The fools of whom Solomon speaks

"Whoever walks with the wise will become wise; but the companion of fools shall be destroyed!" Pr. 13:20

Young men! There are evil companions to be avoided!

The workhouse, the lunatic asylum, the prison, the gallows, the bottomless pit, all, all, attest the truth of this, by the millions they have swallowed up in their jaws of destruction!

Evil companionship has ruined . . . more characters, more fortunes, more bodies, and more souls, than almost anything else that could be named.

Young men! Evil companionship is one of your first and most pressing dangers. Character assimilates to that which surrounds it. You must take your character,
to a certain extent, from your companions.

Do not have bad companions! Men . . . who scoff at Christianity, who ridicule the godly, who make light of sin and laugh at conscience, who are lewd in their actions, or obscene in their talk, who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, who are extravagant in their habits, who are loose in their moral principles, these are the fools of whom Solomon speaks, --who will bring their own destruction upon you,
if you do not avoid them!

With much the same emphasis do I warn you against bad BOOKS. There are books that inflame the imagination and corrupt the taste--that by their excitement unfit the mind for the sober realities of life--or by continuous light entertainment, indispose the mind for what is serious and holy. These are all to be avoided.

In some respects bad books are more mischievous than bad companions, since they are more accessible, and more constantly with us. They can be more secretly consulted, and lodge their poison more abidingly in . . . the imagination, the intellect, and
the heart!

A bad book is a bad companion of the worst kind, and prepares for bad companions of all other kinds!

"Whoever walks with the wise will become wise; but the companion of fools shall be destroyed!" Pr. 13:20

J. A. James (1785—1859), "The Young Man's Friend and Guide Through Life to Immortality"