1. Alcohol – its effects and influence on children
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Who can picture the wretchedness and agony, the despair, that are hidden in the drunkards home? Think of the children…often with the hereditary curse of the drunkards thirst” (MH, 331, 1905).
Ellen White: “Liquor drinkers and tobacco devotees, transmit to their offspring their own insatiable craving, their irritable nerves, and their inflamed, corrupted blood” (Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, March 1, 1887).
Dr. Decaisne (1807-1882) Sums up the evils proceeding from the abuse of spirits as follows: “Increase of crime and suicide, heredity transmission of the passion for drink, and of other deplorable tendencies” (Parerspast: How to Deal With Bushrangers, 1865).
Dr. Willard Parker (1800-1884): Said in 1835, “But of all agents, alcohol is the most potent in establishing a heredity that exhibits itself in the destruction of mind and body… For there is not only a propensity transmitted, but an actual disease of the nervous system” (Schulers Books Online, Hygienic Physiology).
Norman Kerr (1834-1899): He stated in 1883 that, “Nearly all the diseases spring from indulgence in distilled and fermented liquors are liable to become hereditary, and to descend to at least three or four generations, unless starved out by uncompromising abstinence….But the distressing aspect of the heredity of the alcohol is the transmitted drink-crave” (Ibid).
J. C. Gunn (1800-1863): “Think, then, of the unmeasured woes of the drunkard’s family, and the hereditary taint which a drunken father or mother bestows upon their children….That children inherit from their parents a tendency to particular diseases and traits of character, can scarcely be denied” (New Domestic Physician, p. 594, 1857).
2. Tea, coffee, tobacco and alcohol are sinful indulgences
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol we must present as sinful indulgences” (Review and Herald, June 25, 1959; 5Ms, 1881).
Ellen White: “Tea and coffee drinking is a sin…” (CD, p. 425, 1938).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “If tea drinking is a national sin… not only a national sin but a national waste” (Tea and Coffee, pp. 116, 117, 1839).
Benjamin I. Lane (1797-1875): “God forbids all abuse! It is sin; it is perversion; it is confusion; it is damage; and it is transgression” (Mysteries of Tobacco, p. 19, 1845).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “It would be impossible to how much of the sin of using tea, coffee, and tobacco, may be excused on the score of ignorance in these old Christians; but certain it is, that since more light has gone abroad on the subject, the younger ones will have much to answer for in these things” (Tobacco: its history, nature and effects on body and mind, p. 46, 1849).
James C. Jackson (1811-1895): “I know of no sin among all the group of sins which crop out in our habits of living and curse us as a people, that for destructive vigor and ruinous accomplishment can compare with the use of tobacco.” (Tobacco and Its Effect upon the Health and Character Of Those Who Use It, 1879).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “…Its [tobacco] use, in every form, to be sinful” (The Use of Tobacco: its Physical, Intellectual and Moral Effects on the Human System, p.81, 1836).
3. Coffee, tea and tobacco are slow poisons
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Those who use these slow poisons [tea and coffee], like tobacco user, think they cannot live without them…” (4a SG, p.129, 129, 1864).
J. C. Gunn (1800-1863): “Coffee, Green Tea, and ardent spirits; the constant use of which, and Tobacco, are slow but certain poisons at last” (New Domestic Physician, p. 602, 1857).
L. B. Coles (1803-1856): “…it is stimulant – a kind of narcotic stimulant, bearing some resemblance to opium; and so powerful in its action, that it is considered and used as a most certain antidote to poisoning from opium” (Philosophy of Health, p. 49, 1848).
Sylvester Graham (1794-1856): “For there is no truth in science more fully ascertained than that both tea and coffee are among the most powerful poisons of the vegetable kingdom” (Lectures on the Science of Human Life, p. 274, 1839).
4. Tea and coffee are stimulants
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Tea, coffee, and tobacco, as well as alcoholic drinks, are different degrees in the scale of artificial stimulants…The effect of tea and coffee, as heretofore shown, tends in the same direction as of wine and cider, liquor, and tobacco” (CD, p. 421, 1938).
