ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG by L. D. Santee

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 30, 1868

ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG.

By L. D. Santee

BY L. D. SANTEE.

TEXT.—“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” Eccl. xii, 1.

The words of the above text contain a beautiful yet solemn address to the young. A large portion of the teachings of the wise man, are to those in the morning of life; those to whom the sterner duties of life are yet an untried reality; and how important it is that the heart be stored with the solemn and holy truths of the word of God, before it becomes hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, and filled with the multiplicity of business, and the love of the world. The mind of the youth is not apt to be filled with selfishness or the greed of gain, like the man that for years has followed the pursuit of wealth. One reason why more of the young do not engage in the service of the Lord Jesus, is because of the sombre, funereal cloak that Satan tries to throw around the hope of Heaven. We are sorry that he has so many aiders among professors of religion; but there are those among us who are doing an injury to the cause of Christ, by putting on a woeful countenance, and speaking of the Lord’s highway as a dreary, lonely path. Naturally enough, those in the springtime of life dread to enter the shadow, or to cloud the glorious life-sky of childhood and youth with darkness. The result is, that the young grieve away the heavenly visitants, in mercy sent to them to lead their thoughts and desires heavenward, and refuse to obey him whose loving kindness and tender care has rendered their lives bright and happy, even from infancy. How natural it is for the heart of the young to be as light and joyous as the flowers of spring. How fresh and gay we feel in youth. Our pulse beats quick, our steps are light and free, and in every fiber of our being, we feel a thrill of joy and gladness. The green grass under our feet appears more beautiful, than the costliest carpeting. The earth is beautiful, yea, lovely, with its glorious sunlight, its grand old forests, the blue sky above, and the melody of nature around us. Dear young friend, does not your heart ascend in gratitude to the Creator of all these beauties? Is there anything wrong in loving and serving him whose love has followed you all your life long? Come and let us reason together. Of course you are seeking for happiness. Every one is. But can you be happy with no hope in the hereafter? I think not. Who of you cannot look into the past and see loved ones, now enshrined in your hearts, who passed away from you into the land of the enemy? Dear young friend, can you be happy with no hope of meeting them again? I know you cannot; but we have the sure promise that if we are lovers of God, and live obedient to his requirements, we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1 Thess. iv, 17. Blessed, cheering hope! Long we have mourned for our loved ones, but there we shall meet them. They will be ours, and all of us the Lord’s.

As we said before, every one is seeking happiness. It is the grand object for which all are striving; but no great result can be achieved without toil. The student, in acquiring knowledge, spends his time and strength in obtaining that for which he is striving. His aching, overtaxed brain, and his eye growing dim, attest the labor with which he attains knowledge. Men, in amassing wealth, spend long, weary years of toil, until the wrinkles spread over their faces, and their heads whiten. The wreath of fame is worn only by those that leave their all to seek for it; that brave the perils of the battle field, and wade through seas of blood, in the attainment of their object. Are you seeking for happiness in the attainment of knowledge? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” If you neglect this, you are unwise, for God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world. 1 Cor. i, 20. Are you looking to wealth for enjoyment? Listen to the words of one upon whom God conferred wisdom above all the men of the earth. “Labor not to be rich; cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make to themselves wings.” Prov. xxiii, 4, 5. Also, xxvii, 24: “For riches are not forever.” Let me present before your minds the teachings of the Son of God, whose blood was poured out on Calvary’s height for our sins. “Children, how hard it is for them that trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of God.” Mark x, 24.

Are you longing for the applause of men, or a crown of worldly honor? Think you it would prove a diadem of eternal brightness? I tell you nay; for it could not light the glazed eye, or pierce the dull, cold ear of death. It will not be desired when the heavens reflect the glory of the coming King. The wreath of fame will appear dim amid the burning splendor of the day of God, now soon to burst upon us. These are reasons why you should seek first the kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness; why you should remember your Creator in the days of youth. He offers you pleasures unfailing. He offers you comfort when the lips whiten with pain, or the eye grows dark with anguish. He offers hope to the despairing heart that is filled with unrest. Everything earthly is passing away. The river goes on its way to the sea. The days are passing too. They come to us pure from the hands of God, and do we fill them with holy thoughts and good actions, as they are transferred to the silver setting of memory? Time that is past is gone forever, and how have we spent it? Perhaps we have made vows that years have strengthened; perhaps, alas! broken. It is a solemn thought that we must appear before the Judge of quick and dead, to render an account of the way that we have employed those fleeting moments. Dear young friend, God has been very good to you. He maketh his angels ministering spirits. Oh! do not reject the voice that speaks from Heaven. The Saviour’s mission to earth was one of mercy. He came to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised. Luke iv, 18. Is not your heart stirred with tenderness and love for him? If you never have given your heart to the Saviour, I plead with you to do so now. The Psalmist says, “To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” To-day his arms are open to receive you. To-day his voice is crying, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

