Why are so many young people falling away from the faith?

Is not this problem still very prevalent? Christian parents endeavor to bring up their children for the Lord instructing them in the Word of God. They also take them to Sunday school, to the meetings, and to special occasions for further teaching from the Word. On the other hand, the influence of studies, apprenticeship, and/or professional training will certainly be felt; and it will cause a young heart to forget what it had received at home from the parents unless there is personal and living faith in the Lord Jesus. The case of King Joash demonstrates that a faith based exclusively on training vanishes when the supporting influences disappear.

We cannot lay down a rigid rule. We believe that all must, sooner or later, learn what the flesh is, and the sooner and the more thoroughly we learn it the better. We have invariably found that those who have gone through the deepest ploughings at the first, make the steadiest and most solid Christians afterwards. But we are saved by Christ and not by experience. It often occurs to us that many of our young people who have been religiously brought up and led to make a profession, are much to be felt for when called to go out into the world. They are ignorant of their own hearts, ignorant of the snares and temptations of the world, ignorant of the devices of Satan. They have never proved what the world is. They were led perhaps gradually, imperceptibly, into the divine life, but have never been sifted and tested. Hence when brought face to face with the stern realities of life, when called to grapple with the difficulties of the day, to meet the reasonings of the infidel, the fascinations of ritualism or the allurements of the world — the theatre, the ballroom, the concert, the thousand and one forms of pleasure — they are not able to withstand these things. They are not decided for Christ; their Christianity is not sufficiently pronounced; they give way and fall under the power of temptation; and then they are most miserable, often brought almost to despair. But God in His mercy brings them back after their terrible conflict and overrules all the exercise for the deepening and consolidation of His work in their souls.

Herein lies the chief danger for the young Christian. Up to this time he has taken all that his parents have told him for granted. He has steadily attended the well-known church, chapel, meeting, or Sunday School, where he first learned the value of the blood of Christ; and, shielded in a comfortable home from temptation, he has caught, hitherto, but stray glimpses of the sea of wickedness without. But now comes the time when his principles are to be tested. He is sent away to a strange city, he lives in lodgings, he is thrown among a set of godless, careless, and often immoral young men; he is surrounded on every side with new and strange temptations. Oh, how many dear bright young believers have made shipwreck of their faith on these fatal rocks which are met with on first sailing out of the harbor of home! The first month at a time like this, very often has a great influence on a young man's life for years to come.

Many are greatly moved by the scenes and atmosphere of a meeting where the Holy Spirit is working, without any divine work in their own souls; and these for the moment, have the most hopeful appearance; there is no sense of guilt to discourage; no sense of danger to alarm; and little hesitancy in saying that they do believe. Neither are such dishonest or deceiving; they feel all they say at the time. But there is a missing link. Sin has not been felt; Christ has not been seen; the heart has not been turned to Himself under a sense of helpless ruin. They are attracted, interested, and it may be, delighted, but when the extra meetings are over, and things return to what is called "dull and dry," those who have been carried along by the general current soon cool down and return to their former habits. Who has found Christ — who is now looking to Him? is the one grand question. Christ Himself before the soul is its only power against adverse currents, against the attractions of the world and the assaults of the enemy. His presence is what keeps us holding fast "the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." "Two lads who professed to be converted last year, have gone back to the world," said one who had watched over them; "the others have gone on well; some are at the table, and one young man is now preaching the gospel." A round year is a fair test as to the varied results of the work.

Take another example. From one family, under the same roof, four of the household professed to be converted. A son and daughter are selected to illustrate our subject. All seemed equally happy, all confessing faith in Christ, all rejoicing in their new light and heavenly hope, The parents being Christians, there were great rejoicings in the family. For a short time, the four seemed to go on as they had commenced; but by-and-by, in rather less than a week, the impressions began to fade away from the mind of the son, and he soon slipped back into his former habits. When reminded of what he had so recently professed, and asked why he had so soon given it up, he could not tell; the feeling, he said, had gone quite away, and he had nothing before his mind: neither himself as a sinner, nor Christ as a Saviour. The name of Jesus was mentioned to him, and the blessedness of trusting in Him was earnestly pressed upon him, but there seemed no vital link between them. There was no proper sense of sin, no exercise about it, no appreciation of the Person and work of Christ. Being naturally amiable, there was no opposition, but, like the morning cloud and the early dew, that which at first seemed a happy conversion, passed away. But its lessons remain; it teaches the need of dealing with the conscience, watching the direction of the eye, and ascertaining if some portion of the word of God is ruling in the heart. We see the happy contrast and the divine reality in the daughter.

