Why Young Men Need This Counsel
First, what are the general reasons young men need particular exhortation? I will give several of them in order.
1. Few Young Men Anywhere Seem to Have Any Religion
I speak without favoring anyone; this applies to everyone. High or low, rich or poor, of high or humble birth, educated or uneducated, in town or country, it makes no difference. I tremble when I see how few young men are led by the Spirit, how few are on the narrow way that leads to life, how few set their affections on things above, and how few take up the cross and follow Christ. I say this with deep sorrow, but I believe before God that I am saying no more than the truth.
Young men, you form a large and extremely important part of this country’s population, but where are your immortal souls, and what condition are they in? Sadly, whichever way we turn for an answer, the report is always the same.
Ask any faithful minister of the gospel, and notice what he tells you. How many unmarried young people can he name who come to the Lord’s Supper? Who are most reluctant to use the means of grace, most irregular in attending Sunday services, most difficult to draw to weekly lectures and prayer meetings, and most inattentive under preaching? Which part of his congregation causes him the most anxiety? Who are the Reubens over whom he has the deepest “searchings of heart”? Who in his flock are hardest to manage, require the most frequent warnings and rebukes, cause him the greatest uneasiness and sorrow, keep him most constantly afraid for their souls, and seem the most hopeless? You may depend on it, his answer will always be, “The young men.”
Ask parents in any parish throughout England, and see what they generally say. Who in their families cause them the most pain and trouble? Who require the closest watchfulness and most often grieve and disappoint them? Who are the first to be led away from what is right and the last to remember warnings and good advice? Who are hardest to keep within proper limits? Who most frequently break out into open sin, disgrace the name they bear, make their friends unhappy, embitter their relatives’ old age, and bring down their gray hairs in sorrow to the grave? You may depend on it, the answer will generally be, “The young men.”
Ask magistrates and officers of justice, and notice what they reply. Who visit taverns and beer shops most often? Who are the worst Sabbath breakers? Who make up riotous mobs and seditious meetings? Who are most often arrested for drunkenness, breaches of the peace, fighting, poaching, stealing, assault, and similar offenses? Who fill the jails, penitentiaries, and convict ships? Which group requires the most constant watching and supervision? You may depend on it, they will immediately point in the same direction and say, “The young men.”
Turn to the upper classes, and notice the report we receive from them. In one family, the sons are always wasting time, health, and money in the selfish pursuit of pleasure. In another, the sons refuse to enter any profession and fritter away the most precious years of their lives doing nothing. In another, they take up a profession merely as a formality but pay no attention to its duties. In still another, they are always forming harmful relationships, gambling, going into debt, associating with bad companions, and keeping their friends in a constant fever of anxiety.
Sadly, rank, title, wealth, and education do not prevent these things. Anxious fathers, heartbroken mothers, and sorrowing sisters could tell sad stories about them if the truth were known. Many a family possessing everything this world can give has among its relations some name that is never mentioned, or mentioned only with regret and shame: some son, brother, cousin, or nephew who insists on having his own way and is a grief to everyone who knows him.
There is seldom a rich family without some thorn in its side, some blot on its page of happiness, or some constant source of pain and anxiety. And often, far too often, is not the true cause “the young men”?
What shall we say about these things? They are facts, plain and unmistakable facts that confront us on every side and cannot be denied. How dreadful this is! How dreadful to think that whenever I meet a young man, I most likely meet someone who is an enemy of God, traveling on the broad way that leads to destruction and unfit for heaven. Surely, with such facts before me, you will not wonder that I exhort you. You must admit there is good reason.
2. Death and Judgment Await Young Men, Yet Nearly All Seem to Forget It
Young men, it is appointed for you to die once. However strong and healthy you may be now, the day of your death may be very near. I see young people sick as well as old people. I bury youthful bodies as well as aged ones. In every churchyard I read the names of people no older than you. I learn from books that, apart from infancy and old age, more people die between thirteen and twenty-three than during any other period of life. Yet you live as if you were presently certain not to die at all.
Do you think you will pay attention to these matters tomorrow? Remember Solomon’s words: “Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Prov 27:1).
