Habit in Christian preaching refers to the powerful force of repeated actions shaping character and spiritual life, often likened to a current or natural tendency difficult to resist (Romans 12:2). Illustrations emphasize habit's formation through regularity and its influence on behavior, calling believers to cultivate godly practices and break harmful patterns for holiness (Galatians 5:16).
Worn-out horses instinctively formed battle lines and charged during gunfire.
A battle occurred near the corral, where a large number of Gen. Sheridan's worn-out horses were confined. During the heavy firing, they grew warlike, formed in squadrons, and charged upon a number of mules, two of whom they killed; when the rest fled. They next charged upon and overthrew a high rail-fence, and did not cease their demonstrations till the firing ceased.
A magician's habit caused him to lose the true philosopher's stone forever.
There is an Eastern tale of a magician, who discovered by his incantation, that the philosopher's stone lay on the bank of a certain river, but was unable to determine its exact locality. He therefore strolled along the bank with a piece of iron, to which he applied successively all the pebbles he found. As one after another they produced no change in the metal, he flung them into the stream. At last he hit on the object of his search, and the iron became gold in his hand; but, alas! he had become so accustomed to the "touch-and-go" movement, that the real stone was involuntarily thrown into the river after the others, and lost to him forever.
Habit grows stronger with time and regularity, becoming a necessity if unresisted.
We all acknowledge the strength of habit. Its power increases with time. In youth, it may seem to us like the filmy line of the spider: in age, like the fly caught in its toils, we struggle in vain. "Habit, if not resisted," says St. Augustine, "becomes necessity." The physical force of habit is thus clearly illustrated by Dr. Combe. "A tendency to resume the same mode of action at stated times is peculiarly the characteristic of the nervous system; and, on this account, regularity is of great consequence in exercising the moral and intellectual power. All nervous diseases have a marked tendency to observe regular periods; and the natural inclination to sleep at the approach of night is another instance of the same fact. It is this principle of our nature which promotes the formation of what are called habits. If we repeat any kind of mental effort every day at the same hour, we at last find ourselves entering upon it, without premeditation, when the time approaches." Mrs. Sigourney
Miners refused surface work, preferring familiar habits even if less productive.
Some Lake-Superior miners, accustomed to work deep down in the earth, were about contracting for another mine; but, when they found that their work would be on the surface, they refused it, preferring idleness and want to such unaccustomed labor.
Habit governs life like a current, not a pilot directing a vessel's course.
This law is the magistrate of a man's life. It is not the pilot directing the vessel: it is the vessel abandoned to the force of the current, the influence of the tides, and the control of the winds.
— Joseph Johnson
Giving up tobacco parallels renouncing other habits unfriendly to true Christian piety.
A correspondent of the New-York Evangelist says: "I had chewed this poison more than fifteen years. I had often doubted the utility of this practice before I relinquished it. I found that one argument which I had employed against the use of ardent spirits applied with as much propriety to the use of tobacco. The argument is, that it must be unfriendly to true piety, for the Christian, while in health, to be un-
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