Children of Christians often offer this spectacle. Their parents' faith guides their first steps, a thing which is legitimate and approved of God. They later manifest a genuine faith, but not stripped of its first habits, looking to men rather than to God Himself. Their conscience has never been deeply exercised about man's sinful state and his natural distance from God. They believe that which they have always believed; however one cannot doubt that they have life. Their conduct leaves nothing to be desired, and they have a real interest in the things of God. The Word is not unknown to them, and one sees a Joash reminding even the high priest of the "tribute of Moses the servant of Jehovah laid upon the congregation of Israel, for the tent of testimony" (2 Chr. 24:6). But the hour of their spiritual emancipation has not yet sounded, when it should have taken place long ago. Knowledge and real piety do not make up for the lack of a direct relationship of the soul with the Lord. The Christian must seek this before all else. Thousands of godly souls remain in a condition of childhood, depending first of all upon their parents, and later upon their spiritual leaders, instead of depending upon God and the Word. Let the leader disappear, and their godliness disappears with him; let him turn aside, and their soul turns aside after him. However amiable certain traits of this piety may be, let us be kept from it, especially during the difficult times that we are passing through. Let us meditate often on this word of the apostle, addressed to the "little children": "And ye have the unction from the holy one, and ye know all things" (1 John 2:20, 26-27). Not that obedience to leaders should be wanting Christians are to obey their leaders and submit to them because "they watch over your souls"; the apostle also charges them to "Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God" (Heb. 13:7, 17). In no wise, however, does this imply that they must submit to all these without discernment, nor, if they would be kept, that they should refrain from seeking direct and immediate communion with the Lord. Joash obeyed leaders indiscriminately, whether Jehoiada or the princes — and that was his ruin.

Here then we have divine wisdom to guide us in teaching "babes." They must be nourished with the word of God; they must be fortified against danger by the revelations and warnings which it provides; and they must have a whole Christ — Christ in all that He is in Himself, in all that He is to God, and in all that He is to them, unfolded — that they may grow thereby up to salvation. This is a very different thing from occupying them with questions and controversies instead of Christ; and it may be added, that the maintenance of simplicity in the manner of instruction is entirely consistent with leading souls on in the knowledge of their portion in Christ, as well as of the dangers of their path. We hesitate not to say, that the falling away of so many young converts, and the yielding of many more to the influences of the world, may be traced back, in many instances, to our failure in supplying them with suited food. Knowing scarcely anything beyond the forgiveness of sins, they have little interest in the Scriptures, and thus the means of their growth and safety are neglected.

Here then we have divine wisdom to guide us in teaching "babes." They must be nourished with the word of God; they must be fortified against danger by the revelations and warnings which it provides; and they must have a whole Christ — Christ in all that He is in Himself, in all that He is to God, and in all that He is to them, unfolded — that they may grow thereby up to salvation. This is a very different thing from occupying them with questions and controversies instead of Christ; and it may be added, that the maintenance of simplicity in the manner of instruction is entirely consistent with leading souls on in the knowledge of their portion in Christ, as well as of the dangers of their path. We hesitate not to say, that the falling away of so many young converts, and the yielding of many more to the influences of the world, may be traced back, in many instances, to our failure in supplying them with suited food. Knowing scarcely anything beyond the forgiveness of sins, they have little interest in the Scriptures, and thus the means of their growth and safety are neglected.

And this is what I think Christians must look in the face. Do we not see men now turning away who were once called Christians - such turning infidels? A well-known person told me recently, "You would not find one young man in forty down in the South who is not turning infidel." That may be exaggerated, but mere formality is throwing people more and more into open infidelity or open superstition.

In the second epistle to Timothy we get a testimony to the growth of the evil where the good ought to be. We find it positively stated that "in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers," and so on. "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Then follows the exhortation, "From such turn away." But first we have the positive declaration, that they turn back to evil. Then he goes on to say, "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of; knowing of whom thou hast learned them." Notice, that he does not refer him to the Church as a teacher, but to those of whom he had learned these things. Who were they? Paul and Peter and the other apostles. Now, as one who has received the gospel of God's grace, I know from whom I have learned it, and from them I get the declaration that evil had come in, and would wax worse and worse until the perilous times. Then as Timothy is cast upon the certainty of the words of those from whom he had received the truth, in like manner I get the word of God, as that on which my soul is cast when the Church has become a judged thing, "waxing worse and worse," "having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Nor can it be denied that this is the character of the Church at the present time. It is an astounding fact that we have on every side persons named Christians turning infidels in thousands. There is not, I dare say, one young man in forty free from the rationalistic teaching of the present day. I do not know how you find it here, but it is so in England. Mere formality is turning to open infidelity on the one hand, or to superstition on the other. It is notorious that such is the case. Christendom, even in the sense of outward submission to Christ, is an impossibility. But what we want is Christianity as it is in the word of God.

What a wail of despair will arise in that day from multitudes who have had the formal lamp of profession, but have never had Christ in their heart. There is a solemn danger in the present day to the children of Christians; they grow up zealously attached to the sect of their parents, and, with an empty lamp, slumber in fatal security; or sincerely striving for a time (without oil) to imitate the light of their parents, they become discouraged by repeated failure. Satan whispers, “It is all a sham;” and they are but too ready to be snuffed out, in infidel darkness.