EIGHT REASONS WHY I GAVE UP SMOKING.
1. WHEN I saw church members paying from six to ten dollars for tobacco, and only two to four for the gospel per year, I thought that if a man will rob God of his tithes and offerings from love of his pipe, it was high time to cast to the moles and bats "idols" that claimed such a supremacy. 2. It often seemed to me that smoking clouded the light of God's countenance in Christian experience, and dampened the fire of love and zeal in God's cause. 3. When I saw preachers seeking a secret place to "puff," I would think if the deed is justifiable, why not do it publicly, or was it that they felt guilty and ashamed to be seen? 4. When I saw boys and young men, and women too, smoking the pipe, I felt that I could not say anything against it. 5. When I saw the drunkard and profane likewise, I would say; "I am a companion with those characters, in the pipe at least," then my conscience would smite me. 6. That for the church wholly to abstain from both smoking and drinking, and set an example of total abstinence to the world, would remove two great hindrances to a more general outpouring of the Spirit of God, and hasten the latter day glory. 7. Then when, at devotion, I smelled my own breath, so smoky, I wondered if God would accept the incense of tobacco. 8. That if it be as hard for the drunkard to give up drinking as for me to give up smoking, then I should have more feeling for the poor drunkard, and how can I consistently advocate total abstinence while I am intemperate in smoking? After duly weighing all these facts and arguments, I determined to try to abandon the pipe. After I got the victory I could not help praising God for the deliverance I had often wished for but never thought I could obtain; and now I feel better in health, more lively in spirits, less peevish and fretful—have a clearer intellect and better memory, a peaceful conscience, a brighter and sweeter evidence, and nearer communion with God and his church. And I now say to all: If I have conquered, so may you, only rely on divine strength; for you will need it, if smoking is as hard a habit for you to give up as it was for me. The victory will be yours and the result the same.—Extract.