It is a universally accepted fact that a person receives education for twenty-five years, gains experience for another twenty-five years, and then becomes truly useful in the final twenty-five years. Three twenty-five years make a total of seventy-five years. I hope all our young people will live for seventy-five years-twenty-five years to receive spiritual education, another twenty-five years to gain spiritual experience, and the final twenty-five years to be used by God. I also hope that those who are in their fifties now will take good care of their health for the Lord’s sake. However, brothers and sisters, please consider: Unless there is a group of young people who are saved to receive proper spiritual help today, how can they gain the experience and be used by the Lord in the future? If there are no young people gained by the Lord today, after our departure there will be no one to succeed us. Then there will be a gap.

Let me give you a testimony. Thirty years ago when the Lord raised us up in China, it was truly a hard time for us. Since there was no one who could help us in our service, we had to strenuously grope around in every matter. At that time we had left Christianity behind; therefore, even in the matter of how to meet we had to feel our way around little by little. Now, after more than thirty years, the young people then have become old people. If the Lord does not have a group of young people today to receive help, after some time, when we pass away, will there not be a gap? This will not only delay the day of the Lord but also diminish the effectiveness of our work. If there are young brothers and sisters raised up by the Lord, and if we are preserved to give them an absolutely positive leading instead of erroneous limitations, then there is no need to wait until the Lord takes us away; even today they can become useful in the Lord’s hands.

We already saw this clearly more than twenty years ago. Therefore, from that time on we paid a great deal of attention to gaining the young intellectuals in the universities and hospitals. Thank the Lord, this work had good progress from 1936. The Lord gained a good number of young people from the Union Medical College in Peking, from a certain hospital in Tientsin, from the Ch’i Lu University in Tsinan, from the College of Nursing in Shanghai, and from some universities in Nanking. Many young medical students, resident physicians, nurses, and even professors became our brothers and sisters. About ten years later, among us nearly all the co-workers and responsible ones in the churches all over the country were the young people gained at that time. Therefore, after the War of Resistance against Japan [1937-1945] was won and the country was restored, then the Lord brought us back to Shanghai where there was a small work of revival again in the regions of Nanking and Shanghai. At that time we concentrated nearly seventy to eighty percent of our efforts on the young people. Within those two to three years all the work among the college students received much blessing from the Lord. Many young ones were gained by Him. By saying this much, I hope that the brothers and sisters can see the importance of the young people’s work. This should create a heart in us to appreciate the young brothers and sisters.

I would say to you, brothers and sisters, that I love the older ones. The Lord can testify for me about this. But I also would ask the older ones to forgive me because I would also say that I really appreciate the young people’s work. Some spread words about me saying that Brother Lee only cares for the young people’s work and that he has chased all the older ones out to the street. I deny this; I never had that intention. However, for the future of the Lord’s work, I would ask the older ones to pray much for the young people. The future of the work and the usefulness in the future, no doubt, are with the young people. From the view of saving souls, we should treat older ones and younger ones equally. From the view of the future of the work, however, we should put our emphasis on the younger ones. If the church or the work fails to gain young people, it will be like a family that has only some childless old people: an old grandfather who is eighty-five years old, a father who is sixty years old, and a son who is nearly forty years old. There are no younger ones under them; there are no crying ones or shouting ones. Rather, everyone is well-behaved. This is abnormal.

Sometimes when someone says to me, “Brother Lee, it seems that our church is in a mess and is not very orderly,” I would say, “That is actually a good sign.” When you visit a family, if you see some are crying, some are shouting, some are fighting, some are doing somersaults, and some are rolling on the floor, that is a good sign; it indicates that the family is flourishing. If a family has only an eighty-five year old grandfather, a sixty-year-old father, and a forty-year-old son, certainly no one will be rolling on the floor. Even if any of them desires to roll on the floor, he would not have the strength to do it. Therefore, all year round they live in quietness, orderliness, and loneliness. Brothers and sisters, we can be sure that such a family does not have to sell its house; the house will become someone else’s house before long. In the same manner, when you visit a church, if you see throngs of young people there, then you should praise the Lord that the church has a future. You do not need to ask whether those young people are good or bad. Just as in a family, it does not matter how naughty the children are; they are still better than none. If there are no children, the family is doomed to hopelessness. Some children who are undesirable today may become desirable tomorrow. There is always hope.

In summary, we need to gain the young people in the church and in the Lord’s work. Anyone who works for the Lord with insight needs to pay attention to this matter. If you see this, your heart will be burdened to love the young people regardless of whether they are good or bad. Having a young one who is not very desirable is better than having none at all. May the brothers and sisters as the Lord’s lovers all love the young people for the future of the church and for the Lord’s work.

Concerning the practical side, we will mention the following points.
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