HOW THIS LOOKS! by James White

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 12, 1856

HOW THIS LOOKS!

By James White

"I WANT you to stop my paper, for I am not able to pay. I like the paper, but am too poor to pay for it."

Let me inquire, Do you use tea, coffee and tobacco?

"Yes, we have used these things a long time, and the habit has become strong; and I don't think it is a sin to use these daily comforts which taste so well."

But how do you get them? You are poor. too poor to pay $2.00 for fifty-two visits from the Review.

"Well, we think we must have tobacco, tea and coffee, so we try to raise the money some way."

This is the condition of many professed children of our long-suffering God, in whom is the perfection of greatness and purity. They are such slaves to appetite and lust, that they have but little time, means or disposition to serve God in the beauty and highway of holiness; so they plod along in the ditch of morbid appetite and lust, now and then faintly raising a desire and casting a look heavenward. Prayers faint and seldom if ever; tobacco, tea and coffee abound daily. The family altar perhaps broken down and the closet forsaken. Yet with what care is the pipe laid in its accustomed place, and how often visited. And how careful are the parcels of tobacco, and kindred poisons laid away, and with what fervent devotion are they visited. O how this looks! My soul sickens and I turn from the sight. J. W.