p. 154 | TOBACCO ON RELIGION

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 11, 1864

TOBACCO ON RELIGION

Tobacco-Using. No. 11.

TOBACCO ON RELIGION.

(Concluded.)

THE time has certainly come when men possessing intelligence and a spirit of humanity,—men desiring the promotion of virtue and religion, and especially men professing Christianity,—should wake up to this matter, and commence a reform. In this, as in every other moral enterprise, the church ought to take the lead. It is a lamentable fact—one that should bring the blushings of shame upon the face of Zion—that, in some of the most worthy enterprises of moral reforms that have ever come to the help of humanity and of God, the church have been among the last that have put their hands to the work. Men of the world, who cared not for Christ or his kingdom, began and carried on the effort, till the current became so strong, that those who professed the name of Christ must either suffer themselves to be disgraced, or get aboard the life-boat and ply the oar. Heaven grant that the dense, dark cloud that hangs over the moral vision of the world, on this subject, may first break away from before the mind of the church! Let them become in this matter "a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

Let the ministers of Christ awake. Let their condemning testimony be duly given in their preaching;—aye, first let them cleanse their own mouths, if need be, from this ungodly filthiness; and then, with eloquence, portray the evils of this vice. And let the church sustain them by example and precept in this labor. If any one has become so blinded by habits that stupefy the moral sense, that they cannot see, let them resolve, at least, that they never will put this thing to their lips again till they have gone to their closets and asked counsel of God. Does any one think that tobacco would ever have become a luxury to Adam and his posterity, if the primitive state had been maintained? Does any one suppose that, if Christ were now personally upon earth, he would be found putting the deadly thing to his lips? If not, then let his followers cease to defile themselves with it. And let them wipe off the dark stains of their sin in this indulgence, which they have hitherto left upon their house dedicated to the hallowed purpose of Divine worship. Let Satan henceforth be unable to track his dirty customers wherever they go, and especially to know their steps in the house of God by the marks which they leave upon it.

How would Paul, and Peter, and John, look, standing up now among the people in the house of God, with quids of tobacco in their mouths, with its juices defiling their lips, spitting the stuff in every direction, spending ten or twenty dollars of their stinted salary, every year, on this besetting, enslaving sin, and preaching the doctrine of self-denial, crucifixion of the flesh, pecuniary economy, and liberal support of the Lord's treasury? How would they and the primitive church look, devoutly spitting over the house of God, and leaving the marks of their debasing habit on every side of them? Could any one consider their devotion to such a fleshly, lustful habit, a mark of deep sanctification of the Holy Ghost, and profound consecration to Christ?

And is the habit among modern professors of Christianity any less in conflict with true godliness than it would have been in primitive times? Such a habit would have scandalized the whole primitive church; and it is a living scandal on modern Zion. To see church-members, professing to deny themselves of all ungodliness and worldly lust, carrying this satauic agent of human lust and self-destruction in their mouths, and leaving the sure marks of their physical, mental and spiritual degradation on everything within their reach, reflects shame, and disgrace, and hypocrisy, upon the whole modern church. All enlightened common sense must see that it is not only an indulgence which is supremely foolish, but that which wars against the soul and the salvation of men.

How annoying to a decent man to be seated in the church beside a tobacco-user, who is continually vomiting up his foul decoction at his feet! The liquid filth of a sty could scarcely present a more loathsome spectacle. The pourings-forth of this foul stuff from his mouth, which floods the floor or covers the box devoted to its reception, together with the splashings and spatterings which are the unavoidable accompaniments, are quite enough to spoil the best sermon that could be preached, if not capsize the stomach of every unfortunate beholder. The dresses of ladies and the hats of gentlemen are generally compelled to share in the besmearings of the operation. Especially, if a lady would bow in prayer upon the kneeling-stool, the folds of her dress must be dipped in the fountain that has fallen from the tobacco-mill by her side.

In view of these truths, which no one can intelligently gainsay, the church ought at once to awake to the dreadful evil. Let those who not only love humanity, but the cause of God, take a decided stand against this enemy to the physical, intellectual and spiritual welfare of the world. Let them say to this destroyer within their precincts, "Thus far shalt thou go and no further." This decisive stand should be taken by every present user of the article. Let each determine that this indecency, and this sin against Christ and his cause, shall no longer be found upon him. And having washed his own soul and body from these stains, let him endeavor to rescue others from the grasp of this tyrant.

But this should be done in the spirit of Christian meekness and love. We must remember that the progress of all moral improvement depends on the progress of light. By the light which we have to-day, we may too severely condemn the position of some one who yet is encompassed in our own yesterday's darkness. Before we censure, we should throw light and moral suasion around those whom we would win to paths of righteousness. If, after all due light and entreaties, some will continue slaves to fleshly lusts, we must condemn and deliver them over to the buffetings of Satan on earth, and the judgment of God in eternity.

Some are so wedded to unnatural and ungodly habits, that it may be found impossible to approach them with light upon their sins, without giving offence. Whoever makes war on created appetites, must expect often to find his hand thrust into a wasp's nest, and stung by way of their making self-defence. But this should never intimidate him who puts forth his energies for the spread of truth. The fact that men get angry when we kindly but promptly describe their vices, furnishes incontestable proof of internal, though perhaps unrecognized, consciousness that the truth is against them. When the devotees of tobacco become moved with wrath against those who exhibit the realities of such idolatry, it shows the Devil is disturbed, and is trying to defend his habitation. This should encourage, rather than intimidate, the advocate of reform; because Satan has too much common sense to be disturbed, except when his castle is really in danger.

