The Cigarette

[irishman]

The Cigarette

    Christians beware!  There’s a killer on the loose; a serial killer!  He’s described as a small, round little guy, with a hot head!  He’ll burn you the first chance he gets, therefore, he can’t be trusted.  Oh, he’ll court you and woo you, and pretend to be your friend, but watch out, he’ll turn on you, and leave you crumbling in the dirt.  He’ll come to you gradually, slowly, but once he has you, he is very hard to get rid of.  He’s a sneaky little devil, destroying slowly, taking his time, planning his destruction from the beginning.  He may visit you many times a day, subtly working his way into your life, until he finally rules!  He is a conqueror of wills; a subduer of bodies; a devourer.  

    Beware oh Christian, lest your life go up in smoke, and you become as a foul odor unto the Lord.  Don’t let the wooing of this killer seduce you into a partnership with him; he will defile you from within.  Remember, though he seems innocent enough, even the worst of killers have often “not looked the type” to even “harm a flea.”  This killer has been known to run with a pack, and they are all a dangerous bunch. Beware oh ye child of the King, lest your stench come before the throne and the God of all creation smite you, and take you out of this world!  This notorious killer has taken lives in every corner of the earth; literally millions have succumbed to his mesmerizing touch, and have been deceived and betrayed by him, and he is the master of many, many more.  Oh slaves, break the chains of bondage; remove the shackles that bind you to him, and rejoice in your Deliverer.
    
     These killers are all over the place, and bring in billions of dollars of revenue for greedy men who spend their lives promoting death and selling it in packages to fools who desire to kill themselves.  Yes, a package of death does not cost much nowadays, but how foolish is the man who seeks after it, to his own demise.   Imagine paying others to provide you with death in a package, but the worst of all, is that it is a stench to the nostrils of God!  He cannot have the smell of cigarette smoke tainting His kingdom, and polluting His robes of righteousness.   So, where does that leave you my friend?  Let your prayers remain a “sweet smelling savor” unto the Lord, and get rid of those killers in a package!  
 

[OLD fashioned preacher]

(excerpt of treatise by King James VI of Scotland/ James I of England)

 

Have you not reason then to bee ashamed, and to forbeare this filthie noveltie, so basely grounded, so foolishly received and so grossely mistaken in the right use thereof? In your abuse thereof sinning against God, harming your selves both in persons and goods, and raking also thereby the markes and notes of vanitie upon you: by the custome thereof making your selves to be wondered at by all forraine civil Nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and contemned. A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse.

— James 1604

[OLD fashioned preacher]

America, defeated by the Spaniards, was victorious over its haughty invaders by forcing them to acquire its habits: its gifts of syphilis and tobacco were nails in the coffin of the new rulers. 
Would that that plant had remained forever in obscurity! An educated, gentle and healthy person of intellect, whom God has blessed with wisdom, should assiduously avoid temptation, not pollute his mouth with the stench of the pipe
...Who was that first reckless person to try that poison, more dangerous than hemlock and worse than the poppy? 
When he opened his snuff box, he unwittingly opened Pandora's box, out of which were released a thousand evils, one more pitiless than the other
...For the unfortunate soul who heeds not sound advice and once indulges in the addiction, the efforts and warnings of sound reason are in vain
...Love is said to be a sudden, epileptic happening, but smoking is a chronic epilepsy.
- Dr. Fagot, Court physician to Louis XIV, 
A reply to an apology in favour of smoking, the French Academy, 1699

[irishman]

Thank you OFP those are good post.  I never knew that smoking was popular way back then.

[Bro K]

Reminds me about DL Moody and Charles Spurgeon.  Spurgeon would get on Moody about his weight, and Moody would get on Spurgeon about his french cigars.

 

Remember Bro Bobby Grubbs make this statement about 50 years ago. If he had to make a decision; he would prefer Christians with nicotine than Christians with a stiff neck.

 

No one can dispute the negative impact tobacco has had on millions of lives in all aspects of our society.