How can a temperance man use tobacco? With what consistency can he ask his neighbor to abstain from alcohol, on the ground of its being injurious to body and mind, while he indulges himself in the habitual gratification of an appetite, unnatural and pernicious, and holding, in some respects, a strong alliance with that produced by an alcoholic beverage? How long shall the widow's mite, consecrated, under many personal privations, to the great object of doing good to mankind, be perverted to sustain a disgustful and hurtful habit, by the beneficiary of an Education Society?
How long are the sacred altars of God to be polluted with this unhallowed offering, and the garments of the priesthood to remain uncleansed from its defilements? How long shall transgressors be called upon to listen, with a spirit of conviction and repentance, to sermons on the great duties of Christian self-denial, prepared and pronounced under the inspiration of this poison?
Footnotes:
1 ([return])
This is proved by applying it to these organs in infancy, among those children whose parents do not use tobacco. Caspar Hausser, who was fed wholly on farinaceous food and water, from infancy to the age of sixteen or seventeen years, was made sick to vomiting by walking for a "considerable time by the side of a tobacco field."
2 ([return])
I have recently seen two cases; one caused by the excessive use of snuff, the other by the chewing of tobacco and swallowing the saliva.