Thoughts For Young Men

PART ONEGENERAL REASONS FOR EXHORTING YOUNG MEN1. THERE ARE FEW YOUNG MEN ANYWHERE WHO SEEM TO HAVE ANY RELIGION.Who are the most irregular about Sunday services? Who in their families give them the most pain and trouble? Who most often are arrested for drunkenness, fighting, stealing, and assaults? Who associate with bad companions? Who waste time, health, and money in the selfish pursuit of pleasure?2. DEATH AND JUDGMENT AWAIT YOUNG MEN YET THEY SEEM TO FORGET THIS.Other than infants and the elderly, more people die between the ages of 13 and 23 than any other season of life. Remember the words of King Solomon, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth" (Proverbs 27:1). Tomorrow is the devil's day, but today is God's. leave nothing unsettled that is eternal. Run no risk when you soul is at stake. All need a great salvation. All need to be born again. All need to be washed in Christ's blood. Young men, your time is short. your days are but a span long, a shadow, a vapor. There is but a step between you and death. This night your soul may be required of you (Luke 12:20). You too must hear the archangel's trumpet, and go forth to stand before the great white throne (Revelation 20:11). "Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things" (Ecclesiastes 11:9).3. WHAT YOUNG MEN WILL BECOME DEPENDS UPON WHAT THEY ARE NOW.Do not be deceived, thinking that you can serve lusts and pleasures in your beginning, and then go and serve God at your later end. You are reckoning on a late repentance. I warn you that late repentance seldom comes true. "Because I have called you and you refused...I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes" (Proverbs 1:24,26). Because of the force of habit, people's hearts are seldom changed if they are not changed when young. Every fresh act of sin lessens fear and remorse, hardens our hearts, blunts the edge of our conscience, and increases our evil inclination. I have seen old men on the brink of the grave, feelingless, seared, callous, dead, cold, hard as the nether (lower) millstone. Every day you are either getting nearer to God, or further off.4. THE DEVIL USES SPECIAL DILIGENCE TO DESTROY THE SOULS OF YOUNG MEN, AND THEY SEEM NOT TO KNOW IT.Satan knows you are the next generation. He will try to make you think evil is good, and good is evil (Isaiah 5:20). He will paint, gild, and dress up sin in order to make you fall in love with it (2 Corinthians 11:15). He will deform and caricature true religion to make you dislike it. He will exalt the pleasures or wickedness, but hide from you the sting. He will promise you everything, as he did to Christ (Matthew 4:8), if you will only serve him. He will tell you at the beginning of your lives, it is too soon to serve God, and he will tell you at the end, it is too late!Your enemy is mighty. He is called the "prince of this world" (John 14:30). He opposed our Lord Jesus Christ all through His ministry. He brought sin and death into the world when he tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3). He tempted David, a man after God's own heart, and caused his latter days to be filled with great sorrow (2 Samuel 11:2). He made Peter deny Christ (Matthew 26:69). Your enemy is restless. He never sleeps. He always goes around as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). He is ever going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it (Job 1:7). Your enemy is cunning. He has been reading one book for thousands of years, and that book is the heart of man. He knows it well, in all its weakness, deceitfulness and folly.5. YOUNG MEN NEED EXHORTING BECAUSE OF THE SORROW AND MISTAKES IN JUDGMENT IT WILL SAVE THEM FROM, TO BEGIN SERVING GOD NOW.Youthful sins bring on a loss of health. Disease racks their limbs and their muscular strength is wasted. Their eye has become prematurely dim. Their flesh and body is consumed. Idleness brings lost time that can never be redeemed. King David prayed for God to "not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions" (Psalm 25:7).PART TWOSPECIAL DANGERS TO YOUNG MEN1. PRIDE.How common it is to see young men heady, high-minded, and impatient of counsel! How often they are rude and discourteous! How often they reckon elderly people stupid, slow, and dull. They think they know everything. They must be independent and have their own way.Be not proud of yourself and your endowments -- your own strength, knowledge, appearance, cleverness. Remember how Scripture warns us "not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think" (Romans 12:3), but "be clothed with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (I Peter 5:5). Think