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THE

EDINBURGH CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE.

Sermon.

THE YOUTH'S GUIDE:

A Sermon preached at the Anniversary of La Martiniere Institution, Calcutta, on the 13th September 1852,

By the Rev. J. C. HERDMAN, A.M., Senior Minister of St. Andrew's Church.

"Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of
my youth?"-JER, iii. 4.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,-This question,
is put to you by that Father who takes up
the orphan when forsaken by father and
mother. He lives for ever, and loves for
ever; and though He is in heaven, His
eyes are here, and His heart yearns over
you all. He looks on you as His family
-His dear sons and daughters; and He
singles out each of you as He goes round
these benches, saying, "Wilt thou not
from this time cry unto me, My Father,
thou art the guide of my youth ?"

Now, this is not a hard thing which God asks; and I do think that every one of you should comply with His request. You are young, and you will not be able alone to find your way through life, and through death, and up to glory. You are like wandering sheep; the Good Shepherd fears you may be lost; He offers to be your guide; He wishes to be your leader; and He asks, "Will you not allow Him? Will you not cry-that is, pray to Him, saying, 'Yes, my Father, thouthou alone art the guide of my youth?"" "If that be so," one of you says, "why, He is asking leave to do me good. He is asking my consent to become my

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friend; to take me by the hand, and lead me; to walk by my side; to lift me over stones, and hold up my head, as Hopeful did to Christian in the river. That is what a guide would do. Is God willing to take all this trouble with me,-to shew me the road-to light up the way when it is dark-to explain difficulties to me— and fight for me with the roaring lion, like Mr. Greatheart, when he was conducting Christiana and her little ones?" Yes; that is just what God wishes. Wonder as much as you will at His love to the lambs, but never doubt itnever despise it-never put it away from you. He will let none of His words fall to the ground; and if you cry to Him, He will lead you safely and sweetly.

But, perhaps, another is thinking of the text in a very different spirit. "Ah!" he is saying to himself, "that is not the whole meaning. I remember Jesus says that we must strive to enter in at the strait gate, and that we must take up our cross daily; and in Bunyan's Progress I know what difficulties and dangers the pilgrims met with-what a Slough of Despond and Giant Despair-long before

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they reached the land of Beulah! No, no; I do not believe that the journey will be so smooth; and I am not going to begin it yet, to mope in a room reading the Bible, and praying all the day! This is the season for pleasure-let us enjoy it. It will be time enough to seek a guide when about to enter the dark valley, or when we get old and sick." My dear boy, there was some truth in what Satan said, when he quoted Scripture to tempt our Lord to sin; so there is truth in your words; yet things wear such wrong colours to your eye, that really the whole picture which you have sketched is false. You know how much the pleasure of a landscape-view depends on other things besides the mere objects, -on the observer, for instance-his distinctness of vision, and his state of mind, and on the haze or brightness of the atmosphere. On a fine clear morning, when you were in high health and buoyant spirits, you might look away from a hill-top across a large tract of country, and pronounce everything lovely. The very crags, and vales, and rivulets, which lay before you, far from damping your ardour, would inspire fresh eagerness; especially as your father, who was familiar with every turn, was going with you. In his company, with his help to climb rocks, to leap fences, yea, to meet wild beasts, would be delightful. But let another boy survey the same scene in other circumstances, and with other feelings. He is dull, sickly, and lazy, and dislikes to roam. It is a heavy day, and he looks abroad on the prospect through smoked glasses. Besides, he does not love his father; he dreads him, and feels only restraint in his presence. How will this one hear the words, " Come, let us go forth into the fields?" The two might be brothers, to whom the same objects and the same invitation were presented; but he with the coloured spectacles and the distorted unhappy mind, sees things falsely, and therefore judges untruly. So it is true, that in the way of life there are many trials. God does not hide them from you. But if you will set out, begin by getting a new heart, and new eyes, and wings, and then-when you take the virtues of the saints

-oh! then it will be gladsome travelling. You will then run and not be weary; you will mount up as eagles; your feet will be as the hind's feet; and your light heart will bound as the roe. Difficulties will be easily surmounted when the Father holds your hand; and for the joy of walking with Him, and the pleasures of the road, as well as the glory at the end, you will go on your way rejoicing! A third, it may be, has fallen into another error. He is thinking that God merely tells us not to neglect prayer, and public worship, and so on, when we are young. "To be sure," he says, "this is quite right; and there is no danger of any in this Institution failing in their duty, for here we are all taught to read the Bible, and commit portions of it to memory; we have morning and evening prayers, and go regularly to church." So far it is well; but need I remind you that God is a Spirit, and that unless He is worshipped with the spirit, our forms of devotion are a mockery?—and it is a grand mistake to suppose that religion consists in attending to prayers at stated hours, or going to the house of God on the Sabbath. Remember God offers to be your guide in everything; to lead you to your knees, and to teach you your lessons; to give you the spirit of prayer, and to watch over you at play; to make your tongues truthful, and your tempers sweet; to sanctify soul and body; to supply you with daily bread, and feed you with angel's manna, and quench your thirst with the water of life. He wishes to guide you in the play-ground, and in the chapel, and in the class-room, and in the dormitory; and to the choice of a profession when you quit these halls; to teach you kindness to one another, and love to Himself, and obedience to your masters; and to be pure and honest, humble and obliging, patient and diligent. He would take charge of you in health and sickness, when alone and with others, and when your eyes close on all earthly friends in death. His rules and directions are in this blessed book; and its pages are best learnt when you consult them for guidance in everything you do,

