me 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.

Pleasure.

Another enemy is _worldly pleasure_. A great many people are just
drowned in pleasure. They have no time for any meditation at all. Many
a man has been lost to society, and lost to his family, by giving
himself up to the god of pleasure. God wants His children to be happy,
but in a way that will help and not hinder them.

A lady came to me once and said: "Mr. Moody, I wish you would tell me
how I can become a Christian." The tears were rolling down her cheeks,
and she was in a very favorable mood; "but," she said, "I don't want
to be one of your kind."

"Well," I asked, "have I got any peculiar kind? What is the matter
with my Christianity?"

"Well," she said, "my father was a doctor, and had a large practice,
and he used to get so tired that he used to take us to the theater.
There was a large family of girls, and we had tickets for the theaters
three or four times a week. I suppose we were there a good deal
oftener than we were in church. I am married to a lawyer, and he has a
large practice. He gets so tired that he takes us out to the theater,"
and she said, "I am far better acquainted with the theater and theater
people than with the church and church people, and I don't w