p. 48 | Paying for the Poor by Editor

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 11, 1856

Paying for the Poor.

By Editor

Bro. John Byington writes from Buck's Bridge, N. Y.: "I hope the thought will be constantly in the Review that it is inconsistent to pay for the paper for those that use tobacco."

Certainly. We had not supposed that any church having the poor in their midst, whose wants they feel it duty to look after, would take it upon themselves to furnish those individuals with tobacco. This certainly is not distributing unto every man according as he has need, Acts iv, 35. With the poor who are in bondage to the weed, the case stands thus: they want their tobacco, they also want the paper; and from their own means they cannot meet the expense of both. Now it matters not to them in what department of their wants the church aids them; for if the church buys their tobacco for them, they will then have means to pay for the paper themselves; or, if the church pays for their paper, they will have means of their own to buy their tobacco. Therefore in whatever light we look at it, it is evident that if the church aids any persons who are indulging, at the same time, in an expensive and injurious habit, it upholds them in that habit; and this, of course, no church will feel free to do.

We may add further that the Publishing Committee will not feel it their duty if they know the facts in the case, to consider any as belonging to the poor or free list, who are sacrificing their means and health by the use of a noxious plant to satisfy the demands of an imperious and unnatural appetite.