It is good and proper to have real friends; friends that play straight and stick to the end. Evil companions are Satan's road-agents to hold us up, and rob us of the best we have. It is easy to sin with the crowd.
Sin masses men together until they think they are strong and often declare themselves right because "They all do it." This is a hard lesson to learn, and few there are who learn it early in life. A daughter asked her father's permission one day to visit a gay young friend of the world. Her father said, "I cannot allow it." Then she replied, "Then you must think me uncommonly weak." The father picked up a piece of coal [you do likewise] from the hearth and handed it to his daughter, but she hesitated to accept it. "Take it, my child," said he, "it will not burn you." The daughter obeyed, and the milky whiteness of her hand had instantly gone. The father said, "We must be careful how we handle coal, if it doesn't burn it may blacken."
No boy or girl can spend an hour with an evil companion and be one with them without coming away with a stain inside. If we continue with them, it is a direct route, fast express line, to fall with them. To illustrate this fact, set up the blocks endwise in a straight line a short distance apart. Knock down the first block, and all the others will fall with it. Now raise the last block, and see if they will all rise with it. But no, if once down they must all be raised one by one. How easy it is to fall with a crowd, but when we want to return we must come back one by one. Don't walk in the sinner's way or stand in the way of the transgressor, for together they will all fall into the pit.
Be on your guard. Don't handle the black coal of evil companionship. If it does not burn, it will soil.
One day a minister of the gospel was sitting in the office of a superintendent of a large abattoir, when a large goat came in and rubbed his head against the superintendent, "What is the meaning of that?" asked the minister. He replied, "Large flocks of sheep are often delivered to the slaughter-houses, and in order to get them easily into the place of death, Judas, the goat, is always on hand, and never fails to trot and lead them to the gate which leads to the gangway that takes them to the slaughter."
Beware of the Devil's Goats. They are working overtime. Walk in the narrow path and with the Good Shepherd. He slays the devouring beast seeking to destroy the sheep bearing his name. Don't tramp with sinners; stand alone. Stand alone in God's strength, and you stand forever.
Now take one of the blocks, stand it up endways; put a Bible on each side of it, and you will notice it is too far away from the other blocks to be hurt by them, and so stands securely, and can never be overthrown.
22