late. For first there comes to the mind a bare thought, then a strong imagina tion ; afterwards delight and an evil motion and consent. And so little by little our wicked enemy gets wholly in, because he is not resisted in the begin ning. And the longer a man is too sluggish to resist, the weaker does he become in himself; and the enemy grows stronger and stronger.” No man be comes a drunkard, a gambler, a sensu alist, a thief in a day. An act by con stant repetition becomes a habit and in time becomes so fixed, so part and parcel of our being, that we cannot overcome it. Little by little bad habits grow, How they begin we scarcely know, A little wrong act, a little false word, One pleasant drink in the poison cup stirred, Repeated once in a while again And lo, we are fast in a cruel chain. But while sitting idly by watching the fate of that piece of timber, I lifted my eyes just in time to see a young man of fine physique dive off the breakwater, and make for the open sea. It was obvious he was an expert swimmer for he went out a great distance. When he turned he seemed to be making little headway, but gradually with a strong, steady stroke he mastered the elements and returned to his starting point for a rest before plunging in again. The man who trains himself to resist the elements becomes stronger, more confident, while he who gives way to them becomes a weakling and full of fear. This is equally true of the man who resists the temptation to sin, who gives a determined and decisive refusal to Satan. By resistance we become morally strong, more ready to meet Satan when he returns to the attack again. Yet, if we are to resist and conquer Satan and his hosts, who are ever work ing for our defeat and destruction, we need a power far greater than our own. Millions are enslaved to Satan because they have tried to defeat him in their own strength. When they would do good
S ITTING by the seashore I saw the sea carry on its wild, heaving bosom a piece of timber. Lacking any power of resistance, the wood was absolutely at the mercy of the water and was car ried hither and thither according to the drift of the waves. Sometimes it was cast on the shore, then a huge incoming wave would lay hold of it and once more it was buffeted about by the restless sea. How true this is of millions on the sea of life! They lack the power of resistance to self and sin; they are driven hither and thither by their impulses and desires; they ever follow the line of least resistance. Multitudes are in the remorse less grip of some evil habit. They are enslaved to alcohol, gambling, immoral ity; they have a greed for money or love of pleasure, and so many have vile tem pers. Their will-power has become weak ened by giving way constantly to that which they now speak of as “my weak ness.” The chain of evil habits which they themselves have forged has become so fixed that, try as they will, they cannot break it, and it drags them on to moral and spiritual ruin. They are as impotent as that piece of timber. Life is largely made up of habits. They are meant to make life easier for us. A habit once formed is like a towrope that pulls us along thereafter without any conscious effort. The more good habits we
can form in our childhood and youth the sweeter, and safer and more successful life will be ever afterwards. Because of the power of evil habits we need to beware of beginnings. The first smoke, the first drink, the first gamble, the first small theft, the first act of impurity may have tragic and terrible consequences. An ex-guardsman who became so en slaved to alcohol that he lost his job, his wife, his home, and was reduced to eating weeds from the field, told me how he became a slave to alcohol. “ My fath er,” he said, “was a loyal church mem ber but saw no harm in drinking mod erately. Every night he had a glass of beer for his supper and left his glass with its dregs on the table. As I was the first to go to work, I was always down first in the morning. One morning I said to myself, “ I wonder what there is in alcohol that causes father to like it so much.” I lifted the glass and drank the dregs, and each, morning afterwards I did the same thing. That was how I ac quired a taste for alcohol.” We may break an oak sapling easily but not twenty men can bend it when it has become a stout and majestic tree. Bad habits are to be resisted at the very beginning, for they will have a bad end ing. An old monk, who knew too well the power of an evil habit, said, “With stand beginnings; a remedy comes too
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