For one thing, we must fight worldly habits and fashions. We must often go against the customs of the world. I have great respect for a man who can stand up for what he believes is right against all the world. He who can stand alone is a hero.
Suppose it is the custom for young men to do certain things you wouldn’t like your mother to know of—things that your mother taught you are wrong. You may have to stand up alone among all your companions.
They will say: “You can’t get away from your mother, eh? Tied to your mother’s apron strings!”
But just you say: “Yes! I have some respect for my mother. She taught me what is right, and she is the best friend I have. I believe that is wrong, and I am going to stand for the right.” If you have to stand alone, stand. Enoch did it, and Joseph, and Elisha, and Paul. God has kept such men in all ages.
Someone says: “I move in society where they have wine parties. I know it is rather a dangerous thing because my son is apt to follow me. But I can stop just where I want to; perhaps my son hasn’t got the same power as I have, and he may go over the dam. But it is the custom in the society where I move.”
Once I got into a place where I had to get up and leave. I was invited into a home, and they had a late supper, and there were seven kinds of liquor on the table. I am ashamed to say they were Christian people. A deacon urged a young lady to drink until her face flushed. I rose from the table and went out; I felt that it was no place for me. They considered me very rude. That was going against custom; that was entering a protest against such an infernal thing. Let us go against custom when it leads astray.
I was told in a southern college, some years ago, that no man was considered a first-class gentleman who did not drink. Of course, it is not so now.
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