L. B. Coles (1803-1856): “Alcoholic liquors of all kinds, whether strong beer, porter, ale, cider, or brandy…they are all stimulants….Coffee is objectionable for a similar reason; it is a stimulant” (Philosophy of Health, p. 49, 1848).
Sylvester Graham (1794-1856): “But the narcotic substances which are almost universally employed by mankind purely for stimulating and intoxicating purposes, are far more deleterious in their nature…most common [among them] are tea, coffee, tobacco, opium, and alcohol” (Lectures on the Science of Human Life, p. 272, 1839).
5. Tea and coffee do not nourish the system
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Tea and coffee do not nourish the system” (Testimonies for the Church Number 15, 1868).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “And yet no one, we believe, will pretend, for one moment, that his strength is restored in these cases, by the nourishment afforded by the tea, for if there be any, it can be in very small quantity.” “[Coffee] stimulates but do not nourish” (Tea and Coffee, pp. 17, 137, 1839).
6. Effects of tea and coffee on nervous system &body
Ellen White (1827-1915): “The second effect of tea-drinking is headache, wakefulness, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, trembling, and many other evils… [The effects of coffee] are: “exhaustion, prostration, paralysis of the mental, moral and physical powers” (CTBH, 1890).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “The individual who uses it to excess, suffers from headache; wakefulness; palpitation of the heart; loss of muscular strength; loss of appetite; indigestion; nervous prostration; great susceptibility to fatigue; chronic affections of the vital organs, accompanied, often, by emaciation, sallowness of the skin, and a peculiar appearance of the surface of the body…” (Tea and Coffee, p. 22, 1839).
Ellen White: “Tea and coffee drinkers carry the marks upon their faces. Skin becomes sallow and assumes a lifeless appearance” (CH, p. 87; 2T, p. 64, 1868). “The skin becomes sallow and assumes a lifeless appearance” (Testimonies for the Church Number 15, Epistle Number Four).
L B. Coles (1803-1856): “…a great coffee – drinker can generally be known by his complexion; it gives to the skin a dead, dull, sallow appearance” (Philosophy of Health, p. 52, 1848).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): It [tea or coffee] is “liable to produce…anxiety, palpitation, trembling, weakness of sight, and predisposition to apoplexy” (Tea and Coffee, p. 139, 1839).
7. The sudden, short-lived relief from tea and coffee
Ellen White (1827-1915): “The relief obtained from them is sudden before the stomach has time to digest them, showing that, what the users of these stimulants call strength, is only received by the exciting of the nerves of the stomach, conveying the irritation to the brain which is aroused to impart increased action to the heart, and short lived energy to the entire system” (Testimonies for the Church number 15, 1868).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “Whereas the relief from tea is sudden; nay, almost instantaneous. It comes to us, through the medium of the nervous system. The nerves of the stomach are excited- in other words, irritated – by the substance received; the irritation is conveyed to the brain, and this last is roused to impart a new and increased, though short-lived energy to the whole system” (Tea and Coffee, p. 18, 1839).
8. Influence of tea and coffee at parties
Ellen White (1827-1915): “When these tea and coffee users meet together for social entertainment, the effects of their pernicious habit are manifest. All partake freely of the favorite beverages, and as the stimulating influence is felt, their tongues are loosened, and they begin the wicked work of talking against others. Their words are not few or well chosen. The tidbits of gossip are passed around, too often the poison of scandal as well. These thoughtless gossipers forget that they have a witness. An unseen Watcher is writing their words in the books of heaven. All these unkind criticisms, these exaggerated reports, these envious feelings, expressed under the excitement of the cup of tea, Jesus registers as against Himself” (CD, p. 423, 1938).
