A Good Start

His book is intended especially for those who are in

the Spring-time of life. It is at this character-forming

period that the faithful warning, the wise counsel, and the sympathetic admonition are particularly valuable.

Many young men and young women fail in life from the want of a friendly guiding word at the outset of their career; while many, now occupying good and honorable positions, owe and attribute their success to the timely counsel, at the start, of some friend practically interested in their welfare.

Mr. SPURGEON was emphatically the friend of the young. During the course of his marvellous and Godsehonoured ministry, his supreme aim was to lead them to Christ, and to encourage and stimulate them in their aspirations after true nobility. Now that his voice is hushed, his powerful pen still speaks; and in this book, with persuasive earnestness, and characteristic force, he shows those who are standing upon the threshold how to make It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of the start we make in the journey of life, since it necessarily affects and largely determines all that follows.

By personal experience I can bear my unqualified testimony to the wisdom and sagacity of my friend C. H. Spurceon’s teaching. No life can be truly SUCCeSS- ful unless lived on the lines of Christian principles. The first step must be the surrender of the heart to Christ, and the whole of life’s journey must be lived, as it may, in conscious fellowship with Him. It is in this way we form true conceptions of life and duty, and are enabled to give practical embodiment to God’s idea concerning us.

I wish for this book a large and growing circulation, and pray that it may be used by God in helping thcusands of young men and young women, not only to make a good start, but also in the upbuilding ofa useful, a righteous arid God-glorifying life.

OH E is a very different person from a Christian

who is only called so because he happens to dwell in a Christian nation, for, unfortunately, the Christianity of Christian nations is something like the gold which is spread over many of our household ornaments — very thin indeed. A little Christian gold leaf goes a very long way, and makes things look respectable, but the gilded articles are not solid sold. National Christianity is no more the real thing than a gilded farthing is a golden coin of the realm. It is a lamentable fact that many who are called Christians, because they belong to a Christian nation, are a grievous dishonour to the name of Christ. The heathen, judging of Christianity by them, have often been heard to say, “We had better-remain as we are than become as drunken, or swear as profanely, or act as viciously as these so-called Christian people do.” Our missionaries have found this to be a terrible impediment to the success of their work. I have nothing to do now with merely nominal Christianity. Ido what you like with it. Use it as a football if you will.

Neither do I at all identify a man in Christ with one who is profoundly conversant with all the externals of the Christian religion, and who gives himself up devotedly to them, but never looks into the centre — into the heart and kernel — of the matter. It has been well said that, when a man possesses nothing but the externals of religion, he is generally a great bigot for them, because he has nothing else; while a man who has passed beyond the externals into the very soul and essence of our holy faith, can allow a thousand differences of opinion in his fellow Christians as to outward forms, without feeling that these divergencies constitute any barrier whatever to the heartiest fellowship. No, a man may go as far as ever he pleases in the observance of religious rites, and become a stickler for even the tithing of the mint, and the anise, and the cumin of ceremonials, and sacraments, and the like, and yet, for all that, he may not be “a man in Christ.”

I am also bound to confess that there are members of evangelical churches, not devotees of ceremonialism, but advocates for the barest simplicity of worship, who make a very high profession of being real Christians, and talk a great deal about vital godliness, who, nevertheless, are not men in Christ. The church of Christ has been plagued by hypocrites from the first day even until now. There was a Judas among the apostles themselves. Are you surprised at this? I confess Iam not. Because Christianity is in itself so valuable, therefore there are many worthless imitations. Men counterfeit a sovereign because it is worth having; if it ever should become worthless the trade of the counterfeiter would be gone: and it is because the possession of true godliness is. so valuable a thing that there are so many who pretend to have it who know nothing about it. I distrust full often those who are so loud in their professions. I know that the cart which rings the loudest bell when it goes through the street only carries dust; but I never hear

A Young Man wm Christ. 15

a bell rung when they are carrying diamonds or bullion through the city. The best actions which are wrought in this world are for the most part done in secret by those who desire no eye to observe them except the eye of the Almighty God. But some, under the pretence of doing that, are rather standing up for themselves than for Christ, and are not quite so anxious to cry, “Behold the Lamb of God,” as to say, “Come, see my zeal for the Lord of hosts! Admire me, and see what a wonderful honour I am to the religion of Jesus Christ.” Now I give up these religious pretenders to the world’s utmost scorn. I have nothing to say in their defence, but very much by way of disgust at their untruthfulness. I am now going to speak about men who are really in Christ — who have Christ in their heart of hearts, and are an Christ themselves.

A man in Christ zs a man, and, being a man, he is, therefore, imperfect. I have heard a great deal of talk of perfect men, but I believe that a little examination with the microscope, or even without it, would have discovered a great many flaws in them, and probably more in those who thought themselves perfect than in others who have honestly confessed their imperfections. There is not a Christian man whose entire life might be read instead of the Bible his life would need notes, additions, and corrections ere it would exactly correspond with the perfect law of the Lord. Ask him, “May I learn Christian principles entirely from your conduct?” and he would say, “I wish I could answer ‘Yes.’ I am striving to make my conduct so, but I am afraid that, though try to copy my Master, stroke by stroke, yet I have

16 A Young Man iw Christ.

failed in some respects to reproduce the full spirit of the grand original. I wish you could read me, and see the spirit of the New Testament in every little as well as in every great transaction of my life. But,” he will add, “I make mistakes, and, what is more, I am sometimes off my guard, and allow the old nature that remaineth in me to come to the front. Iam not what I ought to be, nor what I want to be, nor, blessed be God, what I shall be. You may, I trust, see something of Christ in me,” he will say, “but yet [am a man; and, being in this body, I am compassed with infirmities.” Ought not you who may not happen to be Christians to recollect this when you are judging Christian men? Be fair! Be honest! If a man receives not the gospel himself, at least let him treat those who do recéive it with the candour which he would desire to be exercised towards himself. A man in Christ is a man; do not expect him to be an angel.

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