“Remember Now Thy Creator In The Days Of Thy Youth.”

The Savior gave us the divine assurance that even though the Christian's life is from cross to crown, it is still the easiest and happiest life for those who recognize the wisdom of putting first things first, and the folly of spurning the repeated mercies of divine and overflowing compassion.

1922 Walter A. Maier Walther League Messenger

The following article is taken from the August-September 1922 issue of the Walther League Messenger, Volume 31, Number 1 & 2.

To be born into a world of beauty, surrounded by the inexhaustible grandeur of this wonder universe, and endowed with the power to enjoy life in its full measure; to be reared in a home where the peace of God has reigned with its serene and benign influence, encircled by a host of kindly friends, and enriched with the opportunity of spreading happiness; to be instructed in the one thing needful, prepared to meet all the emergencies which life may offer, and equipped to decrease the sum total of unhappiness and grief among the people of the earth; to have ideals, to rise above the lowly and sordid on the wings of faith, to know God, His love and His will,—this, in short, is the privilege and blessing which has been bestowed upon all of the young men and young women of our church and country, their priceless heritage and immeasurable treasure, for all of which their God and Savior calls out to them: "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."

Youth is the springtime of life. It embraces those pulsating and throbbing years, when the energies and powers of the body and mind are usually strongest and sharpest. It is the critical age when the destiny of more mature years is shaped and the value and usefulness of the subsequent career decided, for they are impressionable years,—this period of youthful bouyancy and carefree vitality, when warm enthusiasm can be stirred as quickly as it is forgotten, when opinions can be formed as easily as they are changed, and when the whole world seems to be a happy playground where dull care is cast aside and responsibilities are lightly dismissed.

Yet in this springtime youth must remember its Creator. The duty of serving God is not to be left to the aged, the infirm, and the decrepid. The call to consecration resounds less insistently and compellingly to those, who, wearied and worn, have journeyed far along the road of earthly pilgrimage, than it does to those who, fresh and eager, are just beginning to tread the heights of life's pathway. God is not satisfied with the prayers of feeble lips, the hymns of wavering voices, the devotion of those who totter near the brink of the grave, or the faith of those who await the desired summons into eternity on invalid's bed. No, He wants the bloom of youth, the sparkling vivacity of growing manhood and womanhood, the clear and clean-cut self-surrender which young people, as no others, are able to offer to their God.

We dare not rob the Lord of this devotion. It is dangerous to put self first and the Savior second, for those who forget their Creator in the days of their youth, will usually not remember Him in the declining years of their old age. Grace continually spurned is very often grace finally lost. And those deluded young people who wilfully and repeatedly postpone the accepted hour when their Savior pleads with them, those who think that religion, church attendance, personal service to Christ, a consecrated life, are for the quiet and meditating years of old age when the pleasures of a youth that can be lived only once fades from memory, those who are too pre-occupied in their vain quest of fleeting vanities and gilded glories to remember the God who has given them the breath of life and the opportunity of existence,-these are they who purchase the temporal at the cost of the eternal, who exchange heaven for earth, and serve a body that perishes and decays rather than a soul that can live on in endless ages.

After all, the surrendered life that lives in God is the life worth while. When the Savior said: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light," He gave us the divine assurance that even though the Christian's life is from cross to crown, it is still the easiest and happiest life for those who recognize the wisdom of putting first things first, and the folly of spurning the repeated mercies of divine and overflowing compassion. It is to this larger life in the Savior's service that every Christian young man and young woman must aspire and attain, and though tribulation may follow upon discouragement, and affliction upon adversity, yet, if when God calls to us and says: "My son, give me thine heart," and we gladly bring to Him the best that we have in the best years of our lives, His grace will be renewed in us so that we will walk closer to Jesus, ever and always confident that He, being the Savior of the world, is first of all our own and all-sufficient Redeemer.

W. A. M.