1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



367 



thought that success in life — that is, success 

 in a financial way — is almost always followed 

 by the use of tobacco and the drinking habit. 

 Can this really be true? Do men show their 

 gratitude and thankfulness for prosperity and 

 success by taking stimulants ? ' ' Lord, help ! ' ' 

 In fact, this little prayer of mine has been 

 welling up all along as I have gone over these 

 things. 



Some time ago I told you about the closets 

 in our factory. I spoke about our beautiful 

 Smead system. Well, the paint had hardly 

 got dry on the blinds to each individual apart- 

 ment before tobacco juice was squirted on 

 these screens that were put up simply to se- 

 cure privacy. If the vile stuff had been ex- 

 truded in one spot we might have cleaned it 

 up ; but it was spattered all over the white- 

 washed wall, en the floor, and on the base- 

 boards. We might have stopped it by dis- 

 missing every man in our employ who uses 

 tobacco ; and if the effect would have been 

 good and not evil I would have done so, no 

 matter if it had shut down our works tempo- 

 rarily. Please remember, our institution has 

 been for years comparatively free from tobac- 

 co. Year after year this thing has gone on. 

 At Ernest's suggestion I put some wooden 

 boxes, half full of sawdust, where the greater 

 part of the filth has piled up, and I began to 

 feel quite light-hearted when I found most of 

 the filth in said boxes. This morning I dis- 

 covered a box had got pushed back a little out 

 of sight by some means, and the filthy stuff 

 was spattered on the doors and walls again. 

 What shall I do? What would Jesus do? 

 May be you think I am needlessly cranky on 

 this matter. Perhaps you say it is one of the 

 necessary evils we shall have to get along 

 with as well as we can. 



Somebody may ask, as did Nicodemus of 

 old, "How can a man be born again?" In 

 other words, what does it mean to be born 

 again ? Well, I am glad we have before us 

 an excellent illustration of what it does mean. 



You have not forgotten the story of Mr. Im- 

 ler. I have taken pains to hunt up a great 

 mass of facts in regard to this strange occur- 

 rence. Please remember I am not booming 

 Dr. Dowie just now ; for I am not sure but 

 some of his uncharitable and severe censure is 

 almost as bad as the use of tobacco. But I 

 wish to give him the credit which he deserves. 

 Mr. Henry W. Imler was a well-to-do busi- 

 ness man in Fremont, Ohio. You see he was 

 not very far away from us. He had used to- 

 bacco for more than fifty years, even to the 

 extent of twelve or fifteen cigars a day. This 

 comes from his own statement. In Decem- 

 ber, 1897, he was afflicted with a very bad to- 

 bacco cancer. He consulted the best physi- 

 cians. They told him he could live only a 

 few months unless the cancer was cut out ; 

 and I believe they also told him frankly that 

 its location in the upper part of the mouth was 

 such that he might not survive a surgical oper- 

 ation. When they found that he also used 

 morphine in excessive quantities he was told 

 he could not avail himself of the benefits of 

 chloroform. He would have to be literally 

 cut to pieces without getting relief from any 



anesthetic. Brother Imler was in a tight 

 place.* He had been almost all his life a pro- 

 fessing Christian. In his earlier years he was 

 a victim of strong drink ; but through faith in 

 God he was enabled to break from the habit, 

 and had not been a drinking man up to the 

 time of his death. However, he held on to to- 

 bacco, and he got to taking morphine, for 

 neuralgia, while in the army, in 1861. At the 

 time he visited Dr. Dowi<% the last of Decem- 

 ber, 1897, he was really in trouble. He was 

 induced to go there by two friends of his who 

 had been cured, as they claimed, of cancer by 

 going to Dr. Dowie. Any one who cares to 

 have the full particulars, at considerable 

 length, can find the whole of it in periodicals 

 published in different States about the time of 

 the transaction. 



Mr. Imler told Dr. Dowie his trouble. The 

 doctor asked him a great number of questions. 

 He told him they could not ask God's help in 

 such an emergency unless he would promise 

 to give up the use of tobacco and morphine. 

 But many (or perhaps most) physicians would 

 have said that, to break straight off from the 

 use of both of these drugs at once would 

 bring on insanity if not death. He used daily 

 enough morphine at a single dose to kill three 

 ordinary men. Dr. Dowie told him that God 

 would lift him through the ordeal if he would 

 but give himself, life and all, over into God's 

 hands. Now, this should not be a very hard 

 thing for a Christian to do. But Dr. Dowie 

 probed a little further. Mr. Imler had some 

 tobacco in his store ; and the doctor told him 

 that, before he could expect help, he would 

 have to give up the traffic. Selling the stuff 

 to somebody else to work mischief with would 

 not do. It would have to be burned up. 

 Furthermore, he would have to consent to 

 stand out before the world in this whole thing. 

 He would have to make a bonfire of his to- 

 bacco and cigars. He would have to do it out 

 in the street, and invite people to see it. I 

 think the doctor told him to invite the pastor 

 of his church to be a witness, and pastors of 

 other churches if he could get them to come. 

 Mr. Imler, for once in his life, was called 

 upon to bear a cross, and it had to be borne 

 as the Master bore his cross in ages past. 

 This bonfire had to be before the jeering mul- 

 titude. All tobacco-users, and may be some 

 other good people — yes, members of the 

 churches, would call him a crank, and laugh 

 at his infatuation. Now, Dr. Dowie did not 

 tell him he could not be healed until after the 



* Yes, he was in an exceedingly tight place. He 

 had probably made vain attempts to break off from 

 tobacco and morphine, in the years past. Now he was 

 obliged to face the surgeon's knife: and this very sur- 

 geon, or council of surgeons, told him the outcome 

 was doubtful. Now, do not think me harsh and un- 

 charitable when I say that that surgeon, or council of 

 surgeons, probably used tobacco. Very likely they 

 would take a big chew before commencing the opera- 

 tion; and some surgeons, as I happen to know, add 

 strong drink to brace up their nerves when they take 

 a human life in their hands. There was no getting 

 away from it. You can not run away from the tooth- 

 ache, and this was a thousand times worse than any 

 toothache. Tobacco and morphine held him in iron 

 chains, and the surgeon's knife confronted him. The 

 long years of indulgence were coming to an end. Un- 

 less God helped him out of his terrible trouble there 

 was no help. 



