I call them apologies. They cannot be considered reasons. Almost every lover of the dirty weed, feels that he needs an apology. One will tell us he has a cold, watery stomach, and he thinks that tobacco, by promoting expectoration, relieves the difficulty. Another will tell us he is very much troubled with indigestion, and he thinks tobacco relieves the difficulty; though, in truth, tobacco is the very worst drug he could use to relieve that disease, and is among the primordial causes of inducing it. Another will tell us that he is afflicted with the rising of his food after eating, and he thinks tobacco gives immediate relief; not suspecting, perhaps, that this rising of the food is occasioned by over eating. Another will tell us he has a distressing difficulty in the head, and brain, and he thinks a little good Scotch snuff affords relief; as though the filling the pores, and cavities of the head, and clogging up the brain, with this dirty stuff, would remove a disease which in most cases it originates.
Others use tobacco to preserve the teeth; and this, though it is a solemn truth, that many a one loses his teeth by smoking and chew
ing the poisonous plant. Others, again, use tobacco to excite the mind to more vigorous intellectual effort. But when and where do we find great lovers of tobacco great students, and intellectual giants? Dr. Rush says, "I suspect tobacco is oftener used for the want of ideas, than to excite them." There are some whose apology for using tobacco is, that it guards them against the power of contagious diseases. But Dr. Rees affirms that tobacco does not contain an antidote against contagion, and that, in general, it has no antiseptic power; and is therefore of no special use. There is another class still, who use tobacco because it soothes the irksomeness of life. They fear solitude; and to prevent self-examination, and to while away their probation time, they fly to the pipe, quid, and snuff-box; and soon, by an easy transition, to the wine-glass and brandy-bottle.
These are the usual apologies of the devotees to tobacco. And what do they amount to? In truth, the common opinion that tobacco is good for the head-ache,—weak eyes,—cold and watery stomachs,—the preservation of the teeth,—and the like, is sheer delusion. Let every man and woman, who would live long, and usefully, and happily, awake from this delusion; and let no one, as he values health, life, and salvation, taste, touch, or handle, the filthy poison.
I maintain my position,
VIII, and lastly.—From a consideration of the eternal ruin which tobacco occasions. On this point, a word or two only, will suffice. That tobacco carries many a soul down to the pit of eternal woe, is manifest from its connection with drunkenness, and from its inducing disease and death. Every man who dies a drunkard, and every man who, knowingly and recklessly, brings upon himself disease and death through the influence of tobacco, is a suicide. And drunkards and suicides cannot inherit the kingdom of God. How many will at last, ascribe their eternal ruin to alcohol and tobacco, cannot now be told.
That it will be a great multitude, (perhaps a great multitude which no man can number,) we have no reason to doubt.
What then, I ask, ought to be done? What can be done? What must be done? If this poisonous narcotic be of recent origin; if it be ruinous to the health and constitution, and intellect, and public and private morals; if it occasions an amazing waste of property,—and a multitude of deaths,—and eternal ruin to many precious souls; and if it do no good,—and there be no apology for using it, which will bear examination; then something ought to be done, and it ought to be done immediately. And, only one thing need be done. And that can be done, and it ought to be done. It is this:—tobacco can be abandoned. And if moral influence enough can be enlisted, it will be abandoned.
TOTAL ABSTINENCE is the only sure remedy. TOTAL ABSTINENCE will deliver us from all the evils which this weed has brought down upon individuals and families, and the nation.—Nothing else will do it. And total abstinence can be adopted and
practiced. True; in some cases, it may cost an effort; but, in every instance, three weeks' perseverance will overcome the habit. Three weeks' total abstinence, will disenthrall every victim, and give him the prospect of freedom, plenty, health, and happiness. And shall this effort be made? A mighty effort it must be, to liberate and save this whole nation—and especially our young men and maidens—from the curses of the quid, the pipe, and the snuff-box.