We need not be reminded how common a question among saints it is, "How can I get rid of my bad habits?"In the effort to get clear of them, many a day has been misspent, and the saint brought into bondage. Scarcely a Christian you meet but is afflicted with some "besetting sin" (though in Heb. 12:it is not some particular sin, but sin in general, which besets).

The first necessity is, to know that bad habits are sins :soft words are not in place when dealing with what crucified the Lord. After they have been judged and confessed as such, we are ready to see the way of escape. It makes no difference what particular form the habit takes,-whether irritability, strife, emulation, envy, or what not,-they one and all spring from a common source. What a relief to find that instead of having many foes to contend with, we have not even one ! For sin, which is the root of evil, is not something to be contended with. We would be invariably overcome in that kind of warfare. But we are dead-dead by the death of Another. Faith reckons this to be true, and, as a result, finds-as when do we not?-that God is true when He says that "sin shall not have dominion over us, for we are not under law but under grace." Now, the root-the body of sin-being destroyed, for faith, not to sight, the habits are gone too as we walk by faith. This being the case, it is evident that the bad habits will resume their sway so soon as faith ceases to be in exercise. We get rid of them by counting God true, and so at leisure from evil; indeed, to be at leisure from it, we must be occupied with good. " Overcome evil with good." It is as we view the unvailed glory of the Lord that we are changed into the same image. In the sanctuary, in the presence of God, is our abiding place (Ps. 27:). Into that holy place sin and bad habits cannot enter. From His light all the unfruitful works of darkness shrink away. How happy, how natural, is such a life! And yet, alas ! we need to watch, lest, as Eve was beguiled by the serpent, we should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Under the guise of holiness, perfect love, etc., many a soul has really embraced that which is the very opposite of these. If we walk with God, bad habits will not trouble us.