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The Retirement Years
affectionate, and no father ever loved his child more tenderly than did
Eli this youth. As the infirmities of age came upon Eli, he felt more
keenly the disheartening, reckless, profligate course of his own sons,
and he turned to Samuel for comfort and support.
How touching to see youth and old age relying one upon the other,
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the youth looking up to the aged for counsel and wisdom, the aged
looking to the youth for help and sympathy. This is as it should be. God
would have the young possess such qualifications of character that they
shall find delight in the friendship of the old, that they may be united
in the endearing bonds of affection to those who are approaching the
borders of the grave.—
The Signs of the Times, October 19, 1888
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Paul Trained Timothy and Titus
Paul made it a part of his work to educate young men for the gospel
ministry. He took them with him on his missionary journeys, and thus
they gained an experience that later enabled them to fill positions of
responsibility. When separated from them, he still kept in touch with
their work, and his letters to Timothy and Titus are an evidence of
how deep was his desire for their success. “The things that thou hast
heard,” he wrote, “commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to
teach others also.”
This feature of Paul’s work teaches an important lesson to ministers
today. Experienced laborers do a noble work when, instead of trying
to carry all the burdens themselves, they train younger men, and place
burdens on their shoulders. It is God’s desire that those who have
gained an experience in His cause, shall train young men for His
service.
The younger worker must not become so wrapped up in the ideas
and opinions of the one in whose charge he is placed, that he will
forfeit his individuality. He must not lose his identity in the one who
is instructing him, so that he dare not exercise his own judgment, but
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does what he is told, irrespective of his own understanding of what
is right and wrong. It is his privilege to learn for himself of the great
Teacher. If the one with whom he is working pursues a course which
is not in harmony with a “Thus saith the Lord,” let him not go to some
outside party, but let him go to his superior in office, and lay the matter