Q. But when had I best begin to serve God?—A. Just now: 'Remember NOW thy Creator,' NOW thou hast the gospel before thee, NOW thy heart is tender and will be soonest 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 dost live, perhaps thy 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 thou stayest longer, thou wilt 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.' Thou canst not serve God and thy sins (Matt 6:24). God saith, 'My Son, give me thine heart' (Prov 23:26). Also thy 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).
Q. Then I am not like to have many companions if I thus young begin to serve God, am I?—A. 'Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it' (Matt 7:14). Yet some companions thou wilt have. David counted himself a companion of all them that love God's testimonies (Psa 119:63). All the godly, though grey-headed, will be thy companions; yea, and thou shalt have either one or more of the angels of God in heaven to attend on, and minister for thee (Matt 18:10).
Q. But I am like to be slighted, and despised by other little children, if I begin already to serve God, am I not?—A. If children be so rude as to mock the prophets and ministers of God, no marvel if they also mock thee; but it is a poor heaven that is not worth enduring worse things than to be mocked for the seeking and obtaining of (2 Kings 2:23,24).
Q. But how should I serve God? I do not know how to worship him.—A.
The true worshippers, worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:24;
Phil 3:3).
Q. What is meant by worshipping him in the spirit?—A. To worship him in God's Spirit and in mine own; that is, to worship him, being wrought over in my very heart by the good Spirit of God, to an hearty compliance with his will (Rom 1:9, 6:17; Psa 101:1-3).
Q. What is it to worship him in truth?—A. To do all that we do in his worship according to his word, for his word is truth, and to do it without dissimulation (Heb 8:5; John 17:17; Psa 26:6, 108:19,20). You may take the whole thus, Then do you worship God aright, when in heart and life you walk according to his word.