The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-18

manently REFORM from strong O11nK unless NC
gives up tobacco. In nearly all the cases where
men, having been reformed. have fallen back, it
has been shown they have first touched tobacco,
and then surrendered to intoxicants. The broad
avenue leading down TO the drunkard's grave and
the drunkard's hell is strewn thick with tobacco
| leaves. What did Ben amin Franklin sayl II
never saw we'll man in the exercise of common
sense who would say that tobacco did him any
good" What did Thomas Jefferso say, when
arguing against the culture of tobacco! He said:
1T is culture productive of infinite wretched-
ness" Horace Greeley said of it: 'It is pro-
fame stencil" Daniel Webst er said: IF those
men must smoke, let them take the horse
she'd
One reason why there are 80 many Of the vic
Tins of this habit is because there are SO many
ministers of religion who smoke and chew:
They smoke until they get the bronchitis, and
the dear people have to pay their expenses to
Europe They smoke until the nervous system
breaks down. They smoke themselves to death.
| could name three eminent clergymen who died
OF cancer in the mouth, and in every case the
physician said it was tobacco There has been
many clergyman whose tombst one all
covered up with eulogy. which ought to have had
the honest epitaph: KILLED by too much cav
endish!" Some Of them smoke until the room
is blue, and their spirits are blue and the world
| is blue, and everything is blue Time was when
| Col passed by such sins; but it becomes now
| the duty of the American clergy who indulge IN
| this narcotic to repent How can man preach
| temperance to the people when ne IS hlmsel1 IN
| duging in an appetite like thatl have seen
cuspidor in a pulpit, where the minister should
drop his cud before he gets up to read Blessed
| are the pure in heart" and read about rolling
sin as sweet morsel under the tongue!" and in
Leviticus to read about the unciean animals
that chew the cud. / have known presbyteries,
and general assemblies and general synods
where there was a room set apart for ministers
to smoke in
TOBACCO IN THE PULPIT.
Oh, it is sorry spectacle, consecrated man,
holy man of God, ioooking around for some
| thing, which you take to be looking for larger
| field of usefulness. He is not looking for that
| at all. He is only looking for some place whe re
he can discharges mouthful of tobacco juice. 1
am glad the Methodist Church of the United
States in nearly all their conferences have
passed resolutions against this habit and it is
time we had an anti tobacco reform in the Pres
byterian Church, and the Episcopal Oh urch. and
the Baptist Church, and the Congregational
Church. About sixty years ago young man
graduated from Andover Theological Seminary
| into the ministry He went straight to the
| front He had an eloquence and personal mag
| netism before which nothing could stand; but
| he was soor thrown into the insane asylum for
twenty years, and the doctors said it was tobacco
that sent him there. According to the custom
| then in vogue, he was allowed small portion
of tobacco every day. After he had been there
nearly twenty years, walking the floor one day,
| he had a sudden return of reason, and he real
lied what was the matter. He threw the plug
| of tobacco through the iron CRATES and said:
"What brought me here9 What keeps me hereG
| Why am l here2 Tobacco! Tobacco! 0 God!
| Help, help, and III never use it again." He was
| brought forth. For ten years he successfully
| preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and then
| went into blissful Immortality
There are ministers of religion to-day indulg-
| ing in narcotics, dying by inches, and they do
not know what is the matter with them | might
| in a word give my own experience. 1t took ten
cin m olyA pntu
| One day awakened to the outrage | was in
| fiicting upon myself. was about to change
| settlements and a generous wholesale tobacco
| mist in Philadelphia said if would only come to
provide me with cigars free of charge. l said to
! myself: If in these war times, when cigars are
so costly and my salary is small, smoke more
than l ought to, what would do if had gratui-
| tous and illimitable supply9 And then and there,
twentyfour years ago, quit once and forever
| 1t made a new man of me, and though have
since then done as much hard work as any one
think have had the best health God ever
| blessed a man with A minister of religion can
not afford to smoke Put into my hand the
| moneys wasted in tobacco in Brooklyn and will
| support three orphan asylums as grand and IS
beautiful as those already established Put into
my ha nd the moneys wasted in tobacco in the
United States of America and l will clothe, feed
and shelter all the suffering poor this CONT
nent The American church gives 81, 900, 600
I year for the evangeli2ation the heather, and
|
Now, stand this morning not only in the
| presence of my God, to whom l must give
account of what say to-day, blu. stand in the
| presence Of great multitude of young men who
are forming their habits. Between seventeen
and twenty-three, there are tens of thousands of
| young men damaging themselves irretrievably
| by tobacco You either use very good tobacco
or cheap tobacco. If you use cheap tobacco l
want to tell you why it is cheap 1t is-a mixture
of burdock, lampb!ack, sawdust colt's-foot
plantain- leaves, fuilers-earth, lime, salt, alum
and little tobacco You cannot afford, my
| young brother, to take such mess as that be-
tween your lips. If, on the other hand, you use
costly tobacco, let me say do not think you can
| afford it. You take that which you expend, and
will expend if you keep the habit all your lfe
and put it aside and it will buy you farm to
make you comfortable in the afternoon of life.
| A merchant of New York gave this testimony:
| I'm early life | smoked six cigars day at six
and a half cents each-they averaged that. |
thought to myself one day I'll just put aside all
the money am consuming in cigars and all l
would consume If l kept on in the habit. and I
will see what it will come to by compound in
terest" And he gives this tremendous statistic:
Last July completed thirty nine years since by
| the grace of God l emancipated from
the filthy habit and the saving amounted to the
enormous sum of 800 102 03 by compound inter
est. We lived in the city, but the children who
had learned something Of the enjoyment of
country life from their annual visits to their
| grand parents. longed for home among the
green fields. found very pleasant place in
the country for sale The cigar money now
came into requisition, and found it amounted
to a sufficient sum to purchase the place and it
is mine. Now, boys, you take your choice,
smoking without home or home without
smoking"
Listen to that young man, and take another
| thing into consideration, and that is, vast
| amounts of property destroyed every year indi-
rectly by this habit. An agent of an insurance
company says: ''One-half our losses come from
| the spark of the pipe and the cigar" One young
man threw away his cigar in one of the cities
and with it he throw away three million of dol
lars worth of the property of others that blazed
up from that spark. -Harpers splendid printing
| establishment years ago destroyed by
plumber who having lighted mis- pipe, threw the
match away. and it fell into pot of camphene
| The whole building was in flames. Five blocks
! went down. Two Thousand amnlnras thrown