Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-05-18

they have first touched tobacco and then
surrendered to intoxicsnts. The broad
avenue leading down to the drunkards 8
grave and the drunkard's he'll is strewn thick
with tobacco leaves. What did Benjamin
Franklin say: Il never saw q well man IN
the exercise of common sense who would
say that tobacco, did him any good" What
did Thomas Jefferson say when arguing
against the culture of tobaceo2 he said:
at is culture productive of infinite wretch.
edness." Horace Greely said of it: ut is a
profane stencil" Daniel Webster said: "If
those men must smoke, let them take the
horse shed"
One reason why there are so many the
victims of this habit is because there are 80
many ministers of religion who smoke and
chew. They smoke until they get the bron-
chitis and the dear people have to pay their
expenses to Europe. They smoke until the
nervous system breaks down. They smoke
themselves to death. I 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 q clergyman whose tombstone
was all covered up with eulogy,
which ought to have had the honest cpl
taph: Killed by too much cavendish. 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 God
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 he is
himself indulging in an appetite ike that?
have seen cuspadore in pulpit where
the minister should drop his cad before he
gets up to read Blessed are the pure in
heart and to read about rolling sin as a
sweet morsel under the tongue" and in Le-
viticus to read about the unclean animals
that chew the cud. have known Presby
teries and general assemblies and general
synods where there was room set apart for
the ministers to smoke in. Oh, it is
A Sorry Spectacle,
a consecrated man, holy man of God,
looking around for something which you
take to be looking for larger field Of use
fulness. He is not looking for that at all.
He is only looking for some place where he
can discharge mouthtul of tobacco juice!
| am glad the Methodist church Of the
United States in nearly all their conferences
have passed resolutions against this habit,
and il is time we had an anti.tcbacco re-
form in the Presbyterian church and the
Episcopal church 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
magnetism before which nothing could
stand, but he was soon thrown into the in
sane asylum for twenty years and the doctor
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 has been there nearly
twenty years, walking the floor one day be
had sudden return of reason, and he real
lied what was the matter. He threw the
plug oftobacco through the iron gates and
said What brought me here? What
keeps me here? Why ami here? Tobacco!
Tobacco 0 God, help! Help and I'll
never use it again" He was restored. He
was brought forth. For ten years he sue.
cessfully preached the gospel of Jesus Christ
and then went into a biissful Immortality.
There are ministers of religion to-day in
dulgiDg in narcotics
Dying by Inches
and they do not know what is the matter
with them. light in a word give my own
experience. 1t took ten cigars to make a
sermon. | got very nervous. One day |
awakened to the outrage l was inHicting
upon myself. was about to change settle.
ments and a generous wholesale tobacco,
mist in Philadelphia said if would only
come to Phiadei phia he would, all the rest
of my life, provide me with cigars free OF
charge. ! said to myself: If, in these
war times, when cigars are so costly and my
salary is small, ] smoke more than | ought
to, what would | do if had gratuitous IL
limitable supply? And then and there,
twenty four years ago, ] quit once and for
ever. 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 q man.
A minister Of religion cannot afford
to smoke. Put into my hand the moneys
wasted in tobacco in Brooklyn, and | will
support three orphan asylums as grand and
as beautiful as those already established
Put into my hands the moneys wasted in
tobacco in the United States of America,
and will clothe, feed and shelter all the
suffering poor on this continent. The
American church gives $l,00O,00O a year
for the evangelzation of the heather and
American Christians spend $5,000,000 in
tobacco.
Now stand this morning not only in the
presence of my God, to whom / must give
an account for what l say to day, but ]
stand in the presence of a great multitude
of Young men, who are forming their habits.
Between seventeen and twenty-three there
are tens of thousands of young men, dam
aging themselves irretrieyably BY tobacco.
You either use very good tobacco or cheap
tobacco. If you use cheap tobacco | want
20 tell you why it is cheap. II is mix
tu.e of burdock, lampblack, saw.
dust, coltsfoot, plantain leaves,
fuller's earth, lime, salt, alum and a 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
you life and put it aside and it will buy you
a 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 ak and half
cents each-they averaged that. thought
to myself one day, 1 u Just put aside all the
money l am consuming in cigars and all
would consume if kept on in the habit
and will see what it viii come to by COM
pound interest" And be gives this tre.
mendous statistic: Last July completed
thirty-nine years which by the grace Of God
was emancipated from the filthy habit and
the saving amounted to the enormous sum
of s29, ,lO2 O3 by compound interest. We
lived in the city, but the children who haa
learned something of the enjoyment OF
oo,,,.-,- E(a f-or, thair ANIMAL visits TO their