The Best Burden for Young Shoulders

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." Lamentations
3:27.

YOKE-BEARING is not pleasant, but it is good. It is not every pleasant
thing that is good, nor every good thing that is pleasant. Sometimes
the goodness may be just in proportion to the unpleasantness. Now, it
is childish to be always craving for sweets–those, who by reason of
use have had their senses exercised, should prefer the wholesome to the
palatable. It ought to reconcile us to that which is unsavory when we
are informed that it is good! A little child is not easily reconciled
that way, because, as yet, he cannot think and judge. But the man of
God ought to find it very easy to quiet every murmur and complaint as
soon as he perceives that, though unpleasant, the thing is good.

Since, my dear Friends, we are not very good judges, ourselves, of that
which is good for us anymore than our children are, and since we expect
our little ones to leave the choice of their diet with us, will it not
be wise of us to leave everything with our heavenly Father? We can
judge what is pleasant, but we cannot discern that which is good for
us. But He can judge and, therefore, it will be always well for us to
leave all our affairs in His hands and say, "Nevertheless, not as I
will, but as You will." Since we are quite certain upon Scriptural
authority that whatever the Lord sends to His people will work out for
their benefit, we ought to be perfectly resigned to the Lord's will.

No, much more–we ought to be thankful for all His appointments even
when they displease the flesh–being quite certain that His will is the
best that can be and that if we could see the end from the beginning it
is exactly what we should choose if we were as wise and good as our
heavenly Father is. Our shoulders bow themselves with gladness to the
burden which Jesus declares to be profitable to us! This assurance from
His lips makes His yoke easy to bear. Our text tells us of something
which, though not very comfortable, is good–"It is good for a man that
he bear the yoke in his

youth!"

The illustration is drawn from cattle. The bullocks have to bear the
yoke. They go in pairs and the yoke is borne upon their shoulders. The
yoke is somewhat burdensome. If the bullock is not broken when it is
young, it will never make a good plowing ox. It will be fretted and
troubled with the labor it will have to do. It will be very hard work
to drive it and the farmer will accomplish but little plowing. It is
good for the bullock to be brought into subjection while it is
young–and so it is with all sorts of animals–the horse must be broken
while he is a colt. And if a certain period of that horse's life is
allowed to pass over without its being under the trainer's hand, it
will never make a thoroughly useful horse.

If you want to train a dog you must take him while he is young and
teach him his work. That is the metaphor. It is just so with men. It is
good for us that we are broken while we are yet young and learn to bear
the yoke in our youth. If you take the text naturally as uttering a
truth of ordinary life, it is still worth considering. Even apart from
the Grace of God and apart from religion, it is a great blessing for a
man to bear the yoke in his youth! That is to say, first, it is good
for us when we are young to learn obedience. It is half the making of a
man to be placed under rule and taught to bear restraint.

When young people grow older they will have to be very much a law unto
themselves. There may be no father living to warn them lovingly and no
mother to gently guide them. Young people will be older people and
govern themselves– and no one is fit to do that till he has learned to
be obedient. The proverb is, "boys will be boys," but I do not think
so– they will be men if we let them have time. And unless they learn
self-restraint and habits of obedience while they are boys, they are
not likely to make good men. He who cannot obey is not fit to rule–he
who never learned to submit will make a tyrant when he obtains power.

It is good that every child should be broken in, delivered from his
foolish self-will and made to feel that he has superiors, masters and
governors. Then, when it shall come his turn to be a leader and a
master, he will have the more kindly

empathy to those who are under him. Be you sure of this, that if he
does not learn the drill of obedience he will never be a good soldier
in the battle of life.

It is good for young people to bear the yoke, too, in the sense of
acquiring, in their early days, knowledge. If we do not learn when we
are young, when shall we learn? Some who have begun to study late in
life, have yet achieved a good deal, but it has been with much
difficulty. If you do not use the machinery of the mind in youth, it
gets rusty. But if it is used from the very first and kept continually
in action and well oiled, it will go on easily throughout the whole of
life. Our early days are favorable to the acquirement of knowledge and
every lad that is an apprentice should make the best of his
apprenticeship–he will never make much of a journeyman if he does not.