L. B. Coles (1803-1856): “See a party of ladies met to spend an afternoon, in a sewing-circle, it may be. Towards the close of the afternoon, their fund of conversationals becomes somewhat exhausted; but soon come the tea and the eatables; and notwithstanding the opposing influences of a full stomach, the drooping mind becomes greatly animated, the tongue is let loose, and the words like the falling drops of a great shower. What does all this mean? Whence the cause of such a change? It is the inspiration of the strong cups of tea. Then is the time for small thoughts and many words; or, it may be the sending forth of gossip and slander; or if, perchance, religion be the topic, the inspiring power of tea will create an excited feeling very closely resembling that produced when religious rum-drinkers shed alcoholic tears” (The Philosophy of health, pp. 53, 54, 1848).
9. Tobacco is a “filthy weed”
Ellen White (1827-1915): “If you had left off tobacco entirely and never touch that filthy weed you had started the last time” (Letter 1, 1861; 5MR, p. 78).
Ellen White: “I saw that all those who are indulging self by using the filthy weed tobacco, should lay it aside” (EW, p. 122, 1882).
Benjamin I. Lane (1797-1875): He cites from a daily newspaper (1845), “We need reformation against that filthy weed, tobacco….Ladies! Clergymen! Moralists!!! Get up an influence against it! See what a robber it is” (The Mysteries of Tobacco, p. 28).
Benjamin I. Lane (1797-1875): “And if this be so, will not temperance men, for the good of the cause, themselves renounce entirely the filthy weed?” (The Mysteries of Tobacco, p. 147, 1845).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “…nothing but an entire disuse of the dirty weed, rendered still more filthy by the cupidity and avarice of our own species….” (Tobacco: its history, nature and effects on the body and mind, p. 88, 1849).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “…when the whole man is so stupefied with the fumes, and saturated with the juices of these filthy narcotic substances….” (Ibid., p. 89, 1849).
10. Tobacco – an insidious and deceitful poison and an idol
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Tobacco is a slow insidious poison” (3T, p. 569, 1875).
Ellen White: “Tobacco is their cherished idol” (Temperance, p. 65, 1949).
Ellen White: “Tobacco is a poison of the most deceitful and malignant kind, having an exciting then a paralyzing influence upon the nerves of the body…Multitudes have fallen victims to its poisonous influence” (SG4a, p. 128, 1864; Counsels on Health, p. 84, 1923).
Rev. George Trask (1798-1875): “It seizes upon the whole nervous system. At one time it stupefies its victim….It is an insidious demon” (An appeal to a Clergyman on the use of tobacco, p. 2, 1855).
Rev. George Trask (1798-1875): “It is with them not only a fashion, but a fatal passion, and an idol and the very deity they serve” (Ibid, p. 2).
Meta Lander [Margaret Woods Lawrence] (1813-1901): “Fighting single-handed as he [George Trask 1860] did against a public idol enthroned in the highest places” (The Tobacco problem, 6th edition, p. 7, 1882).
Rev. George Trask (1798-1875): Its victims [of tobacco] will commonly enjoy his idol, however offensive it may be to others” (Letters on Tobacco, for American Lads, 1860).
John C. Gunn (1800-1863): “Taking, “day by day,” not “daily bread,” but a poison of a most deceitful and malignant kind, that sends its exciting and paralyzing influence into every nerve of the body; and Nature, no longer able to bear this deadly narcotic, bows down under its paralyzing influence”(New Domestic Physician, pp. 367-368, 1857).
John Lizars (1787-1860): He cites Mr. Samuel Solly’s view published in The Lancet of February 14th, 1857: “…that tobacco is one of the most powerful poisons we possess…that, of all our poisons, it is the most insidious, uncertain, and in full doses, the most deadly” (The Use and Abuse of Tobacco, p. 85, 1859).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “Its character, in this respect, resembles that of opium. The first or stimulating effect is followed by a narcotic or a deadening influence” (The Physical and Moral Effects of Using Tobacco as a Luxury, p. 11, 12, 1853).
