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Twenty Cents a Week

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 15, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 3.

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Twenty Cents a Week

By I. A. Crane

Tobacco and Missions

I. A. CRANE
A SHORT time ago, after a friendly talk with a man about his tobacco habit, he said, "Well, it costs me only twenty cents a week." A bystander remarked that this meant $10.40 a year. "Yes," said he, "that would buy a good calf." "But if you had invested $10.40 in a calf each year during all this time, what would it amount to?" The man turned away with a smile, saying, "O, I don't want to get rich!"
Only twenty cents for tobacco! What a little bit!
And the leaders in our work, who see a great perishing world, set the mark at ten, then at fifteen, and now we hear some say, "They have raised it clear up to twenty cents a week!"
Only twenty cents for tobacco! How little!
Twenty cents for missions! How much!
When that man said "twenty cents a week," it struck me as a rather familiar expression, someway, and I thought of our twenty cents a week. Then I said in my heart, "Thank God that I can give my twenty cents a week, not to gratify some filthy habit at the expense of health, but for the most glorious work that ever can be done."
The very way those words were spoken show that we are to understand that the majority are using much more than twenty cents a week. Few business men pass the day with less than three ten-cent cigars. This means $109.50 a year. Statements from the merchants of the little town where this occurred revealed the fact that more money is being spent each month for tobacco and coffee than for flour.
Brethren, believers in the advent message, do you rejoice that God has saved you from this filthy habit? Then let your offering be a thank offering. Let none make their offerings with murmuring and complaining at the ever-increasing calls for means to finish the work, but let them be thank offerings. I never formed the tobacco habit, and from the depth of my heart today I thank God that he kept me from it.And I do want to see the world warned and the work finished that brings an end of sin and ushers in the coming of the kingdom of God.
Waurika, Okla.