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The Great Controversy 1888
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 Je-
sus 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, would
he not have denounced it as “earthly, sensual, devilish”? Slaves of
tobacco, claiming the blessing of entire sanctification, talk of their
[475]
hope of Heaven; but God’s Word plainly declares that “there shall in
nowise 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 Christians 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 consume upon the altar of destroying lust more than they
give to relieve the poor or for the support of the gospel. If all who
profess to be followers of Christ were truly sanctified, their means,
instead of being spent for needless and even hurtful indulgences, would
be turned into the Lord’s treasury, and Christians would set an example
of temperance, self-denial, and self-sacrifice. Then they would be the
light of the world.
The world is given up to self-indulgence. “The lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eye, and the pride of life,” control the masses of the people.
But Christ’s followers have a holier calling. “Come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean.” In
the light of God’s Word we are justified in declaring that sanctification
cannot be genuine which does not work this utter renunciation of the
sinful pursuits and gratifications of the world.