Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Avoiding the Tendency to Drift
Yes, it is drifting that is to be feared most. Men don’t become atheists and swindlers with a single leap. For every person who decisively sets his face against God, there are hundreds who drift from Him.
In my own vacation experiences, an illustration occurred one time which taught me to fully evaluate the power of the tide to drift. We were staying on the coast of North Wales, and wanted to visit an island famous for its ruins and traditions. Nothing seemed easier than to cross the narrow straits which lay between it and the beach on which we stood. But as soon as our rowboat crossed beyond the jutting headland, we found ourselves caught by a strong current which persistently carried us off course, and if we had yielded to it, it would have carried us adrift far down the coast. It took four of us rowing hard for four and a half hours to cross the straits. Later that night, with a flowing tide, we traversed the same span in about half an hour.
Ever since that experience, I’ve never ignored the power of the current, so gentle, so imperceptible, so pleasant to yield to, and yet so difficult to resist. And I have often been reminded of that episode when I’ve seen young men drifting before the currents of moral influence on the great ocean of life.
Young men come up to our big cities from holy and blessed homes where they have been born and raised. They are nice, amiable, well-meaning fellows, with no intention of going wrong, though perhaps without a strong resolution to go right. The last words of advice from father or mother ring in their ears, urging them to keep up the good habits in which they have been trained since childhood, and they intend to conform to them.
If they fall in with a strong Christian influence, it isn’t unlikely that they will turn out well enough. But if they go into some establishment or house where there is a fast set, merry with liquor, where the Lord’s Day is unkept, where filthy insinuations pollute the talk, and gambling fills the leisure hours, after the first shock wears off, they give themselves up to the strong, prevailing current and begin to inertly but swiftly drift. At first, it isn’t necessary that they commit some flagrant sin; it is enough that they cease to resist the insidious influences around them.
Young men, does this offer a true depiction of your condition? If so, be mindful of the advice of an elder brother who has passed through city life and can gather up all the advice he has in the words, Don’t drift.
Don’t Drift into a Loose Way of Keeping Sunday
When you are away from home, you don’t know where to go, what church to attend, or what minister to listen to. If you enter a place of worship, no one knows you, and perhaps no one welcomes you. You miss the familiar faces and voices of your childhood’s earliest memories. You feel your absence from that congregation and really from any other, and yet, you know your absence won’t be noticed for the rest of the day and so you stay away. Your pursuits may be quite innocent, and yet your absence from God’s house and neglect of your old practice, without sufficient reason, is the first symptom of yielding to the swift current which urges you to drift.
When relocating to a new place, my advice is to go to several different places of worship in the neighborhoods near where you live. Go once or twice to ascertain the character of the ministry and of the work carried on, and then join the one you find most helpful. Make direct contact with the minister, tell him who you are, where you have come from, and your intention of settling down in his congregation. If he is a true man of God, he will be only too glad to welcome you. If he isn’t, I would advise you to take yourself to someone who will happily welcome you into the flock.
When you settle in a new place, be sure to surround yourself with good, Christian friends and some older gentlemen who may disciple you and offer spiritual support when difficult challenges come.
Don’t Drift into Loose Companionships
A man is made or tainted by his friends. In the same way a fish takes on the mottling of the ground on which it lies, and like the butterflies resemble the flowers over which they hover, so we become like those whom we choose for our companions. Don’t drift into an acquaintance with any man until you are pretty sure of him and have asked God to show you his true character. Be not deceived: evil companions corrupt good character (1 Corinthians 15:33).
Beware of the man who goes in for a lot of showy jewelry and professes to be able to show you a thing or two about life. Perhaps he knows a little too much and wants to see life at your expense. And when you have spent your last penny and he is tired of you, he will hurl you aside without mercy.
Beware of the man who commonly belittles his mother, father, home, or women. Many men ridicule any hint of the purity and kindheartedness of those who make up the home, and apparently don’t accept that woman can be anything other than the toy or victim of man. It is most likely that they have only lived to tempt the weaker sex whom they now criticize, and that their vices have essentially excluded them from the company of pure and virtuous women.
