250 TOBACCO 



TOBACCO BATTLES. 



Desperate as may seem the undertaking, there is 

 room for hope, — sometimes, even, when the case 

 seems darkest. Many years ago there was a grad- 

 uate of Andover Theological Seminary who was 

 unusually popular and successful in his ministry 

 for two or three years, and then broke down. He 

 soon became a violent maniac, and was sent to an 

 insane asylum. Xo one divined that the cause of 

 this wreck was tobacco, or, if this was suspected, 

 strangely enough, he was still allowed to use it. 

 There, in his prison-house, champing tobacco day 

 and night, he paced up and down for twenty years, 

 cursing himself, his wife, and his children, and 

 dealing " damnation round the land." One day, 

 while thus walking back and forth, he stopped 

 abruptly and asked himself, ft What brought me 

 here ? Tobacco," he exclaimed indignantly. Then, 

 breaking into tears, he flung through the grating 

 his vile plug, and, looking up to heaven, cried, "O 

 God, help, help ! I will use no more." 



God listened to his agonized entreaty, and out 

 of the heavens reached down to him a delivering 

 hand. With the dropping of his poison his reason 

 and health gradually returned, and he re-entered 

 the ministry, in which he labored earnestly for ten 

 years, when, with the respect and affection of all, 

 he went into the better world. 



It may not be out of place to quote the substance 



