It Doesn't Hurt Me

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 13, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 31.

"It Doesn't Hurt Me."

"It doesn't hurt me," is the rejoinder most frequently made when individuals are remonstrated with regarding the use of tea, tobacco, or liquor, or respecting the continuance of any other hurtful practice. The drunkard says, "Liquor does not hurt me." Says the tobacco-user, "Tobacco does me no harm." Says the young lady who eats mince-pie and pickles, mustard and pepper-sauce, rich pastry and confectionery, visits theaters, attends fashionable parties, and indulges in fashionable suppers, when remonstrated with for the reckless manner in which she squanders her health, "Oh, it's so charming, and it doesn't hurt me."

It is easy enough for all these persons to see that the things they do are fatally injurious to other people, though they will not admit any such influence in their own cases. The drunkard sees every day of his life the ruin to body and soul, for both this world and the next, which liquor works; and he calls his chum a fool for getting drunk and wasting his time as well as his health. The young lady sees many of her young lady friends dropping one after another into early graves, while others survive for a time only to mope out a miserable existence, with ruined constitutions—health, beauty, and happiness sacrificed at the shrine of fashion; yet she still persists that the commission of the very same follies does her no harm. So do most of us, in one way or another, every day of our lives, commit the most absurd and inconsistent actions. Notwithstanding the spirit is willing to obey the dictates of reason and common sense, the flesh is weak, and we are continually yielding to habit and depraved desires.

One of the best lessons which any human being can learn is that in most particulars he is, but a counterpart of every other member of the human family; that he is amenable to the same laws as his fellows. Nature never grants any indulgences, and never pardons any infraction of her laws. She is an inexorable judge, and demands the full expiation of every transgression of her regulations, no matter who the culprit may be, high or low, rich or poor, king or peasant.—Good Health.