Who dare hope of going to heaven who will not forsake his bad habits? Reader, I appeal to your reason. You must answer me. Is it not a habit? Is it good or bad? What shall your answer be in the judgment-day? God will hold us responsible for the use we are making of the money he has permitted us to acquire in this world. He says, “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?” Isa. 55:2. Does it not savor more of the principle and spirit of Christianity to use our money in feeding and clothing the poor, than in consuming it in this unhealthful, unsightly, unclean, and ungodly lust? Do you not believe that when you shall have come to that bright land beyond the grave, that you would have more treasures there if all the money you have spent for tobacco had been used to help the poor along the weary way of life? O fellow mortal, how can you chew and smoke and snuff and spit your money away, while thousands are starving for bread, and millions are going to an eternal wretchedness for the want of gospel light? Do not think that God will not punish you for your selfishness.
God will hold us responsible for the example we set before the youth of the land and the children of our home. Jesus says to the Christian, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Mat. 5:16. What kind of a light is the tobacco-user letting shine to this world? Can he say to all, “Follow me [pg 300] in this habit”? Would he advise the pure, innocent prattler upon his knee to chew or smoke the filthy thing? No man can indulge in one thing that he can not with clear conscience say to the whole world, “Follow me in,” and stand clear and uncondemned before God in judgment. The Bible tells us, “In everything give thanks.” Who feels like thanking God they have acquired the tobacco habit? The Bible tells us that “whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all to the glory of God.” But very few have become so depraved as to say they can glorify God in tobacco using. Here we behold the sublime wonders of redeeming grace. This world lost in sin, mankind was bound by passions, appetites, desires and dispositions with which they could not glorify God, Jesus, full of grace and truth, came from heaven to cleanse man, to save him from everything with which he could not show forth his Maker's praise. Halleluiah!
We feel like giving you a bit of our experience before closing this subject. For several years we were bound hand and foot by the hideous monster—Tobacco. We repeatedly tried to extricate ourselves from his iron grasp, but tried in vain. Resolution upon resolution was made. The plug was frequently thrown away only to be shortly afterward searched for or replaced by another one. How the devil's power ground me beneath his hoof of steel. Awful slavery, terrible bondage! We often express our thankfulness for a free country, but who is free? Of all the many [pg 301] sins that lay upon my soul, none seemed so heavy as the tobacco sin. In a time of danger or fright our first thought would be of tobacco, and we feared and trembled before God. In a time of storm when the lightning would flash and the thunder roll we would vow to the Lord that if he would keep us through the storm we would use tobacco no more. But when the clouds had rolled away and the sun shone out so peacefully, our tyrannical master would scourge us beneath his heavy yoke, and we would yield to his demands. For several months we thus fought against this monster only to be conquered, until early one October morning when all alone we earnestly besought the God of heaven to come to our rescue. We confessed our sins to him and plead for mercy. He heard our prayer and blotted out all our transgressions. He filled our soul with such a wondrous glory that full two weeks had passed before we thought of tobacco, and when we did we loathed it more than we had ever loved it. Eight years have passed and still we are free. Since the day we were saved we have no more desired it than if we never had used it. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36.
Opium.
The habit of eating opium is fast increasing. We are told that thousands of tons are used annually [pg 302] in smoking and chewing in different parts of the world. Over half a million pounds are consumed by the opium eaters of our own country. It is a lust of the flesh and classed among the things which if we do we can never enter heaven. It is because it is a sin that will bar you forever from the land of eternal rest, that prompts us to add a few words of warning.
Like alcohol and tobacco, the word opium does not appear in the Scriptures, but that it is a sinful lust but very few will deny. Opium is the dried juice of the white poppy. Morphine is a powder made from opium. Laudanum is made by soaking opium in alcohol. The custom of drugging infants and children with “Soothing Cordials” is shameful and sinful. The “soothing” effect is produced by the opium the drug contains. It is exceedingly dangerous. One writer has said that it is very certain that many infants annually perish from this single cause. Any work on hygiene or common school physiology will describe the effect of opium upon the human system.
But the injurious effects of these stimulants and poisons upon the physical health is not the primary cause for speaking against their use in this little work. It is because such is not a gospel light. No one can indulge in such practises and be a light in the world in this shining gospel day. Such sinful deeds of the flesh are but the works of darkness and denounced by the writers of the New Testament.
Tea And Coffee.
Like the other stimulants that bring the user into bondage, tea and coffee are not mentioned in the Word of God. That they are classed among the narcotic poisons is acknowledged by all medical authorities. “Tea and coffee,” says an authentic writer, “weakens the action of the heart. They produce headache, heartburn, indigestion, constipation, and wakefulness at night. The peculiar beating of the heart or palpitation after much exertion is often due to tea and coffee, and produces what is known as the ‘tea-drinker's heart.’ ”[1]
The greatest desire of the true, devoted Christian is to glorify God in all that he does. No one who is careless and unobservant about his manner of life can prosper in the things of God. He who is desirous of being a shining light for Jesus in this world is careful that all about him is to the glory of God. He will so govern or rule his life, by God's grace, he will so subject his appetites and passions, that his whole conduct in every respect will be an adornment of the doctrine of God his Savior. His or her dress will be in perfect accord with the Bible, no worldly air will linger in his behavior; even his eating and drinking will be such as is glorifying to God. You show me an individual that is careless about his diet, led by [pg 304] an unrestrained appetite in eating food highly seasoned and flavored with spices, cinnamons, peppers, and mustards, or freely eating of rich cakes, pastries and puddings, or in drinking of teas and coffees, and I will show you one in whom the ebb of spiritual life is very weak and low. It is true, to leave off eating condiments and drinking stimulants alone will not make you spiritual, but it is a certain fact that if you attain to any great degree of spiritual life you will abandon the use of these things. It is well known among the true children of God that the most spiritual, and those of the greatest faith do not use tea nor coffee.