play upon
the streets and disobey their parents, may be wisely shunned as unfit
for associates. In many instances, too, boys whose conduct is in other
respects wholly faultless sometimes indulge in vice, ignorant of its
real nature and consequences. At the first intimation of evil on the
part of a companion, a boy who is yet pure should flee away as from
a deadly serpent or a voracious beast. Do not let the desire to gratify
a craving curiosity deter you from fleeing at once from the source of
contamination. Under such circumstances do not hesitate a moment to
escape from danger. If an evil word is spoken or an indecent act of
any sort indulged in by a companion, cut the acquaintance of such a
boy at once. Never allow yourself to be alone with him a moment. On
no account be induced to associate with him. He will as surely soil
and besmear with sin your moral garments as would contact with the most
filthy object imaginable your outer garments.

It were better for a boy never to see or associate with a lad of his
own age than to run any risk of being corrupted before he is old enough
to appreciate the terrible enormity of sin and the awful consequences
of transgression. It should be recollected also that not only young
boys but vicious youths and young men are frequently the instructors
in vice. It is unsafe to trust any but those who are known to be pure.

Bad Language.--We have often been astonished at the facility with which
children acquire the language of vice. Often we have been astounded
to hear little boys scarcely out of their cradles, lisping the most
horrible oaths and the vilest epithets. The streets and alleys in our
large cities, and in smaller ones too in a less degree, are nurseries
of vice, in which are reared the criminals that fill our jails, prisons,
work-houses, school-ships, and houses of correction. Many a lad begins
his criminal education by learning the language of vice and sin. At
first he simply imitates the evil utterances of others; but soon he
learns the full significance of the obscene and filthy language which
he hears and repeats, and then he rapidly progresses in the downward
road.

A boy that indulges in the use of foul language will not long be chaste
in acts. It is a safe rule to be followed by those who wish to grow
up pure and unsullied by sin, untainted by vice, that those who use
bad language are persons to avoid, to keep away from. Even those who
are well fortified against vice