How should we remember our Creator? Not simply that such a being exists. The devils believe in God and tremble; James ii, 19; and yet their faith will not profit them, for they will be cast into a fiery, burning lake and destroyed, together with the nations that have been deceived by them. Rev. xx, 10, 15. We should remember that he is our Creator, and that we owe all that we have and are, to him. He that created has a right to control. As says one of old: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Rom. xii, 1. God has given us a law that is perfect, and promises us life everlasting, if we obey him. On the other hand, he threatens destruction, terrible and speedy, upon all that are disobedient and ungodly. Oh! how merciful and long-suffering is our heavenly Father. He gave his only Son to die for a race of rebels; then the Saviour pleads with us to accept the salvation purchased by his own blood. He says to us: “Repent, and turn yourselves from all

your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. . . . For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” Eze. xviii, 30, 32. Dear young friends, let us be wise, and give God that which is our reasonable service, viz., our whole heart. Should the tempter whisper to you that you are losing your liberty in yielding to God, listen not to his seductive voice. He is seeking your life; and his promptings are false. The person that loves God with all his might, mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself, can escape the power of his temptations, and stand free from his wiles. Here, and here only, is perfect liberty. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John viii, 36.

While the evil days come not. The days designated in our text as evil days, are days of trouble and perplexity that come later in life. When the turmoil of business has obliterated the freshness and purity of youth, then, any appeal that is made in behalf of God and the truth, is met with the reply, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee.” If we reason to them of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come, our words fall on unheeding ears. Hope is a pleasing feature in the mind of youth; but when we are selfishly living for ourselves alone, without a thought of benefiting others, we find our hopes, as we near their fulfillment, vanishing into thin air, as the desert mirage appears in the distance, only to vanish at our nearer approach. Disappointment, instead of sanctifying the worldling, wrings the proud, selfish heart, and causes it to become desolate and harder; further from God and Heaven; further from purity and goodness. It is possible for those that have entered the shadow of the evil days, to turn to God, but alas! how seldom is such the case. They are Ephraim-like.

The salvation of the Lord is offered to all; but it is rejected. God loves the human family. He is not willing that any should perish. He loved Ephraim. He said: “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim! Mine heart is turned within me; my repentings are kindled together.” Hos. xi, 8. But alas! Ephraim was stubborn and rebellious, and the word went forth, “He is joined to his idols; let him alone.” So it is with those that refuse to yield obedience to the commandments of God.

And the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. It is an established fact, that we are all the time becoming better or worse. We are either advancing or retrograding. To illustrate: we suppose ourselves upon a rapid river, a short distance above the falls, in a small, open boat. We can reach the shore if we toil, but if we fold our arms, and let the oars lie idle, we drift rapidly down the river. As we near the falls, the current grows stronger, and our boat glides more swiftly. Perhaps, as we are drifting downward, we see a man on the shore, and his voice rings out over the waters, “The falls are below you! row for your life!” and we shout back, “I have no pleasure in toil, I prefer to float on.” The result would be, we would soon be engulfed in the eddying waters. It is comparatively easy to reach the shore at first, but our chances continually lessen. So, in youth the heart can easily be trained to love the Saviour; but as maturer years come, the heart is engrossed with the cares of the world, until, at last, the years come when every warning is thrust aside, and the world, the world, the world, engrosses every thought. The roar of the coming tempest is heard, but they heed it not. The skies are angry, but they cannot look away from the earth. The lurid lightning affords them light amid the gathering gloom, to gather a little more of this world’s treasure. The ground is trembling beneath them, but it cannot shake their mad security. Oh! that the Lord may help us to become his disciples; to remember him in our youth; to make our election sure while mercy lingers. For the harvest will soon be past, and the summer ended, “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” 2 Thess. i, 7–10. Oh! that we may be wise and make a right use of the time allotted us. Let us glorify God by a right use of the faculties that he has given us. Memory is a faculty of the mind calculated to draw us toward God. Would the mother forget the lovely babe that was laid to sleep under a tiny coffin lid? No, no; her heart thrills with love, as she thinks that God will raise to life her little one from the dead. Would you forget (though the remembrance of it fills your heart with a sacred sadness) the blue-eyed, fair-browed brother, who died in childhood? Memory brings again, to welcome you with outstretched hands, and a smile on her crimson lip, the dark-eyed sister who years ago, in her youth and beauty, was laid in the tomb. These, like broken urns, scattered along the pilgrim’s lonely way, fill the heart with sadness. When dear ones come up in memory, we raise our thoughts to Him who brought to light life and immortality; and we hope to meet them again in the realms of the blessed. Earth cannot find a balm for such sorrow. Time may bring a smile to the careworn face, but the sad heart can turn only to God for relief. When we think of the sorrows of the present, and the glory to be revealed hereafter, we slacken our grasp on the things present, and our desire is strengthened for a home in the earth made new. Memories of the past, mingled with hope for the future, give a radiance to the way leading to the eternal world. We can look back and see dark clouds in the distance. Before us, the brightness of the sun of righteousness, that shall arise with healing in his wings. The Lord is soon coming. We shall not have much longer to wait. He is coming to end our sorrows. He is coming to take his people home. The morning cometh. Glory to God! all our dangers will soon be o’er. “The way may be rough, but it cannot be long,” and it leads to glory, honor, and immortality. Dear young friends, let us remember our Creator in the days of our youth, and when the Lord cometh, may he find us watching!