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Young Men as Missionaries
Young men who desire to enter the field as ministers, colporteurs,
or canvassers should first receive a suitable degree of mental training,
as well as a special preparation for their calling. Those who are
uneducated, untrained, and unrefined are not prepared to enter a field
in which the powerful influences of talent and education combat
the truths of God’s word. Neither can they successfully meet the
strange forms of error, religious and philosophical combined, to
expose which requires a knowledge of scientific as well as Scriptural
truth.
Those especially who have the ministry in view should feel the
importance of the Scriptural method of ministerial training. They
should enter heartily into the work, and while they study in the
schools, they should learn of the Great Teacher the meekness and
humility of Christ. A covenant-keeping God has promised that in
answer to prayer His Spirit shall be poured out upon these learners
in the school of Christ, that they may become ministers of righteous-
ness.
There is hard work to be done in dislodging error and false
doctrine from the head, that Bible truth and Bible religion may find
a place in the heart. It was as a means ordained of God to educate
young men and women for the various departments of missionary
labor that colleges were established among us. It is God’s will that
they send forth not merely a few, but many laborers. But Satan,
determined to overthrow this purpose, has often secured the very
ones whom God would qualify for places of usefulness in His work.
There are many who would work if urged into service, and who
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would save their souls by thus working. The church should feel her
great responsibility in shutting up the light of truth, and restraining
the grace of God within her own narrow limits, when money and
influence should be freely employed in bringing competent persons
into the missionary field.
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