from mine and I had made up my mind that no good could come out of such a Nazareth.

      But in a number of these cases recently I have found that I was utterly mistaken. When I saw into the inner heart and life of some of these individuals I have been astonished and ashamed of my former conclusions.

      We harm our fellow men this way. Many reach the conclusion that such and such persons can never be benefited, so they give them over to the devil.

      Now I have concluded that there are many in our insane asylums and jails and all about us in our cities

who can be reached. I admit they are desperate cases, but we have an all-powerful Saviour who can reach the lowest and lift them to the heights.

      But our Lord needs us; we should have a simple faith in Him and in humanity. And if we do not have this we tie the hands of Jesus. It is a matter that I cannot understand at all, but it seems to be true that when our Lord works He needs the co-operation of our faith.

      He says, "He could not do many mighty works because of their unbelief."

      My dear friends, let us believe in the living God and in the salvation of our fellow men, though they may have fallen to great depths.

LL MY life I have been an observer to a certain degree of old people. I have talked with them and been more or less associated with them all my life, but for the past eight years I have made a great effort to better their condition so far as I was able.

      As I have before stated in this book, I have expended thousands of dollars for a home for them and for their temporal support.

      Old age is something to be expected and provided for. If death does not come to us we shall certainly become old and die from age.

      Why should we not face this matter and provide for it? I think the only reason people do not do as I have stated here is that they do not think on the subject. A lack of thought is the ruin of many.

      From what I have seen I have concluded that it is a terrible thing to come to old age with no friends and no resources of one's own; and many reach old age just in this situation.

      They dream along, time passes, energies are wasted and money expended. My advice is: Have this goal continually in view. There are a certain number of productive years and when these are once gone they will not return.

      Why can't I realize that? I can if I will and can act accordingly.

      Another great error that the aged fall into is this: They stop work too soon. Some retire at 50. I have in mind some of these in this city now. I do not know why I should stop work. If I do not have to labor for myself, why should I not help to support others?

      One of the greatest sins of old people is to sit with

folded hands. In many cases they have the right use of their minds and their bodies, but they insist on sitting down and waiting for death absolutely unemployed.

      Old age is an idea; it is a state largely of the mind. Let's get away from it. Let us do business as long as we live and quit this folly.

      Some of the aged have done wonders.

      I understand from the very best authority that some of the great French painters did splendid work after they were 80 years of age. Most of the greatest works of Titian were done after his seventy-fifth year.

      Hoku Sai, the Japanese artist, said when he was 75 years old, "Now I am beginning to know enough. Wait until I am 85 or 90 and you will see something, and when I am 110 then my work shall be wonderful."

      Thomas Parr died in London, England, November 15th, 1635. He was 152 years old. He first married at the age of 80 and he had two children. After the death of his wife he married again at the age of 120.

      Pliny lived in the first century and he gives us some instances of longevity. He enumerates twenty persons who had reached the age of 125 years and forty persons who had reached the age of 130 years, and thirty persons who lived 140 years.

      Grossner, the great German preacher, founded his first mission when he was 65 years of age and lived and labored to be 85 years old.

      He sent missionaries to Australia, to the Southern Seas, to central India, to New Zealand, to the gold coast and to many other countries.

      Though he was a man of such great age, he spoke such words as these to his followers: "Believe, hope, love, pray, waken the dead. Hold fast by prayer. Wrestle like Jacob."

      Such men as these did not quit when they were young, but labored on gloriously.

      Wesley preached great sermons when he was 88. Franklin was appointed as minister to France when he was 70 years of age and reflected great honor on his country.

WAS brought up in the Methodist Church and had always been accustomed to see ministers paid a regular salary. The Methodist people were accustomed to pay so much every three months; they called it quarterage. I really did not know any other way to do than that.

      But when I came to step out as an independent minister I had no members and there was no one to guarantee me any salary. I simply had to go ahead and trust in God.

      I not only had to trust Him for the support of myself and family, but I had to look to Him for money for the support of the church. Now for twenty-four years bills in this church have not been presented to my people; they have been handed to me.

      This to me was the most natural thing to do. Indeed, it was the only thing to do. And as I read the Bible I find that this was the Scriptural way.

      I cannot imagine any man of God of whom the Sacred Scriptures give an account, demanding so much salary. In Numbers, twenty-second chapter and eighteenth verse, we read, "And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, 'If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord, my God.'"

      This prophet is not considered a model character in the Scriptures by any means, for he insisted on doing what God told him not to do; but he did understand that the carrying of God's message was not a matter of barter and sale.

      He had that clear in his mind.

      I cannot conceive of one of God's great prophets

demanding of the people a certain price before the said messenger should give them the divine message.

      God would not have dealt for one moment with such a man. These holy men delivered the messages that God gave them without financial recompense, but in the face of awful opposition, and even in spite of threatened destruction to themselves.

      It was really a costly thing to be a prophet; the profession was really never crowded.

      The same principle holds with regard to the apostles. I don't have any idea that Peter ever passed the collection plate on the day of Pentecost. The question of money, it appears, seldom entered into their thought.

      Such a thing as stated salaries were unknown.

      The fact is, an artist is a man who has a picture he must paint.

      A poet is a man who has a poem he must write and a preacher is a man who has a divine message he must deliver.

      In the early church when the foundations of our faith were laid the mighty men whom God used forgot themselves and all financial considerations. The fact is, they lost their lives that they might find them.

