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Chapter 4—An Economic Waste
God’s Money Squandered
—The love of tobacco is a warring
lust. Means are thereby squandered that would aid in the good
work of clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and sending the
truth to poor souls out of Christ. What a record will appear when
the accounts of life are balanced in the book of God! It will then
appear that vast sums of money have been expended for tobacco
and alcoholic liquors! For what? To ensure health and prolong
life? Oh, no! To aid in the perfection of Christian character and a
fitness for the society of holy angels? Oh, no! But to minister to
a depraved, unnatural appetite for that which poisons and kills not
only the user but those to whom he transmits his legacy of disease
and imbecility.—
The Signs of the Times, October 27, 1887
.
All Must Give an Account
—Millions of dollars are spent for
stimulants and narcotics. All this money rightfully belongs to God,
and those who thus misappropriate His entrusted goods will someday
be called to give an account of how they have used their Lord’s
goods.—
Letter 243a, 1905
.
Tobacco Users to Look Over the Record
—Have you consid-
ered your responsibility as God’s stewards, for the means in your
hands? How much of the Lord’s money do you spend for tobacco?
Reckon up what you have thus spent during your lifetime. How does
the amount consumed by this defiling lust compare with what you
have given for the relief of the poor and the spread of the gospel?
No human being needs tobacco, but multitudes are perishing for
want of the means that by its use is worse than wasted. Have you not
been misappropriating the Lord’s goods? Have you not been guilty
of robbery toward God and your fellow men? Know ye not that “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
.—
The Ministry of Healing, 330
.
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Appetite Versus Natural Affection and Claims of God
—
Those who are slaves to tobacco will see their families suffering for
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