Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-06-15
RuINOUS COMPANY
"A Companion Of Fools Shall
Be Destroyed"
Talmage Warns Young Men to BE
Careful of Their Associates
Sin Is Catching and an
Epidemic.

Witt Talmage, d. d., preached at the
Tabernacle today. After %expounding
the scriptures he gave out that popular
hymn by A. M. Toplady, beginning:
Your harps, ye trembling saints,
Down from the willows take.
He took for his text Proverbs xiii, 20:
"a companion Of fools shall be de-
stroyed." Following is a verbatim re-
port Of the sermon
May it please the court" said a con-
victed criminal when asked if he had
anything to say before sentence of death
was passed upon him, may it please the
court, bad company has been my ruin.
/ received the blessings of good parents,
and, in return, promised to avoid all evil
associations. Had l kept my promise /
should nave been saved this shame, and
been free from the load of guilt that
hangs round me like a v~ulture, threaten
ing TO drag me to justice for crimes yet
~unrevealed. /, who once moved in the
first circles Of society, and have been the
guest of distinguished public men, am
lost, and all through bad company"
This is but one Of the thousand proofs
that the companion of fools shall be de-
stroyed. It's the invariable rule. There
is a well man in the wards of a hospital
where there are 100 people sick with ship
fever, and he will not be SO apt TO take
the disease as a good man would be apt
TO be smltten with moral distemper, if
shut up with iniquitous companions.
In olden times prisoners were herded to-
gether in the same cell, but each one
learned the vices OF all the culprits, SO
that, instead Of being reformed by incar.
ceration, the day Of liberation turned
them out upon society beasts, not men.
We may in our places Of business, be
compelled TO talk to snd mingle with bad
men, but he who deliberately chooses to
associate himself with vicious people is
engaged in carrying on q courtship with
a Delilah, whose shears will clip OF all
the locks of his strength, aud he will be
tripped into perdition. Sin is catching,
is infectious, is epidemic. will let you
look over the millions Of people now in
habiting the earth, and | challenge you
to show me a good man who, after one
year, has made choice and consorted with
the wicked. A thousand dollars reward
for one such instance. / care not how
stIoag your character may be. Associ-
ate with gamblers, you will become a
gambler. Clan with burglars, and you
will become q burglar. Go among the
unclean, and you will become uuclean.
Not approaching the truth of my text,
many a young man has been destroyed.
He wakes up some morning in the great
oity, and knows no one except the per
sons into whose employ he has entered.
AS he goes into the store all the clerks
mark him, measure him, and discuss him.
The upright young men of the store wish
him well, but perhaps wait for a formal
introduction, and even then have some
delicacy about inviting him into their as
sociations. But the bad young men of
the store at the first opportunity ap-
proach and offer their services. They
p~atronize him. They profess TO know all
uDOut luC lO"hs lhCy VIII idhc uiIu any
where that he wishes to go-if he will
pay the expenses. For if a good young
man and a bad young man go TO some
place where they ought not, the good
young man has invariably to pay the
charges. At the moment the ticket is to
be paid for, or the champagne settled for,
pockets and says: 81 have forgotten my
~aolathnoI - Tn foryp o;nht n,.,r, 49,
the young man has entered the store the
bad fellows Of the establishment slap him
on the shoulder Familiarity, and, and at
say: MY young friend, you will have
proceed to break him in. Young man,
in the name of God / warn you to beware
how you let a bad man talk familiarly
with you. If such an one slap you on the
shoulder familiarly, turn round and give
him a whitening look, until the wretch
crouches in your presence. There is no
mo~nstrosity Of wickcdness that can stand
Vnabashed under the glance of purity and
honor. God keeps the Iightnings Of
heaven in His own scabbard, and no
human hand can WELD them; but God
gives to every young man q lightning
that he may use, and that is the lightning
OF an honest eye. Those who have been
close observers will not wonder why I
give warning TO young men, and say,
Beware of bad company"
First, | warn you to shun the skeptic-
the young man who puts his fingers in
his vest and laughs at your old fashioned
religion, and turns over to some mystery
Of the Bible and says: Explain that,
my pious friend; explain that" And
who says: Nobody shall scare me; l
am not afraid Of the future; / used to be-
lieve in such things. and * aid my father
and mother, but / have got over it,"
Yes, he has got over it; and if you sit in
his company a little longer, you will get
over it, too. Without presenting one
argument against the Christian religion,
such men will, by their jeers and SCOTS,
and caricatures, destroy your respect for
that religion which was the strength of
your father in his declining years. and
the pillow OF your old mother when she
lay a-dying. Alas! a time will come
when that clustering young infdel will
have to die, and then his diamond ring
will flash no splendor in the eyes OF
Death, as he stands over the couch.
waiting for his soul. Those beautiful
locks will be uncombed upon the pillow,
and the dying man will say: II cannot
die-I cannot die" Death, standing
ready beside the couch, says. "You