stion is, do you wish to abandon this habit or not?
If you do, all is well. I shall immediately forget all the past, and
will do all I can to help you resist and overcome temptation in future.
But all I can do is only to help you; and the first thing to be done, if
you wish to engage in this work of reform, is to acknowledge your fault;
and I should like to know how many are willing to do this."

"I wish all those who are willing to tell me whether they use profane
language would rise."

Every individual but one rose.

"I am very glad to see so large a number," said the teacher; "and I
hope you will find that the work of confessing and forsaking your faults
is, on the whole, pleasant, not painful business. Now those who can
truly and honestly say that they never do use profane language of any
kind may take their seats."

Three only of the whole number, which consisted of not far from twenty,
sat down. It was in a sea-port town, where the temptation to yield to
this vice is even greater than would be, in the interior of our country,
supposed possible.

"Those who are now standing," pursued the teacher, "admit that they do,
sometimes at least, commit this sin. I suppose all, however, are
determined to reform; for I do not know what else should induce you to
rise and acknowledge it here, unless it is a desire hereafter to break
yourselves of the habit. But do you suppose that it will be enough for
you merely to resolve here that you will reform?"

"No, sir," said the boys.

"Why not? If you now sincerely determine never more to use a profane
word, will you not easily avoid it?"

The boys were silent. Some said faintly, "No, sir."

"It will not be easy for you to avoid the sin hereafter," continued the
teacher, "even if you do now sincerely and resolutely determine to do
so. You have formed the habit of sin, and the habit will not be easily
overcome. But I have detained you long enough now. I will try to devise
some method by which you may carry your plan into effect, and to-morrow
I will tell you what it is."

So the boys were dismissed for the day; the pleasant countenance and
cheerful tone of the teacher conveying to them the impression that they
were engaging in the common effort to accomplish a most desirable
purpose, in which they were to receive the teacher's help, not that he
was pursuing them, with threatening and punishment, into the forbidden
practice into which they had wickedly strayed. Great cautio