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Modern Revivals
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of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” [
2
Corinthians 7:1
.] And with the fruits of the Spirit—“love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,”—he classes
temperance. [
Galatians 5:22, 23
.]
Notwithstanding these inspired declarations, how many pro-
fessed Christians are enfeebling their powers in the pursuit of gain
or the worship of fashion; how many are debasing their godlike
manhood by gluttony, by wine-drinking, by forbidden pleasure. And
the church, instead of rebuking, too often encourages the evil by
appealing to appetite, to desire for gain, or love of pleasure, to re-
plenish her treasury, which love for Christ is too feeble to supply.
Were Jesus to enter the churches of today, and behold the feasting
and unholy traffic there conducted in the name of religion, would he
not drive out those desecrators, as he banished the money-changers
from the temple?
The apostle James declares that the wisdom from above is “first
pure.” Had he encountered those who take the precious name of
Jesus upon lips defiled by tobacco, those whose breath and person
are contaminated by its foul odor, and who pollute the air of heaven
and force all about them to inhale the poison,—had the apostle come
in contact with a practice so opposed to the purity of the gospel,
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would he not have denounced it as “earthly, sensual, devilish”?
Slaves of tobacco, claiming the blessing of entire sanctification, talk
of their hope of Heaven; but God’s word plainly declares that “there
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.” [
Revelation
21:27
.]
“Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,
which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body,
and in your spirit, which are God’s.” [
1 Corinthians 6:19, 20
.] He
whose body is the temple of the Holy Spirit will not be enslaved by a
pernicious habit. His powers belong to Christ, who has bought him
with the price of blood. His property is the Lord’s. How could he
be guiltless in squandering this intrusted capital? Professed Chris-
tians yearly expend an immense sum upon useless and pernicious
indulgences, while souls are perishing for the word of life. God
is robbed in tithes and offerings, while they offer upon the altar of
destroying lust more than they give to relieve the poor or for the