OUR DESIRES FOR THE YOUNG

R. J. Campbell

1 Samuel 2: 18, 19; 1 Timothy 6: 6–12; Galatians 4: 18, 19

I have been wondering, beloved brethren, as to what our desires are for our children, for our young people, and what our desires are for the saints generally. What objectives do we have for them? I think a prime thing would be a desire with us that our young people and the brethren, the saints generally, might progress spiritually. I wondered whether that really comes about in the area of our affections. I think there is a need for instruction, a great need for instruction; a great need for us to be aware of the principles, what is established in the Scriptures, what has come out in the recovery of the truth, but I wondered whether formation does not come about through our affections, a certain desire for character to be formed in the children and in the saints.

I was thinking of Hannah and her exercises; she had no fleshly, material ambitions for Samuel, in fact before he was born, as we know, all she desired was a man child for the testimony. Her prayer was that if she did get a boy that he would be committed solely to the testimony, she would give him to Jehovah all the days of his life. What desires, beloved brethren! I am not speaking to the sisters particularly; I think this kind of service can be taken up by each one of us, but I think there is a very necessary function that the sisters can take on in view of the establishment and progress of young people in the truth. When Samuel was born he was given to Jehovah and Hannah expected normal growth in this boy. I wonder

whether we can be optimistic about our young people, whether we have been to Jehovah about them, praying for them, on our knees about them that they might progress normally. I wonder if Samuel had lived in our day whether he would have been considered abnormal, but Samuel was a normal boy, a boy that grew up in relation to divine things. Hannah made a little coat for him and she brought it to him every year. It has often been referred to; how did she know the coat would fit? She expected normal progress with Samuel, and I am quite sure that, being a spiritual woman, as we know she was, more spiritual than her husband, she would be with God in relation to this boy, and she would know the kind of progress that he would make every year. How wonderful! May these desires be with us. This was a sister, Hannah, as I said, but I think these subjective, deep and intense feelings are to enter into the exercises of brothers; it should not be left to the sisters. May we not just proceed in the externals of the meetings. I feel the challenge of this; we can take part in reading meetings and give words in the ministry meetings, and that is all very necessary, but what is proceeding behind the scenes? What are our subjective, deep and intense exercises in relation to our young people and in relation to the saints?

I speak of Samuel at the moment. What intense, deep feelings Hannah had, and they continued not just one year and then forgetting about him; every year she went up to sacrifice, every year she saw Samuel. I believe she would seek him out if he was not immediately available, though he was always in the area of the temple; she would not go back without seeing Samuel, she was intensely interested in him, and made this little coat and took it up every year. O, beloved brethren, may we be encouraged to have these exercises, and these desires too, to be interested and to have care so that our young

people might progress in soul history, that there might be the kind of manhood developed that is essential, absolutely essential, in view of the continuation of the testimony. Manhood is needed; manhood will always be needed. As we near the end of the dispensation, which I think we all would feel we are, I believe manhood will be needed to carry the testimony through, and we are depending on our young people, if the Lord does not come, to maintain things in life and in manhood in the testimony. I believe that there is a need for something to be produced and something to be maintained, and it requires these deep feelings and prayerful interest in view of spiritual progress.

Well, I read of Timothy particularly because of Paul’s word, “O man of God”. You think of how Paul could address Timothy in this way—“O man of God”. He speaks of him, of course, as his beloved child, who had imbibed Paul’s teaching, and imbibed Paul’s spirit, but also, beloved brethren, he was the product again of deep subjective exercises. Paul speaks at the beginning of the next epistle of the faith that was in Timothy’s grandmother and the faith that was in his mother, and, he says, “in thee also”. You see in Timothy a young man, and yet Paul speaks of him as “O man of God”. You think of the formation in Timothy; you think of the result of exercise in his grandmother and his mother. Again I am not speaking to the sisters only; I think we all have to take our part in this kind of exercise, that there might be manhood coming to light at the present time. What joy it would cause Paul to have a Timothy, to have someone he could speak of as “O man of God”. I feel, beloved brethren, that we should be concerned about these things.

