Bad Habits by J. S. McGraw

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 1, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 38.

Bad Habits

By J. S. McGraw

BREAK off your habits at once. Don't attempt it by degrees. You never heard of a drunkard reforming by drinking less and less until he finally became a total abstainer. Faster and faster from the elevation falls the weight earthward, faster and faster speeds the runaway car down the grade. Good habits mark the up-grade; bad habits, the decline. Perfection is not easy; destruction is. The nearer perfection, the slower the progress, the greater the toiling; whereas the nearer we are to destruction, the more swift and sure the end.

There is no permanent breaking of bad habits without forming good ones. You have heard the old saying, "Nature abhors a vacuum." This is true all over the world. The field that is left unsown is sure to throw up a crop of weeds. It will produce vegetables if the seed be placed in the ground. And these useful plants will at length take possession of things, and crowd the weeds out. How glad I used to be, as a boy, when I came upon a pale, sickly ragweed growing alongside of a vigorous celery plant! I would say, "Ah, my fine fellow, you are getting the worst of it this time." This was the right order. So with the mind and heart. Plant a new thought, a new affection, a noble purpose, a high ideal, in place of the old and unworthy; and if properly cared for, we may hope that it will grow, and help to crowd out the evil. "Satan still some mischief finds for idle hands to do." It will be a help to associate with persons of good habits. To this very end God has given us our social nature, and our opportunities as members of society.—J. S. McGraw.