I WAS a smoker and the son of a smoker. I began to smoke when I began to preach; that is, when about twenty years of age. Most of the preachers of my acquaintance did the same; I thought it preacherly to imitate them. I smoked during the time I was at college; that was contrary to the rule of the institution; but then the President was a smoker, too. In after years, however, when we were having a friendly chat over our pipes, he positively and solemnly assured me that if he had found me out, he would have expelled me from the college instanter! When about to sail as a missionary to a distant land, I recollect having the honor and felicity of having, in a little room, not three miles from Paternoster Row, London, a pipe with a veteran in the service, whose praise was and is in all the churches. "A fine thing," said he with a little Scotch accent, "is a pipe of tobacco in a hot climate. Let me recommend you, my young brother, to take with you a good stock of pipes and tobacco."
You need not ask me whether I did so. In the course of time, however, when laboring as a missionary, I felt compelled, for the sake example, to become a teetotaler, and to throw myself, heart and soul into the total abstinence movement; but I still adhered to the beloved pipe.
In a parcel of temperance tracts kindly sent me, was one headed, "Dost thou smoke, Bill?" I read it, and it made me feel uncomfortable. Some copies had got into circulation among the people before I was aware. A fine young black man came to me one day, and after bowing and scraping, and bidding me "good morning," said, "Will massa please gie me one leetle tract?"
"Yes, Quamina, and welcome. Which will you have?"
"Dat tract called, 'Dos you smoke, William?'" (He thought it would be too vulgar in my presence to say "Bill;" politeness led him to so say "William.") I gave him the tract, but I felt I would rather he had asked me for any other than that, and my uneasiness was increased. The tract was evidently exciting some attention. It was condemning among the people their pastor's habit.
One night soon after Quamina's visit, having knocked out the ashes of my last pipe, before retiring to rest, a colloquy took place between my conscience and myself, of which the following is a faithful report:—
Conscience. You have given up all intoxicating drinks and you have done well. Why not give up that smoking too?
Myself. I cannot. It is a pleasant habit, to which I have been addicted for fifteen years.
C. Does it do you any good?
M. I must confess that it does not.
C. Is it not, in a variety of ways, positively injurious to you?
M. It is; both my judgment and my experience are against it.
C. Do you not, at temperance meetings, feel that many of the arguments urged against alcoholic drinks tell with almost equal power against the use of tobacco?
M. I cannot deny that I do.
C. How much have you spent on tobacco during the fifteen years you have been a smoker?
M. Oh! not much; I never smoke cigars, except when some ship captain makes me a present of a few; they are otherwise too expensive; the pipe is much more economical.
C. But how much has the pipe cost you since you became a preacher? Try to form an estimate.
M. (After a long pause). The amount, I find, is larger than I thought it was; I cannot, however, exactly say how much it is.
C. But I insist upon knowing. Honestly, now, can it have been less on an average than ten dollars a year, or one hundred and fifty dollars in the fifteen years?
M. I believe that will be somewhere about it.
C. And how much, during the same period, did you contribute directly toward the spread of the gospel?
M. I really cannot tell, for I try not to let my left hand know what my right hand doeth.
C. Come, come, none of that cant and nonsense. I insist upon knowing. Call to mind your contributions, and give me some approximate idea.
M. (After another long pause). I believe about fifty dollars.
C. (In a thundering voice). What, only one-third of what you have spent on tobacco?
M. Only one-third.
C. And yet you are a minister of the gospel?
M. Yes, I am.
C. A missionary sent out to this distant land?
M. Yes.
C. Supposed, of course, to be a very good man?
M. Yes.
C. And your business as a Missionary is to try to make these black and colored people around you good?
M. Yes.
C. You tell them that their money is not their own; and you urge them to deny themselves, and to make sacrifices in order that they may be able to contribute toward the support and spread of the institutions of Christianity?
M. I do.
C. You urge even the children not to spend their pocket money in oranges, mangoes, sugar-canes, and sapondillas, with other fruits and sweets, to give it to send the gospel and to plant its institutions where they are not yet known?
M. I do.
C. A pretty fellow, then, you are! During the time you have had the honor of being a minister of the gospel, you confess that you have spent three times as much of God's money on that worthless weed, or rather that injurious poison, tobacco, as you have given for the spread of that glorious gospel, which you call "Heaven's boon to man!" And yet you have the face to call upon others to deny themselves for that purpose! Shame, shame upon you!
M. I am ashamed and confounded. I scarcely ever felt more despicable in my own eyes than I do at this moment. From this night forth, I vow that I will never spend another penny in tobacco.
C. Good, good! Stick to that and you will be more worthy of your position and office.
So ended the colloquy. Having asked God to forgive me the great sin of which I had been guilty, and to grant me grace and strength to carry out the resolve I had just made, I went to bed.