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as your own examples, and their failings as your own warnings,-when you store up its precepts that you may practise them in your daily walk, and treasure its promises for your own encouragement. Religion is not a garment for the Lord's day, but a constant habit; it is to be part of your very selves. God is to be sought and obeyed, not only when you go to your closet or to His house, but in all your affairs, with all your hearts, at all times. He will come in and sup with you, He will rise up and talk with you, He will go forth and lead you; you will speak to Him, bow your will to His, lean on His arm, trust to His Spirit, learn from His lips, look up to Him, think of Him, and follow Him as your guide, in great matters and in small, in all your goings, and duties, and dangers, and pursuits, and changes, and relations.

But let us now see why you should embrace God's offer to be the guide of your youth. Are not all eager to do this? Alas! no. "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child ;" and both young people and old are naturally wilful and wayward, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Indeed, the way in which God speaks in the text, shews that He knew men's unwillingness to own Him. He here expostulates with Israel, who had turned their backs on the Lord; and, as we read in the 27th verse of the second chapter, they said to a stock,-i. e., to a log of wood, "Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth." None of you have gone this length. The children of the natives around you bow down to stocks and stones, and are trained to worship idols as their maker and benefactor. From such meanness and sin you have been preserved. But I fear that many of you think little of your heavenly Father. He is not often in your thoughts; play, or wickedness, or praise of men, is dearer to you than His love; and in your pride you are ready to think that you can guide yourselves; you thank your own talent and good fortune for getting on so well hitherto, and you will trust to your own understanding for the future. But this is a very sinful, and very silly, and very dan

gerous thought; and God argues with you, saying, "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto ME, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth ?" I will give you two strong reasons for answering YES!

First, It is due to God. Second, It will be good for yourselves.

I. It is due to God. He has a right to you. You will not be acting justly or fairly to Him if you refuse His demand.

He is here called your Father; and that He is in two ways,-as your Maker, and as your Redeemer.

1. He is your Maker, who gives you all things; and therefore He has a supreme and sole right to you. He made the sun; and had He not a right to set it in yonder heavens, and command it to shine there for ages? He made Adam of the dust of the ground, and placed him in Eden; may He not order him to dress the garden? Even a man may do as he likes with his own handiwork, though he cannot create an atom, or make a blade of grass to grow. A man that builds a ship may rig it out to his own fancy, and choose his own cargo, and appoint his own crew, and sail to any part of the world; and may not God do as He pleases with His creatures, whom He has made out of nothing? Has He not a right to you whom His fingers formed? Your powers of body and your powers of soul are alike His gift. Your eyes, your ears, your faculty of speech, and the vigour of your limbs, are from Him and for Him. Your mind, your conscience, your will, your affections, He claims as His own. What He gave He has preserved. Why are you not silly idiots or senseless stones, but because He was good to you? Listen, then; to-day, hear His voice,—" My son, my daughter, give me thine heart."

2. He has another title to you: He has bought you. At a vast expense He satisfied the demands of the law against you, that you might be delivered from the curse of sin and the wrath to come. Now, if an artist pays down a large sum of money to get back his own painting from some one into whose hands it had fallen, and then labours to improve it,

to the forest-beasts, or are dashed in pieces over a hidden precipice. One evil habit may lead you to ruin, must cause you pain and trouble. One false step in youth may mar you for ever; and if a miracle does snatch you from the pit, it were almost enough to blight your joy as you rise to heaven to see former companions, lost through your example, dragged down to hell!

would you not say that he has a good | Worn out with fatigue, benighted in title to an article which he made, and that trackless wilderness, you fall a prey redeemed, and polished again; which cost him the outlay of so much mind at the first, of so much gold afterwards, and of so much pains in the end? Thus with the ransomed children of God. You deserved to be punished and driven away to the darkness of eternal death; but, to save you, God in love sent His own Son to teach, and suffer, and die. Jesus sorrowed, and sweat, and anguished, and bled, and was pierced on the cross for you. Can you withhold your heart? Can you justly hang back?-No; you are not your own. You are the Lord's purchased property, bought with a price, -even Emmanuel's precious priceless blood; and the Spirit of adoption is given to blot out the stains of your wandering, and make you pure again. Has He not reason to expect you to acknowledge His goodness, and accept His guidance, and follow Him fully? For He is not a stranger, whose motives you might suspect, far less an enemy whoin you should dread; but He is your reconciled gracious Father, and a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

2. God is infinitely the best guide. That He is a sure and safe guide, none of you can doubt. How well did He conduct the Israelites through the pathless desert by that cloudy fiery pillar! They lacked nothing, they had both protection and provision, their clothes waxed not old, neither did their feet swell. He has already led up a countless throng to the blessed courts. He is wise, knows all things, and can proportion trials to your strength. He never fails. True once, He is always true. You live in a world of changes; but He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Though storms of trouble rise upon you, and waves of sorrow roll over you, and your property

II. The second reason is, because it perish, and your friends die, and the elewill be good for yourselves.

Let me shew this also by two things: You need a guide; and, there is none like God.

