Victory Over the Tobacco Habit
In the course of a recent address, Mr. J. B. Gough said: I know a man in America who undertook to give up the habit of chewing tobacco. He put his hand into his pocket, took out his plug tobacco and threw it away, saying as he did so, "That's the end of it." But that was the beginning of it. Oh, how he did want it! He would lick his lips; he would chew chamomile, he would chew toothpicks, quills—anything to keep his jaws going. No use—he suffered intensely. After enduring the craving for thirty-six or forty-eight hours, he made up his mind. "Now it's no use suffering for a bit of tobacco—I'll go and get some." So he went and bought another plug and put it in his pocket. Now," he said, "when I want it awfully, I'll take some." Well, he did want it awfully, and he said he believed it was God's good Spirit that was striving with him as he held that tobacco in his hand. Looking at it, he said, "I love you, but are you my master, or am I yours? You are a weed and I am a man. I'll master you, if I die for it!" Every time he wanted it he would take it out and talk to it. It was six or eight weeks before he could throw it away and feel easy, but he said the glory of the victory repaid him for his trouble.