Every man that is starting in life, while he is yet young, should do
all that he possibly can to acquire full equipment, for if he does not,
he will know the absence of it sooner or later. If a man starts upon
life's voyage and has left his anchor at home, or forgotten his
provisions, he will find out his deficiencies when he gets to sea. And
when the storm begins to howl through the cordage he will wish that he
had listened to the dictates of prudence and had been better prepared
for life's perilous voyage.

It is good for young people, too–we are now talking about the natural
meaning of the passage–good for them that they should encounter
difficulties and troubles when they begin life. The silver spoon in the
mouth with which some people are born is very apt to choke them. There
are hundreds of people who have never been able to speak out because of
that dreadful silver spoon! It is not every man that is the richer in
the long run, even in mere gold and silver, for having commenced with
capital. I believe you will generally find that the rich men who have
been, "self-made," as they call it, came to London with a half-crown in
their pockets.

I have noticed that thirty pence is about the amount they leave home
with and that half-crown, neither less nor more, becomes the nest egg
of a fortune. Young men who begin with thousands of pounds often end
with nothing at all. It is good for a man that he should have a rough
battle when life begins–that he should not be lapped in dainty ease
and find everything arranged according to his will–he will never
develop his muscles, he will never make a man–unless there is hard
work for him to do. Those long hours, that stern thinking, those weary
bones and all that, of which young people, nowadays, are very apt to
complain about–though they do not work half as hard as their fathers,
nor above a tenth as hard as their grandfathers–all these things,
within reason and measure, help to make men, and I only hope that the
easier times, which are now happily in fashion, may not breed a softer
and a less manly nature among our young men.

It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke of labor, trial and
difficulty in his youth. And if we could lift the yoke from every weary
shoulder it would not be wise to do so. Many a man who has succeeded in
life is very thankful to God that he had, in his early years, to bear a
little poverty and to work hard and toil, for he never would have come
to be what he is if it had not been for the strengthening and educating
influence of trial.

It is not, however, my business to preach about these matters at any
length. I am not a moral lecturer, but a minister of the Gospel. I have
fulfilled a duty when I have given the first meaning to the text and
now I shall use it for nobler ends.

I. First of all, IT IS GOOD TO BE A CHRISTIAN WHILE YOU ARE YOUNG. It
is good for a man to bear Christ's yoke in his youth. I shall not ask
you to pardon me if I speak here as one who has tried and proved it.
Surely I may do so without egotism, for it is not my own honor, but
God's, that I shall speak of! What the Lord has worked in me–of that I
will speak.

At 15 years of age I was brought to know the Lord and to confess Him
and I can, therefore, speak as one who bore the yoke in his youth. And,
young people, if I have never to address you again, I should like to
say to you it has been good for me. Ah, how good, I cannot tell you,
but so good that I earnestly wish that every one of you would bear my
Master's yoke in his youth! I could not wish you a greater blessing!
For, see, first, the man whose heart is conquered by Divine Grace early
is made happy soon. That is a blessed prayer in the Psalm, "O satisfy
us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our
days."

Very few people, if they understood it, would wish to postpone
happiness. Young hearts generally ask to be happy now. To have sin
forgiven is to be unloaded now of that which is the prime cause of
sorrow. To receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith is to be
clothed with peace now. To be reconciled to God is to have a spring of
consolation within your soul now. To know yourself to be God's child is
to have the greatest joy out of Heaven and to have it now. Who would
wish to postpone it? Young Christians may die, but it is of small
consequence if they do, for being early in Christ,

they will be early in Heaven! Who would not wish to be safe as soon as
possible? Who desires to tarry in the land of peril, where a point of
time, a moment's space, may shut you up in Hell?

