Q. Alas! what shall we little children do?
A. Either go on in your sins, or remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come (Eccl 12:1).
Q. Why do you mock us, to bid us go on in our sins? you had need pray for us that God would save us.
A. I do not mock you, but as the wise man does; and besides, I pray for you
and wish your salvation.
Q. How does the wise man mock us?
A. Thus; ‘Rejoice, O young man, in your youth; and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes: but know you, that for all these things God will bring you into judgment’
(Eccl 11:9).
Q. What a kind of mocking is this?
A. Such an one as is mixed with the greatest seriousness; as if he should say, yes, do, sinners, go on in your sins if you dare; do, live in your vanities,
but God will have a time to judge you for them.
Q. Is not this just as when my father bids me be naught if I will: but if I be naught he will beat me for it?
A. Yes; or like that saying of
Joshua, ‘If it seem evil unto you to serve the
Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve’;
serve your sins at your peril (Josh 24:15).
Q. Is it not best then for me to serve God?
A. Yes; for they that serve the devil must be where he is, and they that serve God and
Christ, must be where they are (John 12:26;
Matt 25:41).
Q. But when had I best begin to serve God?
A. Just now: ‘Remember NOW your Creator,’
NOW you have the gospel before you, NOW
your heart is tender and will be soon be broken.
Q. But if I follow my play and sports a little
longer, may I not come time enough?
A. I cannot promise thee that, for there be little graves in the churchyard; and who can tell but that thy young life is short; or if thou does live,
perhaps your day of grace may be as short as was Ishmael’s of old: read also Proverbs 1:24-26.
Q. But if I stay a little longer before I turn, I may have more wit to serve God than now I have, may I not?
A. If you stayest longer, you will have more sin, and perhaps less wit: for the
bigger sinner, the bigger fool (Prov 1:22).
Q. If I serve God sometimes, and my sin sometimes, how then?
A. ‘No man can serve two masters.’ You cannot serve God and your
sins (Matt 6:24). God saith, ‘My Son, give me your heart’ (Prov 23:26). Also your soul and
body are his; but the double-minded man is
forbidden to think that he shall receive any
thing of the Lord (1 Cor 6:20; James 1:7,8).
Q. Do you find many such little children as I am, serve God?
A. Not many; yet some I do, Samuel served him being a child (1 Sam 3:1).
When Josiah was young he began to seek after the God of his father David (2 Chron 34:3).
And how kindly did our Lord Jesus take it, to
see the little children run tripping before him, and crying, Hosannah to the Son of David?
(Matt 21:15,16).