Let me say again, LET THE CHURCH WAKE UP! They are more firmly wedded to this debasing idol than to anything else on earth or in Heaven. To be gratified in its taste is a greater desideratum to its devotee than any other attainment. Every Christian is certainly bound to be a decent man. But in this he makes a perfect sacrifice of decency to pamper his lust. For no man can be decent, and defile his mouth and his breath, his exterior person, and those around him, with such foul besmearings.

Every servant of Christ is bound, ex officio, to be, in the choicest sense of the term, a gentleman. But no man can be strictly a gentleman in the use of tobacco. Aside from the fashionableness of the thing, which, of course, does not change its real character, the habit would be considered by all, one of the greatest outrages on civilization and gentlemanly conduct. The constant spitting of the filthy juice; daubing the floors, carpets, walls, dresses, and the faces of SPITTERS and SPITTEES; and the beclouding and adulterating of the atmosphere; together with the puffs in the face;—always a perfect nuisance to the lovers of pure air;—are considerations quite sufficient to keep a man of such habits from ever being graduated a gentleman.

Christians should be lovers of humanity. After the example of the Divine Pattern, they should go about doing good, by relieving human suffering. But tobacco makes a stronger draft upon their affections and their funds than human sympathy. There is many a man who would see widows and orphans, and even his own wife and children, suffer long for want of bread to eat, rather than leave off tobacco, if he had no other means, and devote the money for its purchase to their supply of food. This is a startling, and yet a tangible truth; and one that should look every tobacco-slave in the face. Nine out of ten would sooner endure the sight of starvation in others, than the teasing of this denied lust.

Let ten men devoted to tobacco visit the dwellings of the poor in company; let them look into the cottage of the poor widow: she and her orphan children are gathered around the few expiring embers in mid-winter's evening, all shivering with the increasing cold, and in prospect of freezing to death. They ate the last morsel of bread in their dwelling for breakfast—having nothing left, and are in prospect of starvation. These men, who are accustomed to lay their money on Tobacco's foul altar, look on, and pity, so far as a narcotised soul can be made to feel; but, rely upon it, if their only means of giving relief was forever to abandon this destroyer, and cast a portion of their money saved, into the trembling hand of this suffering widow, for herself and orphan babes, nine out of ten of these idol worshippers, if not ten out of ten, would pass on and let them perish. O human nature! how deeply hast thou fallen! into what appalling slavery hast thou sold thyself! unto what degrading idolatry hast thou abandoned thy soul!

But more than this. They love this idol-god more than they do the Author of their salvation, and the souls for whom he died. Instead of loving God with all the heart, they love tobacco with supreme attachment, and lay a far greater offering upon its altar of incense than upon the altar of Christ. As already stated, the American church is paying five times as much money for this needless, hurtful indulgence, as they are paying for the spread of gospel light and the salvation of benighted men in the heathen world. By their example, they are leading the rising generation into a destructive habit, which engenders other physical and moral vices; and which, in itself, as also its associates, tends to shield the heart against gospel grace, and shuts its victims out of the kingdom of Heaven.

To illustrate the fact that Christian tobacco-users—if the terms are not incongruous—are more attached to this idol than they are to the cause of Christ, the case of a church in Texas, which was related to me when there, will be found appropriate.

A small church, of some fifty members, made an effort to supply their village with gospel preaching. To meet this demand required the sum of three hundred dollars to be subscribed. They succeeded in raising two hundred, but the remaining one hundred could not be secured; and for want of this, the place remained destitute of preaching. On examination, it was found that in that church there were twenty male members who used each, on an average, twenty dollars' worth of tobacco annually—making collectively the sum of four hundred dollars paid out annually for their supply of this destroyer of body and soul.

This shows, by mathematical demonstration, the comparative estimate in which they held the preaching of the gospel for themselves and the community, and their carnal gratifications with tobacco. While they did not love Christ, and his truth, and the salvation of souls, enough to raise another hundred dollars, they did think their unnatural fleshly gratifications worth four times that sum; they loved tobacco more than four times as much as they did the glory of Christ in the eternal salvation of men.

This is not to be reckoned an isolated case. This only illustrates a general rule, which has few exceptions. The churches as a whole throughout the land, are worshipping this loathsome idol with more zeal and steadfastness than they are the God of Heaven. The proportion of money, which cannot be less than 5,000,000 annually, together with the sacrifice of time and health and life, compared with the offerings made to God, shows forth this soul-chilling truth in dreadful certainty.

Oh! let the church up and shake herself from the grasp of this foe that has enslaved her! Let her wash herself from the stains of his polluting touch. Let her put away this "superfluity of naughtiness," this worldly lust which wars against the soul.

How can a Christian pray for God to sanctify him wholly,—body, soul and spirit,—while he is habitually indulging an unnatural appetite, which paralyzes the body, animalizes the mind, and carnalizes the heart?

How can he ask Heaven to give him means for sustaining the various gospel enterprises, while he is worse than wasting many times as large a sum as he now contributes for such purposes? How can he ask for the agency of Divine inspiration to make his instrumentalities effective in winning men to the Cross, and the crucifixion of the flesh, while he himself is serving a fleshly lust, which counteracts the Holy Spirit upon his own soul, and is setting an example of devotion to carnality which turns all his zeal into mockery, and his words into sounds which have no moral power?