SUCCESSES OF YOUNG MEN.
By Max Hill
IT is said that the biographies of great men constitute the history of the world. So it is; and we might modify the statement by saying that the biographies of the young men of to-day constitute the history of the present. Never in all the past have young men accomplished more, never have they stood higher. Young men stand at the head of governments, states, and corporations; young men lead in science, politics, and religion; young men fill the chairs in the colleges, the pulpits of the churches, and the offices of the state. Not that young men in the past have not stood high and accomplished great things; but in the past there were not so many thus exalted. Yet ancient lore abounds with accounts of the triumphs of youth; and of these none are more thrilling than those of the Bible itself. Who has not admired the youthful reform-kings of God's people anciently? Their histories read like stories. Asa came to the throne when he was probably about twenty years old. With the exception of the prophets Azariah and Hanani and the faithful Levites, his surroundings were bad. With a bad father, a bad grandfather, and a bad grandmother, and the heathen influences on every side, what could be expected from so young a ruler? From a human standpoint, no more than his fathers had done. What is the secret? "Asa did that which was good." He trusted in God, and his first work of reform was to restore the worship of the true God among his people. The land was full of strange gods, the gods of the heathen about them; and these Asa removed and destroyed. The images were broken down, the groves where the heathen worship was conducted were cut down. Because of her wickedness, the queen-mother was removed. Her position was one of dignity and influence, yet the king, fearless in the knowledge of right-doing, set her aside. "And he commanded Judah." Not only did he serve God, but he determined that his people should serve Him, and every influence that would tend to lead them from right was removed. For ten years the kingdom had rest. Through that time Asa was faithful. That was his testing time, that time of peace and rest. When great reforms are needed, when the foe presses about them, in adverse circumstances, then men will stand firm and work zealously; but let peace and quiet come, and what strength it takes to stand true to principle. Asa had stood the test in time of peace, and when the invading army of Zerah the Ethiopian came against him, he cried unto the Lord, for, said he, "There is none beside Thee to help." "So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa." Naturally enough, his prayer of faith was assurance of victory.15Forty-one years Asa reigned, and tho the latter part of that time was marred by his lack of trust in God, yet the reforms he effected were far-reaching. Hezekiah was still a young man when he came to the throne,—only twenty-five years old. He was also the son of a bad father, yet he brought about many much-needed reforms. His first work, as was the first work of Asa, was to open the temple and re-establish the worship of the true God, a work that took no little ability and determination, for tho the people were no doubt dissatisfied with the condition of things under the reigns of his father and grandfather, the evil beliefs and practices were strong upon them. However, he went to work, and when the temple was cleared of all the accumulated rubbish of years, he sent letters by messengers from city to city throughout the northern kingdom inviting the people everywhere to forsake their idols and return to the true God, and to come to a great religious festival at Jerusalem. Some came, and others mocked and laughed them to scorn. Nevertheless, a great Passover feast was held, lasting for fourteen days, during which time many sacrifices were offered, with great gladness. It was indeed the greatest revival Israel had known, "since the time of Solomon there was not the like in Jerusalem." Under the king's direction, the people went through the city, breaking down their idols, cutting down their groves, destroying their "high places," and their altars. Another of the kings of Israel demands our attention, that is Josiah. The record of his reign is that he did that which was right. Placed upon the throne at the tender age of eight, succeeding a wicked father, to govern a wicked and idolatrous people, his position was a trying one. One sentence of his story tells the secret of his success, "While he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father." At the age of sixteen he turned to God. While yet the best part of his life lay before him, he took up the work of the Lord, purging Jerusalem of her idols, going so far as to burn the bones of the priests on their own altars. Not alone in Jerusalem, but from one end of the kingdom to the other the work of reform was carried on. Then, in the eighteenth year of his reign, he repaired the temple, a work which resulted in the finding of the roll of the law so long lost in the rubbish of the temple. Israel as a nation had sinned away her day of grace, but the king who looked to the God of his fathers "while he was yet young" was not visited with the punishments that came on the nation for her evil deeds, tho he died in battle, bravely defending his own land. These men, these young men, knew what it meant to stand for principle when all about were those who discouraged and hindered them. The simple accounts do not impress us, but the actual results attained would compare with a complete change in the form of the government of a modern nation perhaps, a change highly improbable, if not impossible. Two of them are classed with the three "perfect kings of Israel," David, Hezekiah, and Josiah. What they did was accomplished through devotion to duty and obedience to God, conditions that can be met by any young man of the present day. With his eyes fixed on the Saviour, his heart set to do the will of the Lord, his hands ready and strong to lift and pull, and push if need be, any young man with the much-lauded, and much-to-be-lauded, ambition for success will succeed.
MAX HILL.