Article November 1, 1969 Issue

Helping the Young by Example

NEIL MARTIN

Youth today, the world over, is in rebellion. It is in revolt against timeworn traditions and archaic methods of instruction that do not answer the challenge of the population explosion or the swiftly changing techniques in industry, physical science, and exploration. This is an age that would seem to subjugate the human personality to the machine. In seeking a solution to the unrest, people of the utmost goodwill are often baffled and frustrated by the conflicting answers to their inquiries by sometimes incoherent young people. Their turmoil is ill-defined, their reactions frequently intense or violent.

But one thing is becoming more and more apparent. The world's youth are accepting no old, tried-and-found-wanting formulas. They may not be able to define their griefs and their sense of insecurity sharply. But they seem agreed, if one reads the news of student protests correctly or has occasion to talk to young people, that suitable marriages and jobs offering good salaries and advancement are not their main goal. They want these, of course, but not in the context of the social formulas, whatever their merits, according to which they have been brought up. Godless ideologies and unproved philosophies often attract them because they have been disappointed or deceived by the political systems, religious dogmas, and routine educational programs they have known.

May we not assume that what many young people nearly everywhere are seeking is universally applicable Truth, demonstrable Principle, with which to change a social order that seems to envelop the individual in a monstrous, machine-made anonymity? And what universal, provable truth is there that can satisfy this aspiration but the omnipotent, healing Word of God, which Christ Jesus referred to when he said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"?^{ John 8: 31, 32;}

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