Bearing the Yoke in Youth.
By John Nevins Andrews
“It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” Lam. 3:27. Such was the judgment of the prophet Jeremiah. It is particularly worthy of our acceptance. 1. Because he had himself borne the yoke from youth. Jer. 1. He knew whereof he spoke. 2. He had seen some neglect this till advanced life, and then with the utmost difficulty put on the yoke. He had seen some fail in the attempt. He had also observed the alarming fact that very few of those who reach mature life without putting on the yoke, do then even make a serious effort to bow their necks to it. 3. Besides his own experience and observation he was divinely inspired in judgment. It is not, therefore, the mere opinion of a wise and excellent man, but the voice of God's Spirit speaking to us. Bearing the yoke is submitting to the service of God and yielding to his control. In early life this can be done with comparative ease. But the longer we live in sin, the more difficult it becomes to submit to God. Our necks become stiff, our spirits become stubborn, our minds become darkened, our judgment perverted, and we cannot yield to God. It is a difficult thing for an old sinner to put on the yoke of Christ. And there is the utmost danger that such persons will chafe at the yoke after they have put it on. They are slow to see that the fault is not in the yoke, but in the stiff neck and obdurate heart of the wearer. It is a good thing to wear the yoke in youth; it is almost certain to prove a fatal error to neglect this till mature years, or advanced life. J. N. A.