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Show The Power of Habit. . BacftfHabits Begun in Youth, Powerful Forces for Wrongdoing Through Life. I lie youth who is tempted to steal a small sum of money or some article of little value, because nobody-is nobody-is looking, because nobody will miss it, is boginninsr a habit, which unless he stops it. at once, will finally ruin him. But one act, a youth may say. will not make much difference. Yes, one act will make difference, and a great one. Aside from the sinfulness sinful-ness of tbe act itself, it is by single acts that habits arc formed, and habits make or mar our character as men and women. One act of theft, of indulgence in drink, or impurity, becomes another and another and ar'iher. Each fall makes the next fall easier and easier. Each act weakens the will and deadens the conscience. Each act is the link in a chain, which, by-and-by, will bind the heart and sold .-o tightl' and so strongly that only a miracle of God'-grace God'-grace can break it. The unfortunate man who even in his darlf hou of. death could not resist the temptation to steal th watch of ihe minister who prayed beside him did it because the ruling passion of his life wa so strong that even the damp of death on his brow could not subdue it. He did it because the habit which he had begun in youth by a single act had so overmastered his, every faculty that when all elsf failed, when every other sense deserted him, that one habit still survived and compelled him in spite of himself to attempt an act of theft. Stealing had become the master passion of his life, and even in death it asserted its empire over him. So it is with every passion that a man allows to master his will and his conscience. It assails him in moments even when he would fain turn, away with loathing from his sin, when the memory of his misdeeds mis-deeds tortures him, and he" has ..made u'i his miul to lead abetter life. Look at the drunkard. Manv niid-man- V tiius'disgps v-ed"' vli r?us' I i-ff , Lc t a k-the k-the pledge and resolves to be henceforth sober. Wha is it. that drags him back to the boon companion' of the bar? What is it that again and again degrades de-grades him to the gutter? Why. the habit which ia too strong for him to break. And remember tha this powerful force, against which he is helples-wa's helples-wa's begun by a single act. What consequences flow from the single act whereby habits are formed and become passions which do not lose their banef id-power id-power over the human soul until God summons i to appear before Him, and which, even in the dyim moments of the unhappy wretch, shows itself vita1 to the last! The moral of all this is: liosist beginnings. B careful of your single acts. - Boot out habits which show a tendency to lead you into mischief. In word, master your habits before they master you. Sacred Heart Review. |