---

This should be a familiar text to us all - one of those that are enshrined in memory, and made an abiding power in the life. Occasions for its consideration and for its counsels are ever recurring, because:

1. Among us are always boys coming out into the responsibilities of youth and young manhood.

2. While phases of youthful sin may vary for each generation, Bible counsels fit to every age, because they deal with principles.

I. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH THE INQUIRY OF THE TEXT IS BASED. The moral perils to which the young are exposed. The text does not say that the way of the young is actually unclean, but it views the young as just beginning to walk in a way that is miry and dangerous. To compass the whole truth we should consider:

1. The moral weakness of the young man himself. It partly lies in

(1) the relics left of evil influences, and the imperfect and incomplete results of early training;

(2) in an inexperience of life which young people never estimate worthily;

(3) in susceptibility to influences that are merely attractive, not deeply true;

(4) in the intensity with which they enter on present pleasures, heedless of future issues and results. These make dangers on the side of the young man himself.

2. The evils actually lying in the way of the young.

(1) The appeals of evil to the sensual side of human nature. See the warnings in the Book of Proverbs.

(2) The pride of independence loosening the moral restraints of education and home influence.

(3) The false maxims that are attractive to opening mental faculties, and readily meet youthful dispositions; such as "Youth is the time for pleasure;" "Gaining wealth is the true end of life;" "Religion is a gloomy affair, and awfully dull;" "No certainty - nothing that can be called 'knowledge,' is to be obtained about morals, or about spiritual things." Show the moral influence exerted by such prevailing evil sentiments.

II. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH A WISE ANSWER TO THIS INQUIRY MAY REST.

1. No other answer than that given in the text can fully meet the case.

2. The Word of God can become a deliverance from young men's moral weaknesses and perils. It can be a power of practical wisdom and self-restraint. Illustrate by our Lord's use of the Word, as a weapon, in the time of his temptation as a young Man.

3. The Word of God acts as do beacons and lighthouses and sign-posts - it points out the dangerous parts of the way, and indicates the safe and direct roads.

4. The Word of God delivers us from the mischievous influence of false maxims by its revelation of truth and duty. But the Word does not, once for all, cleanse any man's way. All through life the way in which we walk will be foul and full of perils, traps, and temptations. The Word enables us to pick our path safely amidst the dirt and the snares and the pitfalls that may be put in our way. "Not defiled their garments;" "Unspotted from the world." Appeal thus: In view of life, do you think you can safely go all alone? Can you certainly triumph over all the subtlety and all the strength of evil in your own sufficiency? "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." - R.T.

---

---

KJV: BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

WEB: How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.