One great help to sobriety will be, (what I would next recommend,) to choose for your associates the prudent and discreet. " He that walketh with wise men," says Solomon, "will be wise; but a companion of fools will be destroyed." We naturally drink into the spirit of those with whom we associate : and we are told from authority, that " evil communications will corrupt good manners." Indeed, from evil connexions the most deplorable consequences ensue. It is no uncommon thing for a man, who at first only " loalks occasionally in the counsel of the ungodly, to come ere long to stand in the loay of notorious simmers, and at last to be found sitting in the seat of the scornful." If you would walk wisely, put away from you the light, the vain, and those who are indulging any sinful propensity; and gather round you the wise, the discreet, the holy. This will render your path in- comparably more safe and easy, and will contribute to fix in you such habits as are " praise-worthy and of good report."
To this I would add yet further, Examine your own motives and principles of action, with all possible care and diligence. Many persuade themselves that they are doing right ; whilst all but themselves see, that they are acting a very unworthy part. James and John were at one time actuated by ambition, and at another time by revenge ; whilst yet they had not the smallest consciousness of deviating from the path of duty. But they " knew not what spirit they were of." And so it is