Basic HTML Version
70
Temperance
father who has become a slave to abnormal appetite, who has sacri-
ficed his God-given manhood to become a tobacco inebriate, cannot
teach his children to control appetite and passion. It is impossible
for him to thus educate them either by precept or example. How can
the father whose mouth is filled with tobacco, whose breath poisons
the atmosphere of home, teach his sons lessons of temperance and
self-control? ...
Held Accountable for Example and Influence
—When we ap-
proach the youth who are acquiring the habit of using tobacco, and
tell them of its pernicious influence upon the system, they frequently
fortify themselves by citing the example of their fathers, or that
of certain Christian ministers, or good and pious members of the
church. They say, “If it does them no harm, it certainly cannot
injure me.” What an account will professed Christian men have to
render to God for their intemperance! Their example strengthens the
temptations of Satan to pervert the senses of the young by the use
of artificial stimulants; it seems to them not a very bad thing to do
what respectable church members are in the habit of doing. But it is
[72]
only a step from tobacco using to liquor drinking; in fact, the two
vices usually go together.
Thousands learn to be drunkards from such influences as these.
Too often the lesson has been unconsciously taught them by their
own fathers. A radical change must be made in the heads of families
before much progress can be made in ridding society of the monster
of intemperance.—
The Health Reformer, September, 1877
.
Tobacco User No Help to Inebriates
—As twin evils, tobacco
and alcohol go together.—
The Review and Herald, July 9, 1901
.
Those who use tobacco can make but a poor plea to the liquor
inebriate. Two thirds of the drunkards in our land created an appetite
for liquor by the use of tobacco.—
The Signs of the Times, October
27, 1887
.
Tobacco Users in Temperance Work
—Tobacco users cannot
be acceptable workers in the temperance cause, for there is no con-
sistency in their profession to be temperance men. How can they
talk to the man who is destroying reason and life by liquor drinking,
when their pockets are filled with tobacco, and they long to be free
to chew and smoke and spit all they please? How can they with
any degree of consistency plead for moral reforms before boards of