To be early secured from the wrath to come–early endued with a sense
of security in Jesus Christ–why, surely it does not need many words to
prove that this is good! Besides, while early piety brings early
happiness, let it never be forgotten that it saves from a thousand
snares. There are things which a man knows, who has lived long in sin,
which he wishes he could forget! God's Grace rinses your mouth after
you have been eating the forbidden fruit, but the flavor is very apt to
linger and to return. Songs which are libels upon God and upon decency,
once heard, will attack you in the middle of a prayer and words which,
if you could forget them, you might be willing to lose your memory for
that purpose, will invade your most hallowed seasons.

It is a great mercy that if a man is 70 or 80 years of age, yet if he
shall believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he shall be saved! Eleventh
hour mercies are very sweet. But what a double privilege it is to be
set to work in the vineyard while yet the dew is on the leaves and so
to be kept from the idleness and the wickedness of the market place in
which others loiter so long! It is good for a man to bear Christ's yoke
in his youth because it saves him from having those shoulders galled
with the devil's yoke. It preserves him from the fetters of that
pitiful slavery into which so many are brought by habits long acquired
and deeply seated. Sins long indulged grow to the shoulders–and to
remove them is like tearing away one's flesh. Be thankful, young
people, that the Savior is ready to receive you while you are yet young
and that He gives you the promise, "They that seek Me early shall find
Me."

Happy are they who entertain the Redeemer in the morning and so shut
out the evil spirit all day long! There is this goodness about it,
again, that it gives you longer time in which to serve God. If I were
taken into the service of one whom I loved, I should like to do him a
long day's work. If I knew that I could only work for him one day, I
should strive to begin as soon as the gray light of dawn permitted me
to see and I would continue at work far into the evening, cheerfully
active, so long as a glimmer remained. If you are converted late in
life you can only give to our Lord Jesus the shades of evening.

Blessed be His name, He will accept eventide service, but still, how
much better to be able to serve the Lord from your youth up, to give
Him those bright days while the birds are singing in the soul, when the
sun is unclouded and the shadows are not falling! And then to give Him
the long evening, when at eventide He makes it light and causes the
infirmities of age to display His power and His fidelity. I think I
know of no grander sight than that of a gray-haired man who has served
the Lord Jesus from his youth up! There is this goodness about it yet
further, that it enables one to be well established in Divine things.
"They that are planted in the courts of the Lord shall flourish in the
courts of our God."

A tree transplanted takes a certain time to root, but when it becomes
well established it produces abundant fruit. There must be time for
striking root in Divine things. Everything in the kingdom of Grace is
not to be learned in 10 minutes. I bless God that a man who has
believed in Jesus only one second is a saved man–but he is not an
instructed man–he is not an established man. He is not trained for
battle nor tutored for labor. These things take time. When we are
converted, we go to Christ's School. We sit at His feet and learn of
Him.

Now, who is the best scholar? All other things being equal, I should
expect to find the best scholars in school to be those who come early.
Eleven o'clock scholars do not learn much. Evening scholars, with a
good master and great diligence, may pick up something, but scarcely so
much as those who have been at the school all day! Oh, how blessed it
is to begin to know Christ very early because then you can go on
comprehending with all the saints the heights and depths of that which
surpasses knowledge! No fear that you will ever exhaust this knowledge.
It is so infinitely great and blessed that if we lived 7,000 years in
the world, there would still be more to know of Christ and we should
still have to say, "Oh, the depths."

We need not be afraid, therefore, if we are converted when we are 10,
or 15, or 20 years of age, we shall live to wear out the freshness of
religion. Ah, no, we shall love it more and understand it better and,
by God's Grace, practice it more fully as the years roll over us!
Therefore it is good to begin soon. And then, let me say, it gives such
confidence in later life to have given your heart to Jesus young. I am
glad to see some boys and girls here tonight. Now, my dear Children,
God may spare you to become old men and old women and when your hair is
gray and you are getting feeble and you know that you will soon die, it
will be very delightful to be able to say, "O Lord, I have known You
from my youth, and up to now have I declared Your wondrous works. Now,
also, when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not."

