CHAPTER XXV.

AN EVIL HABIT---HOW I OVERCAME IT---THE USE
OF TOBACCO A SIN AGAINST NATURE--ITS EFFECTS
PHYSIOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED.

FOR more than thirty-five years I was the slave. to that pernicious sinful degrading habit -- chewing tobacco.-- when a lad, but fifteen years of age I adopted this practice. I probably should not have become a man so soon by several years, had I not profited so wisely by the example of my seniors. But my impulses of gratitude are not overwhelming for the lesson they have taught. Nay, pity the aged sire, who, with all the experience and wisdom of years, can unite the stupidity of the barbarian with the sagacity of age, in giving character and dignity to such a vice., To my Christian readers let me say, I doubt very much 15

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your ever entering Heaven with the stain of tobacco upon your garments. I do not believe any one will dispute that it is a. sinful practice, and although we sin daily, and God doth, and will, forgive the thoughtless, impulsive transgressions of our daily life, I do not believe he ever will forgive the deliberate, persistent sin of a lifetime, unless repented of and abandoned.

Just as soon could I unite myself with a Christian church that tolerated the use of ardent spirits as a beverage, as with one that looks complacently on the great sin of' indulging the appetite in the use of' tobacco. I look upon these indulgences as one and the same thing. It is the fostering of an appetite never planted by our Creator in our natural being; but only acquired by constant practice. At first, there is not an element of our physical organization that does not rebel against it. Who has forgotten the deathlike pallor and cold clammy sweats that accompanied the first cigar? And who has failed to discover the gradual transformation our systems have undergone during the few brief years we have indulgent in the evil practice. How gradually and surely has the bloom of youth faded into the sallow, sickly complexion of tobacco, until the victim is metamorphosed into a being of which the principal element is tobacco itself. In a religious point of view, I have said I believed it the same in substance, as intoxication of any other character

SIN OF TOBACCO-USING.227

Each is the indulgence of an appetite at once ruinous and sinful. True its effects are not so immediate and violent; yet they have a slow and steady tendency downward, and whatever degrades the man, is Antichristian; for the tendencies of Christianity are elevating, refining, and ennobling.

There are two views to be taken of all human transactions, one the motive that prompts the act, the other the effect which such an action will produce. In regard to the latter of these views, we freely admit that the immediate effects of alcoholic liquors are more destructive to human life and happiness, than the use of tobacco. But judging from the other view, we believe that each are alike sinful; and we do believe that this is the light in which God with judge all our hearts. "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." Where is the distinction in regard to the motive that prompts to either; each are but the indulgence of an unnatural, morbid, sinful appetite; and in the sight of the great God who discerneth the secret thoughts and intents of the heart, I have not a doubt that each will be regarded equally sinful and reprehensible. I am happy to be united in church relation with a people who renounce this sin. A people who do not believe a person can be a Christian until the whole being, morally, socially, and physically, has been consecrated to

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the work. Regarding it physiologically, it has been clearly demonstrated that tobacco has a most injurious effect upon the brain, the stomach, and in short, the entire system. A single drop of the oil of tobacco will instantaneously destroy the life of a cat, and there is not a beast on the time of the earth that will partake of it as food.

In the use of tobacco for thirty-five years, you may reasonably judge that my system had become pretty thoroughly metamorphosed, and the breaking of such a powerful habit was not effected without. a struggle. In my own. strength alone I never could have effected such a reformation; but when it came to regard it as sin. and a part of the sacrifice that I must make if I would be a Christian, one of the ways in which the lusts of the flesh were to be overcome, I went to a Throne of grace, and sought in prayer, strength to overcome this besetment. I found that the same grace that had enabled me to triumph over other sins, was sufficient for this; and I now not only feel no inclination to indulge the habit, but a positive aversion to ever touching, tasting, or smelling the filthy weed. It is as actually offensive to me now as though I had never loved it in my life.

I am now an old man, and the father of eighteen children, but not one of them uses the obnoxious weed. Have raised five sons to manhood, and you will pardon me for feeling a father's pride, in saying that they are decided temperance men

A TEMPERATE FAMILY229

both in eating and drinking -- that they have no such habits as card-playing, &e., which are so common at the present day. Two of this number have sacrificed their lives upon their country's altar. The others still live to serve their country in a no less important manner; and though they may never be distinguished for any prouder conquest, my prayer is that they may be ever known as men who have achieved, and can maintain a perfect triumph over that most dangerous for to human kind -- the appetite.