of Christ when He washed His disciples' feet: "You also should do as I did to you" (John 13:15). "He made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant" (Philippians 2:7,8). Solomon said, "Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him" (Proverbs 26:12). This is a different spirit from his brother, Absalom, who said, "Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man might come to me and I would do him justice" (2 Samuel 15:4). And it is a different spirit from his brother, Adonijah, who "exalted himself, saying, 'I will be king'" (1 Kings 1:5).Young men, to lay to heart these Scriptures, and be distrustful of your own opinion, when you find it contrary to that of older men, and especially to that of your parents. Age gives experience, and therefore deserves respect. Modesty and silence are beautiful graces in young people. Never be ashamed of being a learner.2. THE LOVE OF PLEASURE.Youth is the time when our passions are strongest, and like unruly children, cry most loudly for indulgence. Death seems far away. Few earthly cares and anxieties take up their attention. All things that drown thought -- reveling, feasting, drinking, gambling, theater-going, dancing -- owe their power to the love of pleasure. Paul said in the last days men will be "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Timothy 3:4). These things murder souls. There is no surer way to get a seared conscience and a hard impenitent heart than to give way to the desires of the flesh and mind. Peter says "Abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul" (I Peter 2:11). Paul says, "Consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire" (Colossians 3:5). "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts" (Galatians 5:24). "I discipline my body and make it my slave" (1 Corinthians 9:27)."Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts" (Romans 13:14). These last words are what turned Augustine from a licentious young man into a faithful servant of Jesus. If you cleave to earthly pleasures, they are all unsatisfying, empty, and vain. There is an empty place which only God can fill. The "young man's sin" is adultery and fornication. It "takes away the heart" (Hosea 4:11). It is the sin that man smooths over under the names of gaiety, unsteadiness, wildness, and irregularity. God will judge fornicators and adulterers (Hebrews 13:4). "Flee fornication" (1 Corinthians 6:18). Flee the occasions of it -- the company of those who might draw you into it, the places where you might be tempted into it. "No immoral person...has an inheritance in the kingdom of God" (Ephesians 5:5). Be like holy Job: "I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze upon a virgin?" (Job 31:1). Flee talking about it. Flee thinking about it. "Watch over your heart with all discipline" (Proverbs 4:23).3. THOUGHTLESSNESS AND INCONSIDERATION.Foolish talking, jesting, joking and excessive merriment are only too common. Young men hate the trouble of sober, quiet thinking, so they form wrong decisions and run their heads into sorrow. Sin always seems "good", "pleasant", and "desirable" at the time of commission (Genesis 3:6). "Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established" (Proverbs 4:26). Some will say it is unreasonable to expect young people to behave grave and thoughtful. What does the wisest of men say (Solomon)? "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for when a face is sad a heart may be happy. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the mind of fools is in the house of mirth" (Ecclesiastes 7:2-4).4. CONTEMPT OF RELIGION."The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Psalm 14:1). If there was ever a book proved true from beginning to end, it is the Bible. "The word of the Lord is tried" (Psalm 18:30). What will you believe, if you do not believe the Bible? Men do not despise the Bible because there are difficult things to understand in it. They despise it because it condemns their own behavior to judgment, witnesses against their sins, and summons them to judgment. "Men question the truth of Christianity because they hate the practice of it" -- Robert South (1634-1716). When did God ever fail to keep His word?5. THE FEAR OF MAN'S OPINION."The fear of man brings a snare" (Proverbs 29:25). Most men are like sheep; they follow a leader. "I have transgressed the command of the Lord," said Saul to Samuel, "because I feared the people and listened to their voice." (I Samuel 15:24). "I was afraid of the Jews," said King Zedekiah, so he disobeyed the advice of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38:19). King Herod was afraid what his dinner guests