Starting Right

Narrator: Chris Genthree

Duration: 1min

• 1 min. read • grade level: 4

Ecclesiastes 12:1¹Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; (Ecclesiastes 12:1); 1 Corinthians 15:33³³Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. (1 Corinthians 15:33); Psalm 119:9-16⁹BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. ¹⁰With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. ¹¹Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. ¹²Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes. ¹³With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. ¹⁴I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. ¹⁵I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. ¹⁶I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. (Psalm 119:9‑16); Psalm 119:11¹¹Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. (Psalm 119:11)

Many a man is lost because he does not start right. He makes a bad start. A young man comes from his country home, and enters upon city life. Temptation arises, and he becomes false to his principles. He meets with some scoffing, sneering man, who jeers at him because he goes to a church service; or because he is seen reading his Bible; or because he is known to pray to God. And the young man proves to be weak-kneed; he cannot stand the scoffs and the sneers and the jeers of his companions; and so he becomes untrue to his principles, and gives them up.

I want to say here to young men, that when a young man makes a wrong start, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it is ruin to him. The first game of chance; the first betting transaction; the first false entry in the books; the first quarter-dollar taken from the cash-box or the till; the first night spent in evil company — either of these may prove the turning-point; either of these may represent a wrong start.

Click here to show subject links in the text for more information.