“India-rubber men, two a penny!” Such was the street cry, that the other day fell upon our ears, and so charmed were we with the idea, that we did not even turn round to see what the cheap little flexibilities were like. India-rubber men! Who can deny the abilities of flexibilities? They may be turned and twisted, drawn out and pinched into countless shapes, which, were they not India-rubber men, would be impossible.
An India-rubber man will do anything you wish. You can make what you like of him by your finger and thumb. He is unresisting, pliable, without a character of his own, and, after having been pulled into a variety of shapes, returns by the force of his elasticity to his original form.
And how cheap they are! yet surely none too cheap, for they are not worth much, since they are, after all, but playthings. India-rubber men? No, they are not men at all, but India rubber!
Young Christian, be not of this race and genus, for though we live in the Iron age, the times have made many men mysteriously pliable, or, maybe, men have made in these times a manufactory for turning out flexibilities.
Remember, if you are to be of practical worth on this earth, you must be firm for God. You must have a conscience. You yourself must be strong and decided.