OUR ASSOCIATES by C. A. OSGOOD

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 19, 1867

OUR ASSOCIATES.

By C. A. OSGOOD

If we would pursue a course of consistent piety, and make our way to the kingdom of God, we must make those our associates who are traveling the same way; those who will help us on in the heavenly race instead of being a hindrance to us. Many young persons who were once thoughtful and serious, and who promised much usefulness, under the influence of ungodly associates, have been led astray, far from the path of virtue, and ruined by sin. True, we can not avoid all intercourse with a wicked world, but while duty may call us at times to be among the ungodly, we must not make them our chosen companions, nor delight in those things they delight in; but we must watch every moment, lest we should imbibe their spirit and so “fail of the grace of God;” and we should remain in their company no longer than duty demands. The psalmist said, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Here are brought to view three classes of unholy men.

1. The ungodly. Those who are not pious, but decent and respectable; men who are not scandalous in their lives.

2. Sinners. Unjust, profane men.

3. Scorners. Those who scoff at truth and religion. He is said to be happy who does not hearken to, and who is not influenced by, the counsel of the ungodly. If he were to do this, he would become very worldly-minded, have his affections set on things below, and so despise, and neglect to labor earnestly to secure, an inheritance in the kingdom of God.

Should he get into the habit of standing in the place where sinners love to meet, he would, after awhile, feel less the evil of sin, and, continuing still longer in their company, gradually imitate their wicked ways, and finally, perhaps, become as vile as the vilest of them.

Sitting in the scoffer’s seat and continuing to do so, all reverence for sacred things would be likely to pass away, until he would come to scoff like the rest, and say, “What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?” Job. xxi, 15. “Where is the promise of his coming?” &c.

But he who avoids all these, has “his delight in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night.” Such a person naturally becomes “a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.” Such companions “speak often one to another,” about the requirements of God, of the danger of being “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,” and about the glorious promises of God to those who overcome sin. They help and encourage one another in fighting “the good fight of faith,” and in running “the race set before them.”

But it is said, “a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” All sinners are foolish in the sense of Scripture. Their “end is destruction,” and those who associate familiarly with them and continue so to do, will meet the same fate. This is the result of intimate associations with unbelievers, not only outbreaking sinners, but also, the gay, frivolous, and worldly-minded. Those who live in sin are under the influence of unholy, impure, selfish, motives; and shall we make the enemies of God our peculiar friends?

“Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you; and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” In this passage there is a positive command of God, to forsake the company of unbelievers, with a gracious promise that if we do, the Lord Almighty will be our Father, and that we shall be his children. What a glorious exchange; to give up the company of the worldly, the proud, the vain, the selfish, for communion with the ever-blessed God, and adoption into his family, and an heirship to an eternal inheritance! How blessed the association with saints here! And if we continue faithful, we shall soon be permitted to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, and all the redeemed ones in the kingdom of God, and join in the song of redeeming love, and enjoy the sweets of those hallowed associations forever and ever.

Dear reader, be admonished to leave worldly associates, and cleave to the people of God with all your heart.

C. A. OSGOOD.