Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-01-21
SOCIETY IN CHRIST.

That which leads young people astray, IS not
so much any concrete form Of pleasure as it is
evil companionship The devils choicest en-
issary is bosom friend, and that which is
sapping the life of the church is that its men,
bers find their bosom friends in those who
know nothing of Christians faith and a
Christians Saviour. I can imagine even a
theatre that would be pure and virtuous, but
cannot imagine an evil companionship that
would be pure and virtuous. would far
rather have my child live among Christians.
1 mean real Christians, who played all sorts
of games, than to live among Christless peo-
pie who carefully abstaned from playing any
games. T am afraid that many Christian
teachers do not make this just discrimination,
and hence illuminate against this or that out
ward form of amusement, when the serpent in
the whole thing is evil companionship.
1t should be the constant care of Christian
parents to see that their children, while yet
small and under complete control, have the
companionship of such children as belong to
decidedly religious families, and, as they grow
older, to streng gthen the tendency thus formed,
to union with godly society. But oh what
objections arise to this plan "The rule would
keep my children from intimacy with some of
the very cynosures of wealth and ton. And
just think of my bringing them up as Cnde.
rellas! And then, too, what a sour-vlsaged
generation would I rear, only fit for funerals
and prayer-meetings! Besides, Christian
youth are so dull and stupid. fl wish my
children to have wit and snop, they must 60
elsewhere to get it," This i, the familiar style
of repartee which faithful man meets when
he endeavors to show young Christian moth
er or father what the claims of Christ are upon
the parent. 1t is vain to show the falsehood
of some of the statements and the vanity of
others. The ears are deaf. The trouble is,
the heart is set on the tinsel of fashion, and
everything is distorted by this radical perver-
sion. Christian society does seem stupid and
prayer-meetings very melancholy things to a
man who is inhalng the nitrous oxide of a
worldly society. Sober things are miserably
dull to drunken man. But, after all, the
sober things are the best.
But even when Christian parents are not
themselves plunged up to the neck in worldli-
ness, they are often willing to let their chill
dren Jump in. ut is liberal" says the devil.
And they take him to be an angel of light;
and so reluctantly they say, "We-e-ell, yes"
and away the son or the daughter hies to the
school of immorals How often we find that
the Christian parent is an invertebrate animal
Now take it that fun and frolic and every
other innocent good thing is at home among
consistent Christians, and, what is better,
Christ is there too. Is mirth sancti6ed no
longer mirth? Is merriment that recognizes
Jesus no longer merriment? The very pith of
the Christians happiness is, that whether he
eats or drinks, or whatever he does, he can do
all TO the glory Of God. What dreadful
misconstruction it is that contounds godllness
and gloom Let US teach our young people
from the beginning on this subject, before the
world gets its lie in their heads, that sets them
longing for Moab or Phlistia. Let home
be made both Christian and cheerful. The
two adiectives should never be separated.
Under such influences let our young people
be brought up with as little idea of joining
the gay idlers of the world as of joining the
pot-house politicians. Let their tastes be
formed in Christian mould, which discrimi-
mates between recreation and Incidence, be-
tween joyousness and gayety, between manll-
ness and worldliness, between social activity
and fashionable society, between healthy cx-
citement and dissipation.
Now the key to all this is the deliberate
formation of Christian acquaintance. Refine
ment need not be sacrificed, nor education,
nor special tastes Perhaps an error has
sometimes been made just here, and the lnno-
cent demands of the character and disposition
have been ignored and rudcly shocked.
There is abundance of good material for every
Christian family to use in this most import,
ant work of anchoring young hearts amid
Christian influences when their social instincts
are strongest Let the Lords people draw
together. They are large host "He that
walketh with wise men shall be wise; but
companion of fools shall be destroyed,
Prov. IS: 20. "Be ye not unequally yoked
with unbelievers" 2 Cor. 6: IA. The Ola
Testament and the New are all one. 1t is in
separation from the world and a separation
unto Christ, that the highest type Of Chris
tian character with its peace and power, its
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