Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 11, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 10.

Health and Temperance.

Tobacco and Theological Seminaries.

AMONG the happiest omens for the future well being of our country is the growing movement against tobacco. The sentiment which a few have always held, that the tobacco habit is not only the source of an enormous waste, but that it is directly and exceedingly injurious to the physical, mental, and moral nature of man, is becoming more general and confessed.

I know that in France and Germany the matter has been duly considered, and various laws regulating the use of tobacco have been enacted. But from time to time I am agreeably surprised to find how rapidly public sentiment in this country is rising to a just view of the habit. On one side I hear of numerous associations which refuse to approve ministers who use tobacco. On another side I hear of churches pleased with candidates, but which refuse to accept them because of their tobacco habits.

Again, I learn of young men in my parish applying for positions of trust, and letters of inquiry come to parties who know them, and among other questions is this: 'Does he use tobacco in any form?' It is generally admitted that a tobacco-user will be less capable and less trustworthy than one who is not.

I do not propose in this article to discuss at length the effects of the habit under consideration, but to speak of the growing sentiment of the times, and of some considerations to be deduced from it. I will, however, give one illustration of its deadening influence on the moral nature. It is the confession of a smoker:—

'I was in church when fidelity to my idol would allow, and often was moved by thoughts of the wrath to come; but I hurried home to drown the striving of God's Spirit in tobacco fumes, and many times has my meerschaum relieved every twinge of fear or pain. Sometimes I took the anxious seat. I have gone home feeling poor and miserable, and have smoked one pipe, and in ten minutes I was in a state of hallucination, having need of nothing.'

Observing men are coming to recognize the fact that tobacco is hurtful to body, mind, and soul, and particularly of the young. I have letters from a number of New England college presidents, from the president of Oberlin and from the Pacific Theological Seminary, strongly condemning the habit of using tobacco, especially by students. It is clear that a teacher of morals and religion should be free from the habit, and that the influence of a young minister for good will be greatly and injuriously affected if it is known that he is a smoker or chewer.

This being so, we appeal to all young men in course of training for the ministry, for their own sake and for the sake of the cause, to hold themselves free from this evil habit. But we go further, and ask whether the time has not come for all our theological seminaries to take a stand with Oberlin, where students are required to abstain entirely from its use. The position of many ministerial associations, that they will not license a tobacco-user, and of the Education Society not to assist such, I believe to be right. But I think the reform should begin further back in our colleges and seminaries. Why carry a smoker through college and the seminary only to tell him, when he seeks the sanction of his brethren to use his acquirements and gifts, what he should have been told long before—that the church does not want men in the pulpit who smoke and chew?

I am happy to say that by personal correspondence with Bangor, Andover, and New Haven theological seminaries I learn that the use of tobacco by the students is strongly discountenanced. Is it not time, however, that our seminaries should be entirely free from the habit? It is time, certainly, that theological teachers should be clean.—Congregationalist.