THE ENCHANTER AND THE YOUTH.
A great magician once took a company of Bavarian youths to a lonely place and entertained them at their request with his incantations. He drew a circle around them with his sword and warned them not to leave or break over on any account. By his first incantation he surrounded them with armed men, who dared them to conflict, but none of them would be lured or drawn beyond the line he had made with his sword. By the second enchantment he surrounded them with a company of beautiful damsels, who tried every power of attraction they could command. One of the dancing damsels whose beauty exceeded that of the others, advanced to one of the young men and with her enchantments had such an effect upon him that he entirely forgot the restriction and stretched forth his finger beyond the circle to receive the ring which she offered to place upon it. At once she seized him and drew him after her, and it was only through difficulty that he was rescued. What an illustration! This circle is the rule of right, the armed men pride and passion, and the charmer a fair representative of intemperance, vice and sensuality. The only safety for a boy is within the circle of right. To step over its boundary is to enter the domain of wrong. It is being enticed onto enchanted ground where evil lurks in every flower, poison hides in every drink and death watches beside every path. O my son, “If sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Walk not in the way with them. Refrain thy foot from their path,” and when they bid thee “cast in thy lot among us,” have the courage to refuse.
COMPANY NOT TO KEEP.
Avoid vulgar companions. Vulgarity is like a blot on a clean sheet of paper. Though it does not destroy the whole sheet, it damages and discounts it to such an extent, that it is often cast aside as worthless.
Avoid lazy companions. The “do-nothings” are usually the “good-for-nothings.” They are of little use to themselves or anyone else. Industrious people shun them and the ambitious have no respect for them. Many a man who might have been rich and honorable has spent his last days in the penitentiary or poor-house because the early days were spent in idleness. Idleness is the mother of almost every crime, and he who fellowships the idler runs the risk of being criminal. Then
“Eschew the idle life!
Flee, flee, from doing naught;
For never was there idle brain
But bred an idle thought.”
Avoid sceptical companions. Making religion a mockery is a bad trait in any boy and the sooner his room is considered better than his company, the sooner will the boy be protected from the impure and irreligious. He who neglects the house of God, desecrates the Sabbath and laughs at others who are inclined to be pious is not the right kind of company to keep.