“Serious things to-morrow,” said Archias the Theban, a pagan who was warned of approaching danger, but his tomorrow never came. Tomorrow is the devil’s day, but today is God’s. Satan does not care how spiritual your intentions or how holy your resolutions may be, as long as they are fixed for tomorrow. Do not give the devil an opportunity in this matter. Answer him, “No, Satan! It will be today, today.”
Not everyone lives to become a patriarch like Isaac or Jacob. Many children die before their fathers. David had to mourn the death of two of his finest sons, and Job lost all ten of his children in one day. Your lot may be like theirs. When death summons you, it will be useless to speak of tomorrow; you must go at once.
Do you think you will find a convenient time to consider these matters later? Felix thought so, as did the Athenians to whom Paul preached, but that time never came. Hell is paved with such fantasies. It is better to make sure while you can. Leave nothing unsettled that concerns eternity. Take no risks when your soul is at stake.
Believe me, the salvation of a soul is no easy matter. Everyone, young or old, needs a “great” salvation. Everyone needs to be born again, washed in Christ’s blood, and sanctified by the Spirit. Happy is the person who does not leave these things uncertain, but never rests until he has the witness of the Spirit within him that he is a child of God.
Young men, your time is short. Your days are only a span, a shadow, a vapor, a story quickly told. Your bodies are not made of brass. “Even the young men,” says Isaiah, “shall utterly fall” (Isa 40:30). Your health may be taken from you in a moment. It requires only a fall, a fever, an inflammation, or a ruptured blood vessel, and the worm would soon feed on you. There is only one step between any of you and death. Your soul might be required of you tonight.
You are rapidly going the way of all the earth, and soon you will be gone. Your life is completely uncertain, but your death and judgment are absolutely certain. You too must hear the archangel’s trumpet and go out to stand before the great white throne. You too must obey the summons that Jerome said was always ringing in his ears: “Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment.” “Surely I come quickly,” is the language of the Judge himself. I cannot, dare not, and will not leave you alone.
Oh, that you would all take to heart the words of the Preacher: “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment” (Eccl 11:9).
How astonishing that anyone can remain careless and unconcerned with such a prospect before him! Surely no one is as foolish as the person content to live unprepared to die. Surely human unbelief is the most amazing thing in the world. No wonder the clearest prophecy in the Bible begins with the words, “Who hath believed our report?” (Isa 53:1). No wonder the Lord Jesus says, “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).
Young men, I fear that this may be the report concerning many of you in the courts above: “They will not believe.” I fear that you may be hurried out of this world and awaken to discover, too late, that death and judgment are realities. I fear all this, and therefore I exhort you.
3. What Young Men Will Probably Become Depends on What They Are Now
Young men seem to forget this. Youth is the seedtime of adulthood, the formative season in the brief span of human life, and the turning point in the history of a person’s mind.
We judge the tree by its shoot, the fruit by its blossoms, the harvest by the spring, and the day by the morning. In the same way, we can generally judge what a young man will be when he grows older by his present character.
Young men, do not be deceived. Do not imagine that you can spend the beginning of your life serving lusts and pleasures, then easily serve God at the end. Do not imagine that you can live with Esau and then die with Jacob. To deal with God and your souls in such a way is mockery. It is dreadful mockery to suppose you can give the flower of your strength to the world and the devil, then offer the King of kings only the scraps and leftovers of your hearts, the wreck and remnant of your powers. It is dreadful mockery, and you may discover to your cost that it cannot be done.
I expect you are counting on a late repentance. You do not know what you are doing. You are calculating without God. Repentance and faith are gifts from God, and they are gifts he often withholds after they have long been offered in vain. I grant that true repentance is never too late, but I also warn you that late repentance is seldom true.
I grant that one repentant thief was converted during his final hours so that no one might despair. But I warn you that only one was converted so that no one might presume. I grant that it is written that Jesus is “able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him” (Heb 7:25). But I warn you that the same Spirit also caused it to be written, “Because I have called, and ye refused, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh” (Prov 1:24, 26).
