Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1913 — The Company We Keep [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Company We Keep

By REV. JAMES M. CRAY. D. D.

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TEXT—Blessed Is the man that walketh not in toe counsel of the ungodly.— Paata 1:1.

Who are the ungodly? There seems to be a distinction between them and open sinners, because the same verse says, “tha| walketb not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth In the way of sinners.*' This distinction is not one that has any bearing on the day of judgment, for all men in the sight

of God are divided into but two great classes, not the good and the bad. subjectively considered, “for there is none good, no, not one,” but believers and unbelievers —the saved and the lost Any other distinction? are only of a secondary kind and limited to the things of earth. For example, when we speak of an adulterer or a drunkard, we associate with him the name of "sinner,” but when we speak of an outwardly moral man who nevertheless acknowledges no allegiance to the God of the Bible, we think of him as "ungodly.” The latter is unconcerned about his personal salvation. Living an honest life as the world goes, he believes he will faro well enough at the last He would not deny the existence of God and a future life, but he has no particular or transforming ideas about either. He is uninfluenced by the encouragements and prohibitions, or the hopes and the fears set before him in the gospel. As the Bible says, God Is not in all his thoughts.” * The "ungodly" is a character with which most of us are more likely to come In close contact than the open sinner, and for that reason he is capable of more harm. We would not willingly associate with notorious transgressors, the libertine, the liar or the Sabbath breaker, but this other class of persons are not so well understood. The Mark of the Ungodly. The Psalmist names one distinguishing mark of the "ungodly” as his "counsel.” In other words, he thinks, not wisely, or deep or well, but he thinks. He also criticises, advisee and recommends. His voice is heard In the popular magazine and work of fiction. He is your companion on a railway train, or in a hotel lobby. You meet him In your store or shop, and it will not be long before he exhibits his missionary zeal. "Look at me,” he says, "and thousands like me, who reject all this nonsense about salvation and the authority of the Bibleare we fools?” "How can Christianity be the divine religion to the exclusion of every other, when its numbers are comparatively so small T' This is the way he insidiously argues. But what is meant by "walking In this counsel?** Are we to abandon society, retire from business, and put an end to converse with our fellowmen? Being in the midst of the "ungodly,” how can wi avoid walking with them? The answer Is that we need not walk With them In the moral sense and of free choice. If we go among them In the path of duty we shall be upheld by divine grace, and If the demands of our vocation bring us there, the necessity of entering that society In distinction from selecting ft, will put us on our guard and be an antidote to. the Infection. But we must not put ourselves willingly in their society. We must resist Inducements to make one of them, and sacrifice worldly convenience, if need be, in order to honor God and maintain the purity and development of our souls. i Bin Progressive. The verse from which our text la taken is a sentence In which the sama thought Is repeated more than once with a slight addition to it each time. That is, three characters are represented, each exceeding the other in wickedness—the "ungodly," the "sinner," the “scornful." The first walks, the second stands, the third alts down, completely gives up himself to opposition to God. The teaching is that sin is progressive, and as an old commentator says, “he who walks lr the counsel of the ungodly will soon stand in the way of stunners, and he who stand? in the way of sinners win ultimately sit down In the seat of the "scornfuL” One blessing which accrues to him that "walketb not In the counsel of the ungodly** is that from which he la prevented. He is prevented from growing worse. Bui la a positive blessing also, for the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly is likely to walk tn the counsel of God. “His delight will be in the law of God, and In his law will he meditate day and night.” As a consequence there shall be seen in him growth and fruitfulness, “and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers ot water, that bringeth forth his fruit In his season: his leaf also shall not g wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall , rcwl -