The next day was the commencement of a great conflict. At the usual time for taking the pipe the craving for it was very strong. I managed to resist it, however, by putting to myself a few simple questions, such as, "What is the matter with you? Why are you restless and unhappy? Have you a headache?" "No." "A toothache?" "No." "Have you pain in any part of your body?" "No." "Are you cold?" "No." "Hot?" "No." "Are you hungry?" "No." "Thirsty?" "No." "Then why, in the name of all that is rational, are you not contented, and even thankful to God, for the exemption from pain which you enjoy?"
"In this manner I lectured myself against the unnatural craving. Every time I resisted the appetite, I felt I had achieved a victory; that I was rising higher in the scale of being; that my moral strength was augmented; that I was getting more in harmony with God's laws, and my own conscience; and that my example in regard to the youths of my congregation was becoming more worthy of me as a Christian missionary and pastor. Ere long the craving ceased and the appetite died away; I was emancipated! And now I would not be again enslaved for all the world calls good or great." Most devoutly do I thank God for my deliverance, both from alcoholic drinks and from tobacco. Against them both I am determined to battle till I die.—Advocate and Guardian.
Religious Miscellany:
By Editor
—Moody and Sankey begin their revival work in New York, October 31, in the Brooklyn Rink, which has a capacity of 7,000 to 8,000. The services will be on the same general plan pursued in Great Britain.
—A Waldensian colony of six or seven families, consisting in all of sixty persons, passed through St. Louis in July, to South-west Missouri, with a view of making that their future home. Others will follow as soon as they can dispose of their property in the old country.
—Advices from Munich announce that the Ministry has received permission from the king to support, in the Federal Council of the Empire, a proposal for the extension of the "Jesuit Laws" to the Franciscans, Capuchins, and Carmelites; that is to say, for the banishment of the members of those orders from the whole German Empire.
—It is reported that the New Lebanon Shakers are slowly dying out. Within a few years several outlying societies have given up, many young people have left the sect, and there have been few additions from without. This year they have been obliged to dispose of some of their farms, and much of their work has been done by hired men from "the world." The community, however, is still vigorous and shows no weakening of faith in its peculiar principles.
—A correspondent of the Methodist gives a graphic account of Methodism in Salt Lake City: "The elegant new structure so prominent before the Church for pecuniary help was dedicated, in August, by Bishop Haven. It is the finest church structure in the city, and will seat one thousand two hundred. Its Sunday-school, with two others that have been established in other parts of the city, numbers eight hundred scholars. One year ago they numbered only two hundred. A large proportion of them are ex-Mormons and actual Mormons."
—In a late speech Cardinal Manning said: "I think it is a shame and a scandal to the Christian world to see the misery and the scourge which the sins of governments have created and brought about by the apostles of revolution, who made it their first and chief object to pull down the temporal power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. I will venture to prophesy—and my prophesy is this: If the Christian world be destroyed, he will never again reign over it; but if the Christian world is to survive, the sense of justice will one day put him back again in his seat. But the Christian world will not be able to do even that without scourging itself by a European war, which it has prepared for itself."
News and Miscellany.
By Editor
—Marshall Bazine is reported dead.
—In London one hundred workmen were injured on the 16th, it is feared fatally, by an overflow of molten metal at the Walsam Iron Works.
—The loss by the burning of the Kaizer Hotel, of Berlin (Ger.) on the night of the 10th is estimated at 1,000,000 thalers, or about $730,000.
—It is rumored that the Sublime Porte has offered Hon. William E. Gladstone £50,000 yearly to establish a sound financial administration in Turkey.
—An enthusiastic meeting to protest against Vaticanism, was held at Glasgow, Oct. 5. A letter was read from Gladstone expressing sympathy for the object of the meeting.
—A lot of wild hemp brought from the Colorado basin, and worked by a cordage company, proves equal to the best American article. Thousands of acres have been discovered in Colorado.
—The little republic of Switzerland has no less than 7,000 schools, and attendance is compulsory in all the cantons but two. Another fact of kindred importance is that Switzerland has always retained her freedom.
—Army officers in India say that no attempt is made to conceal the hostility of the people there to the British Government. The object of the Prince of Wale's splendid visit to that country was to remove this feeling.
—The London Daily Telegraph Sept. 16, stated that the pope recently informed cardinal Borromeo that the Vatican Council would re-assemble to complete its labors in 1876.
—In Sacramento, a Chinese parent has petitioned to have his children admitted to the public schools. Instead of holding the privileges of American citizenship in contempt they will soon be clamoring for their rights under the starry flag.
—Some idea of the immense capacity of our large ships, is gained from the fact that on the first Saturday and Sunday in October, six special tea trains were forwarded to the East from San Francisco, conveying 102 car loads of tea which arrived a few days since by the steamer Ocianic.
