Power of Habit by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 14, 1871

Power of Habit.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

WITHOUT careful observation, we are not apt to realize the great power that habit has over us. I was driving a horse the other day that would jump and cringe every time I harnessed her. Probably she had been frightened some time in being harnessed. She will never forget it. Let a horse run away once, and he will always have to be watched after that. So it is with persons young and old. Using tobacco, liquor, &c., become such strong habits that their victims can hardly break from them. So persons become accustomed to swearing, and other vices, and do them simply from the force of habit.

How important, then, that parents guard well the circumstances that surround their children, the impressions that are made upon their minds, and the habits that they form. The way the twig is bent the tree is inclined. A wrong habit formed in youth is very apt to stick to a man all through life, and influence his whole conduct.

In Christian experience and Christian life very much depends upon getting a right start. If when he first starts, a Christian bears the cross to-day, and neglects it to-morrow, discharges his duty this time, but fails to the next, lives carefully a short time, and then walks carelessly a spell, he will be quite apt to go all through life in the same way, a weak, halting, stumbling babe in Christ, of no use in the cause of God. But on the other hand, if he starts out and firmly establishes habits of devotion, cross-bearing, and faithfulness, the chances are that he will become a strong man of God, a laborer. Let us look to the habits we are forming.

D. M. CANRIGHT.