Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-03

easier still, until by and by the fingers seem
to play themselves, and the musician can
play and talk at the same time. That is
what habit does
HABIT LIKE A BROOK.
Habit is like mountain brook, swelled
oy the rains of spring. 1t makes way for
itself amid the trees and rocks; now here,
now there, having hard work sometimes to
force its way. But the next time it will toll
low the path it made before and will dig 1t
deeper, and the next time it will flow more
easily still. Look at any brook; watch lts
| curious windings out and init is picture OF
hablt 1t runs there so naturally, Just because
1t has got into the habit of doing IL
Take one matter of which we almost never
think-the continual balancing OF the human
body. We do not stand upright one instant
without making an effort to balance our Dody.
No sculptor can so carve the image OF man
that he can safely plant it on its feet and let !t
stand alone. The first breeze will topple 1t
! over. The upper part of the human frame
| throws the body all the time out of balance-a
balance which we are all the time restoring
yet without thinking about it. without con-
| scious effort, That is how habit helps u.s. 1t
makes the difficult easy. That balance is
| hard matter for the little child to catch. 1t
only gets the habit after many falls But the
pOSSSS-
1t is hard to see how the world could go on
| without this power of habit Habit is capital.
| 1t is so much hard-earned experience laid up
| in a bank that will not break. You live every
day upon the interest of it. Take away this
fact of habit out Of human nature and we would
all be like babies. Every utterance, every ao-
tion, would take as much attention and be at
tended with as much difficulty as when we did
it first. DR.. Manderley says that it would take
us nearly all day to dress ourselves, and that
this exertion would weary US completely.
You see then what it is about habit which
makes it so necessary and SO valuable to us.
Habit converts the difficult into the easy. Keep
persistently in the path of habit and there is
hardly limit to what you can make OF your
self. Wealth, knowledge, skill, are the re-
wards of persistent habit. They come to those
who say-that is what want; if do thus and
thus long enough can attain that; and thus
begin and keep on.
A PERMANENT POSSESSION.
Longfellow, in his poem on st. Augustine's
ladder, speaks, you remember, about "climb-
ing up on stepping stones of our dead selves to
better things" A good habit Is a dead self.
You got the victory there over self Your
will has so prevailed over your more indolent
or lower inclination that now those lower in
clinations do not dare to lift their heads-they
cannot. The rounds in the ladder of life are
habits.
Who ever has gained habit then, has gained
much-much evil if it is bad habit, much help
If it is good one. A habit once formed is
permanent possession. You can change it, but
only as you can change cold cast by filing it.
1t Is henceforth part of yourself. 1t has be-
come one of your instincts You need not give
yourself much further trouble about it. The
habit of telling the truth, the habit of kindly
thoughtfulness, the habit of charity, the habit
of church attendance, the habit of prayer-al
these, once become real habits, will be as easy
and natural to man as the habit of walking or
sleeping. You can attain these moral and re-
The teacher of science will contradict us with
out waiting for the teacher of religion if we
say that there is any Christian virtue whatever
which we cannot make into habit of our life.
The difficulty is in the trying 1t is the same
in the spiritual world as in the physical. You
may conquer piece of music and bad tenn
per in much the same way. Begin earnestly,
and continue persistently. Do not let mistakes
discourage you. Try again and again. Your
temper, your besetting sin, whatever it is, may
get the better of you to-day-that you have to
expect-but keep on contending and tomorrow
you will begin to get the better of it. So with
the struggle against any evil and for any virtue
whatsoever. 1t was believed among the Bo-
hemians that by the utterance and iteration
and reiteration of a certain mysterious word,
if a man said it often enough, power might be
gained over the mightiest demon of the lowest
hell. We believe that, too, only there is no
mystery about it. The word is NO" Say
ton ton comesN"Sor' com There isn't a temptatiop p' in
all the universe strong enough to overcome the
man who stands resolutely steadfast in the
strength of Christ persistently saying '.Nor'
MAxIMs TO BE OBSERVED.
Here are certain scientific rules for the form
alton of habit. This is what Prof. Balm says:
He lays down these two maxims to be
observed: First, begin with strong and de-
cided initiative. What does that mean? 1t
means be in earnest about the matter, Know
definitely what habit you desire to form and
gs- r7~-- 9
arrange matters that It will be inconvenient for
you to break your resolutions Let somebody
know, if you need to, what you intend to
do, then, if you fail, somebody else will know
about it, and that thought will fortify you.
That is the philosophy of taking public
pledge. 1t is strong and decided initiative.
And then, be watchful, especially at first,
against exceptions. exceptions may be fatal;
they are always mischievous. Whatever you
do three times you can domuch more easily the
fourth, but let the fifth time go by and you
will find the sixth nearly as hard as the first. 1t
is, as one says, like dropping ball of yarn, you
unwind in one slip more than you can rewind
in many turns.
find, in addition to these rules, written in
scientific paper by scientific professor. still
another to this effect: Keep the faculty of
effort alive in you by little gratuitous exer-
else every day." This is so exactly the prin-
ciple upon which the self-denials OF Lent are
most reasonably based: that quote his COM
ment also: Keep the faculty or effort alive
in you by little gratuitous exercise every
day. That is, be systematically ascetic or he
roic in little unnecessary points, do every day
or two something for no other reason than that
you would rather not do it, SO that when the
hour of dire need draws nigh it may find YOU
not unarmed and unframed to stand the test
Ascetics of this sort is like the insurance a
man pays on his house and goods. The tax
does him no good at the time, and possibly
may never bring him in a return. But if the
fire does come, his having paid it will be his
salvation from ruin. So with the man who has
daily Injured himself to habits of concentrated
attention. energetic volition and self-denial in
unnecessary things. He will stand like a
tower when everything rocks around him, and
when his softer felloW-mortals are winnowed
like chaff before him." This is what science
says about Lent. 1t sounds like paragraph
out OF an Ash "Wednesday sermon. Dr. Pusey
might have preached it. 1t Is simply scien-
tlfc exposition of the reasonable aid of the
purpose of Lent. That is what the self-denials
of Lent are,for-for the formation of habit-that
above all. GEORGE HODGES.
Is