There will be much force in the plea, for if we have a faithful
servant, we do not cast him off when he grows old. "Ah," you say, "he
cannot do much, now. The old man is getting very feeble. He cannot see
or hear as he used to do and he is slow in his movements. But then, you
see, the good old fellow has been in our family ever since he was a boy
and you do not think we are going to turn him out now?" No, the Lord
will not cast off His old servants. He will not say to them "I have had
the best of you. I have had your young days and I have had your middle
life. But now you may go begging and take care of yourself." No, that
is how the Amalekite or the Ishmaelite might talk, but the God of
Israel never forsakes His people! He says, "Even to your old age I am
He; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you; I have made you; and I
will bear; even I will carry and will deliver you."

O, you who have given yourselves to Jesus through His rich and
Sovereign Grace while you are young, I know you feel it a sweet plea to
urge with God–"Now, Lord, forsake me not." So, then, young people, if
you would lay by a precious treasure of consolation when those that
look out of the windows are darkened. If you would have strength for
the time of weakness. If you would have comfort for the day when the
mourners go about the streets. If, above all, you would be supported
when you are going Home, yield yourselves to Jesus now! Oh, that this
very night you may bow your shoulders to the easy yoke of the meek and
lowly Savior! So shall you find rest unto your souls.

II. I shall now give another meaning of the text. May the Holy Spirit
bless it. Secondly, IT IS GOOD FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS THAT THEY BEAR THE
YOKE OF JESUS. What do we mean by that? A good number of you have been
lately converted, and to you I speak most earnestly. It will be for
your good as long as you live, to render to Jesus complete obedience at
the very first. Some Christians, seem to me, to start to Canaan all in
a muddle. They do not begin their pilgrimage in the right pilgrim
fashion. Every young Christian, when he is converted, should take time
to consider, and should say to himself, "What am I to do? What is the
duty of a Christian?"

He should also devoutly say to the Lord Jesus, "Lord, show me what You
would have me to do," and wait upon the Holy Spirit for guidance. Two
young lads were not long ago converted to God–one of them attended
here, the other at another place of worship. They talked to each other
about what was the right way of confessing Jesus Christ. They did not
quite know, but they meant to find out. They borrowed the keys of a
neighboring Independent Chapel and went inside and spent some hours,
day after day, reading together the New Testament and turning to every
passage which refers to Baptism. The result was that they, both of
them, came and were baptized in this place.

I wish that all Christians, in commencing, would look at that ordinance
and at every other point in dispute and see what is God's mind about
it. Search the Scriptures and see for yourselves. Do not say, "I have
always been with the Episcopalians and, therefore, I ought to do as
they do." Or, "I have always been with the Baptists," or "with the
Wesleyans." My dear Friends, these people cannot make rules for us!
Here is our guide–this Bible! If I want to go by the railway, I use
Bradshaw, and do not trust to hearsay. And if I want to go to Heaven I
must follow the Bible.

There is another book which people will ask you to attend to. Well, we
will say nothing against that book, only it is not the book. The book
is this volume, the blessed Bible! You should begin by feeling, "My
Lord has saved me. I am His servant and I mean, at once, to take His
yoke upon me. I will, as far as ever I can, do what He would have me
do. There are some sins into which I shall most likely fall. Watch as I
may, I shall sometimes make a slip, but here are some things which I
can be right about and I will take care that I am right about them."

Now, if you young people begin conscientiously studying the Word of God
and desiring, in everything, to put your feet down where Christ put His
feet, I am sure it will be good for you. You will grow up to be healthy
Christians and men and women of no ordinary stature. But if you do not
begin with searching the Word and take your religion second-hand from
other people and do what you see other people do, without searching,
why, you will lack that noble independence of mind and courage of
spirit and, at the same time, that complete submission to Christ which
make up the main elements of a noble-minded Christian!