Dr. Pierpont (1822-1893): “It [tobacco] is an insidious evil” (The Tobacco Problem, 1882).
A.H. Grimshaw (1824-1899): “It becomes necessary that we should abandon the use of so insidious an article,…not only in itself poisonous, but leads to the use of one of the greatest curses to the human race, alcohol” (The Physical And The Moral Effects of the Use of Tobacco, p. 28, 1853).
Benjamin I. Lane (1797-1875): Cites from the correspondence of Amatus Robbins (1845): “On the whole, from the few observations I have made in my professional practice, of the peculiar effects on the human system, of the different modes of using tobacco, I infer that chewing it has a tendency to produce epilepsy, snuffing to produce palsy, and various nervous affections, smoking, to produce apoplexy; and any or all of these modes, single or combined, to produce malignant or cancerous disease.” (The Mysteries of Tobacco, p. 166, 1845).
Note: What Adventists have always claimed with regard to Ellen White’s health testimonies: “At a time in the practice of medicine when patients were still being drugged to death, when modern nutrition was unknown, when sunshine and night air were feared, and when tobacco and other poisons were prescribed as medicines, Ellen White wrote volumes recommending specific, simple, rational methods of therapy. She (and certain health reformers) spoke out strongly against tobacco. She called it “a poison of the most deceitful and malignant kind,” in 1864, exactly 100 years before the famous United States Surgeon General’s Report, Smoking and Health” (LLUMC Legacy: Daring to Care – Who was Ellen G. White). But the evidence proves it to be contrary.
11. The use of tobacco produces a terrible “thirst”
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Its use excites a thirst for strong drink…” (MH, 328, 1905).
Benjamin Rush (1746-1813): “One of the usual effects of smoking and chewing is thirst” (Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical, p. 267, 1798).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “The practice of smoking and chewing tobacco produced a continual thirst for stimulating drinks” (Tobacco: Its history, Nature, and Effects on the Body and Mind, p. 52, 1849).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “He who uses tobacco habitually, in any of its forms, is often apt to be thirsty” (The Use of Tobacco: Its Physical, Intellectual and Moral Effects on the Human System, p. 23, 1836).
12. The use of tobacco paves the way for alcohol
Ellen White (1827-1915): “The use of tobacco encourages the appetite for liquor” (3T, 1872).
Ellen White: “The taste created for the disgusting, filthy poison, tobacco, leads to the desire for stronger stimulants” (4T, p. 30, 1881).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “My own observation, so far as it goes, would confirm the idea of a connection between tobacco and stimulating drinks.” He also cites Dr. Woodward, who said in 1834, “I have supposed that tobacco was the most ready and common stepping- stone to that use of spirituous liquors.” “Dr. Mc Allister, who speaks very freely of tobacco as, “paving the way to drunkenness” (The Use of Tobacco: its physical, intellectual, and moral effects on the human system, pp. 25, 27, 1836).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “In the use of this abominable weed, to answer in some degree the craving for alcoholic stimulus” (Tobacco: its history, nature and effects on body and mind, p. 52, 1849).
Rev. Orin S. Fowler (1791-1852): “Though all who are attached to the quid, the pipe, or the snuff box are not attached to the bottle; yet a vast multitude become attached to the bottle, and this attachment is continual and increased, through the poisonous, bewitching, and debasing influence of tobacco” (A Disquisition on the Evils of Using Tobacco, p. 4, 1835).
John Lizars (1787-1860): “It [tobacco] acts as an inducement to drinking – thus becoming the source of intemperance…” (The Use and Abuse of Tobacco, p. 51, 1856).
13. Tobacco benumbs the nervous sensibilities
Ellen White (1827-1915): “…It affects the brain and benumbs the sensibilities…” (CH, p. 81, 1864).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “If it is true that tobacco benumbs the physical sensibilities, and by degrees impair all the senses, what can be expected, in train, other than a deterioration of the intellect?” (The Physical and Moral Effects of Using Tobacco as a Luxury, p. 12, 1853).
