Is the Use of Tobacco a Sin? by Frank L. Templin, M. A.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 7, 1909

Is the Use of Tobacco a Sin?

By Frank L. Templin, M. A.

In a conversation about the frequently discussed question whether the use of tobacco is morally wrong, a young man was heard to say, “I am a member of the — Church, and I have read the Bible nearly through, but I have not found a place where it says it is wrong to use tobacco.” And as he said it, he was stuffing a cob pipe. Instead of answering the question, “Is the use of tobacco a sin?” let me suggest another for consideration; and before I state my question, let me make the following observations:—

1. Men are social beings, and they can not act or speak without affecting others. A gentleman is a man of refined manners, who manifests a kindly consideration of the likes and the dislikes of others. He will endeavor to offend no one. The smell of tobacco is offensive to many, causing even sickness and suffering to large numbers. The sight of disgorged floods of tobacco spittle that stain the floors of public places and the sidewalks in the cities, is disgusting to decent people. The smell of the clothes and breath of the habitual smoker is a stench in every clean nostril.

2. Tobacco undermines the health. Dr. Willard Parker, at the head of the medical profession of New York City, said: “I am sure that in health no one can use tobacco without detriment to body, mind, and soul. It is poison which slowly but surely destroys life, and a man who uses it to any extent is as old at fifty as he would be at sixty without it. All who smoke or chew are more apt to die in epidemics and more prone to apoplexy and paralysis than other people. The duty of abstaining from the slow killing of one’s self by tobacco is as clear as the duty of not cutting one’s throat.”

3. It weakens the mental powers. Lord Bacon said: “To smoke is a secret delight, serving to steal away men’s minds.” Principal Bancroft, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., says: “Tobacco is the bane of our schools and colleges. Teachers who have given any attention to the subject agree that under its use, boys go down in scholarship, in self-respect, in self-control. It takes off the fine edge of the mind, injures the manners, and dulls the moral senses.”

4. It destroys moral character. One cold, damp winter night a number of men were lounging and smoking in a depot where there was only one waiting-room. The train was an hour late. One woman who was made sick by the foul tobacco fumes was compelled to stand on the platform in the cold. Such a man will go daily along the streets past open doors and windows with a pipe in his mouth, causing the atmosphere even inside the dwellings to be offensive for five minutes after he has passed. Surely one’s sense of right and wrong is very dull when he will willingly pollute the air that others must breathe. “The use of tobacco weakens the will, and blunts the moral sensibilities, so that its users are more easily led into other evils.”

5. It transmits many evil effects to the offspring. John Cowan, M. D., says: “Of all the harm done by the use of tobacco, the greatest harm and the mightiest wrong is that of transmitting to the unborn the appetite for the filthy, disease-creating, misery-engendering drug.” A leading physician says, “I have never known a habitual tobacco-user whose children, born after he had long used it, did not have deranged nervous systems, and sometimes evidently weak minds. Shattered nervous systems for generations to come may be the result of this indulgence.” Brodie says, “This is a sin that affects the third and fourth generations.” Mr. J. B. Wight, a student of this question, says: “But when the health and happiness of unborn children are involved, no person has the right to indulge any habit that will bring the least injury upon them. The gospel of Christ furnishes a balm for bereaved and

troubled hearts which can nowhere else be found. But the devotee of tobacco has no right to such comfort. When his children die young, or, being spared, are doomed to drag out a puny, miserable existence, let him not ascribe it to ‘God’s will,’ but think of it as the legitimate result of his own self-indulgence.”

6. It is a useless waste of money. Every man is a steward of what God has entrusted to his care. The use of tobacco is known to cause poverty, disease, and crime, to bring many into our almshouses, reformatories, insane asylums, jails, and penitentiaries; and the people are taxed to support these institutions and to provide tobacco for the inmates.

7. It makes one unchristlike. A good man was heard to say, “Joe Jones uses tobacco, and he’s a great preacher, and I can not see that there is any harm in it if such men as that use it.” Joe Jones may be a great man. But if we excuse ourselves by comparing ourselves with him or any other, even though they be good and influential men, God’s Word says we are not wise. 2 Cor. 10:12. Is not Jesus Christ a better example? Can you think of him as using tobacco?

8. It puts one in bad company. Suppose the people of the world were divided into two companies, one composed of those who use tobacco, the other of those who do not. Which would be the most desirable company? Where would the best men be found? Where the worst?

9. It is contrary to God’s commandment. Men of the world may not care if they have filthy habits, but every Christian at least should want to be a clean, pure man. And God’s command to every Christian is, that we “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.”

The question which I wish to propose is this:—

Can one offend the taste and feelings of the better half of society; undermine and injure his health; blunt his mind and weaken his mental powers; willingly lower his moral standing and blunt his moral sensibilities; transmit disease and mental and moral weakness to his children; invest God’s money in something that benefits no one but harms many; make himself unchristlike; class himself with the lowest elements of society; and refuse to obey God’s revealed law of purity, without sin?—Frank L. Templin, M. A.