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Bible Reading: 2
Chronicles 34
As the years of
infancy cannot be useful to our fellow-creatures, our earliest
youth should be dedicated to God, that we may not waste any of the
remaining short space of life.
Happy and wise are those who seek the Lord and prepare for
usefulness at an early age, when others are pursuing sinful
pleasures, contracting bad habits, and forming ruinous
connections.
Who can express the anguish prevented by early piety, and its
blessed effects? Diligent self-examination and watchfulness will
convince us of the deceitfulness and wickedness of our own hearts,
and the sinfulness of our lives.
We are here encouraged to humble ourselves before God, and to seek
unto him, as Josiah did. And believers are here taught, not to
fear death, but to welcome it, when it takes them away from the
evil to come. Nothing hastens the ruin of a people, nor ripens
them for it, more than their disregard of the attempts made for
their reformation. Be not deceived, God is not mocked.
The current and tide of affections only turns at the command of
Him who raises up those that are dead in trespasses and sins. We
behold peculiar loveliness, in the grace the Lord bestows on
those, who in tender years seek to know and to love the Savior.
Hath Jesus, the Day-spring from on high, visited you? Can you
trace your knowledge of this light and life of man, like Josiah,
from your youth? Oh the unspeakable happiness of becoming
acquainted with Jesus from our earliest years!
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