The Slavery of It

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 32.

The Slavery of It.

A popular writer, Max O'Rell, says:—

I know a man who is so afraid of annoying a wife whom he loves and who objects to smoking, that his smokeroom is at the bottom of the garden. I know another still more anxious that no tobacco smoke shall be smelt in his house, that, when he takes a cigar, lies flat on his stomach on the carpet and sends the smoke up the chimney. A man who enjoys his smoke will submit to anything except giving up smoking. And as smoking is worth tons of medicine to keep a man in good temper and good humor, no married woman should insist on her husband dropping the habit, if not carried to excess.

Think of the slavery implied in all this. That man is not a free man who can not keep in good temper without a drug stimulant or sedative. He is a slave to the habit. The man should quit the habit himself for the sake of himself and everybody else. There is nothing but blessing in being quit. There is curse in continuance. Are you too weak to do it?—Christ will set you free; and whom Christ makes free, “shall be free indeed.”