HABITS by Joseph Clark

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 10, 1881

HABITS.

By Joseph Clark

BY JOSEPH CLARK.

"That pipe is your master, and you are a slave," said a gentleman to a friend, who had lost a favorite pipe, and was hunting it up.

So it is; bad habits are our masters. A habit that is evil is constantly drawing upon the purse, upon the time, and upon the strength of such as are so controlled. Some are under a variety of evil habits, each one of which is calling for gratification, and each striving for full control.

Many are so under the power of their appetites and lusts that they have little self-control. When not under the influence of one stimulant, they pass under the influence of another, until they can be said to be more or less intoxicated continually.

Good habits of life, such as temperance, patience, industry, economy, virtue, purity, may be said to be like firm and true friends, who will always exercise a fatherly care for you. In sickness or trial they comfort you, in sorrow they strengthen you, and in need they enrich you; in the heat of summer or the cold of winter they are alike a defense and a safeguard; among strangers they are your vouchers, and among friends, good habits are a never-failing source of happiness and strength.

Habits of devotion, habits of order, habits of studiousness, are of great value; habits of civility and courteousness, habits of sobriety and care for the feelings of others,—these are all more valuable to society than the richest mines of gold.

Slavery to evil habits impoverishes and degrades the soul more than the iron sceptre of despotism. This kind of slavery darkens the mind, disorders the intellect, blunts the moral powers, and hardens the heart, and in course of time, turns the warm and kind heart, into a desert of conflicting and corroding passions, and blots out the image of God from the soul.

Good habits are like fertilizing rains and warm suns upon the fertile soil. They cause all the best graces and virtues to spring forth, until the heart is like a watered garden. Good habits are like cash deposited in a good bank; they are a sure source of wealth or competence; these feed the poor, clothe the naked, and comfort the afflicted.