NO greater misfortune can happen to a youth than the formation of a friendship with an unprincipled companion.
Some years since two boys, named Tom and Will, were walking down a street, when Tom said, "I found six pence on the mantel-piece this morning. It belongs to mother, and I shall go home at once and give it to her before I forget it again." `
'Give it to her?" said Will, laughing; "you found it, and it is yours; besides it is not stealing to take anything from your own home."
It would have been a happy thing if Tom had carried out his righteous resolution, but he hardened in heart little by little listening to the plausible tongue of his wicked, selfish companion, and at last the sixpence was spent and the ill-gotten proceeds divided between them.
Alas! the story does not end here, That first evil step was the forerunner of a downward course, which had an awful and terrible ending.
Gradually, yet surely, Satan entwined his fearful coils round poor Tom, and Tom found himself a convicted thief.
No pen can describe the torture Tom then endured — the remorse and anguish of mind at the thought of his degradation, and the shame he had brought upon his parents and friends.
True, he was one for whom Christ died. Society might never forgive, but the Lord Jesus, as soon as repentance came, stretched forth His hand and healed the broken heart and reclaimed the lost.
Yet, dear young friend, be not deceived. To take even a lump of sugar from your parents is a sin in God's sight. Flee from those who try to persuade you otherwise as you would from a viper, for God hates all sin, and will surely punish it, sooner or later.
"What became of Will?" you may inquire. His education and the position of his friends gave him golden opportunities, but he fell into every evil course, was turned away from a good situation for dishonesty, and went to an early grave, having ruined both body and soul.
Messages of God’s Love 11/10/1901