"Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned." James 5:12
Our news media has been having a difficult time pronouncing the names of some of the towns in Russia or Ukraine. They are long names and hard to pronounce, and the attempts that people make to say them are often very funny. But there are words in our own language that are hard to speak. One of the shortest words that we know is one of the very hardest to say sometimes. It is the little word of two letters, ''No."
Someone was telling me of a young man who had gone wrong. His parents did everything for him and gave him every advantage. The great trouble was that they had not taught him to say ''No." When temptation came to him to do what was wrong, he never had the courage to stand up and say, "No, I will not." He had learned many things but he had never learned that.
There was a little boy named Albert, and one fine summer afternoon his mother told him that he must not go swimming that day. So he made up his mind to stay around the house the rest of the day. But before long he heard the boys coming down the road, and calling out to him, "Come on. Let's go swimming. The water is fine.'' Now, Albert's mother had told him not to go, and he ought to have said, ''No, I can't go today." But just then Albert began to think about that water and the fun that the boys were going to have, and when he tried to say ''No," it seemed to stick somewhere in his throat, and wouldn't come out. The first thing he knew, he was going down the road with the boys to do what his mother had told him he must not do, and all because he hadn't been able to say "No."
We have all had times when it was hard to say that little word that seems so easy.
When an army pitches its tents for the night, sentinels are stationed all around the camp, and no one is allowed to go through those lines of sentinels, unless he is able to give the password. Do you know that there is a password to life which we must all learn, before we can enter into the larger, greater life that every boy and every girl longs for? It is the little word "No."
There are so many times in life when you need that word more than anything else in the world. When bad companions come, and they try to induce you to do what you understand is wrong, have the courage to say "No," and mean ''No." There are some people who say ''No " and do not half mean it. A little coaxing will make them say "Yes." Our text tells us what to do. "Let your nay be nay."Say ''No" and mean it, and hold to it.
Then we must say "No" when we are tempted to forget what we have been taught in Sunday school, and in our Christian homes.
Long ago there was a young man in the employ of Stephen Girard, the great Philadelphia merchant. One day Mr. Girard told him to do some work on Sunday. The young man said, "No, I am a Christian, and I promised my mother that I would not work on Sunday." Mr. Girard told him he could not keep him unless he was willing to do as he was ordered, and he was discharged.
Not very long after a man came to Mr. Girard and said, "I need a young man to fill a very responsible position in my business. Do you know of anyone? "Mr. Girard answered, ''I know just the man. I had to let him go because he would not work on Sunday. He wasn't afraid to say ''No,'' and stick to it, even when it meant the loss of his place. You will not make any mistake to take him." And so that young man found a better position than the one he had lost.
All the world honors the boy or girl who is able to say ''No."
The bravest boy is not he who fights the most. That is not real courage. A dog, or a snake, or a bear will fight bravely if he is angry enough. The highest, finest kind of courage is that of the boy who is able to say ''No" when he is tempted to do something that is wrong. He has won a battle with Satan, and that is the greatest victory that any of us can win.
Three very brave boys!
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