Mind, the Citadel
63
Those who use tobacco in any form are not clear before God. In
such a filthy practice it is impossible for them to glorify God in their
bodies and spirits, which are His. And while they are using slow and
sure poisons, which are ruining their health and debasing the faculties
of the mind, God cannot approbate them. He may be merciful to them
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while they indulge in this pernicious habit in ignorance of the injury it
is doing them, but when the matter is set before them in its true light,
then they are guilty before God if they continue to indulge this gross
appetite.—
Spiritual Gifts, 4a:126
(1864).
Slaves to Alcohol and Drugs—On every side Satan seeks to en-
tice the youth into the path of perdition; and if he can once get their
feet set in the way, he hurries them on in their downward course, lead-
ing them from one dissipation to another, until his victims lose their
tenderness of conscience and have no more the fear of God before
their eyes. They exercise less and less self-restraint. They become
addicted to the use of wine and alcohol, tobacco and opium, and go
from one stage of debasement to another. They are slaves to appetite.
Counsel which they once respected, they learn to despise. They put
on swaggering airs and boast of liberty when they are the servants of
corruption. They mean by liberty that they are slaves to selfishness,
debased appetite, and licentiousness.—
The Signs of the Times, June
22, 1891
. (
Temperance, 273, 274
.)
Satan’s Weapons—The indulgence of fleshly lusts wars against
the soul. The apostle in the most impressive manner, addresses Chris-
tians, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God”
(
Romans 12:1
). If the body is saturated with liquor and the defilement
of tobacco, it is not holy and acceptable to God. Satan knows that it
cannot be, and for this reason he brings his temptations to bear upon
men upon the point of appetite, that he may bring them into bondage
to this propensity and thus work their ruin.—
The Review and Herald,
September 8, 1874
.
The Deciding Factor of Passion and Appetite—If men and
women of intelligence have their moral powers benumbed through
intemperance of any kind, they are, in many of their habits, elevated
but little above the heathen. Satan is constantly drawing the people
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from saving light to custom and fashion, irrespective of physical, men-
tal, and moral health. The great enemy knows that if appetite and