Believe me, you will not find it easy to turn to God whenever you please. Archbishop Leighton truly said, “The way of sin is downhill; a man cannot stop when he would.” Holy desires and serious convictions are not like the centurion’s servants, ready to come and go whenever you command. Instead, they are like the unicorn in Job: they will not obey your voice or attend at your bidding.
It was said of Hannibal, a famous general of ancient times, that when he could have taken Rome, the city against which he was fighting, he would not. Later, when he wanted to take it, he could not. Beware that something similar does not happen to you in the matter of eternal life.
Why do I say all this? I say it because of the power of habit. I say it because experience tells me that people’s hearts are seldom changed if they are not changed when they are young. People are rarely converted in old age.
Habits have deep roots. Once sin is allowed to settle in your heart, it will not leave whenever you command. Habit becomes second nature, and its chains are threefold cords that are not easily broken. The prophet rightly asks, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil” (Jer 13:23).
Habits are like stones rolling downhill: the farther they roll, the faster and more uncontrollable their course becomes. Habits, like trees, are strengthened by age. A boy may bend an oak when it is a sapling, but a hundred men cannot uproot it when it is fully grown. A child can wade across the Thames at its source, but near the sea it can carry the largest ship in the world.
So it is with habits. The older they are, the stronger they become. The longer they have held possession, the harder they are to cast out. They grow as we grow and strengthen as our strength increases. Habit is the nurse of sin. Every new act of sin reduces fear and remorse, hardens our hearts, dulls the edge of conscience, and increases our inclination toward evil.
Young men, you may imagine that I place too much emphasis on this point. If you had seen what I have seen, old men standing on the edge of the grave yet unfeeling, seared, callous, dead, cold, and hard as the lower millstone, you would not think so.
Believe me, you cannot stand still in the affairs of your soul. Good or evil habits are growing stronger in your hearts every day. Each day you are either drawing nearer to God or moving farther away. Each year you remain unrepentant, the dividing wall between you and heaven becomes higher and thicker, while the gulf you must cross becomes deeper and broader.
Oh, dread the hardening effect of continuing in sin! Now is the accepted time. Make sure that your flight does not take place in the winter of your life. If you do not seek the Lord while you are young, the strength of habit is such that you will probably never seek him at all.
I fear this, and therefore I exhort you.
4. The Devil Works Especially Hard to Destroy the Souls of Young Men
Young men seem unaware of this danger. Satan knows well that you will make up the next generation, so he begins early and uses every art to make you his own. I do not want you to be ignorant of his schemes.
You are the people against whom he employs his choicest temptations. He spreads his nets with the greatest care in order to entangle your hearts. He baits his traps with the sweetest morsels to bring you under his power. He displays his goods before your eyes with the greatest ingenuity so that you will buy his sugared poisons and eat his cursed delicacies. You are the great object of his attack. May the Lord rebuke him and deliver you from his hands!
Young men, beware of being caught in his snares. He will try to throw dust in your eyes and prevent you from seeing anything in its true colors. He would gladly make you think that evil is good and good is evil. He will paint, gild, and dress up sin to make you fall in love with it. He will deform, misrepresent, and caricature true religion to make you dislike it.
He will magnify the pleasures of wickedness but hide their sting. He will hold the cross and its pain before your eyes but keep the eternal crown out of sight. He will promise you everything, as he did to Christ, if only you will serve him. He will even help you maintain an outward form of religion if only you neglect its power. At the beginning of your life, he will tell you it is too soon to serve God. At the end, he will tell you it is too late. Oh, do not be deceived!
You scarcely understand the danger you face from this enemy, and your ignorance is precisely what makes me afraid. You are like blind people walking among holes and pitfalls, unable to see the dangers surrounding you on every side.
Your enemy is mighty. He is called “The Prince of this world” (John 14:13). He opposed our Lord Jesus Christ throughout his ministry. He tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and so brought sin and death into the world. He tempted even David, the man after God’s own heart, and caused his later years to be filled with sorrow. He tempted even Peter, the chosen apostle, and caused him to deny his Lord. Surely such hostility must not be treated lightly.
Your enemy is restless. He never sleeps. He is always prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He is always going back and forth across the earth and walking up and down in it. You may be careless about your souls, but he is not. He wants them so that he can make them miserable like himself, and he will have them if he can. Surely such hostility must not be treated lightly.
