The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-06-10
DICTuM OF PREsBYTEiaANs.

When the Prcsbyterians We're in
session at Denver last week they
took action with reference to minis
try or the laity smoking. That car
ries the writer back to his boyhood
days when he attended the Presby-
terrain church with his parents. We
car remember many a time that the
minister would come to the fathers
store and enjoy a seemingly very
comfortable smoke, and the good
minister thought as little of 1t as
did any other man. He had the idea
thai he was a man and that men
smoked and that his cloth did not
remove the idea of his enjoying n
thing that he liked. At the same time
the people of that town could not
understand how it was that the
Presbyterian minister could smoke
at least so publicly-and the others
not. Members of the Episcopal and
the Catholic ministry indulge in
smoking and do not entertain any
idea that they are doing an act that
Is offensive to their religious prin-
ciples.
In commenting on the action of
the Presbyterian denomination con-
corning the smoking proposition, the
st. Louis Globe-Democrat says:
The national Presbyterian meet
ing in session at Denver has adopted
4 resolution, advisory and even di-
rectory in tone, against smoking by
any of the brethren of that great
communion, either lay or clerical.
The cigar, the pipe, and of course
the cigarette, are all put under the
ban. The resolution adopted appears
to have been made as strong as any
advisory or directory action can be.
But it will founder on the rock which
has wrecked SO many other secular
statutes. 1t carries with it no PEN
atty for it's violation. The brethren
at Denver were not aware that many
kCSlSldlltG oluGulGo w ~ od1
what were termed crying evils have
beer nullified by the courts because
while they were specific in denomin-
ating the given offense, they omit
ted the imposition of any definite
penalty for it's commission. We find
this flaw in the Denver resolution.
The church council did not hang over
offending brethren the certainty OF
being put outside of the fold for any
future transgressions of this new law
of the church. Wherefore the broth
ern will smoke on, f%uritivelg it may
be, and no longer in sight of the
immune from this oyerpowerine
temptation, but on and on, in places
where their smoke may not be seer
brother to whom the fragrance OF {
Havana makes no appeal.
I'VE speak advisedly. For surel.
no other vice lays as strong holc
upon a man as this. Men who hay,
shaken off Bacchus are still grovel
ing before the throne OF My Lad.
often or. so hard, her dusky beauty
the sweetness of her breath, tn
glowing OF her eye when the ma
she loves sets her on fire, and th
clinging of her sweet lips to III
in the rapturous embrace, are MOI
than her votaries CAM resist. Unde
the threat of a severe penalty, whic
they could in no wise escape, it
possible that some of them coul
her, but the penalty woul
have to be II from which it wa
not only impossible to escape, b,
the threat of which would be foreNe
present with them.
The Presbyterian church he
done great and mighty works. 1t h;
belted the globe With its missio
aries, and it has suppressed muc
smoke once rising from fires but
for the making of cannibaf feasts.
has plugged many holes throus
which the devils smoke once TO
into the world. 1t mas put out MAJ
fires of hatred, malice and all u
charitableness, the smoke Of whi'
is always black and smells badl
But now it is going up against
smoke in which none of the evil 9
tributes named can be found. \
Lady Nicotine is no cannibal. S
woos us to such love Of u fellc
man that we would rather keep tn;
eat him. She faunts the devil to
face, and her smoke is as that of
backfire built against him. And h
smoke. if it be worthy of her.
never black. but blue. and it is
the odor of sweet incense. The m,
who love her love her with a pa
s%ionate devotion which even t