NEGenWeb Project
Resource Center
Church

boys longed for it! Some of them would save a small piece of corn bread from their scanty store and exchange these scraps of bread for a twist of tobacco.

      5. Again, I charge this vile weed with being the fruitful mother of disease.

      The medical fraternity of the United States and Great Britain affirms this. If I take any poisonous drug into my system I must expect to reap the results. Such men as Agnew, Olcott, Barnes and Rush affirm this.

      One of the oldest physicians of Iowa says, "If I do not stop the use of tobacco I shall lose the use of my right side."

      A few weeks ago, in Michigan, in a prominent Methodist Church, a large congregation was assembled to test the deadly nicotine poison on animals. Two cats were brought out. To the first cat three drops of nicotine were administered. Death resulted in one minute and a half. Two drops were given the second cat and he died in one minute and three-quarters. A pound plug of "Spear Head" contains 380 grains of nicotine, or enough to kill 200 men.

      Tobacco depresses and even breaks down the nerve centers. It produces what are called "tobacco fits." Tobacco injures the digestion and produces dyspepsia.

      A distinguished physician in this country said, "Most of the cases of cancer of the mouth which have come under my observation have been caused by tobacco."

      King Humbert of Italy, so said the papers of October 25th, 1888, was, up to a short time before, a great smoker, but he began to suffer from loss of sleep and asthma, and when told the cause he said, "From this time forth I will not smoke another cigar, nor anything in the shape of tobacco."

      General Grant ceased smoking too late. Captain Hart, of Minnesota, died of cancer produced by tobacco; so did Captain Cook, of Nebraska.

      William S. Sebring died in Omaha the latter part of January, 1897. A short time before his death he wrote these words and handed them to me:

Omaha, Neb., Jan. 22, 1897.    

To My Old Comrades

      Do not do as I have done, but as I tell you. See then to it. Lay aside all kinds of liquors, cigars and tobacco, and all that causes disease. Stop before it is too late.

W. S. SEBRING.

      Dr. Matthewson, superintendent of the Nebraska Insane Asylum, said, "I am convinced that to tobacco and whiskey can be traced seven-tenths of the cases of insanity."

      An eminent physician, who was the superintendent of the insane asylum of Northampton, Mass., says, "Fully one-half of the patients who come to our asylum have lost their intellect through tobacco."

      6. Tobacco affects in a very serious way the child of one who uses the weed.

      Dr. Kerlin, who has charge of the largest institution in the world for the feeble-minded, says, "By far the greatest proportion of inmates of that institution are children of men who are tobacco users." This physician believes that tobacco produces more disease in the second generation than whiskey does.

      A doctor in Chicago was asked a few months ago to go and see a sick baby. The room was full of tobacco smoke. The little baby was gasping for breath. The window was opened and the pure air came in. The baby vomited up the smell of tobacco; the father quit tobacco and the baby got well.

      I have lately seen a child, but 3 years old, hold in his mouth his father's strong pipe. That child had inherited that desire from the father.

      7. But the strongest point against tobacco is: It is a sin against God.

      If the positions I have taken in this sermon are correct, you can readily see that it is a sin.

      The tobacco user has only two Scriptures on his side: Rom., 14:2, "He that is weak eateth herbs," and Rev., 22:11, "He that is filthy let him be filthy still."

      God, the Holy Spirit, writes our text, and He expects to be obeyed. Read also I Cor., 3:16-17, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God,

him will God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."

      The reason why many are not delivered from liquor and other wicked and destructive habits is because they will not forsake tobacco.

      Do you know why John B. Gough never was delivered from a thirst for liquor? He was a great temperance lecturer and a devout Christian in many respects, but he never in his life got delivered from the craving for liquor. Why? Because, while he refused to drink intoxicants, and while he struggled and put his foot down, and said, "I will not," he still kept on using tobacco, and if anybody uses tobacco they will never in their lifetime lose their contracted thirst for liquor. That is a universal fact in science and history, and where men use both, if they quit liquor the tobacco will always keep the thirst there. Mr. Gough was a persistent user of tobacco and the use of tobacco kept in his nature the thirst for liquor. He had a struggle against liquor all his life.

      An old lady, who was an inveterate smoker, had a dream one night in which she saw the great white throne. And the books were opened, but her name could not be found in the book of life. Feeling sure that it was there, she entreated that it might be searched for again. As the keen eye of the Judge went up and down the list, He said to her amazement, "It cannot be found." In great agony she begged that He might look but once more, when, after a while, she was told, "Yes, here it is at a corner of the page, but it is hard to find, as it is covered over and nearly blotted out with tobacco smoke."

      This so alarmed her that she awoke, and as she feared that by persisting in sending up her smoke it might entirely obscure her name, she threw away her pipe. After that she could calmly join in singing the second verse of Lady Huntington's hymn:

"I love to meet Thy people now,
Before Thy feet with them to bow,
Though vilest of them all.
But can I bear the piercing thought--
What if my name should be left out
When Thou for them should call?"

