Thoughts For Young MenExemplo

The devil uses special diligence to destroy the souls of young men, and they seem not to know it.

Satan knows very well that you will make up the next generation, and therefore he employs every trick to make you his own. I would not have you ignorant of his devices.

You are those on whom he plays off all his choicest temptations. He spreads his net with the most watchful carefulness, to entangle your hearts. He baits his traps with the sweetest morsels, to get you into his power. He displays his wares before your eyes with his utmost ingenuity, in order to make you buy his sugared poisons, and eat his accursed treats. You are the grand object of his attack. May the Lord rebuke him, and deliver you out of his hands. 

Young men, beware of being taken by his snares. He will try to throw dust in your eyes, and prevent you seeing anything in its true colors. He would eagerly make you think evil good, and good evil. He will paint, and cover with gold, and dress up sin, in order to make you fall in love with it. He will deform, and misrepresent, and caricature true Christianity, in order to make you take a dislike to it. He will exalt the pleasures of wickedness, but he will hide from you the sting. He will lift up before your eyes the cross and its painfulness, but he will keep out of sight the eternal crown. He will promise you everything, as he did to Christ, if you will only serve him. He will even help you to wear a form of Christianity, if you will only neglect the power. He will tell you at the beginning of your lives, it is too soon to serve God; he will tell you at the end, it is too late. Oh, don’t be deceived!