which comes across the path of each of us, and
from which it is by no means easy to escape. Of that temptation,
Robinson Crusoe on his desert island knew nothing. He did not find
himself ever tempted to one of the most common of sins. Robinson Crusoe
was never tempted to keep bad company, for the simple reason that there
was no bad company for him to keep.

What curious beings hermits are! they are to be found in China, India,
Africa, in various parts of Europe, in fact, all over the world. And in
olden time there was many a lonely cave, many a shady retreat on the
hill-side, which was inhabited by one of these hermits.

Who then were these hermits? They were men who were so much afraid of
falling into the snare of keeping bad company, that they refused to keep
any company at all, men who so dreaded being led astray by their fellow
men, that they shut themselves off from all intercourse with the human
race.

It was not a right nor a wise thing to do, and these hermits found that
sin followed them even to their quiet lonely caves; yet it is scarcely
surprising that they dreaded evil companionship, and did all they could
to avoid it, seeing as they did how much misery it had brought into the
world.

For what was the oldest sin? What was the very first sin that entered
into this fair earth of ours? Some say it was pride, or selfishness, or
hard thoughts of God. But surely it was no other sin than this, the
keeping of bad company.

There was Eve in the garden. God had provided her with company; He had
given her Adam, the holy angels came in and out of that fair paradise;
nay more, God Himself was her friend, in the cool of the day He walked
with Eve under the trees of the garden, walked and talked with her as a
companion and friend.

But, in spite of this, Eve got into bad company. She stands, she talks,
she entertains Satan, the great enemy of God, against whom she must
often have been warned by God and the holy angels. And the consequence
was that Eve lost paradise, became a sinner, and brought sin and all its
attendant miseries into the world. We should never have had our weary
battle with sin if Eve had not kept bad company.

Nor was Eve the last of those who have brought trouble on themselves and
others by the same sin.

If the descendants of Seth had not kept bad company and made friends of
Cain's wicked race, the flood would never have swept them away. If
Samson had not gone into bad company he would never