p. 87 | TO THE YOUNG by Smith Sharp

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 15, 1877

TO THE YOUNG.

By Smith Sharp

I WANT to ask my young friends some serious questions. I want to put them plainly so that you may understand them.

1. Have you found pardon for your sins? Young people are apt to think this a very proper question for older persons, but that it does not so much concern them. But, if you have arrived at the age of accountability, you have sins that must be pardoned, or you must be lost. There is no escaping this conclusion. Paul says, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” and “the wages of sin is death.” Rom. 3: 23; 6: 23.

Have you seen yourself a sinner? God’s holy law is the great sin-detector. 1 John 3: 4; Rom. 7: 7. Do you feel the need of salvation from your sins? Christ is the only remedy. Acts 4: 14. Mercy is promised to those that confess and forsake their sins. Prov. 28: 13. The apostle says, “Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” Acts 3: 19. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is the divinely appointed plan. Acts 20: 21. Be faithful. Make the work of repentance thorough, and then rest on the promise of God, and believe that for Christ’s sake your sins are forgiven.

2. Are you living for the glory of God? All of God’s creatures have been created for his pleasure. Rev. 4: 11. Are you answering the object for which you have been created? Most of those who have lived before you have failed in this. Many have spent their short lives in an attempt to accumulate wealth. The majority that have lived with this end in view have never attained it. Those that have gained the greatest amount of the treasures of this earth have not been the most happy. Riches are deceitful. Matt. 13: 22. There is neither assurance of obtaining them nor of happiness when they are obtained. They are uncertain. They take to themselves wings, and fly away. Prov. 23: 5. These things being true, I think I am safe in saying that wealth is an unworthy object for those starting out in life to set their affections upon. Live for the great object for which you have been created, and if riches increase, set not your hearts upon them. Ps. 62: 10.

Others have lived with the object in view of gaining a great name. Men naturally love the applause of their fellow men. Many prefer this to riches, and thousands sell their souls for it, and die miserable at last. Oh! seek not the applause of this world, but seek the appreciation of God and holy angels.

Very many, especially among the young, live for the pleasures that this world promises. They seek it in the gay and fashionable circle. If you speak to them about living a religious life, they sometimes answer that they can’t afford to give up the pleasures of life—can’t deprive themselves of the pleasures of the social party or of the society of their worldly companions.

We pity the delusion of such. The pleasures that they enjoy are scarcely worthy of the name. Those who mingle with the world, and throw off all restraint, have something that for the time being may possibly be called pleasure. But let them separate, and go off alone, and begin to meditate, and they find an aching void that the pleasures they have sought can never fill. Let adversity come, and then they long for that which this world can never give. Seek not the pleasures of this world; for they soon pass away.

My dear young friends, God has mercifully given you an existence here, endowed you with an understanding of what right and wrong are, and placed his holy word within your reach; and he requires that you live for his glory and the good of your fellow men. In doing this you can find wealth, honor, pleasure, and long life. This is the great end of life; and it will bring its reward here, and in the world to come eternal life. In living thus you will imitate Jesus, your great pattern, who spent his life in doing good, and who entreats you to come and learn of him who is meek and lowly of heart, promising you rest to your souls. Matt. 11: 28, 29.

Why not come, and draw from a mine that will give true pleasure? Begin early in life by living each day so that when night comes you can rest with the sweet evidence that you have spent the past day so that God can approve your course. Do not delay until you are older. Life is short, none too long to devote it all to the service of God.

Jeremiah says, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” Lam. 3: 27. Should your days be lengthened out, how blessed it will be to spend them all in the service of God, and at the close of life, to look back upon many days well spent in the most worthy cause ever espoused by man! Should your probation be cut short, and you be called to close your eyes to all things earthly, you are safe, you can rest with the sure evidence that God will honor you with endless life in a world where there is nothing to interfere with his worship. Those who live for wealth or fame or pleasure may gain their object; but if they fail to answer the end for which they were created, life with them will be a complete failure, and it were better for them had they never lived.

Should you start out in life with the true object in view, you may never obtain the wealth of earth, your names may never appear among the great of this world. The pleasures of the gay you may not enjoy; but being an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, you have a prospect of an inheritance that will never pass away. Your names will be in the Lamb’s book of life; and if you are faithful they will be highly respected among the angels of God. The pleasures of right doing will afford constant happiness; and awakening in the full bloom of immortality, you will find at last that life has been one grand success.

SMITH SHARP.