I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life. Deut. 30:19.

Some time ago I was talking with a young man about choosing fully and entirely the Christian way of life. He replied that he did not think it was worth it. In the first place he wanted to make money. Christians are nor particularly concerned with that. Furthermore, up until then he had not made the grade as a Christian. He did not think he could make it. He did not wish to lose both the pleasures of this life and those of the next. For him religion was all right for old ladies, sick people, and solemn functions.

There is a false impression that we have to go to the world to find happiness, success, and fame; that we can hardly be expected to be concerned with such things in the Christian faith. Where do people get the idea that riches, worldly success, and fame bring happiness? One New Year's Eve I was in Times Square, New York City. When the clock struck midnight, people were working hard at drinking, dancing, shouting, wearing themselves out trying to get some happiness in the last few minutes of the old year. Personally, for my recreation I prefer working in the garden or chopping wood, or playing a healthy game in the countryside.

In serving Christ there is nothing that leaves a nasty taste in our mouth, a hangover, or a headache. The prodigal son thought he had to go to the world to find happiness and have a good time. He thought he was having the time of his life with his so-called friends—until his money gave out.

"You are young only once." Have you ever heard that statement? Quite probably. Certainly there is only one time when you have the full bloom of youth, when you are possessed with the strength of youth, when your mind, heart, and body are at their best. But why waste all this?

We cannot get happiness by artificial ways of living. Wherever men and women have lived for Christ, they have proved themselves the salt of the earth. They have been the most satisfied people the world has ever known. In the first century they won the world for Christ.