What a world of trouble this plain answer saved. It might not raise John's position in the eyes of the people, but it clearly showed his moral dignity.
It often requires great courage to say. "No." But by being able promptly, on occasion, to utter this little monosyllable, you may save yourself a great deal of trouble.
If Eve had known how to say no, she might have saved herself and her posterity from ruin. And many of her children, who have lost their character and their all, might have been saved if they had only had courage promptly to say no. Your safety and happiness depend upon it.
You may be urged by some of your companions to engage in some amusement, or to go to some place which you know to be wrong. If you resolutely and promptly say no at the outset, that is the end of it. But if you hesitate, you will be urged and pressed until probably you will yield, and having given up your own judgment and violated your conscience, you will lose your power of resistance, and yield to every enticement.
Take, for instance, a young man. He never hesitates a moment when anything wrong is proposed: he rejects it instantly. The consequence is, his companions never think of coming to him with any proposals of a questionable nature. They do not want to hear his prompt and decisive no. He can be trusted anywhere.
Take the case, say of a young girl who wants to please everybody, and therefore has not the courage to say no to any. She seems to have no power to resist temptation. So she is always getting into difficulties, always doing something that she ought not, or going to some improper place, or engaging in some improper diversions through the enticement of her compassions. Her parents scarcely dare trust her out of their sight, they are so fearful that she will be led astray. She is a source of great anxiety to them, and all because she cannot say "NO.”
Let me beg of you to learn to say no. If you find any difficulty in uttering it, if your tongue will not pronounce it, or if you find something in your throat that obstructs your speech, go by yourself and practice saying, no, no, no! until you can say it clearly and without hesitation. Have it always ready at the end of your tongue to utter with emphasis to every man, woman, or evil spirit that presumes to propose to you to do anything that is wrong. Only be careful to say it respectfully and courteously, with the usual prefixes and affixes which properly belong to the persons to whom you are speaking. The short sentence, "I belong to Christ," will end many difficulties. "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night." Psa. 1:1, 21Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (Psalm 1:1‑2). Young Christian