would think of him, so he had John the Baptist beheaded. Pilate was afraid of offending the Jews, so he did what he thought was unjust -- he delivered up Jesus to be crucified (John 19:8,16).Young men, when sinners entice you, say decidedly, "I will not consent" (Proverbs 1:10). "Who are you, that you should be afraid of man who dies...that you have forgotten the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth?" (Isaiah 51:12,13) How unreasonable this fear of man is. None will think better of you for it. The world always respects those who act most boldly for God. Jesus said, "Fear not those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28). "Fear not the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their revilings; for the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool" (Isaiah 51:7).PART THREEGENERAL COUNSELS TO YOUNG MEN1. TRY TO GET A CLEAR VIEW OF SIN.What does the Bible say about sin? It dwells naturally in the heart of every man and woman (Romans 3:23). It continually defiles our thoughts, words, and actions (Genesis 6:5). It renders us all guilty in the sight of a holy God (Isaiah 64:6). It leaves us utterly without hope of salvation in ourselves (Psalm 143:2). Its fruit in this world is shame, and its wages in the world to come, death (Romans 6:21,23).God created man sinless (Ecclesiastes 7:29), yet sin made him corrupt, only choosing every other way but God's. Sin required the horrific crucifixion of God's own Son on the cross, the just for the unjust, to pay the price of our redemption. Sin has caused all the pain, disease, death, strifes, quarrels, divisions, envy, jealousy, malice, deceit, fraud, cheating, violence, oppression, robbery, selfishness, unkindness, and ingratitude.Young men, will you go on as if it mattered nothing whether your own sins were forgiven or not? Oh, awake to a sense of sin's sinfulness and danger! Remember Solomon's words, "Fools make a mock at sin" (Proverbs 14:9).2. SEEK TO BECOME ACQUAINTED WITH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.I want you to experience Him and "the power of His resurrection" (Philippians 3:10). I want you to be able to say, He is my peace, my strength, my life, my consolation, my Physician, my Shepherd, my Savior and my God. Why? Because in Christ alone "all the fullness dwells" (Colossians 1:19). In Christ alone are found grace, peace, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. To live on Christ, to draw all from Christ, to do all in the strength of Christ, be ever looking unto Christ -- this is the secret of true spiritual prosperity.Let your first step be to go to Christ. Do you want to consult friends? He is the "friend who sticks closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24). He will give you power to become sons of God. He will give you the Holy Ghost to dwell in you, to seal you for His own. A new heart He will give you, and a new spirit He will put within you. He knows your trials and temptations. When He was a young man in Nazareth, he was like yourselves, and was tempted by all the same things you are tempted, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).3. NEVE FORGET THAT NOTHING IS SO IMPORTANT AS YOUR SOUL.Your soul is eternal. It will live forever. Think for a moment what you were sent into this world for. Not merely to eat and drink and indulge the desires of the flesh. Not merely to work and sleep and laugh and talk and enjoy yourselves. No! You were meant for something higher than this. You were placed here to train for eternity. God does not look at riches, titles, learning, or beauty. He measures all men by one standard -- the state of their souls. Is your soul lost, or saved?4. REMEMBER IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE A YOUNG MAN AND SERVE GOD.I have heard it said, "It is impossible to expect young people to be too religious. Youth is no time for seriousness. God meant us to enjoy ourselves." The world thinks that young men must "sow their wild oats." Where is this advised in the Bible? Instead, Moses was a young man of like passions when he "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt" (Hebrews 11:24-26). There is a cloud of young witnesses in Scripture: young Isaac (Genesis 22), young Joseph (Genesis 39), young Joshua (Exodus 17:9-14), young Samuel (I Samuel 2:18-3:21), young David (I Samuel 16,17), young Solomon (I Kings 3:4-9), young Abijah (2 Chronicles 13), young Obadiah (I Kings 18:3), young Josiah (2 Chronicles 34,35), young Timothy (Acts 16:1-3).Young men, try to serve God. God will give you strength in the trying.5. DETERMINE AS LONG AS YOU LIVE TO MAKE THE BIBLE YOUR GUIDE AND ADVISER.Make a habit of reading