Beware of the man who professes to be too knowledgeable in the science of the day to believe in the Bible, and who ridicules those who do. It is an easy thing to ask a question which might take days of teaching and investigation to answer. Destructive criticism is child’s play. Any fool can light a cathedral on fire, which would take centuries to rebuild; and any raggedly dressed homeless child wandering the streets can smash a window which neither modern wealth nor art can reconstruct. True wisdom is not destructive but constructive. A man has no more right to steal away or spoil your faith than he has to deprive you of your eyesight or rob you of your purse. And if he attempts it, he divulges a dangerous character of which it is best for you to be wary.
Don’t Drift into Extravagant Spending
It’s better to live on oatmeal porridge and brown bread than spend more than you can afford and drift into debt. The pleasure of a day’s outing or of an evening’s fun has a nasty aftertaste when you have to avoid certain people for weeks or months because you owe them money that you can’t repay.
We might be tempted to imitate people above us socially, but it’s a miserable life to live and very unsatisfactory because we generally imitate their weaknesses and vices rather than their virtues. And yet it seems to offer much passing pleasure for the poor clerk to dress and speak with the airs of a young lord. One evening’s conquest of the barmaids and bar loafers must be a rare luxury. But this kind of thing can’t be done without money. You don’t have much money to throw away out of ten dollars per week. The result is that a young man sometimes spends in a single evening enough money to fill his heart with anxiety for many a weary day; and in hope of the opportunity of repayment, which never comes, he may even be tempted to take money which doesn’t belong to him in order to delay pressing demands.
Don’t Drift into Habits of Gambling
Plenty of gambling is all around us, and a man feels rather lonely when he refuses to join in. Some time ago I felt like this while onboard an ocean steamer, when I seemed to be nearly the only one who refused to join in a sweepstakes. Workshops and businesses not filled with the buzz of excitement on the eve of some great race are comparatively rare. And in most large towns, clubs and other similar places offer men the opportunity of losing fortunes, if they are only fools enough.
For the most part, it’s not the love of money that urges men to bet, but the excitement of the chance – the risk − which relieves the monotony of their otherwise aimless existence. As we look on such people from outside, we can’t conceive of the fascinations this kind of life offers, just as we can’t truly comprehend the irresistible force of the whirlpool until we are being sucked into its gurgling vortex. But it is certainly needless to fling ourselves into them to see what they are like. Once pulled in, we will probably find it impossible to get out. And we can almost imperceptibly be drawn in. To deposit the first coin in a raffle or sweepstakes, to bet the first shilling on a horse, to lay a bet for a pair of gloves − these things may seem like nothing, but they are a form of yielding to the outer rim of the whirlpool. Of course, it’s easy to break from them, but they can lead to other things only a single hairbreadth removed from them, but which will lead to others, and still others beyond. How much better to put your foot down and refuse to take part in the first place. You intend to refuse to participate in the second, but if you are going to refuse at all, it will be unspeakably easier to refuse in the beginning than after you have taken part.
Betting is a bad thing. It undoes society in the same way the social white ant feeds on wood and is highly destructive to the wooden houses of the tropics. Men who bet care about little else. Love and home are sacrificed to the companions of the betting ring. Business is neglected because they live in the feverish hope of coming into a windfall and getting money without giving an equivalent of any sort.
Don’t Drift into Habits of Drinking
Nothing is easier to do than this. The tides of strong drink are running swiftly through our streets, and every corner saloon is a jetty from which men may enter the boats and launch upon the current. A few may enter it and still escape, but for an enormous number there is little hope of escape once they are somewhat afloat on the fascinating but perilous waters.
They say that smoking leads to drinking. Some of us have so many natural appetites to keep in order that we are thankful never to have awakened the habit of smoking, which seems a very masterful one and terribly able to become a tyrant and a very unhealthy one at that.
You aren’t a sinner specifically because you smoke, but is it wise to begin a habit you can’t defend except by saying that others do it and besides being very unhealthy, may lead you into drinking, bad friendships, and other things?
But other things also cause a person to drift into drinking habits. Loafing about the streets in the evenings; paying the cost to treat your companions to a drink because you want to look significant in their regard and with the certainty that you will have to drink what they provide in return; doing business over a wine bar; spending your evenings in places like music halls, where alcohol passes around, and where the proprietor looks warily on those who don’t patronize the buffet − all these are easy methods of drifting into drink.