Rev. Orin S. Fowler (1791-1852): “…In the benumbing, groveling, stupid sensations which it [tobacco] induces,-but especially in perpetuating and extending the practice of using intoxicating drinks” (A Disquisition on the Evils Using Tobacco, p. 11, 1835).
R. D. Mussey (1780-1866): “What Christian can indulge himself in the habit of using tobacco which benumbs the moral senses as well as pollutes the body, that temple which is designed for the indwelling of the “Spirit of truth?”” (Health: Its Friends and Its Foes, p.131, 1862).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “on the brain the action of smoking is sedative” (Tobacco: its history, nature and effects on the Body and Mind, p. 93, 1849).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “Tobacco benumbs the affections and moral feelings…” (Ibid, p. 101, 1849).
14. Tobacco stupefies the sensibilities
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Their minds are so besotted by the stupefying influence of tobacco or liquor…” (Signs of the Times, 1877).
Benjamin I. Lane (1797-1875): “Idleness, with nothing to do, but smoke and be stupefied” (The Mysteries of Tobacco, p. 13, 1845).
Elisha Harris (1824-1884): “The properties and effects of tobacco are of a curiously mixed character. It titillates the nerves and exhilarates the feelings, while it obtunds and stupefies the sensibility and partially suspends the process of life” (The Effects of The Use of Tobacco as a Luxury, p. 12, 1853).
John Lizars (1787-1860): Cites Abernethy who said, “…But the fumes of tobacco possess a power of stupefying all the senses and all the faculties, by slow but enduring intoxication, into dull obliviousness” (The Use and Abuse of Tobacco, pp. 109-110, 1856).
J. C. Gunn (1800-1863): “…and through the habitual use of it stupefies the nervous susceptibilities…” (New Domestic Physician, p. 594, 1857).
15. Tobacco – Its “enslaving” power
Ellen White (1827-1915): “When once an appetite for this narcotic has been formed, it takes hold of the mind and will of man, and he is in bondage under its power…he is a slave to perverted appetite” (Letter 8, 1893; Te, p. 60, 1949).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “And the same principle holds good with tobacco, which obtains over men a more powerful dominion than either of the stimulants mentioned, enslaving them to a perhaps greater degree than that of any other substance, opium is not excepted”(Tobacco: Its history, nature and effects on the body and mind, p. 38, 1849).
Timothy Titcomb (1819-1881): “I have never seen a slave of tobacco who did not regret his bondage.”(Papers Past: Bad Habits, 1874).
Note: By 1849, the information about tobacco danger was already in circulation, 115 years before the famous 1964 Surgeon General Report.
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “Tobacco, moreover, tends to awaken and develop and strengthen the animal propensities, so that it only binds us in chains most powerful” (The physical and Moral Effects of Using Tobacco as a Luxury, p. 23, 1853).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “I have great reason to believe the slavery of an individual to tobacco is the most dreadful” (Ibid., p. 22).
16. Influence on children
Ellen White (1827-1915): “The unhealthful practices of the past generations affect the children and youth of today. Mental ability, physical weakness, disordered nerves, and unnatural cravings are transmitted as a legacy from parents to children. And the same practices continued by the children…” (MH, p. 328, 1905).
Meta Lander (1813-1901): “I have never known a habitual tobacco user whose children, born after he had long used it, did not have deranged nervous systems and sometimes evidently weak minds. Shattered nervous system for generations to come may result of the indulgence” (The Tobacco Problem, 6th edition, 1882).
17. Tobacco and heredity
Ellen White (1827-1915): “The sins of the parents, through perverted appetite, are with fearful power visited upon the children to the third and fourth generations… Intemperance in drinking tea and coffee, wine, beer, rum and brandy, and the use of tobacco, opium, and other narcotics has resulted in great mental and physical degeneracy” (Review and Herald, July 29, 1884).
