MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VIEW. 207 



smoker, said to him, "You will live only a few 

 years if you continue this habit. / cannot break 

 it off, but you are young and may be able to do 

 so." The boy undertook it, and succeeded ; 

 although to the end of his life he suffered from the 

 effects of his early indulgence. 



A well-known doctor relates that, after smoking 

 for twenty years, he took a vow of abstinence for 

 one month. " Never," he says, " did boy long 

 more eagerly for election day than I longed for the 

 end of the month." Such was the good doctor's 

 passion for the drug, that if cigars failed, he would 

 resort to snuff. Thus he went on till the indul- 

 gence had so injured the nerves and softened the 

 coats of the stomach that he could retain no food. 

 Then he gathered his forces for the conflict, and 

 broke forever from his bondage. 



A slave to the weed in Macomb, Illinois, finding 

 his family at one time out of flour and meat, and 

 himself out of tobacco, but who was possessor of 

 only a dollar and seventy-five cents, went to 

 market. He returned with fifty cents' worth of 

 meat and a dollar and twenty-five cents' worth 

 of tobacco, telling his wife that they must trust the 

 Lord for flour. At the age of seventy-six he 

 became a Christian, when, without hesitation, he 

 instantly renounced his idol. 



A theological student, in breaking off smoking, 

 gives three reasons for so doing : — 



* 1. No gentleman would like to smoke in the 

 presence of ladies. 



