Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw near, when you shall say… I. WHAT THESE DAYS ARE IN THEMSELVES. 1. They are days most favourable for "remembering" the Lord. It was an appointment of the olden time that the manna was to be gathered in the morning, and for any that waited till late in the day there was none, embodying a lesson the young may well remember. The promise of the Lord is to them that seek Him "early" that they shall find Him. 2. They are the days of special privilege and promise. Think of some of the inspired biographies of some of the most eminent and what they show us of the days of their youth. Joseph, for instance, whose early days must have revealed the kindling purity and nobility that made his life such a power and his very bones an inspiration. Think of Samuel in the days of his youth, in which the mother's training and the Lord's call show what shall be, as in after days his name stands upon the record of the worthies as "Samuel among them that call upon His name." Turn to the Hebrew youths in Babylon, and, captives as they were, you see the power that gathered around them as in their self-denial they put aside the delicacies of the king's table rather than incur the possibility of sin, and braved the terrors of the lions' den and the fiery furnace that they might be faithful to God. 3. The days of youth are days that are most receptive and most retentive of what may influence them. It follows from this that there should be all possible care that the good should be received and the evil excluded. It is what is first taken into the mind that sinks the deepest and lasts the longest. II. WHAT THEY SHALL BE IF RIGHTLY USED. 1. They shall be days of real and rich blessing. (1) In order to this, however, they must be days of response to the Divine call. (2) There must also be the full acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as your portion. It may involve self-denial, and it will; the Lord lays it down at the very beginning of His service; but that is a noble exercise for the young under any conditions, and in connection with the service of the Lord will bring a rich blessing. 2. Being this, the days of your youth will be days of gracious promise for all the days after. The inspired description of the course is as "the shining light," and not that only, but "that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." III. THE RIGHT USE SHOULD BE MADE OF THESE DAYS AT ONCE. 1. It should, because of the proneness there is in youth to put off these things to the future, and how it will grow upon the man. 2. It should, too, because there are so many will seek to lead you into neglect and folly. 3. It should, too, because it will fill you with the divine portion from the beginning. 4. It should be, also, because it will not only give you a blessing for yourselves, but make you a blessing to others. (J. P. Chown.) Parallel Verses KJV: Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; |
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