Ruined by Bad Company by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 27, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 45.

Ruined by Bad Company.

By Charles Haddon Spurgeon

If the company of the wicked does not leave a smear, it will leave a smell; if it be not deadly, it will be dangerous. Some of us are more plastic or malleable than others, and we are the first to be impressed by our surroundings; it is to us, therefore, of the first importance to place ourselves in holy society, and shun all needless association with the godless as we would avoid the plague. I am myself acquainted with many who have been ruined by bad company. Such were C—, who became a reprobate through spending his Sabbaths in excursions and amusements; F—, who was led into peculation and ultimate embezzlement through his friends of the billiard table; H—, who was never worth a penny piece after he had found his heaven in the banquets of the Free Masons; and J—, who went from bad to worse through the company of those who laugh at purity, and call vice pleasure. Indeed, the list is endless, and we shall be conceited to no ordinary degree if we imagine that we shall be safe where so many have fallen never to rise again.—Spurgeon.