Do not be ashamed of your colors, young Christians. It may be more difficult for a young Christian to show his colors than for an older one, because the older is recognized as what he is, whereas the younger has to fight his way into a position. But the difficulty should but add intensity to the appeal—do not be ashamed of your colors. Your young friends will make their bids for you, no doubt—the society in which you move will try to win you for itself; but you cannot serve two masters—you cannot serve God and mammon.
Everyone who tries the experiment of serving God and serving the world fails in doing so—nevertheless, thousands waste many of the precious years of their lives in the attempt. So long as you try to serve two masters you will get no respect from the servants of either! Worldly people despise the Christian who is afraid of showing his colors; Christian people distrust him. There must be no shilly-shallying ever the matter—you cannot be loyal to Christ if you are serving His enemies—therefore the more you need not be ashamed of your colors.
It is the fashion in our, day for religious people to salute every religious flag—to be ready to dip the colors of the Lord Jesus Christ to those of His enemies, and to call such treachery charity. But there are disguised rebels in the ship, whose advice produces this false peace. On such lines the day must come when Christ’s enemies will get the command, and then woe to the professor of His name.
Such time-serving ways take the very heart and soul out of true religious conduct, and make men, who ought to be firm for the truth, limp and worthless. True, it is no easy thing for the young to go against the fashion! “Why should I be peculiar?” “Why should I do what others object to do?” are questions of very great weight with young people. All the more need, then, not to be ashamed of your colors.
One thing is certain, where there is devotion to Christ and love for Him, the fashion of the day will have but little effect on the conduct of the Christian. What! be loyal to Christ and allow your friends to ridicule His Name, or to make light of God’s Word in your presence! To joke over texts of Scripture and take the sacred Word of God—perhaps part of a verse—to make a riddle out of in order to raise a laugh! No; such behavior would be impossible to the loyal heart. But this kind of thing is one of the small and low fashions of our day, and one from which the young Christian does not always find it too easy to clear himself. Therefore, all the more need to show your colors.
“Be of good courage” is a divine exhortation to us. So long as this world has Satan for its god, and Jesus, its rightful King, is rejected, let us quit ourselves like men and be strong. If strong and brave for Christ, our path in life as Christians will be comparatively easy, but if weak-kneed and feeble-hearted, our Christian life will be a sorrowful one—one ever of attempt at compromise, and always a compromise of Christ’s glory, and of our own integrity of conscience.
Be of good courage, young Christian, for the Lord is your strength, and you shall become strong in Him and in the power of His might. A life spent bravely for Christ is a life worth living.