Ellen White: “The effects of his misdemeanors are seen in his offspring and thus hereditary evils are passed down, even to the third and fourth generations. Think of this fathers, when you indulge in the soul-and-brain- benumbing narcotic, tobacco…” (Signs of the Times, Feb 11, 1886).
Benjamin C. Brodie (1783-1862): “No evils are so manifestly visited upon the third and fourth generations as the evils which spring from the use of tobacco.” (Morality-based Ethics Versus Cigarette Selling).
Rev. John B. Wight Cites Dr. J. Pidduck’s statement published in the Lancet, 14 February 1856: “In no instance is the sin of the father more strikingly visited upon his children than the sin of tobacco smoking” (Tobacco: Its Use and Abuse, p. 119, 1889).
Meta Lander (1813-1901): Cites a leading physician: “I have never known a habitual tobacco user whose children, born after he had long used it, did not have deranged nervous systems and sometimes evidently weak minds. Shattered nervous system for generations to come may be the result of this indulgence” (The Tobacco Problem, 6th edition, p. 125, 1882).
Meta lander (1813-1901): Cites Dr. Winfield S. Hall: “The parent whose blood and secretions are saturated with tobacco, and whose brain and nervous system are narcotized by it, must transmit to his child elements of a distempered body and erratic mind; a deranged condition of organic atoms, which elevates the animalism of future being at the expense of the moral and intellectual nature” (Ibid., pp. 125,126, 1882).
J.C. Gunn (1800-1863): “Is it not a fact that consumers [of tobacco] transmit to their offspring a perverted appetite, which becomes more and more in time? Are not the physical sins of the parents visited on their children?” (New Domestic Physician, p. 363, 1857).
18. Children turn away from smoking fathers
Ellen White (1827-1915): “No wonder we see children turn from the kiss of the father whom they love” (Health Reformer, 1877; Te, p. 60, 1949).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “The very odour of the tobacco repels the child from his bosom” (The Physical and Moral Effects of Using Tobacco as a Luxury, p. 20, 1853).
19. Tobacco and “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome” (SIDS)
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Many infants are poisoned beyond remedy by sleeping in beds with their tobacco-using fathers. By inhaling the poisonous tobacco effluvia, which is thrown from the lungs and pores of the skin, the system of the infant is filled with poison…it has a more direct influence, causing spasms, fits, paralysis, and sudden death” (The Health Reformer, pp. 58-59, 1872).
Rev. George Trask (1798-1875): “Cases are reported in medical journals of babies being poisoned by sleeping in the same bed, or living in the same room with fathers who used this poison [tobacco] in great quantities” (Letters on Tobacco, for American Lads, 1860).
20. Children and youth most are affected
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Among the children and youth the use of tobacco is working untold harm” (MH, 328, 1905).
Meta Lander (1813-1901) Cites Edward Hitchcock (1793-1864): “I believe that tobacco is a cursed evil to our boys and young men, seriously damaging them morally and physically. It is a bewitching evil” (The Tobacco Problem, 6th edition, p. 271, 1882).
John Lizars (1787-1860): Cites Higginbottom, who said [in 1857], “…. that smoking is a main cause of ruining our young men” (The Use and Abuse of Tobacco, p. 95, 1859).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “The young are particularly susceptible to the influence of this narcotic” (Tobacco: its history, nature and effects on body and mind, p, 46, 1849).
21. Children induced to smoke by bad example
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Little boys, hardly emerged from babyhood, may be seen smoking their cigarettes. If one speaks to them about it, they say, “My father uses tobacco.” They point to the minister or the Sunday- School Superintendent and say, “Such a man smokes; what harm for me to do as he does?”” (MH, 329, 1905).
Ellen White: “How often do we see boys not more than eight years old using tobacco! If you speak to them about it, they say, “My father uses it, and if it does him good, it will me.””(Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, p. 18, 1890).
