[Their knowledge is contracted, in comparison of what it most probably will be at a more advanced period of life: and consequently their judgment cannot yet have been ma- tured. Their experience too must, of necessity, have been small ; so that, as yet, they do not exactly see what will be the probable result of any line of conduct upon the world around them. They are apt also to take but a partial view of things, and to be actuated more by feeling than by sound judgment ; and to be more anxious about what relates to their present real or supposed interests, than about what shall eventually prove most beneficial to themselves and others. Hence, as may reasonably be expected, they do not always approve themselves to the judgment of those who are more considerate and wise.]
It must also be acknowledged, that there is amongst those who are more advanced in life, a proneness to condemn what is done by their younger brethren, especially what is done by them under the influence of religion —
[Persons of maturer years have no conception that the young and inexperienced should have juster views of things than themselves: and they judge it to be presumptuous in the young and arrogant to depart from the line prescribed and followed by their elders. To see persons just entering into life averse to pleasures which their fathers have so long pursued, and observant of duties which their fathers have altogether disregarded, is very offensive to the world ; who are thus reduced to a necessity, of either acknowledging their own ways to be evil, or of condemning the ways of their younger brethren as fanatical and absurd. Which alternative they will prefer is obvious enough : and therefore it is always found, that the piety of young persons is a matter of offence to their ungodly superiors. " To the natural man, universally the things of the Spirit are foolishness a," even though they be found in persons of the most mature age and of the soundest discretion : much more, therefore, are they so reputed, when found in persons who possess not the advantages attached to age and experience: and, consequently, those who profess religion in early life must expect to be sneered at and despised by those whose habits are unfriendly to religion, and who " hate the light, because it reproves their evil deeds."]
But from hence arises a necessity for peculiar care on the part of young persons, that " no man may have occasion to despise their youth" —
a 1 Cor. ii. 14.