I read the previous verses because I wonder—and I almost hesitate to say it—whether the enemy

would use the love of money as an avenue to expose our young people. I believe that we should be concerned that in the home there is protection for our young people. They need care, they need interest, they need affection, they need control; they need all these things, and I wonder whether the enemy would not use the love of money in view of our young people being exposed, so that the kind of progress that should take place in them is perhaps stunted, is perhaps not proceeding in a normal way. You think of these words of Paul here, and you feel the challenge of them. Think of what he says—“For we have brought nothing into the world: it is manifest that neither can we carry anything out”. What will go through, beloved brethren, is the work of God, and everything else, everything else, will be left behind. So Paul is instructing Timothy and he is saying, “O man of God, flee these things”—“flee these things”—manhood according to God will be set in view of the support of the testimony, and Paul is saying “flee these things ... Strive earnestly in the good conflict of faith. Lay hold of eternal life”. Men grasp after life here, the enjoyment of life; they try to lay hold of it and they never will. Paul says, “Lay hold of eternal life”, it is there for us, beloved brethren, a wonderful area of affection and life and vitality that we can touch. Paul is saying to Timothy, Do not go in for these other things; you flee these things “and pursue righteousness, piety, faith, love, endurance, meekness of spirit. Strive earnestly in the good conflict of faith. Lay hold of eternal life”.

O, beloved brethren, there is something which is going through, and something that will proceed in the testimony; the Lord will see that His testimony will continue. But may we be encouraged to be fully in it at the present time, to be prayerful that manhood might come to 1ight and that manhood might be continued , and that there might be desire with each one of us, including the young people, to lay hold of eternal life, to lay hold of what is to be enjoyed at the present time. There is nothing in the world; it is a sphere of death, corruption, violence. Paul says, Do not go in for that but, “Lay hold of eternal life”. There is something to be laid hold of, to be grasped, it is within our range to enjoy it, to enjoy something now that really belongs to another world altogether.

I read of Paul in relation to the Galatians. Think of the feelings he had, the intense exercise he had in relation to the saints at Galatia, and he does not just say, ‘I have travailed once, I have done enough; they have not really showed up too well, but I travailed for them anyway and what else can I do?’, but, “of whom I again travail in birth”. Think of the exercise of Paul, and as I stand here I feel the challenge of it. When you stand up to give a word like this the word is two-edged, it applies to the speaker and it applies to the hearers, so I do not speak to anyone as feeling superior; I feel challenged, I feel humbled by it, but Paul says he will travail again; he would say, If it is necessary, I will go through the whole thing again “until Christ shall have been formed in you”.

Well, beloved brethren, what an exercise for us. You may say, Well, the material is not very good; you do not get many results, sometimes you get rebuffed. Paul says elsewhere that he would abundantly love though he were less loved (2 Corinthians 12: 15). Whatever the response was, Paul says, I will go on; I will keep on with these subjective deep exercises, not showing his apostolic authority, not setting out the truth in any dictatorial way; he says, I will travail again in birth, I will go through the whole thing again; all that I want is that Christ be formed in you. What a desire, beloved brethren, and I believe that is normal. That Christ should be formed in the saints is normal, and we should be exercised in relation to one another, not chastising. You think of Paul here just saying, I will go through it again, I will travail again until Christ shall have been formed in you. Well, this is a brother, this is Paul speaking, and yet you think of his maternal instincts, his desires, his deep inward feelings; and all he wanted, beloved brethren, was the formation of Christ in the saints.

I just leave these words, beloved brethren, I feel the challenge of them, but there is much encouragement, and we should see that God would answer us. I think God would answer us if we are prepared to go through with these things, to be prayerful about them, to be intense in our prayers to God, to hold on to Him in view of the preservation of our young people, and their growth, and not only our young people, but that as to each one of us Christ might be formed in us. May it be so for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Glasgow
11 December 1990