Apples of Gold
and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief."
Hebrews 3:15-19.
Read the words, and tremble at the thoughts of a may-be, at the thoughts of putting off of God and the seasons of grace.
I have read of two soldiers who cut off each other's right hand, and then made it an excuse—they were lame, and so could not serve in war. But this did so provoke the king that he sent them both to the gallows. I suppose the reader is not so young but knows how to apply it.
Objection 2. If I should begin to be godly early, and to seek and serve the Lord in the spring and morning of my days, I would lose my friends, I would lose their favors; for they are carnal and worldly, and had rather I should seek after gold than God, the creature than Christ, earth than heaven. etc. Now to this I answer, Surely you are wrong, for:
1. First, This is the highway, the ready way, to gain the best, the surest, and the soundest friends. "When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him," Proverbs
16:7. When a man falls in with God, God will work the creatures to fall in with him. Joseph found it so, and Jacob found it so, and Job found it so, the three children found it so, and Daniel found it so, as you all know, who have but read the Scripture. And many in this age, as bad as it is, have found, that the best way to make friends is, first to make God our friend.
Ah! young men, young men, you shall not lose your friends by seeking and serving of the Lord in the spring and morning of your days—but only exchange bad ones for good ones, the worst for the best. He who gives up himself early to the Lord shall have God for his friend, and Christ for his friend, and the angels for his friends, and the saints for his friends. Christ will be to such, first, an omnipotent friend; secondly, an omniscient friend; thirdly, an omnipresent friend; fourthly, an indeficient friend; fifthly, a sovereign friend; sixthly, an immutable friend; seventhly, a watchful friend; eighthly, a loving friend; ninthly, a faithful friend; tenthly, a compassionate friend; eleventhly, a close friend, "There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother," Proverbs 18:24. Such a friend is Christ, and such a friend is as one's own soul, a rare happiness, hardly to be matched.
Twelfthly, an universal friend; a friend in all cases and a friend in all places. Christ is so a friend to everyone of his, as if he were a friend to none besides. Hence it is that they say, not only our Lord, our God
—but my Lord, and my God. Christ is such an universal friend, as that he supplies the place, and acts the part of every friend, Thirteenthly, "He is our first friend," Psalm 90:1; before we had a friend in all the world he was our friend, Proverbs 8:21. Lastly, he is a constant friend: "Whom he loves, he loves to the end," John 13:1.