Your enemy is also cunning. For nearly six thousand years, he has been studying one book, and that book is the human heart. He ought to know it well, and he does. He knows all its weakness, deceitfulness, and foolishness. He has a store of temptations most likely to harm it.
You will never go anywhere that he cannot find you. Go into the towns, and he will be there. Go into the wilderness, and he will be there too. Sit among drunkards and revelers, and he will be there to help you. Listen to preaching, and he will be there to distract you. Surely such hostility must not be treated lightly.
Young men, this enemy is working hard to destroy you, however little you may think about it. You are the prize for which he is particularly contending. He foresees that you must become either blessings or curses to your generation. He is trying hard to gain an early foothold in your hearts so that later you may help advance his kingdom. He understands very well that spoiling the bud is the surest way to ruin the flower.
Oh, that your eyes were opened like the eyes of Elisha’s servant at Dothan! Oh, that you could see what Satan is plotting against your peace! I must warn you. I must exhort you. Whether you listen or not, I cannot and dare not leave you alone.
5. Beginning to Serve God Now Will Save Young Men Much Sorrow
Sin is the mother of all sorrow, and no kind of sin seems to bring a person as much misery and pain as the sins of youth. The foolish things he did, the time he wasted, the mistakes he made, the bad company he kept, the harm he did to his body and soul, the opportunities for happiness he threw away, and the openings for usefulness he neglected often embitter an old man’s conscience. They cast a shadow over the evening of his days and fill the final hours of his life with self-reproach and shame.
Some men could tell you about the premature loss of health caused by youthful sins. Disease racks their limbs with pain, and life becomes almost unbearable. Their physical strength is so wasted that a grasshopper seems a burden. Their sight has grown dim before its time, and their natural strength has declined. The sun of their health has gone down while it is still day, and they grieve as they watch their flesh and body waste away. Believe me, this is a bitter cup to drink.
Others could give you sad accounts of the consequences of idleness. They threw away their golden opportunity to learn. They refused to gain wisdom when their minds were best able to receive it and their memories most ready to retain it. Now it is too late. They have no time to sit down and learn, and they no longer possess the same ability even if they had the time. Lost time can never be recovered. This too is a bitter cup to drink.
Others could tell you about grievous errors of judgment from which they suffer throughout their lives. They insisted on having their own way and refused to accept advice. They formed some relationship that proved completely destructive to their happiness. They chose a profession for which they were entirely unsuited. Now they see it all, but their eyes open only after the mistake can no longer be corrected. Oh, this too is a bitter cup to drink!
Young men, young men, I wish you knew the comfort of possessing a conscience that is not burdened by a long list of youthful sins. These are the wounds that pierce most deeply. These are the arrows that drain a person’s spirit. This is the iron that enters the soul. Be merciful to yourselves. Seek the Lord early, and you will spare yourselves many bitter tears.
Job seems to have felt this truth. He says, “Thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth” (Job 13:26). His friend Zophar likewise says of the wicked, “His bones are full of the sins of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust” (Job 20:11).
David also seems to have felt it. He says to the Lord, “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions” (Ps 25:7).
Beza, the great Swiss Reformer, felt this so strongly that in his will he named it as a special mercy that, by God’s grace, he had been called out of the world at the age of sixteen.
Ask believers today, and I think many will tell you much the same. “Oh, if only I could live my youth over again!” one will probably say. “If only I had spent the beginning of my life in a better way! If only I had not laid the foundation of evil habits so firmly in the springtime of my life!”
Young men, I want to save you from all this sorrow if I can. Hell itself is truth learned too late. Be wise in time. What youth sows, old age must reap. Do not give the most precious season of your life to something that will bring you no comfort at its end. Instead, sow righteousness for yourselves. Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among thorns.
Sin may pass lightly from your hand or flow smoothly from your tongue now, but you may depend on it that you and your sin will meet again later, however little you may like it. Old wounds often ache and cause pain long after they have healed and only a scar remains. You may find the same thing true of your sins.
The footprints of animals have been found on the surfaces of rocks that were once wet sand, thousands of years after the animals that made them perished and passed away. So it may also be with your sins.