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth, in the next
place, namely, by attaining clear instruction in Divine Truth. We ought
to go to the Lord Jesus Christ to learn of Him, not merely about
ordinances and actions, but about what to think and what to believe.
Oh, how I wish that every one of us had begun, with regard to our
doctrinal sentiments, by presenting our minds to Christ like a sheet of
clean paper for His Holy Spirit to write the Truth of God on! Alas, we
begin with many a line upon us written by the pen of prejudice! Dear
Friend, if you are converted to God, you are now to sit at the feet of
Jesus to learn everything from Him–not to take your views to Him!
Those are common ex-

pressions, "my views," and, "my opinions," and, "I am of such a
persuasion." Beloved, be persuaded by Christ, for that is the only
persuasion worth following.

Take your views from Him–no other views of eternal and heavenly things
are worth having. "Oh," says one, "but then they might not happen to be
your views." Just so and I do not ask you to take my views! On the
other hand I charge you before God never to believe anything because I
say it, but to listen only to my Master and yield your faith only to
the Infallible Word of God. We urge this upon you, because, even if you
believe the Truth of God because we say it, you have not believed it in
the right way. Truth is to be received because it is true and because
Jesus Christ's authority proves it to you to be true, not because any
poor mortal who happens to preach is supposed to possess authority to
decide such questions. We have no authority to assert anything to be
the Truth of God upon our own ipse dixit. We are simply the trumpets at
the lips of Christ when we speak with power. And sometimes, alas, we
blow our own trumpets instead of leaving Jesus Christ to blow through
us–and then we are worse than useless. I charge you bear the yoke in
your youth by studying hard to know what is the way, the truth, and the
life from the lips of Jesus Christ, Himself, being taught of the Spirit
of God! It is good for you to do this.

It is also good for young converts to bear the yoke by beginning to
serve Jesus Christ early. I like to see mothers, when they brings their
little ones to the House of God, put a penny into its hand and teach it
early to contribute to the cause of Christ. And when people are
converted, there is nothing like their having something to do very
soon. Not that they are to attempt to do the major things which belong
to the more advanced and instructed, for, concerning some of these, we
should apply the rule, "Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride,
he falls into the condemnation of the devil."

But there is work for every Believer to do in Christ's vineyard! There
is work for children, there is work for young men, work for young women
and it is good to begin early. The Lord Jesus Christ, who was so
pleased with the widow's mite, is very pleased with a child's love to
Him. We big people are very apt to think, "What can a little girl do
for Jesus?" Oh, but if that little girl does not do something for
Jesus, now that she is saved, she will very likely grow up to be an
idle Christian and not serve God in later years as she should.

I like to see the little trees which they put into our gardens, you
know, the little pyramids and other dwarf trees. I like to see them,
even from the first, bear just a little fruit. I think, sometimes, that
pears, when there are only one or two on the tree, are far finer in
flavor than those on the big tree which too often have lost in quality
what they have gained in quantity. That which is done for Jesus Christ
by young Christians, by weak Christians, by timid Christians, often has
a very delicate flavor about it, precious to the taste of Jesus. It is
good to begin serving Him in our youth.

"Ah," says one, "I shall begin when I can preach." Will you? You had
better begin reciting a letter to that young friend with whom you went
to school. You had better begin by dropping a tract in an area, or by
trying to speak to some young person of your own age. Pride will prompt
you to wish to be great, but love to Jesus will teach you that the
small things are acceptable with Him. It is good for young men–good
for young women–that as soon as they are converted to God they should
bear the yoke of service.

It is also good, when we begin to serve God, that we should bear the
yoke in another sense, namely, by finding difficulties. If it were in
my power to make the way of serving Christ very easy to every young
Christian here, I would not do it. If it were possible to make all
Sunday school work pleasant, I would not do it. If it were possible to
make standing up in the open air to preach a very easy thing, I would
not make it so! It is good for you that you bear the yoke. It is good
that your service should involve self-denial and try your patience. It
is good for you that the girls should not be very orderly and that the
boys should not be very teachable when you get them in the class.

