You will meet with false friends. They will speak kindly to you, and advise you what to do, and profess how greatly they love you; but while they pretend to serve you, they will really be serving themselves. You have heard the story of the cat and the monkey that joined in partnership about some chestnuts. The monkey liked roast chestnuts, but the cat could not eat them in any form. So the monkey put the nuts in the fire, and when they were roasted, he caught the cat and made her poke them out of the fire with her paw. So poor puss had nothing to eat, and burned her paw into the bargain, while the crafty monkey got all the nuts to himself. That is the origin of the expression, "Making a cat's paw of you."

You will meet with selfish people who will prove to be false friends. Things are not what they seem." Don't always judge by the appearance. Yes, and there are sham pleasures that some people call enjoyment. Look at that young man. He left home last week and went to a new situation in a large town. He has been just a week among his new companions, and they have taken him to spend the evening with them. They have had supper together, and now the wine is set on the table, and a box of cigars. He never smoked a cigar in his life, and he took no wine when he was at home. But they press him "to be a man," and drink and smoke. He sees other people doing so, and because he thinks it respectable, he takes his first cigar and glass of wine. The cigar burns his mouth, and tickles his throat, and gives him great distress; but he must be a man, so he bears it all, and receives the compliments of his friends on his success in smoking. He takes glass after glass of wine to quench his feverish thirst. At length he retires to rest. But, oh! how wretched he begins to feel! His cigar has made him sick and disordered his stomach. His wine has made his head ache. He rolls in agony till he begins to feel that instead of playing the man, he has been playing the fool. He has been pursuing false pleasures. You will find in seeking sham pleasures that "the game is not worth the candle."

Beware of shams. Avoid the false and aim at the true. Be true yourselves, and show your wisdom by hating the false and loving the true. It is not always safe to judge by appearances.

The next lesson I want you to learn is:

II. We must imitate only what is wise and good.

There are many things about the serpent that we should do wrong to imitate. It is cruel and dangerous. It has great power for mischief. Its bite is fatal, and the largest kind of serpents are strong enough to kill an ox, and break every bone in its body. Just think how much harm they can do, and how easily they can destroy life. You may be sure that the people who live near them, hate them. The man who has the chance of killing a serpent will not let it go. Serpents are never loved like harmless and affectionate creatures. In this respect we are not to imitate them. We are not to be cruel and dangerous.

We have the power to do a great deal of harm. We can cause suffering and pain; and to some people the sight of suffering is attractive. "The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." When I was a little boy I remember seeing a cruel young man tie a string to the leg of a dove, and hold the poor bird in front of a dog to encourage his dog to run a race. When the race was over he allowed the dog to devour the poor bird; but the sight of his cruelty sent me home with a sad heart, for I had been taught to be kind to all God's creatures. If you see a man fond of cruelty you may be sure he is not a good man. It is said there was once a judge who was seated in a court of justice, when a little bird flew into his bosom to escape from a hawk. The judge caught the bird that flew to him for protection, and instead of saving its life he killed it. The people were so indignant at his cruelty, that they never rested till they removed him from his office, and stripped him of his honours. And they acted wisely, for a man is not fit to dispense justice who knows nothing of mercy. We are not to be cruel like the serpent.

If we are wicked we are dangerous. Every bad man is dangerous because of the bad example he sets. Some people use bad language. Their wicked words are thoughtlessly dropped, and little children hear them, and repeat them without perhaps knowing their meaning. These bad words spread from mouth to mouth, and we never know where the mischief ends. Some people form bad habits. Children imitate them, because they think it is right to do what older people do; and so the evil spreads, till a vast amount of mischief