“Experience,” says the proverb, “keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.” I want all of you to escape the misery of learning in that school. I want you to avoid the wretchedness that youthful sins are sure to bring. This is the final reason why I exhort you.
Dangers Facing Young Men
In the second place, there are some special dangers against which young men need to be warned.
1. Pride
One danger to young men is pride.
I know well that every soul is in fearful danger. Old or young, it makes no difference. All have a race to run, a battle to fight, a heart to put to death, a world to overcome, a body to keep under control, and a devil to resist. We may well ask, Who is sufficient for these things? Yet every age and condition has its own particular snares and temptations, and it is good to know them. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. If I can only persuade you to be on your guard against the dangers I am about to name, I am sure I will do your souls an essential service.
Pride is the oldest sin in the world. In fact, it existed before the world. Satan and his angels fell through pride. They were not satisfied with their original position. In this way pride supplied hell with its first inhabitants.
Pride drove Adam out of paradise. He was not content with the place God had assigned him. He tried to raise himself and fell. In this way sin, sorrow, and death entered through pride.
Pride naturally lives in all our hearts. We are born proud. Pride makes us satisfied with ourselves. It makes us think we are good enough as we are, close our ears to advice, reject the gospel of Christ, and turn each of us to our own way. But pride reigns nowhere so powerfully as in the heart of a young man.
How common it is to see young men reckless, arrogant, and impatient with advice! How often they are rude and discourteous to everyone around them because they think they are not valued and honored as much as they deserve. How often they refuse to stop and listen to a suggestion from an older person. They think they know everything. They are full of confidence in their own wisdom. They consider older people, especially their own relatives, stupid, dull, and slow. They imagine they need no teaching or instruction because they understand everything. It almost makes them angry to be spoken to.
Like young horses, they cannot bear the slightest control. They insist on being independent and having their own way. They seem to think like those Job mentioned: “We are the people, and wisdom shall die with us” (Job 12:2). All this is pride.
Rehoboam was such a man. He despised the advice of the experienced older men who had served his father and listened instead to the advice of the young men of his own generation. He lived to reap the consequences of his foolishness. There are many like him.
The prodigal son in the parable was another. He insisted on receiving the portion of the property that belonged to him and setting out on his own. He could not submit to living quietly under his father’s roof. He wanted to go into a distant country and be his own master. Like a little child who leaves his mother’s hand and tries to walk alone, he soon suffered for his foolishness. He became wiser when he had to eat husks with the pigs. But there are many like him.
Young men, I earnestly beg you to beware of pride. Two sights are said to be very rare in the world: a humble young man and a contented old man. I fear this saying is only too true.
Do not be proud of your abilities, your strength, your knowledge, your appearance, or your own cleverness. Do not be proud of yourself or of any gift you possess. Such pride comes from not knowing yourself or the world. The older you grow and the more you see, the less reason you will find for pride. Ignorance and inexperience are the pedestal on which pride stands. Once the pedestal is removed, pride will soon fall.
Remember how often Scripture sets before us the excellence of a humble spirit. How strongly we are warned “not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think” (Rom 12:3). How plainly we are told, “if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know” (1 Cor 8:2). How strict is the command, “put on humbleness of mind” (Col 3:12). And again, “be clothed with humility” (1 Pet 5:5). Sadly, many people do not seem to possess even a scrap of this clothing!
Think of the great example our Lord Jesus Christ has left us in this respect. He washed His disciples’ feet and said, “Ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). It is written, “Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor” (2 Cor 8:9). And again, “He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself” (Phil 2:7-8). Surely being proud makes us more like the devil and fallen Adam than like Christ. Surely it can never be degrading or weak to be like Him.
Think of the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon. See how he described himself as a “little child,” as one who “knew not how to go out or come in,” or manage for himself (1 Kgs 3:7-8). His spirit was very different from that of his brother Absalom, who thought himself capable of anything: “Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice!” (2 Sam 15:4). It was also very different from the spirit of his brother Adonijah, who “exalted himself, saying, I will be king” (1 Kgs 1:5). Humility was the beginning of Solomon’s wisdom. Drawing on his own experience, he wrote, “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him” (Prov 26:12).
Young men, take to heart the Scriptures I have quoted. Do not be too confident in your own judgment. Stop assuming that you are always right and everyone else is wrong. Distrust your own opinion when you find it contrary to the opinion of people older than you, especially your own parents. Age brings experience and therefore deserves respect. One sign of Elihu’s wisdom in the book of Job is that “he waited till Job had spoken, because they were older than himself” (Job 32:4). Later he said, “I am young, and you are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not show you mine opinion. I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom” (Job 32:6-7).
Modesty and silence are beautiful graces in young people. Never be ashamed of being a learner. Jesus was a learner at twelve years old. When He was found in the temple, He was “sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46). The wisest people would tell you that they are always learning and that they are humbled to discover how little they know. The great Sir Isaac Newton used to say that he felt like nothing more than a little child who had picked up a few precious stones on the shore of the sea of knowledge.
Young men, if you want to be wise and happy, remember the warning I give you: beware of pride.
2. The Love of Pleasure
Another danger to young men is the love of pleasure.
Youth is the time when our passions are strongest and, like unruly children, cry most loudly to be indulged. Youth is the time when we generally have the greatest health and strength. Death seems far away, and enjoying ourselves in this life seems to be everything. Youth is the time when most people have few earthly cares or anxieties to occupy their attention. All these things help to make young men think of almost nothing but pleasure. “I serve lusts and pleasures.” That is the true answer many young men ought to give if they were asked, “Whose servant are you?”
Young men, I would run out of time if I tried to tell you all the fruits produced by this love of pleasure and all the ways it may harm you. Why should I speak of wild partying, feasting, drinking, gambling, going to the theater, dancing, and similar things? Few people can be found who do not know something of these things through bitter experience. And these are only examples. Everything that creates temporary excitement, everything that drowns thought and keeps the mind in a constant whirl, and everything that pleases the senses and gratifies the flesh has tremendous power at your time of life. These things owe their power to the love of pleasure.
Be on your guard. Do not be like those Paul describes as “Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God” (2 Tim 3:4).
Remember what I say: if you cling to earthly pleasures, these are the things that murder souls. There is no surer way to acquire a seared conscience and a hard, unrepentant heart than to give in to the desires of the flesh and mind. It seems like nothing at first, but its effects appear in the long run.
Consider what Peter says: “Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Pet 2:11). They destroy the soul’s peace, break down its strength, lead it into harsh captivity, and make it a slave.
Consider what Paul says: “Mortify your members which are upon earth” (Col 3:5). “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts” (Gal 5:23). “I keep under my body and bring it into subjection” (1 Cor 9:27). The body was once a perfect home for the soul. Now it is thoroughly corrupt and disordered and requires constant watching. It is a burden to the soul rather than a suitable helper, and a hindrance rather than an aid. It may become a useful servant, but it is always a bad master.
Consider again Paul’s words: “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom 13:14). “These,” says Leighton, “are the words, the very reading of which so wrought with Augustine, that from a licentious young man he turned a faithful servant of Jesus Christ.” Young men, I wish this might happen to all of you.
Remember also that if you cling to earthly pleasures, they are all unsatisfying, empty, and vain. Like the locusts in the vision in Revelation, they seem to have crowns on their heads. But like those same locusts, you will find that they have stings, real stings, in their tails. Not everything that glitters is gold. Not everything that tastes sweet is good. Not everything that pleases for a time is genuine pleasure.
Go and take your fill of earthly pleasures if you insist, but you will never satisfy your heart with them. There will always be a voice within crying, like the leech in Proverbs, “Give, give!” There is an empty place in your heart that nothing but God can fill. Like Solomon, you will discover by experience that earthly pleasures are only a vain show, vanity and vexation of spirit, whitewashed tombs that look beautiful outside but are full of ashes and corruption within.
It is better to become wise in time. You would do better to write “poison” on every earthly pleasure. Even the most lawful pleasures must be used in moderation. Every one of them will destroy the soul if you give it your heart. As Adams says in his work on Second Peter, “Pleasure must first have the warrant, that it be without sin; then the measure, that it be without excess.”
