WHERE have you been Willie, my boy, and what makes you look so sad and downcast?” I asked a boy whom I met one Saturday afternoon, in company with a number of boys, who were returning from a football game.
He had been saved some months; was very active in distributing tracts and the like, and I was rather surprised to find him in such company, as he evidently was, to meet me in the circumstances. He hung his head and seemed greatly put out. At last, wiping the tear from his eyes, he said,
“I have learned something, today that I hope will not be soon forgotten by me, and, by the help of God, I shall never be found in such company again.”
“Have you been down among the unconverted, Willie, taking part in their games?” I asked.
“O no, sir, not quite that, but I have been looking at the play, and I’ll tell you how I was persuaded to go. One of the boys in our office is a great football player. His club was in the match today, and he kept asking me every day this week to go and see the game. At first I refused, then he said,
‘You often ask me to go to your meetings, and I have gone once or twice to please you, but when I ask you to come and see our club at play, you will not. In that case you need never ask me to go to meetings again, for I won’t go.’
I thought over it, and last night I promised him to go see the game, if he would come with me to the gospel meeting tomorrow night. So I went, but I was not there five minutes till I saw I had made a mistake. The language I heard, and the company there, are not for a child of God. I am heart sick of the whole affair, and have been confessing my sin in going there, to God.”
“Quite true, Willie, my boy. You have been trapped in a very subtle snare of Satan—one that he uses successfully with older believers than you, to lead them into an unequal yoke with the world. I am glad you have learned a lesson. Our power for drawing others to Christ lies in cleaving close to Him ourselves, and in walking in separation from the world. We can only be vessels sanctified and meet for the Master’s use (2 Tim. 2:2121If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. (2 Timothy 2:21)), as we obey the word, ‘Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers’ (2 Cor. 6:1414Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)). Never stoop down to the world’s level, Willie, in the hope of raising up others. Stand as a separated one, cleaving to God’s ways, and there hold up Christ.”
ML 10/31/1937