—Dispatches from Bombay report the occurrence of disastrous floods in the province Guiserat. The town of Ahmedabad has been been inundated and many of the inhabitants drowned. The destruction of lives and property has been very great. Over 20,000 people have been rendered homeless.
—The Official Gazette states that in the month of July, 1875, were sold 836 lots of church lands for the sum of 2,352,579 lire. In the preceding months of the same year, 1875, were sold 3944 lots, at prices amounting to 10,666,833 lire. From the 26th of Oct. 1867, to the end of the year 1874, the total number of lots of church lands sold by the State in public auction was 106,342, and the total sum they realized 480,778,827 lire.
—Education in Japan is assuming a hopeful state. The officer at the head of the educational Bureau, who decided that no clergyman should hereafter be engaged in government schools, has been dismissed, and his place is filled by a Christian, one of the returned students converted in America. In consequence of this change, missionaries in the college at Yedo, whose terms of service were about to expire, have been invited to remain, and an order has been issued permitting the people to employ foreign teachers wherever and whenever they chose to do so.
—The salaries of the different monarchs of Europe are given as follows by a German statistian: Alexander II., $9,152,000, or 25,000 a day; Abdul Azir, $900,000,000, or $18,000, a day; Francis Joseph, $4,000,000, or $10,050 a day; Fredrick William II., $3,000,000, or $8,200 a day; Victor Emmanuel, $2,4000,000, or $6,840 a day; Victoria $2,200,000, or $6,270 a day; Leopold $600,000, or $1,643 a day. In addition to this salary, each of these individuals is furnishad with a dozen or more first-class houses to live in without any charge for rent.
The Growth of London.
THE Leisure Hour in speaking of the growth of London says: "The metropolis of the British Empire, the largest city the world ever saw, covers, within fifteen miles radius of Charing Cross, nearly 700 square miles and numbers within these boundaries 4,000,000 inhabitants. It contains more Jews than the whole of Palestine, more Roman Catholics than Rome itself, more Irish than Dublin, more Scotchmen than Edinburgh. The port of London has every day on its waters 1,000 ships and 9,000 sailors. Upward of 120 persons are added to the population daily, or 40,000 yearly, a birth taking place every five minutes and a death every eight minutes. On an average, twenty-eight miles of streets are opened and 9,000 new houses built every year. In its postal districts there is a yearly delivery of 238,000,000 letters. On the police register there are the names of 120,000 habitual criminals, increasing by many thousands every year. More than one-third of all the crime of the country is committed in London, or at least brought to light there. There are as many beer-shops and gin-palaces as would, if their fronts were placed side by side, reach from Charing Cross to Portsmouth, a distance of seventy-three miles, and 38,000 drunkards are annually brought before its magistrates. The shops open on Sundays would form streets sixty miles long. It is estimated that there are above a million of people who are practically heathen, wholly neglecting the ordinances of religion. At least 900 additional churches and chapels would be required for the wants of the people."
Grace and Glory
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
"Who," saith an old divine, "chides a servant for taking away the first course at a feast when the second consists of far greater delicacies?" Who then can feel regret that this present world passeth away, when he sees that an eternal world of joy is coming! The first course is grace, but the second is glory, and that is as much better as the fruit is better than the blossom.—Spurgeon.
Overestimating Oneself
By Frederic R. Marvin
NONE so thoroughly over-estimate as they who over-estimate themselves.—Frederic R. Marvin.
Business Department.
By Editor
"Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully," (margin, negligently). Jer. 48:10.
Received for the Signs.
$2.00 EACH. M Fallon 3-1, J Harrington 3-1, Mrs. Balch 2-48, F Lyttaker 3-1, Solomon Jackson 2-1, J Eggleston 3-3, Thos H Forbes, 4-12. Thos Housen 2-1, J N Palmer 3-1, S E White 3-25, D B Goode 3-1.
$1.00 EACH. Albert Benton 2-24.
MISCELLANEOUS. C. H. Hurt 50c 2-12, John Kimberlin 50c 2-12, P F Philpot 20c, Thomas Brott 25c, Polly A. Frizzell 25c, C L Jones 20c, Mrs. A J Hutchins 57c 2-7, Mrs. Wm B Bierce 57c 2-12, J F Wood 1.30 1-32, Henry Robinson 25c.
California Publishing Fund.
E W Rice $5, J Collie $14, A sister $20.
California Tent Fund.
W P Hammond $2.
Donations to the Signs.
A sister $1, A thank-offering $5, A sister $14.40, E & A. Dratt (a free-will offering) $5.
Cal. T. and M. Society.
Received from District No. 9 $30, District No. 7 $6.