      Now I am asked, "How has the matter worked with you for nearly a quarter of a century?" I answer, "Fine. I have had no fixed salary for these twenty-four years and don't want any."

      Very frequently the collection on the Lord's day has amounted to no more than the cost of the opening of the church and the necessary expenses thereto and the payment of my choir leader, but before the end of the week God has supplied my necessary needs.

      I have found that God will not be in debt to me. If I do anything for Him He will pay me.

      The ministry is a good deal like other professions and business. If a man earns a dollar he is very apt to get it.

      I heard Sam Jones say once that there were only three things necessary for the salvation of the people: "Grace," "grit" and "greenbacks," "and, brethren, if

you will furnish the greenbacks I will furnish the grace and the grit!"

      And the people stood by him as long as he preached and God blessed him in the stirring-up of the people and in the salvation of many of them.

      The fact is, we are too timid. We must trust God and believe in ourselves and we shall have the divine blessing.

      I would not exchange this way of living and of working for any financial system I know of. By this method I have become acquainted with God's promises and I have proved them true scores of times. I have found it glorious to turn away from the arm of flesh and to look to the living God.

      I could not have grown the faith and spiritual fibre I have in any other way.

      And I have done better than most of my brethren who have had a fixed salary in the ministry. God loves the man who trusts Him and men admire this courage and come to him for services of different kinds that they must have.

      And the result is, the true man of God has work and receives sufficient for all his needs.

      To God be all the praise.

NUMBER of years ago a noted infidel publicly asked that question and many have since taken it up.

      It has been considered something of a poser. I consider this question as one emanating from a weak mind or as a question coming from a mind that has not thought deeply.

      It is a question of the child-mind. Strong men have thought more deeply and know too much to ask such questions.

      Did you ever think of the purpose of man's existence on the earth? Did you ever seriously consider your own mission in the world? There is a great deal of ignorance on this matter.

      I have asked a good many people that question, "What are you here for?" and they have given me all manner of answers. Most of them say, "I don't know." Many tell me, "I suppose I am here to make a living." But I answer, "Why should we make a living? What is the living for?"

      Others tell me it is to prepare for the next world to get to heaven. I don't believe that. If heaven is the principal object point, why did my Creator not put me there? What was His purpose in running me through this world?

      I believe that He put me in this world subject to sin, pain, suffering, loss, and even death, that I might build a character under choice and trial. And in this way and by this means I was to become acquainted with His holy nature, with His hatred of sin.

And by this plan I could become educated in His great plan for me and in the possibilities of my own being that I could not in any other way.

      People now will not believe what I say about sin and the results of sin until they try it, but they believe then.

      The other day a beautiful young girl came to see me. She had been taught by her teachers that it was a very bad thing to fall into sin. And she assented to all they said and in a way believed it. But when she talked to me after having been tempted of the devil and fallen, she exclaimed, with eyes blinded with tears and with a breaking heart, "I an ruined for life!"

      She saw as she never could have seen otherwise the horror of sin. She had partaken of the fruit that grew in the midst of the garden and her eyes were open.

      In what other way, I ask, could she have received this knowledge?

      God is too wise to destroy the devil. Should He do so it must change or destroy His whole plan of making character.

      He could make man only, it appears to me, in two ways: First, as a machine, without any freedom of choice, and, secondly, as a creature of free choices. And God has chosen the latter plan.

      In my later life I am beginning to see more clearly than ever the necessity of the building of character in this world, and when we reach the other life and stand before God, we shall understand still more.

      The Lord is right.

OR SOME little time I have been thinking about my relation to merchants. I find it is very difficult for me to put myself in the place of another, but I ought to strive to do that.

      Our people generally are thoughtless about their conduct and relation to those with whom they deal. The merchant of the present day is in a very difficult situation. He has to contend with fierce competition; he must meet all his obligations faithfully or fail. He is compelled to try to please a vast number of unresponsible people. It is certainly the duty of each one of us to deal honestly and faithfully with the merchants who sell us goods. We ought to pay promptly, if possible, and when we cannot pay promptly we should go to see our dealer and not forsake him and go to another store. We should never cheat him out of what is justly his or make him unnecessary trouble.

      Very frequently it would be proper for us and eminently Christian to do our own delivering. The merchant in this particular is often put to great hardship and loss. He is often compelled to make a delivery of goods which necessitates the travel of a very considerable distance, for which the buyer has only paid a dime. This is unreasonable and wrong. Let us put ourselves in the place of the merchant.

      Another thing that should be corrected is this: We should do our buying during the week and not on the Lord's day. The merchant who keeps open on Sunday does not do so from choice, but from what he thinks is a necessity. The man who respects the Lord's day in many cases is afraid his competitor will get his trade and hence he keeps open to accommodate a Sabbath-breaking community.

      I find that church members in large numbers buy before they go to church, almost as much as the non-professors do, and when they are spoken to about it they give trivial excuses. This is wrong; a sin against God and a sin against the merchant.

      You will here find the picture of one of my dear friends who has been engaged in the grocery business since he was a small boy. His name is George Ross; he is my neighbor and friend.

      He not only furnishes the groceries at my home, but he is also the one from whom we make our large purchases for the House of Hope. I like him very much. He is honest, accommodating and courteous to all. I often admire him as I see him struggling to meet the demands made upon him. The young people in that store are like my own children.

      This condition of things ought to more widely prevail than it does. Let us help the storekeeper and all with whom we come in contact.

© 2003 for the NEGenWeb Project by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller.