Think a Moment, Boys by Christian Advocate

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 20, 1879

Think a Moment, Boys.

By Christian Advocate

Boys do a great many thoughtless and foolish things "for fun," that mortify them very much in the remembrance. To have been caught in somebody's melon-patch, or stealing a neighbor's choice fruit, or taking a gate off its hinges, or crawling under a showman's tent, or playing any kind of a trick to the injury of another, and that has to be accomplished in a sneaking way, won't seem very smart, if you ever grow to be a man of sense. You will hate it, and wonder that you could ever have thought it sharp.

Don't flatter yourself that the worst thing about a mean act is in being caught at it, or found out. You can't be low, or vicious, or tricky, without somebody knowing it, and it does not take long for a good many to find it out. It takes extraordinary talent and deception to have a good reputation concealing a bad character, and it is never worth trying for. The way to seem to be trustworthy is to be trustworthy. There was never yet a boy who was manly, honest, and worthy of confidence, that people did not find him out, and give him his due.

You can't afford to trifle with your reputation. If you descend to indecent and immoral conduct it will soil your character and hurt your prospects, no matter what your friends may do for you, or how you may try to conceal from good people that you do these things. Just as long as you allow yourself to practice the habits that are condemned by pure, upright, straightforward people of integrity—whether you do it openly or on the sly—you will make no progress in the formation of a fine character, or in building up a good reputation. So when you are tempted to any low, tricky, dishonest, mean or unworthy act, stop long enough to think what the effect is going to be upon your own soul, your own mind, your own reputation, if that is your strongest motive, and don't do it.—Christian Advocate.