[Draw on the board the picture of the two forts. Use bright red for one and ugly brown or brick color for the other.]
Did you know, children, that you have lived right by a fort, every day of your lives? You have. It is called Fort Bad Habit; and from that fort they are sending out parties all the time to attack you.
Captain Laziness is one of the officers of the fort. Haven’t you often had an attack of laziness? His favorite time for an attack is in the morning, when the rising-bell rings, but he is likely to make an onset almost any time.
Then there is General Meanness. He is one of the officers of the fort, also. He has led a charge against you often, I am sure; and whenever you get cross and out of sorts, it is because you are captured by General Meanness, and he has carried you off to Fort Bad Habit.
Corporal Vanity, too, lives in that fort. He attacks you with a looking-glass, and binds you fast with ribbons in a network of laces, and carries you off to Fort Bad Habit before you quite know what has happened to you.
Major Mad is up in that fort, too. Every time you get angry, he has you. He keeps prodding you with his long bayonet, and gets you madder and madder, until you are completely under his control.
No chance to be brave for Christ? Why, up in the Fort Bad Habit there are enough enemies of yours to keep busy any soldier that ever lived, from Caesar to Grant! You have been beaten by them many and many a time, and often, I fear, you give up to them after a single battle.
There’s only one safe way, and that is to take refuge in a great, strong fort, called Fort Good Habit. Christ himself commands this fort, and if you are a soldier under him, you will not be defeated.