Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.-Isaiah 5:20

It is not my purpose to outline, describe or even to suggest a boundary of the possibilities of the Church. The bible itself has found it difficult to convey the meaning or the extent and inestimable value of the opportunity offered to mankind in the Church; I, therefore, shall not attempt the impossible. What is the truth about tobacco? Tobacco has a relation to health and religion, that touches many other relations of life. But I desire to start this consideration simply under the banner of truth. The Church is the representation of truth upon the earth. And the instruction given by Jesus of this evil must be bound or loosed by the Church. He has left us only to choose which it shall be, but in making a choice we must not lose sight of the other things involved. We must remember his other teachings and fit them all in our lives. We dare not forget he said: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and all thy strength.

Tobacco is an agent that injects its poison into spiritual eyes even before they are opened. It is one of those things which Solomon said they have stricken me and I was not hurt: they have beaten me and I felt it not. When shall I awake? I shall seek it yet again.

Does tobacco injure the brain? the question was asked. The question can never be answered, for no one with brains has ever been found using it. God made tobacco, some people say. Yes; but he also made a worm to eat it. Some people chew tobacco for the toothache, and then eat Sen-Sens so they can comply with Romans 16.16. Of course it is a sin to use tobacco, but to raise it-well, that is just a mony-making proposition. One consolation, it is no more a sin to raise tobacco to make tobacco slaves than it is to manufacture whiskey to make drunkards. Can a man be a Christian and use tobacco? Yes, he might be a Christian, but a mighty dirty one.

As many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law; and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law; for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel by Jesus Christ.-Romans 11:12-16

The average man locks the door at night to keep out a thief, and shuts in a tobacco devil. He takes life insurance and death insurance at the same time. His Bible says that his body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, but he wonders if it is wrong to use tobacco. He works hard to send the boys to college, sending money with them to poison their brains and to taech others the same practice. All his life he expects a silk lined coffin with flowers and music at his funeral, but pays little attention to the care of the body that will be upon exhibition there. He wants pure food laws, but achew of terbacker after each meal. Thinking he teaches the ideals of Washington and Lincoln to his children, he practices the habits of the American Indian. Building great expensive structures of brick and stone, he goes within to worship, but he has his god in his pocket. While at the door there is a bottomless tobacco pit into which all his sons may fall before they are old enough to discern the purpose of the Children, and he does not even put up a danger sign. Occasionally he hears a missionary sermon, but it never occurs to him that he is worse than the heathen, for he practices their heathen custom in an enlightened neighborhood. Occasionally he gives a nickel to send the gospel to the heathen; but the tobacco habit, the most disgusting heathen practice in all the world, he fosters. He may say, Deliver us from evil, but he does not know he partakes of one of the greatest evils in the world, and he will not listen when you tell him. He may even repeat, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," but if you suggest that it is not God's will that his children poison themsrelves with nicotine, he thinks you are crazy. You may find pictures in his home, music in his parlor, and paint on his barn, but his nerves are always bankrupt without this idol. Yes, in some ways he is less wise than a chicken, a dog, or even a hog, for they struggle when they are forced to take poison, but he struggles to learn to take it. He may constantly increase the amopunt he takes until his Creator's forgiveness and loving mercy are exhausted, and he dies slobbering and savagely declaring that tobacco has never hurt him. Such is the material of which the Church is made, and you and I, dear reader, have been associated with this all our lives. And because we have been so much like it we have not noticed it. We are temples of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come ye out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having, therefore, these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.-II Cor. 6:14; 7:1.

Dear reader, I was once a slave to tobacco. If there were no God, heaven, hell, Bible, Church, or religion, I still would be bitterly opposed to tobacco. If cows were to become addicted to this habit it would cast a gloom over the entire milk, butter qand beef trade. Jesus gives a suggestion to the Christlike that will help us solve this problem. It is recorded in Luke 21:19 of the American revised version of the New Testament. In this suggestion I think I see the climax of Jesus' instruction to untobaccoed Christians upon this question. In your patience ye shall win your souls.
Arranged by C.A Reese, Millersville, Lancaster County, Pa.