      A professing Christian who uses tobacco is certainly inconsistent. Moody says a man can be a Christian and use tobacco, but he is a dirty one--and I believe it.

      This little poem, which I found not long ago in "The Sent of God," shows how the world looks at this question of consistency:

Along in November, when chill was the weather,
Two ballots were cast in a box together;
They nestled up close like brother to brother --
You couldn't tell one of the votes from the other.

Chorus
They were both rum votes,
   And sanctioned the rum plan;
But one was cast by a cunning old brewer,
   And one by a Sunday school man.

The Sunday school man--no man could be truer
Kept busy all summer denouncing the brewer;
But his fervor cooled off with the change of the weather,
And late in the autumn they voted together.

The Sunday school man had always been noted
For fighting saloons--except when he voted;
He piled up his prayers with a holy perfection,
Then knocked them all down on the day of election.

The cunning old brewer was cheerful and mellow.
Said he, 'I admire the Sunday school fellow;
He's true to his church--to his party's he's truer;
He talks for the Lord, but he votes for the brewer."

      Brother, if you do not now use tobacco, do not learn. And if you use it, break it off--by the help of God. Throw the tobacco away and ask God to help you and He will do it.

      Read John, 1:12, "As many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."

      And becoming free from it yourself, persuade others, both by precept and example, to quit.

      A father once offered his little son a sheep if he would promise never to use tobacco. The little boy looked up and said, "Father, don't you think you better take a sheep?"

      I advise all the fathers to set a good example to their sons in this matter. God expects us to let our light shine.

YEAR ago I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost and I feel deeply impressed that I should glorify God by telling to others of His incoming and abiding.

     I became a Christian and united with the Methodist Church in 1858, when I was 8 years of age.

      And in the year 1877, when I was 27 years of age I entered the ministry, after my graduation at the university. God blessed my labors to a very precious degree. But as far back as 1881 I felt, from time to time, a great hungering after God. I could not account for that hunger on any natural grounds. I was the pastor of a large and important church. I had an income which far exceeded my actual needs; I had good health and many friends. In short, I had all I needed to make me perfectly happy and contented in this life. But I was restless and hungry. I cannot describe my case any better than by saying that I had paroxysms of desire and soul struggle, which to me were wonderful.

      These intense desires were evidently given me of the Lord. I seemed to have no part in bringing them on. These struggles continued with greater and still greater frequency and intensity for twenty years. During much of this time I did not try to accumulate property or gain any earthly honor. My great aim was to know God and be at rest with Him.

      More than once during these years I made a profession of holiness. Such men as Dr. Asbury Lowrey, of New York, and such teachers as Dr. S. A. Keen, of sainted memory, told me to believe that the blood cleansed me from all sin and to confess it and the work would be done. But it was not done.

      In a little while I would find myself more restless

than ever and down I would go on my knees and an my face before God, seeking Him.

      I now saw there had to be a killing-out work done preparatory to the incoming and dwelling of the Holy Ghost.

      For God says in Rom., 6:8, "If we be dead with Christ we believe we shall also live with Him."

      We are to live with Christ here and now in this world. There is a heaven here for the soul to go to heaven in. In the Old Testament dispensation, the fire never fell on a living sacrifice, but the fire fell on the sacrifice after it had been slain. Death must precede life. Paul understood this important principle well when he says in Galatians, 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet, not I, but Christ liveth in me."

      I tried to take sanctification by faith, but the experience was never satisfactory to me, hence I kept asking God for the real thing.

      I read in Psalms, 81:16, that God designed to feed His children on the finest of the wheat and to satisfy them with honey out of the rock. So I told God that experience had never been mine and I wanted it. I fully believed in the promises of God and I was fully assured that God could and would do what He had promised to honest hearts.

      I had also read in the lives of holy men and women who had walked with God that there was a definite and distinct baptism that fully satisfied the soul.

      I could not question or doubt such testimonies as those of John Wesley, John Fletcher, Joseph Benson, Dr. Adam. Clark, George Whitefield, Madam Guyon, Archbishop Fenelon, William Carvosso, William Bramwell, James Caughey, Charles G. Finney, Dr. Daniel Steele, James B. Finley, A. B. Earle, Catherine Booth, Amanda Smith and others. I studied my Bible and the lives of these holy men and women, and asked God to give me a satisfying portion; I wanted to be taken over and given my inheritance in the mountain of God. I meant it and God saw I meant it, and He began to prepare me to receive Him.

      I was not down low enough. I do not believe God blamed me for not receiving hitherto. He knew that I had walked up to my Light and that is all a soul can do. I was not convicted for sin; I was convicted for want. I did not know how to get down low enough to receive the baptism, but He knew how to put me down and He did it.

      The baptism of the Holy Ghost is a more thorough work and a more wonderful work than many think it.

      The divine element in it, too, is very great. See I Thes., 5:24, "Faithful is he who calleth you, who also will do it." To consecrate is man's work, but to sanctify is God's work.