It is good for you that the crowd should not stand still and listen
very meekly to you and that infidels should put ugly questions to you
when you are preaching in the street. It is good, I know, for the young
minister to encounter curious Church members and even to meet with an
adversary who means to overthrow him! It is a good thing, for a true
worker, for the devil to labor to put him down because if God has put
him up, he cannot be put down, but the attempt to overthrow him will do
him good, develop his spiritual muscles and bring out the powers of his
mind!

A very easy path would not be profitable to us. Consider David, after
Samuel had put the oil on his head and anointed him to be the future
king of Judah–it would have been a very bad thing for him to have
waited in inglorious ease and slumbered away the interval. But take
David and send him into the wilderness to keep the sheep. Bring him to
Saul's court and let Saul throw a javelin at him–send him to fight
with Goliath! Banish him, afterwards, to the tracks

of the wild goats and compel him to live in the dens and caves and make
him fight for his life–and by this process you will educate a hero,
fit to rule Israel!

He comes to the throne no longer a youth and ruddy, but a man of war
from his youth up, and he is, therefore, ready to smite the Philistines
or the children of Ammon as the champion of the Lord of Hosts! It is
good, then, to bear the yoke in the sense of undertaking service for
Jesus and finding difficulty in it. And it is good, yet further, to
meet with persecution in your youth. If it were possible to take every
young Christian and put him into a pious family and not let him go into
the world at all, but always keep him in his mother's lap–if it were
possible to take every working man and guarantee that he should only
work in a shop where they sing Psalms from morning to night, where
nobody ever swears, where nobody ever utters a word of chaff against
him–why, I say, if it were possible to do this, I do not know that it
would be wise to do it!

To keep people out of temptation is exceedingly proper and none of us
have any right to put a temptation in another's way. But it is good for
us to be tempted, sometimes, otherwise we should not know the real
condition of our hearts and might be rotting with inward pride while
blooming with outward morality. Temptation lets us know how weak we are
and drives us to our knees. It tests our faith and tries our love–and
lets us see whether our Graces are genuine or not. When religion puts
on her silver slippers and walks out with her golden earrings,
everybody is quite content to go with her. But the honest, hearty
Christian will follow Jesus Christ's truth when she goes barefoot
through the mire and through the slough–and when her garments are
bespattered by unholy hands.

Herein is the trial of the true and the unmasking of the deceitful. It
would not be good for us to be kept from persecution, slander and
trial–it is good for a man that he bear this yoke in his youth. A
Christian is a hardy plant. Many years ago a pine tree was brought to
England. The gentleman who brought it, put it in his hothouse, but it
did not develop in a healthy manner. It was a spindly thing and,
therefore, the gardener, feeling that he could not make anything of it,
took it out and threw it upon the dunghill. There it grew into a
splendid tree, for it had found a temperature suitable to its nature.

The tree was meant to grow near the snow. It loves cold winds and rough
weather–and they had been sweating it to death in a hothouse. So it is
with true Christianity. It seldom flourishes so well in the midst of
ease and luxury as it does in great tribulation. Christians are often
all the stronger and better because they happen to be cast where they
have no Christian companions or kindly encouragements. As liberty
usually favors the hardy mountaineers whose rugged hills have made them
brave and hardy, so does abounding Grace, as a rule, visit those who
endure the great fight and through much tribulation inherit the
kingdom.

Once more, I believe it is good for young Christians to experience much
soul-trouble. My early days of thoughtfulness were days of bitterness.
Before I found a Savior, I was plowed with the great subsoil plow of
terrible convictions. Month after month I sought, but found no hope. I
learned the plague of my heart, the desperate evil of my nature and at
this moment I have reason to thank God for that long wintry season. I
am sure it was good for my soul. As a general rule there is a period of
darkness somewhere or other in the Christian life–if you do not have
it, at first, it is probable you will not endure it then–but if you do
not have it at first it is just as likely you will pass through the
cloud at some other time.

It is well to have it over with. It is good for a man, that he bears
the yoke in his youth. Some friends seem to have found a patent way of
going to Heaven. If their way is the right one, I am sure I am very
much delighted, but I am rather dubious, for I meet with those who have
tried the high-level railroad and are greatly discouraged because the
train does not run so smoothly as they expected. They have been living
a whole fortnight–well, not quite without sin–but very near it. They
have triumphed and conquered altogether, and gone up in a balloon for a
fortnight. Of course they have to come down again–and some come with
an awful fall!

The best of them come, and say, "Dear Pastor, I am afraid I am not a
child of God. I feel so wretched and yet I feel so happy and holy. I
have said, "Yes, you see you went up and so you had to come down. If
you had kept down you would not have had to come down." That going up
in a balloon to the stars frightens me about some young people. I wish
they would continue humbly to feel that they are nothing and nobody and
that Christ is everything. It is much better, on the whole, that a man
should be timid and trembling than that he should, early in life,
become very confident. "Blessed is the man that fears always" is a
Scriptural text–not the slavish fear, nor yet a fear that doubts God,
but still a fear.

There is a difference between doubting God and doubting yourself. You
may have as much as you like of the last till you even get to
self-despair, but there is no reason whatever why you should doubt the
Lord! "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth," to be
made to feel the weight of sin and the chastening hand of God–and to
be left to cry out in the dark and say, "Oh, that I knew where I might
find Him, that I might come even to His seat." These ordeals are of
essential service to the newborn Believer and prepare him, alike, for
the joys and the sorrows of his spiritual career.

III. I am going to finish with this last head. Practically, Brothers
and Sisters, WE ARE, ALL OF US, IN OUR YOUTH. I see some gray heads and
bald heads here and, yet they belong to persons in their minority. My
dear Brother, though you are 70 and more, yet you have not come of age
in the heavenly kingdom, for if you were of age you would have your
estates. None of us will come of age till we enter Heaven. We are still
under tutors and governors because we are, even now, as little
children. We have not come to that period in which we are fit for all
the joys of Heaven, for if we were, we should be taken Home to our
Father's house to enjoy our inheritance at once. We are still in our
youth.

Well, it is good for us, at this present time, that we should bear the
yoke and continue to bear it. It is good, my dear Brothers and Sisters,
that we, who have gone some distance on the road to Heaven, should
still have something to bear, because it enables us to still honor
Christ! If we do not suffer with Him, how can we have fellowship with
Him? If we have no crosses to carry, how can we commune with our Lord,
the chief Cross-Bearer? Let us be glad that we are not spared
tribulation, that we are not screened from affliction, but are
permitted to glorify God by patience, by resignation and by
unstaggering faith.

Do not ask the Lord that you may have no trouble, but rather remember
you have only a little while in which you can be patient–only a little
while in which you can be a cross-bearer and, therefore, it behooves
you to use each moment well. A few more revolving suns and you will be
where there is no more cross to carry, no sorrow to bear and,
therefore, where there is no room for patience and no opportunity of
being acquiescent in the Divine will. Be content to bear the yoke now,
for it is but a little while and this honor will be no longer yours. It
is good for us all to bear the yoke, too, because thus old Adam is kept
in check. A wonderfully vivacious thing is that old Adam. He has been
reported dead a good many times, but to my certain knowledge he is
still very brisk!

When we are in trouble, proud old Adam often seems to be quiet and does
not so well succeed in keeping us from prayer and, consequently, in
time of trouble, we often enjoy our very sweetest seasons of devotion.
By the Lord's goodness we escape the trial, but, alas, old Adam soon
lifts up his proud head again! He says, "Ah, you are a favorite of
Heaven. Your mountain stands firm. Your affliction has been sanctified
to you and you have grown in Grace very wonderfully. The fact is, you
are a very fine fellow."