the Bible. Read it with prayer for the Spirit's guidance to understand it. Read it reverently, as the word of God, not man. Read it regularly. This is the only way to become "mighty in the Scriptures" (Acts18:24). Texts will rise up in your hearts in the moment of temptation. Promises will come across your thoughts in the time of discouragement. "Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You" (Psalm 119:11). "When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to you" (Proverbs 6:22). Let not newspapers, novels, and romances be read, while the prophets and apostles lie despised. Let not the licentious swallow up your attention, while the edifying and the sanctifying find no place in your mind.Value all books in proportion as they are agreeable to Scripture.6. NEVER MAKE AN INTIMATE FRIEND OF ANYONE WHO IS NOT A FRIEND OF GOD."Bad company corrupts good morals" (1 Corinthians 15:33). Choose friends who benefit your soul, whom you can really respect, who love the Bible and speak to you about it. "I am a companion of all those who fear You, and of those who keep Your precepts" (Psalm 119:63). "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm" (Proverbs 13:20).PART FOURSPECIAL RULES FOR YOUNG MEN1. RESOLVE AT ONCE, BY GOD'S HELP, TO BREAK OFF EVERY KNOWN SIN, HOWEVER SMALL.Nothing darkens the conscience as an allowed sin. "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10). Well did Jeremy Taylor (a minister of the Church of England) describe the progress of sin in a man: "First it startles him, then it becomes pleasing, then easy, then delightful, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed! Then the man is impenitent, then obstinate, then resolves never to repent, and then he is damned.2. RESOLVE, BY GOD'S HELP, TO SHUN EVERYTHING WHICH MAY PROVE AN OCCASION FOR SIN.Where is the use of praying, "Lead us not into temptation" (Matthew 6:13) unless you are careful not to run into it, and praying "deliver us from evil" unless you keep out of its way? Joseph fled from his master's wife (Genesis 39:10). In Proverbs 4:15, Solomon says to avoid the path of wicked men. Don't ever pass by it. A way to avoid drunkenness was to not even look at it "when it sparkles in the cup" (Proverbs 23:31). Paul advises Timothy to "flee youthful lusts" (2 Timothy 2:22).3. RESOLVE NEVER TO FORGET THE EYE OF GOD.In every house, in every field, in every room, in every company, alone or in a crowd, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3). He "neither slumbers nor sleeps" (Psalm 121:4) and He "understands my thoughts from afar" (Psalm 139:2). How many acts men do in private would make them ashamed and blush to have exposed before the world. Let us live as in the sight of God.4. BE DILIGENT IN THE USE OF ALL PUBLIC MEANS OF GRACEDetermine to keep the Lord's day holy, that one day out of seven be given to its rightful owner. Regularly hearing the preaching of Christ's gospel can convert your soul. There is also a restraining power of the gospel. It keeps back thousands from evil, and make them far better members of society. "If you call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride the heights of the earth" (Isaiah 58:13,14).5. RESOLVE THAT WHEREVER YOU ARE, YOU WILL PRAY.Some go down on their knees and say a form-prayer, but few cry unto God, few seek as if they want to be found, few knock as if they hungered and thirsted, few who wrestle, few who strive with God earnestly for an answer, few who give Him no rest, few who pray without ceasing and faint not. Prayer is the way to procure the outpouring of the Spirit upon our hearts. King David said, "Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur, and He will hear my voice" (Psalm 55:17). "But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray" (Luke 5:16).CONCLUSIONIs it better to be an idle, frivolous, useless cumberer of the ground, to live for your body, your selfishness, your lusts, and your pride -- or to spend and be spent in the glorious cause of usefulness to your fellow man, to be like William Wilberforce (to abolish slavery) or Lord Shaftesbury, a blessing to your country and the world, to be like John Howard (prison reformer), the friend of the prisoner and captive, to be like Christian Schwartz (German Luther Protestant missionary to India), to be like that man of God, Robert M'Cheyne, a burning and shining light, an epistle of Christ, known and read of all men, the quickener of every Christian heart that comes across path? Our Lord and Savior "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38).Young men, these things are true. Be persuaded. Take up the cross. Follow Christ. Yield yourselves unto God.

