Thoughts for Young Men | Part I
Author: J.C. Ryle
Written: 1888 (Reproduced excerpt from The Upper Room by J.C. Ryle)
Link: Thoughts for Young Men
Series Links: Part I | Part II | Part III
“I am growing old myself, but there are few things I remember so well as the days of my youth. I have a most distinct recollection of the joys and the sorrows, the hopes and fears, the temptations and the difficulties, the mistaken judgments and misplaced affections, the errors and the aspirations, which surround and accompany a young man’s life. if I can only say something to keep some young man in the right way, and preserve him from faults and sins, which may mar his prospects both for time and eternity, I shall be very thankful.”
Hello Ordinary Readers,
I normally do not open with such a long quote. But J.C. Ryle’s exhortation as to why he wrote this section is too good to not quote. I initially set out to do just one post. But as I read, Thoughts for Young Men, I recognized this is something I wish I had as a young man. I am in my mid-thirties at the time of writing this. I am a single man, no wife, no kids, and I am currently not dating anyone. I am working for a ministry to college students. There are things in this book as a man not in my youth I can attest to. There are things in this book that I am still learning. There are things in this book that are specifically applicable to these young college men to whom I am evangelizing and discipling. This little book is divided into four parts, so I will make four posts. My hope is that this series of posts encourages young and old men to read this book and help, keep some young (and old) men in the right way (1).
Happy Reading!
Part I
General Reasons for Exhorting Young Men
This has been my first full introduction to reading J.C. Ryle. If there is one thing I appreciate it is that his titles, subtitles, and descriptions are plain and pointed. There is no trying to figure out what Ryle is saying. And that is true for Part I. It is simply Ryle discussing why it is so important to specifically exhort young men. His first reason is;
“Death and judgment are before young men, even as others, and they nearly all seem to forget it” (6).
Reflecting back on my youth I along with many can certainly attest to that. I often thought about tomorrow and not today. For me, it was the desire to drive fast, drink what I wanted, and partake in anything that gave me pleasure. J.C. Ryle focuses on the fact that when we are young we assume we will live forever. We have our strength and our health. So we live today as if tomorrow doesn’t exist.
Ryle writes, “Satan cares not how spiritual your intentions may be, and how holy your resolutions, if only they are fixed for tomorrow.” (7). Before I was a believer I can’t count the amount of times I said, “I will face that tomorrow.” And I would love to say that when I started following Christ I got better and more focused on today, but I still would put things off. Not only did I struggle at taking care of lifestyle things, like paying off debt or facing the music for something wrong. I would also do that with sin. I would say things like, I will stop this sin or that sin tomorrow. Or saying just one last time then I will quit sinning. Oh how satan loves that I say that! I encourage young men to take heed of Ryle’s words and mine, you are not promised tomorrow, so will you repent and obey the Lord or continue towards death?
Another reason to exhort young men is how you are in your youth shapes who you are in your older age. Ryels says, “Habits have long roots” (11). OOF! That hits home! One habit that has long roots in my life right now is waking up in the mornings right before work. We are to meditate on the word day and night. When I spend time in the morning with God it is a more fruitful day and easier to resist temptation. Yet, I still hit that snooze button until the last few minutes before work. Some may say that is not a sin but for me it is. This is me being slothful and neglecting to be obedient to the Lord. Ryle writes, “Every day you are either getting nearer to God, or further off” (11).
“Satan knows well that you will make up the next generation, and therefore he employs every art betimes to make you his own.” (12)
Ryle’s final point is that the devil will use special diligence to destroy young men. As young men, we grew up with movies, sports stars, TV shows, and many other influences at the tip of our fingers. For me, I grew up idolizing “men” in sports. What I saw was to seek pleasure, seek fun, drink, smoke, and have as many sexual partners as you can. That is what real men do. I say to young men now who see these role models as who they aim to be, flee! Flee from this evil! Ryle writes, “He (satan) will exalt the pleasures of wickedness,-but he will hide from you the sting” (13). How true this is, and trust me that sting will hide, and if you are lucky it will hurt you before it's too late. I end with this encouragement from Ryle.
“Sow to yourselves rather in righteousness: break up your fallow ground, sow not amount thorns.” (17)
QUOTES
“For one thing, there is the painful fact that there are few young men anywhere who seem to have any religion.”
“For another thing, death and judgment are before young men, even as others, and they nearly all seem to forget it.”
“Satan cares not how spiritual your intentions my be, and how holy your resolutions, if only they are fixed for tomorrow.”
“Your health may be taken from you in a moment:-it only needs a fall, a fever, an inflammation, a broken blood vessel,-and the worm would soon feed upon you.”
“Think not you can, at will, serve lusts and pleasures in your beginning, and then go and serve God with ease at your latter end.”
“Habits have long roots.”
“Every day you are either getting nearer to God, or further off.”
“Oh, dread the hardening effect of constant lingering in sin!”
“For another thing, the devil uses special diligence to destroy the souls of young men, and they seem not to know it.”
“Satan knows well that you will make up the next generation, and therefore he employs every art betimes to make. you his own.”
“He will exalt the pleasures of wickedness,-but he will hide from you the sting.”
“For another thing, young men need exhorting, because of the sorrow it will save them, to begin serving God now.”
“Others could give you sad accounts of the consequences of idleness. They threw away the golden opportunity for learning. They would not get wisdom at the time when their minds were most able to receive it, and their memories most ready to retain it. ”
“So to. yourselves rather in righteousness: break up your fallow ground, sow not among thorns.”