Young Men
A. G. Brown. Zechariah 2:4 And said to him, Run, speak to this young man, saying… The Lord said to me, "Run, speak to this young man," and I asked — I. "LORD, WHICH ONE?" First, this one. He is the son of godly parents, he was nursed in the lap of piety, and cradled in prayer. He is in the general acceptation of the word a good fellow. The home is all the brighter when he is in it. The parents all the happier for his presence. "Is he, Lord, the only one?" No, "speak to this young man." Ah, I see him now. His experience has been a very different one from the last. No prayers ever arose on his behalf; no holy influences ever surrounded him; his earliest remembrances are oaths. "Are there any more, Lord, I have to speak to?" "Yes, this one." He is a young man of considerable mental ability, who is fast making his way in the world. A bright future seems to be opening up before him. Sitting at his right hand I see another I have to address. He is of a very different stamp of character. I thought I heard him say just now, "Well, thank goodness, I'm no money grub. I don't care so much about getting on in life as seeing life." His motto is, "begone dull care"; aye, by any means so long as it goes. II. WHY SHOULD I SPEAK TO HIM? To this question three answers at once came. 1. Speak to him because danger awaits him. The very least we can do for a man in peril is to arouse him to a sense of danger if he be ignorant of it. Humanity itself will dictate this. Never mind frightening the crew, better do that than all be lost, through want of warning. 2. I am bound to speak to you, because one wrong step will lead to many. 3. Speak, for if you do not there are many that will. No one knows the temptations that surround young men, but a young man. If there are but few to lead him right, there are plenty to lead him astray. Godless companions will. Then, too, he has the attractive preacher called the world, who like some fair siren seated on a rock by the deadly pool, smiles but to deceive. "Speak to him," still my Lord says, "for if you do not Satan will." III. WHY SHOULD I RUN? 1. Be cause he is running. Sinners never creep to ruin. Slow as the tortoise are we on the road to heaven; swift as the bounding stag to hell. The road to perdition is downhill all the way. The natural heart which is so heavy a load heavenward, lends a tremendous impetus to our downward course. 2. Because time is running. Time is a ship that never casts anchor — an eagle that is ever on the wing — a shuttle that always flies — an ocean that never ebbs. 3. Run, because opportunities are running. 4. Run, because death is running. The grim despot is after every one of us, nothing can turn his course, he laughs all bribes to scorn, and every moment he gains upon us; his scythe swings with the speed of the lightning flash, and never grows blunt in its work. 5. Run, because hell is running. We read in the Book of Revelation that death rode forth on a white horse and hell followed after, to every impenitent sinner the two go together. IV. AND WHEN I CATCH HIM UP, LORD, WHAT SHALL I SAY TO HIM? Son of pious parents, with many a noble, amiable quality, let me say this word to you, "Your morality will not save you." Unless you are "born again," you will be as much lost as if you never possessed any. Young man, you who have had nought but evil example from infancy, to you let me speak. Do not think that frees you from responsibility. Your parents' sins will not exonerate you from yours. If they led, you have willingly followed. Remember, too, you can no longer plead ignorance as to the way of salvation, for you have just heard it, if never before. Young man, so occupied in getting on in this world, I will just ask you one question, and leave you to give the answer. It is this, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (A. G. Brown.) Parallel Verses KJV: And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: WEB: and said to him, "Run, speak to this young man, saying, 'Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it.