YOUTH WORK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 June 1941, Page 6

YOUTH WORK

THE HOPE OF THE FUTURE. ADDRESS BY AREA DIRECTOR. “Youth work is the hope of the future, in the church as in the nation." said the Rev. C. T. Symonds, Wellington Area Director of Youth Work, at the Masterton Methodist Church last night, "and without a revival in this essential work, backed up by the loyal and firm co-operation of the older people, the future looks very bad.” The preacher said that the Methodist Church was making a real eflort to overcome the evil now rampant among the young people, who. though living in much healthier environment, had practically no home influence to help them in the battle of life. It was the task of the church and her leaders to make contact with the homes and to bring to the children a better know*ledge of Christianity and to give them a foundation and a strength of resource to help them to live a good life. Three directors had been appointed, one each at Wellington, Auckland and Dunedin, and they covered the whole of the Dominion, making special-eflcrts in Bible Class and Sunday School work, said Mr Symonds. So far, the results had been promising, except in tiie Bible Classes which had been hal'd hit by the war and which had lost many leaders. In spite ol all they could do, there was a decline in the moral and spiritual life of the young, a fact endorsed by the evidence of the courts and the Borstal institutes. The preacher made an earnest appeal io parents to assist in this great work which was the responsibility of the whole church. A feature sorely needed in the world was a spirit ol evangelical work among the church people. Environment, he added, was so slicing a factor in life that the help of al! was needed to counteract the evils ol j bad surroundings.