Yes, that is old Adam's way, and whenever he sees an opportunity, he
will return to his old game of flattery. Whenever you are tempted to
bargain, say to yourself, "I know you, old Adam. I know you and will
not yield to your crafty devices." What happens when we become
self-satisfied? Why, the yoke returns upon our shoulders heavier! We
fall into another trouble and then old Adam is up in the stirrups,
again, and begins to grumble and rebel. The flesh begins proudly to
despair, whereas a little while before it was boasting! Trials, in the
hands of the Holy Spirit, are a great help to overcome corruptions. It
is a very hard matter for a man to be rich and prospering in this
world, to be at ease and have a long stretch of health–to have
everything exactly as he likes–and yet to be a Christian!

When the road is very smooth, many fall, but when the way is rough
there is good grip for the feet and we are not so likely to stumble.
When trials come, they whip us home to our heavenly Father! Sheep do
not stray so much when the black dog is after them–his barks make them
run to the shepherd! Affliction is the black dog of the Good Shepherd
to fetch us back to Him, otherwise we should wander to our ruin! We are
not better than David and we may honestly confess as he did, "Before I
was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept Your Word." Therefore
it is good for us, spiritually, young people, even though old as to the
flesh, that we should bear the yoke while we are still in our youth.

Besides, dear Friends, it makes you so helpful to others to have known
affliction. I do not see how we can sympathize if we are never tried,
ourselves. I know a beloved Brother who is, perhaps, 50 years of age,
who never had a day's sickness, and he told me he scarcely knew what
physical pain was except when a heavy person trod on his toes! Well,
now, he is a good Brother–but when he tries to sympathize with another
it is like an elephant picking up a pin, or Hercules with a cane–he
does do it, by God's Grace, but it is a thing to be wondered at. If you
tell him that you feel very low in spirits, he looks at you and tries
to say very kind things, but he does not understand your despondency.

Now, it would be a great pity for a Christian minister to be lacking in
the power to sympathize, would it not? Oh, thank God for troubles,
because they make the heart tender and they teach the lips the art of
consolation! You can be a Boanerges without trouble, but you never can
be a Barnabas! You may be a son of thunder, but you will never be a son
of consolation. As we wish to serve others, let us thank God that He
qualifies us to do so by making us bear the yoke in our youth.

Once more, is it not good to bear the yoke while we are here, because
it will make Heaven all the sweeter? Oh, how sweet Heaven will be to
that bedridden woman who has lain, these 20 years, upon her weary couch
and scarcely had a night's unbroken rest! What rest Heaven will be to
her! I know a good man within two miles of this place who has laid 18
years without moving. I do not know a happier man than he is! It is a
treat to see him, but still, what a change it will be–from that bed
from which he cannot rise–to stand on the sea of glass and forever
wave the palm branch and draw forth music from the celestial harp! What
a transformation!

How great the change for a poor Christian woman dying in a workhouse,
to be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom! What a change for the
martyr standing at the stake, burning slowly to death, and then rising
to behold the Glory of his Lord! What a change for you, dear old
Friend, with all those aches and pains about you, which make you feel
uneasy even while you are sitting here! Ah, Graybeard, you will be
young soon! There will be no wrinkles on your brow! You will not
require those spectacles! You will not need that staff to lean
upon–you will be as strong as the youngest here!

As you stand before the Throne of God, you will scarcely know yourself
to be the same old woman you used to be, or the same sickly man you
were a little while ago. You will be stripped of the house of clay and
your young soul will leap up from the old body and be present with the
Lord! And then the grave will be a refining pot in which the dross of
the flesh will be consumed and, by-and-by, your body will rise, no
longer old and haggard and worn, but full of beauty, like your Master's
glorious body!

This should give joy to you at all times–it must be good for you to
bear the yoke, seeing Heaven will, by that means, be made more fully
Heaven to you when once you reach its everlasting rest–

"The way may be rough but it cannot be long So let's smooth it with
hope, and cheer it with song."

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Lamentations 5. HYMNS FROM
"OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–750, 748.
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The Soul-Winner