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out thinking, This is what he thought doubtless, “Saul of Tarsus, rising man of the day, is the sum total of my life.” Saul was too big a man for so small a center. Then the Voipe came, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” And Saul said, “Who art thou, Lord?” And the Voice replied something like this: “I am Jesus, thy Saviour, thy rightful king.” Saul got off his horse and onto his knees and cried, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” At that moment, Saul began to truly live, and the Author of his life was Christ. The harmony of it was Christ. Moreover, his ambition was Christ. In Rome, Paul was imprisoned under the charge of the Praetorian guards and that guard was changed every two hours. The coming of fresh guards provided Paul with new opportunities for the winning of others to his Chrisit, arid he welcomed those opportunities' for Christ’s sake. Finally, to Paul, the afterward of life was Christ, What was the music of life to Paul? It was Christ here, and there Christ, and life is Christ, and death is gain. Paul was satisfied with Christ— utterly and forever. And every youth of every land can likewise find in Jesús Christ an almighty Saviour, a conquering Leader, One. to command all his energies triumphantly. The tragedy is that He is not being pre sented to mothers who hold their babies in their arms, to boys and girls in the bright days of their childhood, to youth with the natural spirit of conquest in their veins. Satan proudly puts forward his leaders. How long will it' be before we Christians shall truly and far-reachingly exalt Christ?
because I am Christ’s little lamb. My Good Shepherd knows me and loves me and calls me by my name.” Be cause the children had been taught this little hymn, the girl lost her po sition, and the kindergarten school was closed. , • . Yes, Hitler knows the value of youth. The Hitler youth marines'en- rolled 78,000 every year,' the flyers and gliders, 135,000; the motorized units,. 295,000; . and all of 6,000,000 every year attend camps and sport week-ends. This is the menace of the world. It is not only Hitler’s soldiers, but the Hitler youth! At the end of the war there may well7be 14,000,000 of them, of about sixteen years of age, trained from birth in godless Naziism. What is our hope? Oh the human side the spell'will be broken by de feat for Germany, for the Nazi spell depends for its continuance upon the infallibility and invincibility of Hit ler. But when his biibble is pricked, then what? Nothing can save the youth and people of Germany from the vengeance of millions of outraged people in Russia, Poland, Czechoslo vakia, France, Holland, and Norway, but a sweeping revival of old-tim'e re ligion, carrying'with it a loathing for more bloodshed. We must pray that that mighty youth army may be cap tivated for Christ. Paul an Example What a need there is for one to arise with the zeal and fervor of the Apostle Paul to point multitudes, es pecially of the young, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Once he was an old-time Gestapo agent, hurling the followers of Jesus into concentration camps and prisons.. If God could meet Saul of Tarsus as he did on the Damascus road, and make' of him Paul the dauntless trail-blazer for Christ, He can perform that miracle again in our generation. Here is Paul’s estimate of life: "For me,” he says in effect, “ life is Christ.” It is not an ism, not a creed, not even a church, but a glorious, radiant Per son in the center of his life’s thinking, and from that center spreading to the wide circumference*,of his being. That is Christianity. What did Paul mean when he said, “ For mb life is Christ” ? I think he meant three simple but captivating things. He meant the Author of his life wag Christ. He meant the ambition of his life was Christ, and he meant the afterward of his life was Christ. You know how that new life began for him. He was traveling to Damas- ' cus, a brilliant young lawyer with his feet already on the ladder of success, the pride of a Pharisee welling up in his life. As he journeyed, he began to think. He was too big a man to be long with
tern. He invited teams of athletes to go to Germany. I have seen with my own eyes something of his diabolical efficiency. There is no doubt that, in the early days, Adolf Hitler did much for the general wellbeing of Germany. When I Was in Heidelburg and in Munich, where I met him and heard him speak, on every hand I was told of the i m p r o v e m e n t s Hitler had wrought. But his masterpiece of strat egy was the capture of youth, body and soul, male and female—the boys as “ soldiers,” the girls as “breeders of soldiers.” ’ • I was in Germany seven years ago with three English school boys, and we were allowed to see a good 'deal of their schools, youth h o s t e l s , and camps. The secret of the power of this astonishing movement lies in the fact that from babyhood—and before—the principles of Naziism are instilled in the minds of the rising generation. This is done, not occasionally, but con stantly and impressively, even fierce ly, .with increasingly greater incen tives and penalties in view. Adolf Hitler’s youth movement it self is divided into three sections :*the first for ages six to ten, the second for ages ten to fourteen, and the third, for ages fourteen to eighteen. In Septem ber, 1936, this last named group num bered seven million; it now numbers over sixteen million! Think of the power resident in sixteen million young lives, unified by one purpose. Back of these sixteen million are other ihillions, in the younger groups, and back of them are a multitude of mere babes—all being dominated by, this godless system. Let us peep into one of the hundreds of..homes for u n m a r r i e d mothers. Everywhere are huge pictures of Hit ler, and every day begins at breakfast with this “grace”.: “Our Fuehrer, we thank you for this home; we thank you for this food. To thee we. .dedicate all our lives and those:o f.our children.” They were giving thanks to Hitler as to Deity. They were bringing to Hitler the Children yet unborn? There is no choice whether one will bend to this regime. This fact was em phasized in a letter which I received recently from a Christian German girl I met in Vancouver. She said, “A friend of mine in Germany was work ing in a kindergarten school belong ing to the Protestant church. A Nazi came in to see how the school was conducted. Knowing what was ex pected of her, she sang patriotic songs with the children. One child began to cry and said, “My birthday song has not been sung.” Now there is a birthday song in tlje Nazi “party book,” but these children did not sing that one. They had learned to sing instead: “I am happy
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