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The Influence Of Association
God’s word places great stress upon the influence of association,
even on men and women. How much greater is its power on the
developing mind and character of children and youth! The company
they keep, the principles they adopt, the habits they form, will decide
the question of their usefulness here and of their future destiny.
It is a terrible fact, and one that should make the hearts of parents
tremble, that in so many schools and colleges to which the youth
are sent for mental discipline and culture, influences prevail which
misshape the character, divert the mind from life’s true aims, and
debase the morals. Through contact with the irreligious, the pleasure
loving, and the corrupt, many youth lose the simplicity and purity,
the faith in God, and the spirit of self-sacrifice that Christian fathers
and mothers have cherished and guarded by careful instruction and
earnest prayer.
It is inevitable that the youth will have associates, and they will
necessarily feel their influence. There are mysterious links that bind
souls together so that the heart of one answers to the heart of another.
One catches the ideas, the sentiments, the spirit, of another. This
association may be a blessing or a curse. The youth may help and
strengthen one another, improving in deportment, in disposition, in
knowledge; or, by permitting themselves to become careless and
unfaithful, they may exert an influence that is demoralizing.
The matter of choosing associates is one which students should
learn to consider seriously. Among the youth who attend our schools
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there will always be found two classes, those who seek to please
God and to obey their teachers, and those who are filled with a spirit
of lawlessness. If the youth go with the multitude to do evil, their
influence will be cast on the side of the adversary of souls; they
will mislead those who have not cherished principles of unswerving
fidelity.
It has been truly said, “Show me your company, and I will show
you your character.” The youth fail to realize how sensibly both
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