1. You need a guide. Consider your character. If it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps; if such as Abraham, Hezekiah, and David, after marching for years, go astray as soon as they are left to their own wisdom, should not you, just starting for Zion, ignorant of the future, and without experience of the past, should not you tremble to go alone? Consider your situation. If the road was all smooth, if you were to meet only friends, if there were no temptations, no vanity fair, no enchanted ground, no wiles and snares of Satan, your weakness would be of less consequence. But the road is beset with dangers, infested with robbers, filled with by paths, impassable alone! Consider the importance of your steps. Begin to wander, and who shall tell the issue?

ments depart as a scroll, and your body be laid in the grave, and your name be forgotten in the earth, still you are safe on the Rock of Ages! He sits on the throne whose years change not, and whose promises are faithful. But He is also a pleasant guide. He is powerful to bring you out of trouble; He is gracious in it to put His kind arm under you, and with His loving hand wipe away your tears. In the day of the east wind He stays His rough wind, and "tempers the wind to the shorn lamb." He made Paul and Silas sing in chains; and Noah in the ark, when the great billows were above the mountains; and Daniel in the den with fierce lions; and Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, in the fiery furnace. The clusters grow above, yet here we may taste the joys to come.

"The hill of Zion yields

A thousand sacred sweets,
Before we reach the heavenly fields,
Or walk the golden streets."

And when your pilgrimage is ended, the notes of victory will burst upon your ear, the beauties of paradise will ravish your hearts; and if the trials of life are remembered, they will serve to swell the anthem of praise to the Lamb, who led you by the right way till He brought you to the city of habitation!

Young man, this is thy last anniversary within these walls. Thou art going out to busy life, away from the influence of kind and pious teachers. Wilt thou go without God, with the reins of unbridled passion thrown loose, and a yawning gulf before you? Oh! "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto thy Father, Thou art the guide of my youth ?"

Young woman, if this year thou shalt die, (and in the churchyard you may tread at every step on as youthful a sleeper,) art thou sure that Jesus will be at thy dying bed, as I saw Him smooth the pillow of thy companion, who should have been medallist here to-day, had she not lately gone up to get her golden crown and well-tuned harp? Oh! "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto thy Father, Thou art the guide of my youth ?"

To the youngest God appeals,-to all of you. Must Gabriel go back without the tidings of one conversion? By the matchless love of God, by the blood that flowed on Calvary; as you would cheat the devil of his prey, and make the good happy; as you would live usefully, and die peacefully, and reign gloriously, I beseech each child to cry, from this time to cry, "My Father, thou art the guide of my youth!" Amen.

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draws:

The stars have us to bed:

Night draws the curtain which the day with-
Music and light attend our head.
All things unto our flesh are kind
In their descent and being; to our mind
In their ascent and cause.

More servants wait on man
Than he'll take notice of; in every path
He treads down that which doth befriend him,

When sickness makes him pale and wan,
o mighty love! Man is one world, and hath

Another to attend him.

Since then, my God, thou hast So brave a palace built, oh! dwell in it, That it may dwell with thee at last! Till then, afford us so much wit, That as the world serves us, we may serve thee,

And both thy servants be.

GEORGE HERBERT.

DAVID MOURNING FOR SAUL. He who was to be the restorer of this kingdom, sang of Saul and Jonathan on the day when he heard of their fall,

They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided." Was this an idle flattery, by one who knew it to be false, of a man whom flattery could please no longer? I believe it was nothing of the kind. David spoke what he felt at that moment, and he would not have wished to recal the words afterwards. He had known a loveliness and pleasantness in the life of Saul, which all its after discords could not make him forget. He had known a

A false man

real man under the name. had borne it too. The one was dead; the other was still alive in his memory and heart. Other questions, agitating, perplexing, almost maddening, he could leave to Him who only could resolve them. There were symbols of reconciliation in the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. The father and son, who had been often so unnaturally separated, were united at last. David was privileged to think of them together-to let the tenderness of the one efface the hard treatment of the other-to feel that God had meant them to be one in heart and act, though the evil and dark spirit to which Saul had yielded himself tore them asunder.

Brethren, I believe it is not dangerous, but safe-not a homage to falsehood, but to truth, in our judgment of those who are departed-to follow David's example. We may dwell upon bright and hallowed moments of lives that have been darkened by many shadows, polluted by many sins; those moments may be welcomed as revelations to us of that which

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