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Messages to Young People
from duty, who would confuse her ideas of God’s plain and positive
commands to obey and honor her parents, is not one who would be
true to the marriage obligations.
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The question is asked, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his
way?” and the answer is given, “By taking heed thereto according to
Thy word.” The young man who makes the Bible his guide, need not
mistake the path of duty and of safety. That blessed book will teach
him to preserve his integrity of character, to be truthful, to practice
no deception. “Thou shalt not steal,” was written by the finger of
God upon the tables of stone; yet how much underhand stealing of
affections is practiced and excused.
A deceptive courtship is maintained, private communications are
kept up, until the affections of one who is inexperienced, and knows not
whereunto these things may grow, are in a measure withdrawn from her
parents and placed upon him who shows by the very course he pursues
that he is unworthy of her love. The Bible condemns every species
of dishonesty, and demands right-doing under all circumstances. He
who makes the Bible the guide of his youth, the light of his path, will
obey its teachings in all things. He will not transgress one jot or tittle
of the law in order to accomplish any object, even if he has to make
great sacrifices in consequence. If he believes the Bible, he knows that
the blessing of God will not rest upon him if he departs from the strict
path of rectitude. Although he may appear for a time to prosper, he
will surely reap the fruit of his doings.
The curse of God rests upon many of the ill-timed, inappropriate
connections that are formed in this age of the world. If the Bible left
these questions in a vague uncertain light, then the course that many
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youth of today are pursuing in their attachments for one another would
be more excusable. But the requirements of the Bible are not half-way
injunctions; they demand perfect purity of thought, of word, and of
deed. We are grateful to God that His word is a light to the feet, and
that none need mistake the path of duty. The young should make it a
business to consult its pages and heed its counsels; for sad mistakes
are always made in departing from its precepts.