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A Challenge to
Youth
by
Commissioner Wesley Harris
WHEN she was the
'general elect' the then Commissioner Linda Bond was asked in
an interview for a message to the youth of the Army.
She urged young people to
‘Step up, sign up and show up’.
They were timely words.
We live in what
often seems an uncommitted generation.
Whether it has to do with marriage, employment or
anything else there is a reluctance to be committed to
anything more than what is provisional. It is a sign of the
times in which we live and it can affect the Army in which we
serve.
Many of our young
people have a delightful enthusiasm but are slow to direct it
into committed service as soldiers and officers.
Yet if the Army which they enjoy is to be effective it
needs the youthful drive and enterprise which youth can
supply.
Early Army
leaders were often very young with all the energy of youth.
Nowadays a pre-occupation with further education may
delay as well as enhancing the start of a life’s vocation and
the challenge is to retain the vital sense of a calling and
let it take effect as soon as possible.
We used to sing a
chorus which began, ‘I’ve never been sorry I answered the
call’ and that would be my testimony. At seventeen years of
age I became convinced of a calling to be a Salvation Army
officer. Well over
sixty years later the conviction remains and I could not
imagine any way of life that could have been more fulfilling
than mine has been.
Now I am looking for those who can take up the torch
and make the Army of the future even more effective in winning
people for Christ and serving the least, the last and the
lowest.
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