Homilist Job 13:26 For you write bitter things against me, and make me to possess the iniquities of my youth. The popular thought is, let age be grave, and youth be gay. I question its rightness for two reasons. 1. Because where there is not godliness there is the strongest reason for the greatest gravity and gloom of spirit. 2. Where this godliness is, there is even stronger reason for joy in age than in youth. Call attention to the solemnity of youthful life. I. YOUTH HAS ITS SINS. 1. Want of knowledge. Youth is a period of ignorance and inexperience. 2. The force of passions. In the first stages of life we are almost entirely the creatures of sense: physical appetite, not moral ideas, rule us; we are influenced by feeling, not faith; the mind is the vassal of matter. 3. Susceptibility to influence. This is a characteristic of youth; the sentiments, language, conduct of others are powerful influences in the formation of its own. Character is formed, in fact, on the principle of imitation. II. THE SINS OF YOUTH DESCEND TO AGE. Job regarded himself as heir to them; they were his heritage, he could not shake them off. Youthful sins are bound by the indissoluble chain of causation to the man's futurity. There are three principles that secure this connection. 1. The law of retribution. 2. The law of habit. 3. The law of memory. III. THEIR EXISTENCE IN AGE IS A BITTER THING. 1. They are bitter things to the body in old age. Every sin has an evil effect on the physical health. 2. They are bitter things to the soul in old age. To the intellect, the heart, and the conscience. IV. THEY ARE A "BITTER THING" IN AGE, EVEN WHERE THE SUFFERER IS A GODLY MAN. Old errors cannot be corrected; old principles cannot be uprooted; old habits cannot be broken in a day. The conclusion of the whole is this, — the importance of beginning religion in youth. The chances are that unless it is commenced in youth, it will never be commenced at all. There are but few conversions in middle life. As we begin we are likely to end. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.WEB: For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth: |
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