It seems most unaccountable that any one should willingly refuse all this happiness; and yet how many boys and girls there are who never pause to think what choice they have made, and which master they are serving. You must be serving one, either God or the world. Which it is your own heart will tell you. Remember God will have no half-service. He has said, "He that is not with Me is against Me."
CHAPTER IV.
GOOD RESOLUTIONS NOT KEPT.
OUR years of Charlie's life soon passed swiftly away in his pleasant and happy home. He is now twelve years of age, and has grown a tall, strong, healthy boy. His blue eyes are just as merry, and his frank, fearless face as sunburnt, as when we first made his acquaintance on the pier. He is generous, grateful, and affectionate, and John Heedman and his wife—his good "father and mother," as he calls them now—are very dear to him.
I need scarcely tell you that they have never regretted adopting him, and could not love him better, or be more proud of him, if he were their own son. They have found him from the first clever at his learning, and painstaking; full of gratitude and love to themselves; honest and truthful; anxious to serve God, and really trying to do so in his way. But one thing has troubled them: for the last two years they have seen him gradually giving himself up more and more to the dangerous habit of "putting off." He had become, unconsciously, a very slave to it; it required quite an effort on his part to do any duty at once.
Perhaps some boys who read this are inclined to exclaim, "Was that all?" But if they think for a moment, I am sure they will see that it is very dangerous, because they are inclined to think lightly of it.
Procrastination, or the habit of "putting off," is one of Satan's great temptations. Many a boy may be tempted to give way to it who would shrink from telling an untruth, or committing any flagrant sin; but Satan knows well enough how soon and how surely it will lead them into sin.
Unfortunately, Charlie had no idea how this habit was creeping upon him; he always contrived to find some excuse for putting off that satisfied himself if it did not satisfy others; and when it led him to do wrong, or into misfortune of any kind, he always fancied that something or some one else was to blame.