‘Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men’” (Pro_4:13).

Bad Company

Have you ever heard anyone say, “Birds of a feather flock together”? Have you ever stopped and really asked yourself what it means? Let me tell you a story which will help you to understand.

One spring a great many crows began to pull up a farmer’s young corn. The farmer loaded his shotgun and went out to frighten them away. Bang! The farmer fired at the crows, and hurried out into the field to see how many he had hit. To his surprise he found that, besides killing three crows, he had wounded Polly, his pet parrot!

You can imagine how excited his children were when he came home with Polly in his hands.
“O Daddy,” they cried, “who was so cruel as to hurt poor Polly! Where was she?”

Before the farmer could explain, Polly began to say, “Bad Company! Bad Company!”

“That is certainly the truth, Polly!” laughed the man.

Then he explained to his children that Polly had evidently seen the crows in the field and had left the house (she was allowed out of her cage a great deal of the time) and had gone to join the other birds. She had been among the crows when the farmer fired on them. “You see, Polly was keeping bad company, children,” the man said. “And bad company is always dangerous. In the Bible we read, ‘Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men'” (Pro_4:13).

All the best from
James Martin Sandbrook.
2004.