MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VIEW. 195 



you are not fit to be a preacher and a disciple of 

 the Lord Jesus Christ." 



In a discourse to the graduating class at Williams 

 College, President Hopkins, after some prelimi- 

 nary remarks on the use of tobacco, thus sums up : 

 "I may express to you my conviction that habitual 

 narcotic stimulation of the brain is not compatible 

 with the fullest consecration of the body as a 

 temple of God. Good men may do this in ig- 

 norance, as other things prevalent at times have 

 been done, and not offend their consciences ; but 

 I believe that greater earnestness, more self-scru- 

 tiny, fuller light, would reveal its incompatibility 

 with full consecration and sweep it entirely away. 

 The present position on this point of the Christian 

 Church as a whole, and largely of the Christian 

 ministry, I regard as obstructive of the highest 

 manhood and of the spread of spiritual religion. 

 I know that strong men have in this connection 

 been bound as in fetters of brass, and cast down 

 from high places, and have found premature 

 prostration and a premature grave, and that this 

 process is going on now. Let me say, therefore, 

 to those of you who expect to be ministers, that I 

 believe that sermons, even those called great ser- 

 mons, which are the product of alcoholic or nar- 

 cotic stimulation, are a service of God by f strange 

 fire ; ' and that for men to be scrupulous about 

 their attire as clerical, and yet to enter upon 

 religious services with narcotized bodies and a 

 breath that 'smells to heaven' of anything but 



