HIS LAST CIGAR | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 11, 1880

HIS LAST CIGAR.

Mr. Goodfellow is a well-known S. S. superintendent in a flourishing city in one of our prairie States. He is head and front of the temperance movement in his town, and an uncompromising enemy of tobacco; nevertheless, within the memory of many living witnesses, he used to love a good cigar as well as any one. He tells how he was finally cured:—

"On leaving my office one evening, in accord with my usual custom, I lighted a fragrant cigar which I proposed to enjoy as I pursued my homeward way. I had advanced but a few steps, when I saw sitting on the curb, puffing away at the stump of a villainous cigar, a youngster whom I recognized as a member of my Sunday-school. A quick disgust filled my soul, and words of reproof rose to my lips; but how could I utter them with the weed between my teeth. The disability was not nearly so apparent in its physical as in its moral aspect. Clearly the cigar must be gotten from sight, or my lips remain sealed, and the boy left to follow the bent of an evil inclination, and doubtless become a victim of a pernicious habit. Quick as thought, I whipped the cigar from my mouth and held it behind my back, while I administered a merited reproof and timely warning. The boy threw away his stump, and promised not to try another, and I backed around the corner, fearing to turn lest my own sin should be discovered, and my influence destroyed. When fairly out of sight, I threw my cigar into the gutter, inwardly vowing before God never again to touch the weed; and I never have."

How many fathers are ready to make a like sacrifice for the sake of their sons? How many teachers, that they may consistently warn their pupils of evil likely to follow in the wake of this habit? How many pastors, that they may present themselves undefiled in the sight of the youth of their charges, and lead them in the ways of purity and true temperance?—Church and Home.