Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-03-05
EVIL COMPANIONS.
DIR. TALMAGE GIVES KINDLY ADVICE
TO YOUNG MEN.
Charges Them to Avoid Rad Com
Pnny, Particularly the SkeptIc and
the LdIer Shun Those Who Seek
Only Pleasure.


Only Pleasure.
Copyright, 1900, by Louis Kiopsch-l
WASHINGTON, March Ain this dis
course DR.. Talmage speaks on n theme
which all men, young and old, Will be
glad to see discussed, and the kindly
warning will no doubt in many cases
be taken; text, Proverbs xiii, 20, "a
companion of fools shall be destroyed"
+tMay it please the court" said a con-
Yicted criminal when asked by the
Judge what he had to say why sentence
of death should not be pronounced up
on him, may it please the court, bad
company has been my destruction L
received the blessing of good parents
and in return therefor promised to
avoid all evil associates. Had L kept
my promise / should have avoided this
shame and the burden of guilt which,
like a Yulture, threatens to drag me to
justice for my many crimes. Although
/ once moved in high circles and was
entertained by distinguished men, am
lost. Bad company did the work for
me-" Only one out of thousand IL
Illustrations was that of the fact that
"a companion of fools shall be destroy
eu- II IS an lUNdTldDle RUE
Here is a hospital with hundred
men down with the ship fever. Here
is a healthy man who goes into it. He
does not SO certainly catch the disease
as a good man will catch moral dis
temper if he consents to be shut up
with the vicious and the abandoned.
In the prisons Of the olden time it was
the custom to put the prisoners in cell
together, and l am sorry to say it is the
custom still in some Of our prisons; so
that when the day Of liberation comes
the men, instead of being reformed,
are turned out brutes, not men, each
one having learned the vices of all the
rest
We may in our worldly occupation be
obliged to talk to and commingle with
bad people, but he who voluntarily
chooses that kind of association is car
rying on a courtship with n Delilah
which will shear the locks of his
strength, and he will be tripped into
perdition. Look over all the millions
of the race. and you cannot show me 8
single instance where a man voluntarf-
1y associated with the bad for one year
and maintained his integrity. Sin is
catching; it is Infectious; it is cpl
demic.
Evil Companions.
A young man wakes up in one Of our
great cities knowing only the gentle
men of the firm into whose service he
has entered. In the morning he enters
the store, and all the clerks mark him,
measure him. discuss him. The bad
clerks of that establishment, the good
g ~ s-ID,
some relation to him. The good clerks
will wish him well, but they will wait
for Il formal Introduction. and even
after they have had the introduction
they are very cautious as to whether
they shall call him into their associa-
ton before they know him very well.
But the bad young men in that es-
adjustment all gather around him.
They patronize him. they offer to show
him everything that there is in the city
on one cOndition-that he will pay the
expenses, for it always happens so
when good young man and Il bad
young man go together to a place of
evil entertainment-the good young
man always has to pay the charges.
Just at the time the ticket is to be paid
for or the champagne bill is to be set
tied the bad young man will affect en-
barrassment and feel around in his
pockets and say, well, we'll, really /
have forgotten my pocketbook."
In 4S hours after this innocent young
man has entered the store the bad
young men will gather around him,
slap him on the shoulder with ia
miliarity, and. if he is stupid in not
being able to take certain illusions,
viii say, "Ah, my young friend, you
will have to be broken in" And forth
with they go 10 work to "break him
in"
oh, young man, let no fallen young
man slap you on the shoulder familiar
ly! Turn around and give whitening
glance that will make the wretch cow
er in your presence. There is no mon
StroSity of WickedneSS that can stand
before the glance of puffy and honor.
God keeps the lightnings of heaven in
his own scabbard. and no human may
reach them. but God gives to every
young man lightning which he may
use. and that is the lightning of an
honest eye. Anybody that understan ds
the temptations of our great cities
knows the use OF one sermon like this,
in which I try to enforce the thought
that II companion of fools shall be
destroyed"
And, first, 1 charge you, avoid the
skeptic-that is, the young man who
puts his thumb in his vest and swag-
gers about. scofffng at your old fash
Toned religion, then taking out the Bi-
BILE and turning over to some mysteri-
Gus passage and saying: Explain that,
my friend, explain that. l used to
think just as you do. My father and