Meta Lander (1813-1901): Gives an example of boys smoking as reported by Mr. James B. Davis. “Mr. Davis writes: Not long ago a father told me that some years ago one of his boys began to smoke, and he kindly tried to persuade him to give it up. The boy replied, ‘Father, our minister smokes; the deacons smoke; the Sunday School Superintendent smokes, my teacher smokes, and why not I?’” (The Tobacco Problem, pp. 26, 27, 1882).
Meta Lander (1813-1901): “I have in my charge a boy who could reply to my arguments on the ground of health, ‘My physician smokes;’ on the ground of morals, ‘My minister smokes;’ on the ground of high-breeding ‘My father smokes.’” (The Tobacco problem, 4th edition, p. 224, 1882).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “Tobacco consumers sometimes have the questions asked by their little ones, “Father, if it is good for you, is it not good for me?”” (Tobacco: its history, nature and effects on the body and mind, p. 73, 1849).
Benjamin Rush (1746-1862): “Who can see a group of boys of six or eight years old in our streets smoking cigars, without anticipating such a depreciation of our posterity in health and character [?]” (Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical, p. 268, 1798).
22. Smoking ministers and clergymen
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Ministers and people, clergy and laity, chew, smoke, and snuff the filthy weed…” (Bible Hygiene, p. 207; James White, Pacific Health Journal, Vol. 3, 1888).
Meta Lander (1813-1901): Cites, Anthony De Wolfe Howe (1809-1895): “I have been grieved by the extent to which the vile habit of smoking and chewing prevails among the clergy” (The Tobacco Problem, 6th edition, p. 156, 1882).
Benjamin I. Lane (1797-1875): He cites Dr. Justin Edwards, “Christian, and especially ministers of the Gospel who use the filthy and poisonous weed, are, I fear, exerting an influence of which will be deeply regretted forever” (The Mysteries of Tobacco, p. 147, 1845).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “Some clergymen find themselves unable to preach unless the pipe or quid has been resorted to just before commencing the pulpit exercise” (Tobacco: Its history, Nature, and Effects on the Body and Mind, p. 53, 1849).
23. Smokers and church membership
Ellen White (1827-1915): “We do not take into church those who use liquor or tobacco. We cannot admit such ones. But we can help them overcome” (RH, June 15, 1905).
Meta Lander (1813-1901): “It was said that, “He [John Wesley, 1703-1791] refused to admit to ministry any man addicted to the use of the noxious weed.” (The Tobacco Problem, 6th edition, p. 303, 1882).
The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1860), Ohio: resolved that, “After the present session we will not receive any person into full communion who persists in the use of tobacco” – New York Times, 30 Oct, 1860, p.4, col 5. (Morality – Based Ethics versus Cigarette Selling)
Dr. Elisha Harris (1824-1884): “The pious Wesley would not approve for gospel ministry any man who used tobacco as a luxury” (Tobacco: the effects of its use as a luxury, p. 25. 1853).
24. Tobacco and spirituality
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Those who are in the habit of using tea, coffee, tobacco, opium, or spirituous liquors, cannot worship god when they are deprived of the accustomed indulgence” (RH January 25, par. 37, 1881).
Ellen White: “Its use has deadened the natural sensibilities of the body and mind, and is not susceptible of the influence of the Spirit of God. In the absence of the usual stimulant, he has a hungering and yearning of body and soul…not for God’s presence, but for his cherished idol” (Ibid., par. 38).
Meta Lander (1813-1901): Cites a Pastor: “…that [even] tobacco – raising injures the farmers, impairs the health, dulls the intellect, and blunts the moral and religious sentiments” (The Tobacco Problem, 6th edition, p. 16, 1882).
Benjamin I. Lane (1797-1875): “In the first place, it unfits the mind to receive the truth…How can a mind be prepared to receive and entertain religious truth, so much under the influence of a powerful narcotic, that the absence of it produces a general uneasiness, a kind of vacancy of thought, and in some instances, distraction?” (The Mysteries of Tobacco, pp. 91, 92, 1845).
