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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4a
go to the house which they have dedicated to God, professing to
worship him, with a stupefying quid of tobacco in their mouths, and
the high-colored saliva staining their lips and chin, and their foul breath
polluting the atmosphere. They leave their poisonous filth either upon
the floor, or in receptacles prepared for the purpose. This is the offering
they present to God. Instead of the cloud of fragrant incense filling
the house as in the case of the ancient tabernacle, it is filled with the
sickening, polluted odor of ejected tobacco spittle and quids, and the
air breathed by the congregation is poisoned.
Men who have been set apart by the laying on of hands, to minister
in sacred things, often stand in the desk with their mouths polluted,
their lips stained, and their breath tainted with the defilements of
tobacco. They speak to the people in Christ’s stead. How can such
service be acceptable to a holy God, who required the priests of Israel
to make such special preparations before coming into his presence,
lest his sacred holiness should consume them for dishonoring him,
as in the case of Nadab and Abihu? These may be assured that the
mighty God of Israel is still a God of cleanliness. They profess to be
serving God while they are committing idolatry, by making a God of
their appetite. Tobacco is their cherished idol. To it every high and
sacred consideration must bow. They profess to be worshipping God,
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while at the same time they are violating the first commandment. They
have other gods before the Lord. “Be ye clean that bear the vessels of
the Lord.”
God requires purity of heart, and personal cleanliness, now, as
when he gave the special directions to the children of Israel. If God
was so particular to enjoin cleanliness upon those journeying in the
wilderness who were in the open air nearly all the time, he requires
no less of us who live in ceiled houses, where impurities are more
observable, and have a more unhealthful influence. Tobacco is a poison
of the most deceitful and malignant kind, having an exciting, then a
paralyzing influence upon the nerves of the body. It is all the more
dangerous because it effects upon the system are so slow, and at first
scarcely perceivable. Multitudes have fallen victims to its poisonous
influence. They have surely murdered themselves by this slow poison.
And we ask, What will be their waking in the resurrection morning?
Tea and coffee are stimulating. Their effects are similar to those
of tobacco; but they affect in a less degree. Those who use these