Strong and Free # 2

Strong and Free # 2

But our motto will lead us a step or two further. It is good to be "strong and free" physically - yet it is still better to be so morally. What a benefit and comfort to yourself and to many beside will it be, if you are strong in moral principle and decision of character - and free from the slavery and bondage of bad habits. The angel said to Daniel, "O man greatly beloved, be strong, yes, be strong." So would I say to you. Be strong to do the right, to go forward in the path of straightforward honesty and integrity of purpose, in spite of legions of enemies and hosts of difficulties. Speak truly, live truly, act truly. Be strong to resist whatever is of evil. Abhor and reject every temptation to turn aside.

Be firm as a rock against every enticement to pleasure or profit, at the cost of a good conscience. Be able to say "No," to mean it, and to stick to it, though the wary tempter has a tongue as smooth as oil and as musical as a siren's note.

Avoid the very first step in evil. Don't break the fence with the idea that you can soon make up the breach. Don't go a little way in the wrong direction imagining that you can easily make up what is lost.

It is said that if a man goes out with newly cleaned boots, he walks carefully, so as not to bemire them; but when they have been soiled with the mud, then he will go through the deepest mire and not mind it. I am sure this is true in one sense. There is a pain about the first act of sin; but when the conscience is accustomed to what is wrong, a man will go anywhere and do anything, and will feel but little the sin he is committing.

My young friend, beware of a single blot on the conscience! Keep clear of associates with whom you are not safe. Watch against the touch of evil. Turn from the spot where danger is likely to meet you.

Many a young man flatters himself that he is a "bird of freedom," while he is the truest slave under the sun. He cannot say "No" to the least temptation, though he knows full well that it is injuring his character, destroying his future prospects, bringing upon himself a scourge of many cords in the upbraidings of a guilty conscience, and wounding and grieving those who love him best upon earth.

If he is free, it is the freedom of the lamb in the desolate wild, free to roam where it will - but sure to perish at length through hunger or as the spoil of fierce wolves. Far be from you freedom like this? Give me rather the safety of the fold, the guiding care of the Good Shepherd; yes, and if need be, the rod to chasten me when I stray, that I may return to the peace and security of His faithful guardianship.

From the arts that would allure us,
From the toils that would ensnare,
You who slumber not, secure us
By Your ever-watchful care:
And if e'er from You we roam,
Fetch, O fetch, Your wanderers home.

But how may you be thus "strong" in right principle and "free" from such bonds and snares as I have named? There is only one way. A good education is not enough. Even the example and training of godly parents, though beyond all price, is not strong enough to secure you at all times against the assaults that may overcome you. The true secret of moral strength and liberty, is the spiritual strength and freedom which Christ alone can give.

In yourself you have no strength - none whatever. "Without Me," Christ says, "you can do nothing." You have no power to do a single thing aright, or to beat down one snare of the wicked one.

"Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall" (Isaiah 40:30). That is, mere natural powers, mere human strength, even the good purposes of youth, will succumb in the great battle with sin, the world, and the devil. Man is described as "a worm," and what power has the worm to resist an enemy or to rise above the earth on which it crawls?

~George Everard~

(continued with # 3)