WILL IT PAY? by J. N. Ayers

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 17, 1878

WILL IT PAY?

By J. N. Ayers

WILL it pay to use tobacco, and allow wife and children to stay away from church for want of suitable clothing? Will it pay to stay away from meeting for fear the minister will say something against this filthy habit? Will it pay for one who should be an example to the flock, one who must give an account for the church of which he is overseer, to set them an example, which, if followed, will shut them out of the kingdom? Will it pay to become a slave for so filthy a thing as tobacco? A hog will not touch it, yet a man addicted to its use will beg for a chew or smoke. Many a man has even killed himself with it,—committed murder for his god tobacco.

Will it pay to make a public nuisance of one's self? Many times we have been forced to turn away, sick and disgusted, when conversing with persons who use the weed. And has any one a moral right to poison with the stench of tobacco the common atmosphere which all must breathe? Is it not a sin to do so?

Says Dr. Pratt, “Surely, if the dictates of reason were allowed to prevail, an article so injurious to the health, and so offensive in all its forms and modes of employment, would speedily be banished from common use.” All, even those who are its greatest slaves, admit that the use of tobacco is an unclean habit. See that tobacco-user try to talk. His mouth is so full of the foul juice that it is sprinkled in every direction, and if you are close to him, you will be likely to get some of it in your eyes and on your shirt bosom. Yet we often see young men, and even women, using the filthy, sickening weed. But turn to the word of God, and learn from it that no “unclean person . . . hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Eph. 5:5. Will it pay to give up our inheritance for the pleasure we enjoy here in making ourselves disgusting to every clean person?

Is not the use of tobacco filthy? Yes; we need not stop to picture to you the barroom or the smoking-car. Where is the lady who would like to spend an evening in either? What does the word of God say about filthiness? In Ps. 14:2, we read, “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.” Now hear the result: “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy [or, as the margin reads, stinking].” James exhorts us to “lay apart all filthiness.” James 1:21. And Paul says, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Then if we would be holy (and we must be, if we ever see the Lord; Heb. 12:14), we must rid ourselves of this habit.

Turn again to your Bibles, and read Jude 8: “Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh.” So if a person is guilty of any filthy habit he defiles himself. 1 Cor. 3:16, 17: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

Tobacco is intoxicating. I am aware some will take issue with me here; but inebriation is as plainly the consequence of tobacco-using as of whisky-drinking. To be drunk it is not necessary that a person should be wholly delirious or insensible. There are degrees in drunkenness, and when a man takes into his system any given quantity of either whisky or tobacco, he is drunk just in proportion to the dose. A man is just as truly drunk when he has taken sufficient tobacco to produce a feeling of pleasant exhilaration as when he has taken enough whisky to cause him to wallow in the ditch. The difference is only in the degree. No man is entirely sober while under the influence of any narcotic or stimulant.

Tobacco is one of the chief causes of intemperance. An eminent physician says that the United States pays enough every year for tobacco to clothe and educate all her children, and to keep a pastor in every church. Read Gal. 5:19: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, . . . drunkenness, revellings, and such like. . . . They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Will you still go on using tobacco through 1878? Did it pay you last year? Will it pay this year?

You say, I cannot quit using tobacco; I wish I could. What will you do with your pipe and quid when Jesus comes? Do you think you can hide them? What will you do with that foul breath? Can you get rid of it in a moment? If you were offered $5,000,000 to stop, would you not do it? Jesus offers you eternal life, which you can enjoy forever and ever. I know you can leave off the use of tobacco; for I was once as great a slave to the habit as you can be. But when I saw that the promise was only to the “overcomer” (Rev. 3:21), I determined to stop using tobacco at once and forever; and, by God's assisting grace, I am now a free man. During the past year, I have seen men between seventy and eighty years old, who had used it all their lives, give it up, and they are now rejoicing in their freedom.

Never experiment, and try to taper off. The taper always runs the wrong way. Stop at once. There is no danger that it will kill you. Are you a Christian? Go to Christ in prayer; he will help you. Use no antidote or substitute.

It will not pay to allow the devil to lull you to sleep, and rob you of eternal life.

J. N. AYERS.