MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VIEW. 211 



about to master me. At this time I did not look 

 upon the use of tobacco from a moral standpoint. 

 At length I went into a store with an elder brother. 

 Here I found the choicest of tobaccos, and assisted 

 in selling, still feeling that the business was le^iti- 

 mate. My brother smoked freely, but suddenly, 

 fearing injury to health, and restive under the sense 

 of slavery to that habit, he resolved to abandon the 

 use of the narcotic poison. For about a month he 

 struggled with the entrenched foe, under such a 

 pressure of languor and depression as to unfit him 

 for business. The fight was for life. He con- 

 sulted physicians, he used substitutes, but all in 

 vain. He had harbored an enemy which had 

 poisoned his blood, coursed over his nerves, 

 disturbed the action of the heart, and chained him 

 like a galley slave to an unworthy and unmanly 

 habit. 



"In despair of victory he returned to the pipe, 

 and died in middle life. Without a word with any 

 one, I then resolved to conquer the foe. On the 

 second day the call for indulgence was strong, but 

 resolution held the fort. Day after day pleaded 

 for indulgence, but will prevailed over appetite 

 and habit. As the mornings succeeded one an- 

 other, my motto was What the Lord helped me to 

 do yesterday, I can do to-day with His help. 



" The battle lasted two weeks, when appetite 

 surrendered at discretion. Since that happy day, 

 I have had no more taste or desire for that deceit- 

 ful poison than for an adder ; and I give the fore- 



