Having been brought to God myself in early youth, it has been somewhat of a habit with me, in moving about in the world, to inquire of any friends at what age they were converted, and it has been deeply interesting to learn that the great majority of them were saved in their “teens.” Some could trace their spiritual history even further back. A lady of exceptional piety living in a town in Staffordshire told me in her seventy-eighth year that she had been “breaking bread” seventy years! This means that she confessed the name of the Lord and was accepted by her brethren for baptism and assembly fellowship when only eight years old! Such a case is doubtless very rare, but it proves to us what the grace of God can do. In October, 1945, I was told of the triumphant death of a man who was saved through my instrumentality in London in 1883! He was twelve years old at that time. Many years ago I baptized two girls, each thirteen years of age. Some feared that I was somewhat venturesome in doing so; but their after history, as in the two cases already mentioned, proved that they were true disciples of the Lord Jesus. One died of consumption after several years of bright Christian life; and the other, at the moment of writing, is an exemplary Christian in her fifty-seventh year.
Our Savior-God delights to pardon and bless transgressors advanced in years. Manasseh in the Old Testament, and the Philippian jailor in the New, are examples of this. But our Lord’s attitude towards children when here upon earth shows how deep is His interest in the young. Many who were rescued early by His grace have distinguished themselves in His service later. We recall David and Jonathan in the Old Testament, and Timothy in the New. No more pious persons have ever sat upon the throne of England than Edward VI and Lady Jane Gray (the nine-days Queen); but both were only about seventeen years old at the time of their death!
I write these things for the encouragement of workers amongst the young. It has long been my conviction that our best Gospel work is wrought in the Sunday Schools and Bible Classes. Let none regard these as mere side-lines of service, for they are indeed our most fruitful fields.
Concerning Josiah we read: “He did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah, 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” (2 Chron. 34:2-3). There is no mention of any spiritual helper for Josiah as in the case of Joash more than a century earlier. The latter was favored to have about him for many years his pious uncle Jehoiada (2 Chron. 24:2). With Josiah there was probably more direct dealings with God. This would account for his sturdy faith and his amazing energy in service for God. But whether it were Joash or Josiah, or the present writer and his readers, all is grace. Every scrap of good that has ever been seen in any of us is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Thus at the interesting age of sixteen Josiah began to seek after the God of David his father. Man being a lost sinner, having by his love of sin strayed from his Maker into hopeless darkness, is always under responsibility to return to God, who has a righteous claim upon the love and obedience of all His creatures, as He has Himself expressed it in the law of Sinai. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found” (Isa. 55:6), is His command to the wayward. His forbearance with sinners will not continue indefinitely. Some day men may wish to “find” Him, and will discover that He is no longer “near” (Isa. 4:6). Paul, when addressing the wise men of Athens, told them that men should seek after God, and he added “though He be not far from everyone of us” (Acts 17:27). Precious words, when rightly understood! The many shrines which met the Apostle’s eyes in the Greek capital suggested to him that one god was as good as another in the minds of the people there. Therefore he preached unto them the one true God and Jesus whom, He raised from the dead.
But although it is ever the duty of men to seek after God, actually they refuse to do so. How tremendously solemn are the words of Psalm 53:2-3, “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Everyone of them is gone back they are together become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” The great and gracious Creator surveyed the whole human race and He could not see one that wanted Him, or that even understood the purpose for which he was created! This is confirmed in Psalm 14:2-3 and Romans 3:11-12. To this we would add Psalm 10:4, “The wicked through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.”
This being the true condition of things, all would perish in their appalling folly, but for the activity of God in grace. If men do not want Him, He wants them! Immediately after the rebellion in the garden, the voice of God was heard, saying, “Adam, where art thou?” (Gen. 3:9). The Gospel tells us (Oh, blessed thought!) that God is now the seeker after men. This is the meaning of the coming amongst us of His beloved Son. Accordingly, in the New Testament sinners are never charged to seek the Lord (although it is still their responsibility to do so); instead, they are told that God is seeking them. When the Lord Jesus was found fault with for receiving sinners and eating with them, He gave utterance to the delightful parables of Luke 15, wherein He delineated the grace that seeks the lost, and that welcomes the penitent. He likened Himself to a shepherd “going after that which is lost until He find it.” When again complained of for entering the house of Zacchaeus the tax-gatherer, He said: “the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10). The grace which seeks (oh, so unweariedly!) those whom righteousness might well condemn, is marvelous! What a God is ours! Yet how cruelly misrepresented by Satan to foolish men whom he would fain keep in eternal distance from the God who loves them! It is noticeable that when the Lord Jesus spoke of little ones He omitted the word “seek.” All He said was: “the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost” (Matt. 18:11). Even the youngest is lost by nature; but some have not had time enough to willfullya stray from their God. Yet they need to be saved.
Well, it is an unspeakably happy thing to be led to Christ in early youth, before the diabolical tendencies which are in all our hearts lead us into transgression and sin like the prodigal of Luke 15. C. H. Spurgeon, the most notable evangelical preacher of the last century, preached his first sermon at the age of sixteen! He subsequently described his spiritual history as follows—”I looked to Him: He looked on me: and we were one forever.” Simple, sweet, and expressive! But the position would be more correctly stated thus—
“He looked on me:
I looked to Him:
And we were one forever.”
Man being at enmity with God, not God at enmity with man, the first step towards reconciliation should come from man, but it never does. God is the seeker, not man. What a God! How marvelous is His grace! The grateful Paul, once bold in his hostility, but now rejoicing in God’s salvation, said, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord ... .the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant” (1 Tim. 1:12-14).