How old art thou? Seventeen?
That is indeed a critical time. It is the formative time ; what thou art now thou wilt be. Thou art leaving the sheltered bay of early life to launch out into the great ocean. Beware ! it is winsome-looking, but it is treacherous. Be sure and take on board the great Master, Christ; none but. He can pilot thee through the shoals and quicksands which lie hidden on thy course. Take on board none but those whom He chooses as His crew.
How old art thou? Twenty-one?
That is often described as the time of a man's majority, or independence. Never forget that there is at least One of whom thou canst never be independent. Thou mayest disown Him, and go into a far country to waste His substance and thine own in riotous living, but thou wilt have to come back to Him at last. There is no true rest or food or honour outside His palace-home. Prodigal child, come home, come home!
How old art thou? Thirty?
It was at that age that our Lord emerged from obscurity; and think how many men have lived a great life and died before they reached this age. Alexander among generals; Rossetti among singers ; McCheyne and Spencer among ministers. What art thou doing in the world ? Come, make haste. Thy life will soon slip away. Take care, lest at the close thou be constrained to say, " I have spent my life in laboriously doing trifles."
'Tis a mournful story,
Thus in the ear of pensive eve to tell
Of morning's firm resolves the vanish'd glory,
Hope's honey left within the with'ring bell,
And plants of mercy dead, that might have bloom'd so well.
But this need not be your sad retrospect, if only you will yield your whole being to the Lord Jesus, asking Him to keep down your selflife, and to think in your brain, to live in your heart, to work through your life, and to fulfil in you the good pleasure of His will, "and the work of faith with power."
~ excerpted from the book:
From the Pit to the Throne: or, Scenes from the Life of Joseph
By Frederick Brotherton Meyer
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