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Too Much Backbiting

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Jan 19, 1864

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 23, No. 8.

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Too Much Backbiting.

By P. Strong

I lately met with this objection by one who receives the Review, though not in full sentiment with us. He said we manifested a backbiting spirit through the Review, representing ourselves as perfect, and all the rest as imperfect. I told him that I had not perceived such a spirit manifested. His answer was, The last paper proves it.
Ques. In what respect? I do not see a backbiting spirit manifested in the last paper.
Ans. If I want to drink tea or coffee, it is my privilege.
Q. But do you call reproving a people for their sins, backbiting?
A. It is not sin; neither does the Bible condemn it.
Q. But do you find anything about tea or coffee in the paper you refer to.
A. Well, no; but I do about tobacco, and I have a right to use that, if I want to.
Q. Oh, they have disturbed your god, have they?
A. But I don't make a god of it; it does me good, and keeps my nerves straight.
Q. Dare you trust God for salvation?
A. Yes, through Christ.
Q. Then why do you lust after that which defiles the temple of God? Christ will not save you in your sins, neither will he bless you while you are setting a bad example.
A. I don't feel condemned, still it hurts me to use it, and I wish that I was rid of it, for it is a filthy habit.
Q. Do you not pretend to teach God's word?
A. Yes, as far as I can.
Q. Does not Paul tell you to be an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in purity? 1 Tim. iv, 12.
A. Yes.
Q. Is using tobacco, in any form, setting a pure example before the church, or world?
A.—Silence.
Oh that the professed church of Christ would arise,and be truly a light to the world. But when we see its members contaminating themselves with every hurtful lust, and thus living in open violation of law, what can we expect? They are not willing to go as far in a reformation of habits, as those who lived in an age of darkness compared with us.
In 1590 a Persian king prohibited the use of tobacco; but many of his devout subjects, like the Christians during the dark ages, fled to the mountains to do up their devotions, and escape his persecution.
In 1661, in Berne, Switzerland, in the police regulations, there was made a code of prohibitions, after the form of the ten commandments, in which the one against smoking tobacco stood next to that which said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
In 1610, a Turk, at Constantinople, being found smoking, was led through the streets with his nose transfixed with a pipe, as a punishment. In 1630, smokers were condemned to the punishment of having the nose slit.
We may even look to the "mother of harlots," and see her trying to cleanse herself from this noxious weed, not by burning it as incense, but by banishment. In 1690 Pope Innocent XII renewed a bull, issued at some former period by Pope Urban, which excluded all tobacco-snuffers and smokers from the church. But the Pope's bull did not last long. In 1724, Benedict XIV revoked it, having become a snuff-taker himself.
We pass from the Pope to the present time, and find that we are still in a world of sin, and unless God by his good Spirit helps us all to overcome, we shall fall. How thankful we all should feel, that we have heard the last message of mercy that is to go forth to prepare a people for translation. And now, brethren, while God is preparing his servants for the work that is before them, shall we sit still? By no means. Let us cleanse ourselves from all iniquity, that we may stand before the Son of man.
P. Strong.
Pine Grove Mills, Mich.