Secondly, He ivas good among the bad. He was good ' in the house of Jeroboam.' It is in fashion to seem at least to be good among the good ; but to be really good among those that are bad, that are eminently bad, argues not only a truth of goodness, but a great degree of good- ness. This young man was good ' in the house of Jeroboam, who made all Israel to sin ; who was naught, who was very naught, who was stark naught ; and yet Abijah, as the fishes which live in the salt sea are fresh, so though he lived in a sink, a sea, of wickedness, yet he retained his ' goodness towards the Lord.'
They say roses grow the sweeter when they are planted by garlic. They are sweet and rare Christians indeed who hold their goodness, and grow in goodness, where wickedness sits on the throne ; and such a one the young man in the text was.
To be wheat among tares, corn among chaff, pearls among cockles, and roses among thorns, is excellent.
To be a Jonathan in Saul's court, to be an Obadiah in Ahab's court, to be an Ebed-melech in Zedekiah's court, and to be an Abijah in Jero- boam's court, is a wonder, a miracle.
To be a Lot in Sodom, to be an Abraham in Chaldea, to be a Daniel in Babylon, to be a Nehemiah in Damascus, and to be a Job in the land of Husse,4 is to be a saint among devils ; and such a one the young man in the text was.
The poets affirm that Venus never appeared so beauteous as when she sat by black Vulcan's side. Gracious souls shine most clear when they be set by black-conditioned persons. Stephen's face never shined so angelically, so gloriously, in the church where all were virtuous, as before the council where all were vicious and malicious. So Abijah was a bright star, a shining sun, in Jeroboam's court, which for profaneness and wickedness was a very hell.
1 There may be malum opus in bona materia, as in Jehu's zeal.
2 The allusion is to the imperishable legend of the ' Pii Fratres,' Amphinomus and Anapias, who, on an eruption of iEtna, acted as above. The place of their burial was known as ' Campus Piorum.' — G.
3 Happy are those souls that, with the sturgeon or crab-fish, can swim against the stream of custom and example ; and with Atticus, can cleave to the right, though losing, side. [Atticus, bishop of Constantinople, who sided with Chrysostom.— G.]
178 APPLES OF GOLD. [1 KlNGS XIV. 13.
The words that I have chosen to insist upon will afford us several observations, but I shall only name one, which I intend to prosecute at this time, and that is this, viz. :
Doct. That it is a very desirable and commendable thing for young men to be really good betimes.
Other scriptures speak out this to be a truth, besides what you have in the text to confirm it ; as that of the second of Chronicles, chap, xxxiv. 1-3, ' Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left ; for in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father ; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem, from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images/ It was Obadiah's honour that he feared the Lord from his youth, 1 Kings xviii. 3 ; and Timothy's crown that he knew the Scripture from a child, 2 Tim. vi. 1, 5, 15; and John's joy that he found children walking in the truth, 2 John 4, 5 ; this revived his good old heart, and made it dance for joy in his bosom. To spend further time in the proving of this truth, would be but to light candles to see the sun at noon.
The grounds and reasons of this point, viz. :
That it is a very desirable and commendable thing for young men to be really good betimes, are these that follow :l
Reason 1. First, Because the Lmyd commands it; and divine com- mands are not to be disputed, but obeyed. In the 12th chapter of Ecclesiastes, and the first verse, ' 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.' Remember now ; I say, now. Now is an atom ; it will puzzle the wisdom of a philo- sopher, the skill of an angel, to divide. Now is a monosyllable in all learned languages : ' Remember now thy Creator.' Remember him presently, instantly, for thou dost not know what a day, what an hour, may bring forth ; thou canst not tell what deadly sin, what deadly temptation, what deadly judgment, may overtake thee, if thou dost not now, even now, ' remember thy Creator.'
1 Remember now thy Creator.' Remember to know him, remember to love him, remember to desire him, remember to delight in him, remember to depend upon him, remember to get an interest in him, remember to live to him, and remember to walk with him. ' Remember now thy Creator ;' the Hebrew is Creators, Father, Son, and Spirit. To the making of man, a council was called in heaven, in the first of Genesis, and 26th verse. * Remember thy Creators :' Remember the Father, so as to know him, so as to be inwardly acquainted with him. Remember the
1 Deut. vi. 5, xi. 13. Augustine beginneth one of his sermons thus : ' Ad vos mihi sermo, 0 juvenes, flos aetatis, periculum mentis.' — August, de Tempore, term. 246. To you is my speech, 0 young men, the flower of age, the danger of the mind.
] Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 179
Son, so as to believe in him, so as to rest upon him, so as to embrace him, and so as to make a complete resignation of thyself to him. Remember the Spirit, so as to hear his voice, so as to obey his voice, so as to feel his presence, and so as to experience his influence, &c.
'Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.' He doth not say in the time of thy youth, but ' in the days of thy youth,' to note, that our life is but as a few days. It is but as a vapour, a span, a flower, a shadow, a dream ; and therefore Seneca saith well, that ' though death be before the old man's face, yet he may be as near the young man's back,' &c.
Man's life is the shadow of smoke, the dream of a shadow. One doubteth whether to call it a dying life, or a living death.1
Ah ! young men, God commands you to be good betimes. Remem- ber, young men, that it is a dangerous thing to neglect any of his com- mands, who by another is able to command you into nothing, or into hell. To act or run cross to God's command, though under pretence of revelation from God, is as much as a man s life is worth, as you may see in that sad story, 1 Kings, xiii. 24, &c.
Let 37oung men put all their carnal reasons, though never so many and weighty, into one scale, and God's absolute command in the other, and then write Tekel upon all their reasons, they are ' weighed in the balance and found too light/