The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-03-16
CHOICE OF FRIENDS.
DR.. TAEMAGE ON THE EVILS OF BAD
COMPANY.
Earnest and Kindly Warming to Old
and Young to Shun Evil Associates,
as "a Companion of Fools Shall be
Destroyed

- ~AAS
on a theme which all men, young and
old, win 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"
May it please the court" said a
convicted criminal when askel by the
Judge what he had to say why SEN
tence of death Mould not be %pronounc-
ed upon him, may il please the court,
bad company has been my destruction.
1 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 n the burden of guilt which,
like a vulture, threatens to drag me
TO justice for my many crimes. AL
though / once moved in nigh circles
and was entertained by distinguished
men. / am lost. Bad company did the
work for me-" only one out of a thou
sand illustrations was that of the fact
that "a companion OF fools shall be de-
strOyed." 1t is an invariable rule.
Here is a hospital with a hundred
men down with the ship fever Here
is a healthy man who goes into 1t. He
does not so certainly catch the disease
dS Il SOOu IldH II CdtCh ~ uiSNtiii-
per if he consents to be shut up with
the vicious and the abandoned. In the
prisons of the OlGen time il was the
custom to put the prisoners in a cell
together, and / am sorry to say II is
the custom still in some of our prisons;
so that when the day OF liberation
comes, the men, instead Of being re-
formed, 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 ~vOlunta-
rily chooses that kind of association
is carrying on a courtship with a De-
lilah 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
a single instance where a man vOlun-
tarily associated with the bad for one
year and maintained his integrity. Sin
is catching; it is Infectious; 1T is cpl
demic-
a young man wakes up in one of our
great cities knowing only the gentle
men of the firm into whose service he
a 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
clerks of that establishment, stand in
some relation to him The good clerks
wish him we'll, but they will wait for
a formal introduction, and even after
they have had the introduction they
are very cautious as to whether they
shall call him into their association be-
fore they know him very well.
But the bad young men in that es-
~iShm 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
fb4 vpAroac fn- ~ n1u-oxyC hnnDanS CO
when a good young man and a bad
young man go together to a place of
evil entertainment-the good young
man always has to pay the charges.
lust 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. We'll, we'll, really
/ have forgotten my pocketbOod.'
THE BREAKING IN PROCESS.
In IS hours after this innocent young
man has entered the store the bad
young men will gather around him,
slap him on the shoulder with famil-
iarity. and, if he is stupid in not being
able to take certain illusions, will say,
"Ah, my young friend, o will have
to be broker in" And forthwith they
go to work to break him in"
Oh, young man, let nc fallen young
man slap you on the shoulder familiar
ly! Turn around and give a whitening
glance that will make the wretch
COVER In your presence. There is no
monstrosity of wickednesS that can
stand before the glance of purity 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 a lightning which
he may use, and that it the lightning
of an honest eye. Anybody that under-
stands tho combinations nf nIIr Drpat
cities knows the use of one sermon
like this, in which T try to enforce the
thought that "a companion of fools
shall be destroyed"
And. first, L charge you, avoi the
skeptic-that is, the young man who
puts his thumb in his vest n swag-
gers about. soothing at your old FASH
toned religion, then taking out the
Bible and turning over to some mystic
rious passage and saying: p
that, my friend, explain that. l used
to think just as you do. My father and
mother used to think just as you do.
But you can't scare me about the fu-
ture. I used to believe in those things,
but I've got over it," Yes, he has got
oter it. and you will get over it if you
stay in his companionShip much loI-
ger. For awhile he may not bring one
argument against our holy Christian
ity. He will by SCOTS and jeers and
~caricatures destroy your faith in that
religion which was the comfort of Jour
father in his declining years and the
pillow on which your old mother lay
a-dying.
That brilliant young skeptic will af-
ter awhile have to die, and his dia-
mend will flash no splendor into the
eye of death. His hair will lie uncomb-
ed on the pillow. Death will come up.
and this skeptic will say to him: II
cannot die. I cannot die Death will
say: You must die. You have but ten
seconds more to live. Your soul-give it
to me right away. Your SOUL" "Oh,
no." says the skeptic. do not breathe
that cold air into my face. You crowd
me too hard. 1t is getting dark in the
room Here-take my rings and TAX
all the pictures in the ROOM, but let
me or" No" says Death. Your soul.
Your SOUL" Then the dying skeptic be-
gins to say. 20 God!" Death says,
You declared there was no God"
Then the dying skeptic says, Pray for
me-" and Death says: ut is too late to
pray: you have only three seconds