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Of Dogs, Fleas & Friends

There is a well used Aussie aphorism:

If you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.

Bishop John Charles Ryle (1816-1900) expressed this with far more eloquence:

Good friends are among our greatest blessings – they may restrain us from much evil, quicken us in our course, speak a word in season, draw us upward and draw us on.

But a bad friend is a positive misfortune, a weight continually dragging us down, and chaining us to earth. Keep company with an irreligious man, and it is more than probable you will in the end become like him. That is the general consequence of all such friendships. The good go down to the bad, and the bad do not come up to the good.

The Aussie, and John Ryle are really only an echo of God's eternal words:

  1. Do not be misled, bad company corrupts good character. (1 Corinthians 15:33)
  2. Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. (Proverbs 22:24 - 25)
  3. Blessed is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers. (Psalm 1:1)

'Keep such company as God keeps'. ~ anon

Today's Soul Snippet:

'The quickest generosity is the best'. ~ anon

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Posted in Discipleship;