25. Tobacco using is a robbery
Ellen White (1827-1915): “And the slaves of appetite, while constantly spending their earnings in sensual indulgence, rob their children of food and clothing and the advantage of education” (CTBH, p. 423, 1890).
William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “The taste of it [tobacco] by the parent, while it drown the thought of every kind, drowns all thought of his children. Is here no robbery? His children need books and school. Are they attended to, in all the particulars which concern their school and education as they would be, if the parent was not enslaved by the use of tobacco?” (The Physical and Moral Effects of Using Tobacco as a Luxury, p. 20, 1853).
26. Idleness, the root cause of intemperance
Ellen White (1827-1915): “In order to reach the root of intemperance we must go deeper than the use of alcohol or tobacco. Idleness, lack of aim, or evil associations may be the predisposing cause” (Ed, p. 202-203, 1903).
Benjamin Rush (1746-1813): “The use of Tobacco, more especially in smoking, disposes to idleness” (Essays, Literary, Moral and philosophical , p. 267, 1798).
Orin S. Fowler (1791-1852): “The ruinous effects of tobacco upon public and private morals are seen in idle, sauntering habits….” (A Disquisition on the Evils of Using Tobacco, p. 11, 1835).
27. Smoking is suicide
Ellen White (1827-1915): Tobacco is a suicide. “They have surely murdered themselves by this slow poison” (4SG, p. 128, 1864).
Orin S. Fowler (1791-1852): “Every man who, knowingly and recklessly, brings upon himself disease and death, through the influence of tobacco, is a suicide. And drunkards and suicides cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (A Disquisition on the evils of using Tobacco, pp. 20, 21, 1835).
Benjamin I. Lane (1797-1875): “It would be treason to harbor it, and suicide to use it” (The Mysteries of Tobacco, p. 79, 1845).
L. B. Coles (1803-1856): “But if he wantonly destroy that dwelling, suddenly and gradually, by setting it on fire to enjoy the splendor of the flames, or the grandeur of the lighted clouds of smoke, …he stands charged with crime of suicide before Heaven, and he must answer to it in the day of judgment” (Philosophy of Health, p. 214, 1851).
28. Multitudes have fallen victims to tobacco
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Multitudes have fallen victims to its poisonous influence. They have surely murdered themselves” (SG 4a, p. 128, 1864).
Ellen White: “Tobacco is a poison of the most deceitful and malignant kind…Multitudes have fallen victims to its poisonous influence” (SG 4a, 128, 1864).
Joel Shew (1816-1855): “It is nevertheless true, that vast multitudes are carried to the grave every year by it alone!” (Tobacco: Its History, Nature and Effects on Body and Mind, p. 87, 1849).
A.H. Grimshaw (1824-1899): “So insidious are the effects of this plant, and so insensitive have the community been to its dangers…But, however startling, it is nevertheless true that multitudes are carried to the grave every year by tobacco alone” (Moral effects of the use of Tobacco as a Luxury, p. 17, 1853).
29. Touch not, taste not, handle not (Col 2: 21-23)
Ellen White (1827-1915): “Touch not, taste not, handle not spirituous liquors in any form” (The Gospel of Health, May 1, 1898).
Ellen white: “In relation to tea, and coffee, tobacco, and alcoholic drinks, the only safe course is to touch not, taste not, handle not” (Ministry of Healing, p. 335, 1905).
B.W. Johnson (1833 – 1894): Commenting on the wedding at Cana (John 2), he says: “In the use of the usual wine of the Palestine there is not the slightest apology for drinking as a beverage alcoholic drinks which are the curse of our times. With regard to them the only safe rule is “to touch not, taste not, handle not” (People’s New Testament, 1891).
Rev. Orin S. Fowler (1791-1852): “Let every man and woman, who would live long, and usefully, and happily, awake from the delusion; and let no one as he values health, life, and salvation, taste, touch, or handle, the filthy poison” (A Disquisition on the evils of using Tobacco, p. 20, 1835).
