OBJECTS: A Number of Wooden Blocks and a Piece
of Stove Coal=
It is good and proper to have real friends; friends that play
straight and stick to the end. Evil companions are Satan's
road-agents to hold us up, and rob us of the best we have. It is easy
to sin with the crowd.
Sin masses men together until they think they are strong and often
declare themselves right because "They all do it." This is a hard
lesson to learn, and few there are who learn it early in life. A
daughter asked her father's permission one day to visit a gay young
friend of the world. Her father said, "I cannot allow it." Then she
replied, "Then you must think me uncommonly weak." The father picked
up a piece of coal [you do likewise] from the hearth and handed it to
his daughter, but she hesitated to accept it. "Take it, my child,"
said he, "it will not burn you." The daughter obeyed, and the milky
whiteness of her hand had instantly gone. The father said, "We must
be careful how we handle coal, if it doesn't burn it may blacken."
No boy or girl can spend an hour with an evil companion and be one
with them without coming away with a stain inside. If we continue
with them, it is a direct route, fast express line, to fall with
them. To illustrate this fact, set up the blocks endwise in a
straight line a short distance apart. Knock down the first block, and
all the others will fall with it. Now raise the last block, and see
if they will all rise with it. But no, if once down they must all be
raised one by one. How easy it is to fall with a crowd, but when we
want to return we must come back one by one. Don't walk in the
sinner's way or stand in the way of the transgressor, for together
they will all fall into the pit.
Be on your guard. Don't handle the black coal of evil companionship.
If it does not burn, it will soil.
One day a minister of the gospel was sitting in the office of a
superintendent of a large abattoir, when a large goat came in and
rubbed his head against the superintendent, "What is the meaning of
that?" asked the minister. He replied, "Large flocks of sheep are
often delivered to the slaughter-houses, and in order to get them
easily into the place of death, Judas, the goat, is always on hand,
and never fails to trot and lead them to the gate which leads to the
gangway that takes them to the slaughter."
Beware of the Devil's Goats. They are working overtime. Walk in the
narrow path and with the Good Shepherd. He slays the devouring beast
seeking to destroy the sheep bearing his name. Don't tramp with
sinners; stand alone. Stand alone in God's strength, and you stand
forever.
Now take one of the blocks, stand it up endways; put a Bible on each
side of it, and you will notice it is too far away from the other
blocks to be hurt by them, and so stands securely, and can never be
overthrown.
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