Merchants in the East carried their riches on the shoulders of young asses (Isa. xxx. 6), and it is added in verse 24 that young asses and oxen were yoked together in tilling the ground. But the chief service rendered by the young ass was its frequent use in riding. In the Book of Judges we read of one judge who had "forty sons and thirty sons’ sons that rode on threescore and ten ass colts, and he judged Israel eight years." Both in merchandise, in agriculture, and in riding, the ass’s colt was a most useful animal. And this is the test which must be applied to a boy’s pleasures. He must not allow them to interfere with his usefulness. The games that make him neglect his lessons, the pursuits that render it difficult for him to learn his trade, the companions that tempt him to desecrate the Christian Sabbath, or the habits that lead him to lose respect for his parents or reverence for his God—all these must be freely but firmly laid aside; for when judged in the light of the influence they exert, they stand self-condemned. Pleasure is never to be taken as the touchstone of duty, but duty as the touchstone of pleasure. It is this that gives the evangel of Jesus its inestimable value. He can tame our wildness into usefulness, and make duty itself our pleasure. He can teach us the secret of His own example, and then all work is a joy, every duty is an inspiration. "I _delight_ to do Thy will, O my God." The secret is love. That is the new commandment He writes upon the heart, and then the yoke He lays upon the neck is fur-lined—it is easy; and the burdens given us to bear are not grievous, they are light. No service can compare with His service. Any pleasure that would make us think lightly of His love is not pleasure, but wanton folly; and any liberty that would tempt us away from His yoke is not liberty but license. Therefore let every young heart learn this second lesson from the example of the ass’s colt, that wildness must be tamed into usefulness. III.—ITS HIGH PLACE OF HONOUR. If wildness is tamed into usefulness, this in turn is followed by honour. The ass’s colt had the high dignity conferred on it of being used by Jesus in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The incident itself is full of meaning. Jesus was entering Jerusalem for the last time. On reaching the Mount of Olives He sent two of His disciples into the nearest village. He told them that there, "in a place where two ways met," they would find a colt tied "whereon never man sat." If the owner objected to his removal, they were to say "the Lord hath need of him," and straightway the man would be willing to let him go. And when the two disciples departed to do as they were bidden, they found it even as Jesus had said.