No one plans to be a drunkard when he starts drinking. Those who are now in the agony of delirium were once as pure and true as you, but they were carried down an almost imperceptible slope. Beware of their fate, and don’t follow their earlier steps, for fear you will gain momentum you can’t halt and go down to hell. There is no better safeguard to a young man in life than to take the pledge of total abstinence. He may not sign a pledge at a meeting, but he can write one in his own bedroom and make up his mind that by God’s help he will never touch this detestable enemy of human hearts, happiness, and homes.
Don’t Drift into Habits of Impurity
We all have appetites and desires within us that are beautiful and innocent enough when kept in their right place; but they are very reluctant to be kept there, and are always scraping to ascend the throne of control and to assume dominion over our life. It seems pleasant to allow them to ascend like this, but who will describe the horrors of the wreckage of all that is bright and beautiful and happy in the life of the miserable victim who has yielded to their first suggestions?
Beware of drifting into secret sins, witnessed by no eye but God’s. Beware of keeping the company of those who are familiar with the ways of darkness and impurity. Beware of shows and pictures, of amusements and books that excite the lower passions. Never go to a place to which you could not take your mother or sister. Never get familiar with a girl whom you could not introduce to the purest woman you know. Never treat a girl in any way other than you would like a man to treat your own sister.
It isn’t necessary to yield to temptation. Abstinence from strong drink and excessive meat; plenty of gymnastics, cycling, and muscular exercise; hard mattresses, cold bathing, and early rising will remedy many of the issues which so often perplex young men. And better than all this is the power and purity of Jesus, which you can claim and use every time you need it. One sincere, believing cry for help will bring Him near. And when He enters the soul, impurity cannot stand against His indwelling any more than straw before fire or darkness before day.
Don’t Drift into an Imprudent Marriage
It is good when a young man meets a good girl. I never object to an early engagement when the couple are well mated, though I would urge a deferred marriage until the comforts of a home can be provided either by the love of friends or by the results of united savings. And no home is so sweet as that which has been chosen and furnished by the taste and self-denial of those who are to enter it.
You should not choose your life partner only from seeing her in an evening dress or in a group. Every sweet face doesn’t tell a perfectly true story of the inner disposition. You need a wife who knows something more than how to play one or two set pieces on the piano, or how to sing half a dozen songs. The girl who understands all the details of household management, who knows how everything should be done even though she may never have to do it, who has been good to her parents and younger brothers and sisters, who dresses simply and neatly, who knows how to make a dollar and do a dollar’s work, who is deeply spiritual − that is the kind of woman who will make a good wife. Until God sends her to you, don’t flirt or play with a girl’s affections, or lead any to think you care for them when you don’t.
Don’t Drift into Being a Mere Moneymaking Machine
Some people seem to live for nothing other than to add a few more coins to their rising pile, and to do this, they sacrifice all that makes life sweet and decent and honorable. Have an aim high in character. Spend your life aiming for the best results. Be more eager to get up than to get on. There’s no harm in ambition when it is directed toward doing the best you can to make the world better and those around you happier. But to seek money for money’s sake is a detestable passion. Your aim must be to seek first the things that make for righteousness and peace, for God’s glory and man’s good. Be faithful in these, in your small sphere of influence, and it will be almost certain that you will be put in a position where you will have the chance of being also faithful in much. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).
You tell me that you can’t resist the strong current on which you are already launched, and that you have already started to drift. But it isn’t too late. Send up a cry of distress to the Lord Jesus and ask Him to come on board your boat. He is stronger than the mightiest current. Give Him the towing line, so He can take it in His hand and tow you up the strong stream to His own bright home.
There is no better policy, dear young brother, than to give your heart to Jesus. Take Him as your Savior, Master, and Friend. Ask Him to live in your soul, making you pure and sweet and strong. Follow Him in His footsteps of self-sacrifice for the sake of others. Go no place where you can’t also take Him. Let His friends be yours, and see that yours are His. Ask Him to put you into that position where you can please and glorify Him best. Remember that prayer and waiting will untie the toughest knots and unravel the greatest difficulties.