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liS
A
HOPEFUL YOUTH
tSERM.
Vt.
to our
Lord,
and yet
he says,
concerning the command-
ments of
moral
duty,
I
have
kept
them all
from
my
youth. He sprung
surely from
good
parents
;
he had
such
instructions
from them,
and
they such
a jealous
and
watchful
eye
over
him,
that
he was
kept
from gross
sins,
and
was
brought
up in all the forms
of
godliness,
and
in
the observance
of
the moral
law.
Now Christ,
considered
merely.as
man,
loved the
law
of God
so well,
that
he
could
not but
take pleasure in a person
that
per-
formed
it, so
far
as
that
obedience reached. Virtue,
in
the mere outward
part
of
it,
will
command respect
even from the
vile
and
the wicked
;
much more
will
the
good
and
pious man pay
honour
to the
practice
of
it.
There
is
something amiable in sobriety, temperance,
charity,
justice, truth, and
sincerity,
though
they may
not
proceed
from the divinest
principle
of
love to
God
rooted
in
the
heart.
4.
He
had
given some diligence in seeking
after
eter
nal
life,
and
had
a
great concern about
his soul.
He
came
running
to ask
a question
of
the biggest
import-
ance,
II7rat shall
I
do
to
inherit eternal
life?
He
was
convinced there
was
a
heaven and
a
hell,
and
he was
willing to
do
something here
to
obtain happiness here-
after. He
did
not
come with
a
design to
put
curious
and ensnaring
questions,
as
the Sadducees
did,
Mat.
xxii.
23.
but
he seems to have an
honest
design to
l?now
the
way to
heaven and happiness,
for
he
went
away
sor-
rowful
when
he
could
not
comply
with
the demands of
Christ.
Though
he
thought
he
had practised
a
great
deal
of
religion, yet
he was willing to
receive
further
in-
structions
;
fl/hat
lack
I
yet?
Is
there any
other
pre-
cept
to be
performed,
in
order
to
entitle
me to
life
eter-
nàl
?
Now
our
Saviour
loves
to see
conscience awakened,
to
see
the springs
of
religion opened and beginning to
flow
:
A
divine
teacher
conceives some hope
of
a man
that
is
willing
to be
taught, and ready
to
learn,
and
therefore
he loves him.
This
youth
thought
himself
righteous, yet
he did
not
think himself
all
-wise; and
therefore
submits
to
farther
instructions. Now it
is
a
pleasure
to
communicate
knowledge to those
that
long
to receive
it;
and
we
pity them
heartily
when they
do
not
comply with the
iteceK.,iry
duties that are revealed
to
them,
through
the charms
of
some
strong temptation.