Grant
Puritan Board Graduate
I have a couple men in my life, whom I try to be a Christian friend and witness to that share this line of reasoning. English Congregationalist Preacher John Angell James points out the folly of this kind of thinking in the below quote from a sermon he preached in Carrs Lane Meeting House (1785 -1859):
It is implied in this address, that young men are much addicted to sensual pleasure. This has been the case with every generation and in every country—and it is too common not only for the young themselves—but even for their seniors and their sires to justify or palliate their wicked excesses. We frequently hear the abominable adage, "Youth for pleasure, manhood for business, and old age for religion." It is not possible for language to utter, or mind to conceive, a more gross or shocking insult to God than this!—which is in effect saying, "when I can no longer enjoy my lusts, or pursue my gains—then I will carry to God a body and soul worn out in the service of sin, Satan, and the world!" The monstrous wickedness and horrid impiety of this idea is enough, one would think, when put clearly to him, to shock and terrify the most confirmed and careless sinner in existence.
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