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The Pathway of Safety; or, Counsel to the Awakened By the Right Rev. Ashton Oxenden, D.D. CHAPTER VIII – DANGERS FROM WITHOUT THE WORLD—LOOSE AND UNGODLY FRIENDSHIPS—PERSECUTION 2. LOOSE AND UNGODLY FRIENDSHIPS too are very apt to prove hurtful to the inexperienced Christian. Here then is another danger to be guarded against. It is not merely the companionship of the depraved and profligate that will do you harm, but also of the trifling, the idle, and the vain. But you may find it somewhat difficult to get rid of such companions, if you are already encumbered with them. A little caution is required in doing this. You must not shake them off too roughly, or you may needlessly stir up their enkity against you, and against the cause you have at heart. And yet they must never be your close associates. Take great care then that you are not actuated by a spirit of pride, as though you would say, ‘Stand by thyself, come not near: I am holier than thou.’ (Isaiah 65.5) Behave kindly, and gently, and tenderly, even to those whom you know to be wrong. Remember you were once wrong yourself, and on some points, doubtless, you are wrong still. You were once just as blind as they are, and your heart was as hard and worldly as theirs. Therefore be considerate towards them, and use every means in your power to do them good, and to win them over. Possibly you may be placed in such a position that you must needs mix with worldly, or even ungodly, persons. If so, pray that you may be kept faithful to your heavenly Master. And I believe that in such a case God will throw His shield around you, and protect you from harm. But this is altogether different from deliberately choosing such as your companions. For if you willingly keep an intimacy with those who despise religion, your soul will suffer; you will, almost without knowing it fall in with their ways; your hatred of sin will be deadened; your love for the Savior will grow cold; and so, by slow, but sure degrees, you will at length become like those with whom you associate. No, dear reader, you cannot touch the fire without being burnt. You cannot even occasionally sip an unwholesome mixture, without feeling the bad effects to your own health. ‘Evil communications corrupt good manner.’ ‘Enter not,’ says the wise king, ‘into the path of the wicked, and go not into the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it; turn from it, and pass away.’ (Prov. 4.14) ‘O my soul, come not thou into their secret. Unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united.’ (Gen 49.6) And let me say this—if you have still a hankering after the company of the ungodly and the worldly-minded, then begin to suspect that your own heart cannot be right with God. You cannot have become ‘a new creature,’ or you would assuredly find the ways, and the language, and the spirit of ungodly persons to be distasteful to you. Then take a decided course. Make a firm stand. Cost what it may, the companionship of the wicked must be shunned. You must neither let smooth words, not taunting expressions, move you from the strait and narrow path. **************************************************** The Pathway of Safety; or, Counsel to the Awakened, Ashton Oxenden **************************************************** PREVIOUS CHAPTER -- NEXT CHAPTER ©God’sGWG |