Short. Convicting. Easy to read. Relevant.There is a lot packed into this little booklet by J.C. Ryle, and though most of it is geared towards the wandering young man--men of all walks of life will find it beneficial. I found great wisdom in the final chapter regarding something that is not spoke much of today: idleness. "He that would be safe from the acts of evil, must widely avoid the occasions." How often do we young men fall into all kinds of sin simply because in our doing nothing we give opportunity to the Devil.Ryle then goes to show how worldly entertainment is often objectionable because it "sows seeds of an earthly frame of mind." This is not legalism. This is wisdom. I fear that much of my generation has let its guard down primarily through idleness and entertainment (It is not THAT bad, right?)--and we wonder why temptation is so strong?! We must heed the warning: "Do not always be trying to see how near you can allow the enemy of souls to come, and yet escape him."There are a bunch more tidbits in this booklet (you can read it all in one sitting). Ryle has a great closing section on the importance of prayer. "It is the only strength of this (prayer) that you will get onward towards the mountain of God." People rarely talk like this anymore. In Ryle's book we see desperation and a real faith based pursuit of holiness. May we young men take heed!

J. C. Ryle rarely disappoints and his Thoughts for Young Men is no exception. This book is easy to read but hard to apply. It calls young men to swim upstream against the tsunami of worldliness that has engulfed not only our culture but many of our churches. Mind you, Ryle wrote this in the 1800s but it is as timely as today’s tweets! God’s wisdom is timeless and Ryle is imparting godly wisdom that young men need now more than ever. To be sure there are some outdated points of application at times but these are easily overlooked in light of the wealth of timeless principles and biblical exhortations.Are you a father or parent of a young man? Get this little booklet and read it slowly with your son. Talk through the exhortations and admonitions. Share your own foolish decisions and regrets as a young person. Pray together as you sit together under Ryle’s wise counsel.There are good reasons why Thoughts for Young Men continues to be published more than a hundred years after it was first written. It stands in the same stream of wisdom that King Solomon imparted to his son in the Book of Proverbs. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. - Proverbs 3:1-7This book will help young men apply the wise counsel the Apostle Paul gave to young Timothy in the Pastoral Epistles.Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. - 1 Timothy 4:12

Every single child, boy, and man should read this book. Although it says "young men" I truly believe that this book is beneficial for every age. It is a short book but it is a very dense read. I recommend reading this book with pens, highlighters, and a notebook nearby. This is the type of book that has the potential to change this generation. If young men took this book and ran with it, our world would look like a different place.

Presentationally, this is a disappointment. I was wanting to give it to my son as he went off to university, but ended up giving him my own copy of a different edition instead. This one is printed just as a fairly cheap-looking booklet.That said, of course, the content is excellent - that's why I wanted it! This edition uses the Bible version used by JC Ryle in his day (AV/KJV) - again, other editions are available which use the NKJV, which I prefer.So, all in all, this is OK, but you should be able to find better bindings/modernised editions elsewhere.

This is a timeless book for young men on the truth of the gospel, JC Ryle really gets to grips with the life young men are drawn too, and the destructive path it leads to, however, he then offers wonderful truths that can save young men from so much headache

An excellent little book,very instructive and easy to read.Should be read by all young men.

Highly Recommend for young men for Christian living.

Excellent Excellent book