IT is of the last importance that young Christians should show their colors in these days. Boys and girls of from ten to fifteen years of age—not to speak of those who art older—have a world of their own, in which they live and fight either for God or Satan. Dear young friends, do pray for decision of character, and seek to follow the faith of the men of faith. The great warrior of the Bible said in his old age, when his nation, which had won great victories in Jehovah’s strength, was trying to make terms with the heathen, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua’s life was one long conflict, He is essentially the fighting man of the Bible, and he is such an one as the true Christian soldier should be, of whom we read in the Epistle to the Ephesians, “Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Chapter 6:13.) The true Christian is a soldier from the day of his conversion until the end of his life upon earth. It is not safe for him to lay aside his armor day or night.
If you are not on the Lord’s side, you are on the side of Satan. If you do not wear the Lord’s colors, you bear those of the enemy. We find what the Lord’s colors are by reference to the fifteenth chapter of Numbers. Where is the Lord? In heaven! He is not of this world: He has left it, and is seated on high. Therefore, the Lord’s colors are heavenly. “Bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue.” There was not to be a change of this color to suit the times in which they might live—the fringe was to be always the same: “throughout their generations... that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them.”
It is comparatively easy to look up above, and to see the blue overhead. That is always the same, and always bright and beautiful. A dirty blue sky is impossible, and provided we get far enough up above the mists of earth, we may always see it. But the heavenly color, worn as a fringe near our feet, on the very borders of our garments, is in great danger of becoming soiled and splashed as we walk along the muddy paths of this world. When you are alone in your room, getting up in the morning, or retiring to rest at night, you can, in silence, look up to God, and think of Him, and of heaven; but the Lord’s colors have to be worn throughout the day.
If you can be faithful to the Lord in little things, there is not much fear of your being unfaithful in great things. If you can be faithful and wear the heavenly blue for Him—that is, be like Christ—in your home, with your brothers and sisters, you can be faithful for Him in school, or in your going abroad into the world. For go abroad into the world we all must, unless we are taken in our very early years to heaven, and the school and the juvenile companions are as much the world to the young, as are business or profession and the adult friends to the older.
There will be no blessing attending your Christian life unless you wear the Christian’s colors, and here let us press upon you, dear young friends, the importance of remembering where the Israelites were to wear their ribbands of blue. They were not told to wear headdresses of blue! They were not told to parade before all that which was to remind them of God, but the little ribband was to run through all parts of their garments, for you know that they wore flowing robes in those days, which fell down to the feet.
Seek with all earnestness of desire to live for Christ in the little things of life; set the Lord always before you, from the time you rise from your bed till the hour you retire to rest. The Lord will enable you to fulfill your desire, for He is your strength.