Year: 1879

May 8, has Just been handed in. | am
arrested by the pictorial "Reverie on
Tobacco" on the first page. After a full
examination of the picture, | turn over the
pages eagerly TO find the corresponding
article with explanations and lessons; but
no such thing. Is not this a grave omis-
sion, Mr.. Editor? We want line upon line
on that theme. l wish you had sent your
artists work in proof TO me: | should
willingly have written the column OF
corresponding letterpresS. But why not
do it now?-I don't smoke: l never
smoked: God helping me, | never will


have lots of reasons-more than | could
crowd into one paper; but here are some,
taken rs they rise TO memory. l have
sons, some of them grown up and some
growing. Whatever difference of opinion
there may be as to the effect of tobacco on
the health of men, | believe all are agreed


that it damages at the root the constitution
of youths, if they use it before they reach
manhood. Now, common sense and all eX-
perience teaches that imam weakens his in
tluence immeasurably,i if he himself smokes
and tells his boys to abstain. If YOU can
encourage them to do as you do, you can
stand on II firm footing, and have II mighty
purchase on your child. This is Il method
| God will bless. But there is one reason
against smoking which is so big that it
seems to me to comprehend nearly all
others within it. 1t is that the use of
tobacco makes it more difficult to be
Observation-Disclosures Christian nightly
in being true witness to his Lord. | am
accustomed now to greatly pity Christians
who are also smokers. The practice not
only drains the life-sap out of the smokers
cheeks; it also drains charity out of the
smokers soul. Many smokers succeed in
| living Il Christian life, till their Lord calls
them hence, in spite Of the great obstruc-
ton, just as many youths contrive to
wriggIe forward INTO manhood, with
somewhat sallOw checks, and sunken eyes,
in spite of the tobacco poison. Yet it
remains true that smoke to u greater or
less extent diminishcs the strength and
beneficial effects of Christian S graces.
The tender regard for othersr the willing
ness to suffer rather than inllct an injury;
the watchful glad grasping of doing to
others as you would like them to do to
you; all this sapped and weakened at the
foundation by the smokers appetites and
habits. My neighbors all around do me
day by day a deliberate injury, who |
believe would give me fair treatment if
they were not enslaved by tobacco. On
the top of railway car where we are
packed together in row, with faces
within eighteen inches of each other, II
man sitting next to me on the wind side
takes out his apparatus and prepares his
dose. Then he scrapes a match, and the
birthstone smoke literally chokes me. The


wind has blown out his match, and it is
not until | have endured the birthstone
three times that am admitted into the
less pungent element of tobacco. 1t never
occurs to him that he is doing me an


injury; and if | utter Il complaint, five to
one he meets it with insoence. The
white ashes of the pipe are afterwards
shaken out and scattered like snow over
the dress, and it may be into the eyes of
his neighbors. The floor meantime, where
our feet are resting, is in such Il condition
that it can neither be described in polite
society, nor endured be any but the most
robust Everywhere the same thing. In
crowds at railway stations or at an ilumi-
nation, where there is no means of escape,
the person next you in the garb and mien
of gentleman us far his supreme and
selfish devotion to his own qualification in


the form of tobacco will permit-will puff


the detestable smoke in your face, or in
the face of lady, without apology and


without compunction. In all this | have
respect not to the persons who suffer the


injury; am thinking of those who inilct
it; | am grieving over the damage done


to their character. For, on the principle
that it is more blessed TO give than to


receive benefit, it is more cursed to
inilict, than to endure II wrong. The
transgrcssor has the worst of it: for every
time that he treats his neighbor unkindly
and unfairly, he gives another rub to his
own conscience, land increases the hardness
of its soaring, The appetites that God


has planted in our nature-hunger and
thirst-are very imperiou5, and have put


us to IL great deal of trouble. They must


be obeycd. Bat then they are useful and
necessary. Wanting hunger-a stern


watchman set over us within our own
constitution-we should certainly forget
or neglect to take the nourishment neccs-
sary TO sustain life and health SO, these,
imperious appetites that our Maker has set
over us are wise and good They are the
preservcrs of our life. But what of the
appctics that man mlkes for him sell? |
admire the choice that David the king,
made in his great distress" Let me fall
now into the hands of the Lord, for very


great are His mercies but let me not fl!


into the hand of man.. Chron. 2l: l3.


In the matter of appetites that shall stir in
my being, and lord it over me, and COM


pei mo to obey them, let me not fall into
the hand of man-least of all into my own


hands. Now, reckon it to be self.evidGnt
that smoker, when he begins, deliberate
ly kindles in his own constitution fire
that was not there before he kinded it-a


fire that, though it needs some cherishin9
and flaming ut first, will, when it is once
kindled, blaze and compel the victim to
toll like Il slave-running and fetching,
and ilinging on tobacco leaves to feed it


till his dying day. For, if here and there
one breaks his chain and escapes, he may


well say--With great price Of lengthen-


ed agony obtained | this freedom; and


the multitudes are held in bondage to the


last 1t is time that Christians should take
tobacco smoking into their closets and


shut the door, and ask, ask on, until they
get an answer, rs to their duty in the


matter. For my part, have no doubt
. that it is one of the great waves stretching
like the tide over the breadth of the world


10 llc cNIcHI Ol Tue pOWct Vi lllPcu'u9
the coming of the kingdom. 1t is n sys-
tenn of self-gratili3aton at the expense of
others. The gospel system is the reverse.
: The two currents are antagonlstic The
writer frankly expresses his own judgment,
keeping nothing back, that readers may
get the benefit of it, whatever it may be
worth but he does not ask-he does not
de,ire-that any brother should adopt his
judgment. His only desire is that every
/; Christian smoker should lay the whole
matter by prayer before the Lord that
bought him, and then act according to
,, his own judgment, looking to the Lord for
His smile and blessing on the course he
may be led to adopt-the blessing of Il
= present Lord on his act of breaking the
pipe and throwing the stock of tobacco
into the fire, if that is the course he is
induced to follow; or the blessing of the
present Lord, for He has said-"l am with
you Away" on every-No cannot con-
cude the sentence; for with me, with my
convictions, it would border on profanity