The whole world, East and West, is at present struggling through a great social revolution in an effort to discover a more equitable distribution of rights and opportunities and a better standard of living. In the process the threads of moral fibres have been loosened more than usual. One of the consequences is that the younger cadres of the population are clamouring for the top positions from which to give expression to their freedoms; and in the process public bodies and men of prominence find it necessary to deplore the prevalence of juvenile delinquency because they see in it a danger to the world’s social security.
The causes of the disorders among the juveniles are generally recognised, and they are many broken homes, selfish parents, lack of home discipline, uninhibited living, too much spending money, unsupervised youth activities, educational methods behind prevailing needs, explosive population growth, and others beside; and behind all the causes a lack of religious training in the home.
The situation is not novel. In all ages the background of religion—in the common sense of the word—has supplied the means for the highest levels of social culture. At the time of Christ Roman philosophers placed the blame for the growing disorders of the Empire upon the decline in reverence for the “household gods”. If this can be applied to a false religion, how much more to the true?
Reverence for God and respect for truth were two of the factors that made Christianity such a vital force in the early years and assured the rapid spread of its influence wherever the gospel of the Son of God was carried by the bands of zealous believers which traversed the earth. For conversion to Christ introduced a new, disciplined standard of life which automatically corrected many of the outstanding evils which people had come to regard as the norm of human conduct.
The same power can still, and does, operate today. It is observable among our own ecclesial youth groups, in which disorders of the sort public bodies speak of are at their minimum. One has only to look around these groups with their marked moderation in the pursuit of pleasure, discipline in social conduct and enthusiasm in religious studies and practices, to find that the influence for good comes from the Gospel of Christ being put to work.
The ecclesial organisation which makes this state of things possible needs to be protected with all vigilance. It is not a permanent state of things by itself.
Herein is the remedy for the evils which the world at large is not in any case to apply. It has to begin first with parents, elders and leaders, whose own standards fall short of requirements. ” `Honour thy father and thy mother’ which is the first commandment with promise”, lays the platform for peaceful homes, for social security and for national strength. It is the pin on which the whole structure stands; and the lesson cannot be imparted to the rising generation until the elders have learned and imbibed it. The family in worship is the pillar and ground of the truth, and truth must be in the worship. The scriptures of truth must be known and respected. These are cardinal points.
It is not long back that one high church authority advocated the putting of the blue pencil through those parts of the Bible which spoke of crimes of sex and violence, such things as those which in the past deflected rising cultures from a worthy end. And he did it on the grounds that such passages have an influence upon grubby-minded boys, etc. The shallowness of this objection is obvious. It ignores two vital facts. Firstly, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for instruction, that the man of God might be thoroughly furnished. And, secondly, that there is a calm objectivity about this instruction which gives no encouragement at all to prurient eyes, and certainly provides no parallels with the immoral promptings of the multiform salacious picture magazines which are given welcome in the living rooms of most modern homes. These are the missiles which find a ready target in both juvenile and adult minds. The vile practices which scripture denounces and declares the consequences of are an unpalatable condemnation of so many of society’s licentious ways, which are practiced before their children and in public. The reference must indeed be embarrassing to them.
The new moods and ways of the world are bound to affect the state of separation which rightly accompanies the community of the lord Jesus Christ, unless there is a constant renewing of the divine bond. The truth in Christ Jesus with its exalted hopes and aspirations must be sedulously cultivated. Parents must make it their practice at home and abroad, bringing up their children to have an admiration for true ways. Ecclesial elders must watch their own words and be always ready to give acceptable guidance that will influence devout minds and win the respect of their juvenile groups. So long as these requirements can be met, so long will the ecclesias be relatively free from the fever of juvenile delinquency.
Fellowship with the Maker and Brethren