      Time is also an important factor. If you will stay with God He will do a work which is entirely satisfactory. Eleven years ago I was called out by the Lord to an independent work and a life of faith--to the pastorate of the People's Church of Omaha.

      Six years ago my baby, Philip, a beautiful boy of 2 years, died a sudden and a violent death. I was taught much by this providence. Four years more passed on and trouble and division occurred in our work.

      I passed through experiences especially calculated and designed to humble my pride and to get me down in the dust with no one to look to but God. In a series of visions of the night I was shown what awaited me. I was shown that I must suffer, but that the hand of God was in my affairs.

      Money was taken from me and friends forsook me. At length I was brought to cry out from the depths of my soul, "Lord, enable me to glorify Thee."

      On August 10th, 1900, I was enabled for five hours to utter the death cry before God; self was put on the cross and the nails were driven. At 12 o'clock that night the Holy Spirit stole silently and sweetly into my heart; but there was no fire.

      This presence remained with me several months, then through ignorance on my part and disobedience He was withdrawn. I sought Him everywhere, but I could not find him. But in September, 1901, God enabled me

to pour out my soul in great earnestness for the fullness of blessing.

      For about three days I seemed to take hold of the pierced feet of my Lord; I was permitted and enabled to sink down lower than His feet and to stay there and abide His time. It seems now to me that I had been in that humble attitude of waiting for two or three days, and I had ceased to expect anything from the Lord.

      I was exhausted and could do no more. I did not know it, but that was the place of blessing. For glory be to God, on the morning of September 20th, 1901, at 4 o'clock, while in my bed, alone in my parlor, there appeared on my ceiling a ring of fire, or a crown of gold.

      For a moment only, and with great astonishment, I looked at this manifestation, when it moved quickly away, and as it disappeared I received a mighty baptism of holy love and fire, which went through and through me.

      Jesus seemed to stand near my bed and at my right hand, and in language divinely authoritative assured me that "He should abide with me forever." He also recited the 767th hymn. in the Methodist collection, a hymn I had not thought of for months, and even years. Those who know my history will understand something of its peculiar adaptation and fitness in my case. I here quote the hymn:

On the mountain's top appearing,
   Lo, the sacred Herald stands,
Welcome news to Zion bearing,
    Zion, long in hostile lands.
        Mourning captive,

    God Himself shall loose thy bands.
Hast thy night been long and mournful?
    Have thy friends unfaithful proved?
Have thy foes been proud and scornful-
    By thy sighs and tears unmoved?
        Cease thy mourning;

    Zion still is well beloved.
Peace and joy shall now attend thee--
    All thy warfare now is past;
God, thy saviour, will defend thee--
    Victory is thine at last.
        All thy conflicts
    End in everlasting rest.

      It was with much difficulty that I could compose

myself till morning; I so intensely desired to tell my wife and children what God had done for me. I wondered if God had ever blessed anybody before as He did me. A year has now passed, but the Comforter abides with me. I wish I could tell people the change in my soul and body which this baptism has wrought, but I never can fully tell it.

       I have no more paroxysms of seeking. A blessed rest of soul and body is mine; it is a glorious rest.

       There is a sense in which I have ceased to labor and am keeping a continual Sabbatic rest. This is explained in Isaiah, 11:10, and Heb., 4:10. The manifestations of this holy presence are most blessed and wonderful.

       A fountain of living water has sprung up in my soul. God has literally fulfilled in my case John, 4:14.

       Birds of Paradise sing in my heart. He does give me songs in the night.--Job, 35:10.

       And the Holy Fire makes itself felt in my flesh, especially in my feet and limbs.--Matt., 3:11, and Luke, 3:16, are true to the letter. Andrew Murray, of South America, says, "We can have the fire of God burning through our whole being and all its powers through our very bodies, making them living, holy and well-pleasing sacrifices. It can be. It has been. It will be to every one who is willing to give up all. First a death, then the transfiguration the fire brings." He speaks the truth and I do experience it.

       I have often an accountable desire to jump and shout. I never felt so until this experience came. I have received a touch of the life more abundant spoken of by Jesus in John, 10:10. A great hopefulness and general buoyancy of spirit fills me most of the time.

       I have also, at times, fierce and awful temptations, but the Mighty Helper is with me. I can ever see the flash of His sabre and I can hear His shout of victory.

       The Scriptures are now made much more plain to me. Texts before dark are now made light; whole books once closed are now made open. Especially is this true of the books of Job and Jonah, and Solomon's song.

       I have great delight in laboring for God and in

preaching His word. The Gospel now committed to me often builds up His people and takes powerful hold of the unsaved.

       I feel an intense desire to go from place to place as He opens the door and labor in revival services. God is certainly calling me to do this much of the time.

       My home-work is blessed and many other doors are opening. The fields are white.

       I have never felt called of God to say that I was entirely sanctified or to boast that I was holy. God is holy. But He did baptize me with the Holy Ghost and fire as He said He would. He kept His word.

       And I will live this grace and tell it as far as He permits me to travel and as long as He allows me to live.

© 2003 for the NEGenWeb Project by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller.