Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1892-06-16

vance, and then II Is long enough 80
say to any Christian who may feel
that he has poor weapons with which
to fight against sin and darkness and
| death: Advance upon the enemy.
In the strength of Christ go forward.
God is for you. and If God be for you,
who can be against you? Remember
that God never puts you in battle but
he gives you weapons with which to
fight"
My second word of counsel to those
who have recently entered upon Chris
tian life is: abstain from ali pernicious
associations; and take only those that
are useful and bcneficent Stay out OF
all associations that would damage
your Christian character. Take only
those associations that will help you.
A learned man said: IF l stay
with that man Fenelon any longer, !
shall get to be a Christian In
spite of myself" In other words
there is mighty power in Christian
associations. Now, what kind of as.
soclations shall we, as young Christians,
seek after? think we ought to get in
company better than ourselves, never
! going in company worse than ourselves.
| If we get into company a little better
than ourselves and there are ten people
in that company, ten chances to one
we will be bcttered. If we get
into company little worse than our
selves, and there be ten people in that
company, ten chances 10 one we will be
made worse than we were before.
Now when a young Christian enters
the church, God does not ask him to re-
tire from the world. The anchorite
that lives on acorns is no nearer heaven
than the man who lives on partridge and
wild duck. Isolation is not demanded
by the Bible. A man may use the
world with the restriction of not abus-
ing it. But just as soon as you find
! any surroundings pernicious to your
! spiritual interest, quit those associa-
tions. This remark is more especially
appropriate to the young. Now it is
impossible that the young and
untroubled should seek their
| associations with those who
are aged and worn out.
| AS God intended the aged to associate
| with the aged talking over the past
and walking staff in hand along the
same paths they tired, thirty, forty,
and fifty years ago, so | suppose he in
tended the young chiefly to associate
with the young. The grace of God
does not demand that we be unnatural.
do not want you to take this caution
| have given you as that of growing
misanthrope, hating hilarity. For you
must have spring bow if you want to
make the arrow fly. But while this is
so, want you to be especially on
guard in this matter, and let the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ control you in
all your associations. | know young
people who have meant well enough,
but they have floated off into evil in
fluences, and they have associated day
by day with those who hated God and
despised his commandments, and their
characters are all depleted. | can see
they are changed for the worse, but
they are not aware o! it. o young
man, come out of that bad association.
| do not know what it is. | do not
know to what place you may have
private key. | do not know to what
place you go without the sanction of
those who love you very much. lido not
pretend to point out any evil influ-
ences, but are there not some surround
ing influences that are pernicious to
your growth in grace? Stand back
from that furnace in which so many
young Christians have been destroyed.
In this church there is a large company
of young men and young women con-
sccrated to Christ. | know of no better
people than they are. Young convert,
| invite you into their friendship. Con-
tact with them will elevate You.
All hail, young followers of Jesus
Christ, my joy and my pride! My
heart thrills at every step of your adj
vancement l talked with you in that
hour when you first tried to break from
sin, and now rejoice as / see you put
ting on the armor of n conflict in which
God will give you present and ever
lasting victory. Stand off from all
evil associations. A man is no better
than the company he keeps. Go among
those who are better than you are, and
you will be made better. Go among
those who are worse than you are
and you will be made worse.
My next word of counsel is that you
be actively employed. | see great
many Christians with doubts and per-
plexities and they seem to be proud Of
them. Their entire Christian life is
made up of gloom, and they seem to
cultivate that spiritual dependency,
when | will undertake to say that in
nine cases out of ten spiritual uespond
ency is judgment of God upon idle
ness Who are the happy people in
the church to-day? The busy people.
Show me a man who processes the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ and is idle, and l
will show you an unhappy man. The
very first prescription that give to a
man when find him full OF doubts and
fears about his eternal interest is to go
to work for God. Ten thousand voices
are lifted up asking for your help. Go
and help. Here is wood full of sum-
ner insects. An axeman goes into
do not bother him very much, and every
stroke of the AK makes them fly away.
But let a man go and lie down there
and he is bitten and mauled, and
thinks it is horrible thing to stay in
the wood. Why does he not take an
AK and go to work? So there are thou.
sands of Christians now in the church
who go out amid great annoyances
in life-they are perplexed, they are
all the time busy; while there are
others who do nothing and they are
stung and stung and covered from head
to foot with the biotches of Incidence
and inactivity, and spiritual death.
There is a fountain filed with blood,
Drawn from Immanusl's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that food
Lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see,
That fountain in his day;
And there may |, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away"