Tobacco Against Piety

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 3, 1864

Tobacco Against Piety.

The use of tobacco works against the principle of piety, and therefore tends not to the glory of God. There is nothing in common between the vicious principle of tobacco and the holy principle of piety. The two forces are antagonistic in their nature. No sensible man can fall down on his knees and ask God to bless the use of tobacco. This shows what it is. It is outside of all religion, and consequently outside of all prayer. What a sight it would be to behold a smoker, chewer, and snuffer thanking God for his kindness in providing him with the means of injuring body and soul! Certainly no one would thus trifle with the Most High. Yet what a dark fact stands before us, that an accountable being will continue a practice for which he cannot pray!

It is quite clear that piety allows of no sensation of pleasure that is generated at the expense of order, purity and strength. The pleasure here is the result of absolute lawlessness. There is not a single law that is kept by the habit. It is therefore wrong. Religion cannot tolerate any kind of pleasure that follows from evil. It says, Have happiness to the full extent of well-being and well-doing, but neither more nor less than this. The use of tobacco is nothing short of intemperance. Man was never made to use tobacco. The whole practice is unnatural. It is not in a line with the common wants of the system. It is something superadded. You cannot call it food; you cannot call it drink. It is an unmistakable invention of man, forced upon nature while nature has no preparation for it. It is therefore intrinsically a great evil, having not the least good to recommend it.