Greetings! In today’s class we shall finish our segment on, “Health & Tobacco”. Furthermore, we shall discover the remedy for the tobacco habit. See if you can fill in this blank, after going through the lesson! “We shall be rescued one by one by the acceptance of pure holy immortal ________________”

The Church: The ultimate source of saving educational influence is not the school or the hospital, but the church of the living God. Mere knowledge alone will not change the habits of life. Every physician who smokes knows that it is injurious, and if knowledge alone would debar, he would not smoke.

There is only one sure remedy for the transgressions of life, and that is to be brought face to face with the fact that mankind has a Maker who designed each type of cell in the body, planned their functions, arranged their nutrition, gave and continues to give that mysterious thing we call life, and someday will call every person to account for the treatment meted to the “image” of his Maker. The acceptance of this truth gives vitality to the conscience which calls man to loyalty to his Maker. This becomes a stronger force in the life than the mere desire to be well, because duty to our Maker is higher than duty to ourselves.

But what is the church–the average church–doing about this matter of tobacco? Nothing! Anyone in the church can smoke who pleases, and nothing is said about it. Even some preachers smoke.

If every church member in every denomination stood solidly against tobacco and used his influence to discontinue its use, much of the costly advertising would fall to the ground unheeded. But hardly anyone raises a protest. They have mostly lain down on the job, surrendered, and capitulated to the enemy. And when the church, which is the fortress of heaven in the world, gives way, the world is overrun with evil.

If every man and woman in every religious organization in the land would take a firm stand; if every physician and nurse would be staunch and true and put forth every possible effort to educate all who come under their influence and if every educator in all our institutions of learning would instruct all our youth, it would not be long until the mighty influences of the tobacco advertising campaigns would be like water on a duck’s back-unheeded.

But they are not doing it, and so the race is headed for ruin unless the situation can be retrieved. The use of alcohol and tobacco is increasing by leaps and bounds. Degenerative diseases are cutting men and women down in the prime of life. Forty and on is now the dangerous age. Cancer is increasing at an alarming rate. The nerves and minds of men and women are giving way.

Some say the remedy lies in legislation. That is false hope. You cannot get such laws, and if you could, they could not be enforced. Why not? Because too many people want tobacco, and because we live in a lost world, and the world is not to be rescued as a whole-we shall not be rescued by schools, ordinary hospitals, or by ordinary churches even, for these are doing only a partial work for humanity. We shall be rescued one by one by the acceptance of pure holy immortal principles! To makes these principles plain is the object of this lesson.

If I have children to be educated and can select the school and teachers of my choice, I will select a school where no teacher smokes and where smoking is not allowed. The safest school is none too safe for my child.

If I am sick, nigh unto death, and have twenty-five years of life at stake, will I entrust that life to a physician who smokes? Or will I hunt for one who is free from the habit, and, therefore, in a position to thoroughly correct my physical habits; and one who will have a steady nerve and clear brain in case I need surgery?

If I have an eternity at stake and need a spiritual advisor to counsel me in securing an eternal existence, will I seek for one who smokes, or one whom I know to be himself keeping all the laws of the Most High and, therefore, in a position to give advise that will save me eternally?

If I am seeking for spiritual fellowship among God’s true children, do you think I can find a satisfying fellowship in a church where two-thirds of the men and boys, many of the women and girls, and some of the preachers smoke? Never! Such have taken their stand against their Maker, and I am for Him. They are going in one direction and I in another.

I will have to hunt for a church where no teacher, preacher, health lecturer, doctor, nurse, or member even is allowed to use tobacco, and where no member is retained who lives in open defiance of his Maker; there I will fine sweet fellowship.

Quotes To Note:

“Those that use tobacco, church members—we hope none in our church uses it—but the church members, they do not have so much to give as they would like to give, why? The tobacco they put in their mouth would support children in a school to get their education.”  {Ms 156, 1904}

“Then let those who use tobacco take the money and spend it that they may overcome, that you may overcome, and that you can help others with that money to overcome, that you can do good in the saving of the souls that are ready to perish. You want every dollar of God’s money. It is not your money; it is God’s money, lent you as stewards to be used to the glory of His name, and every farthing of this money is to be spent in that way that you can give an account of it in the day of God.”  {Ms 156, 1904}

“The constant inquiry of every one should be, What is duty? What shall I do to benefit my children and society, and to glorify God? If we would reach a high standard in moral and spiritual attainments, we must live for this every day. Our present course of action may be determining the course of hundreds. We must render an account to God for the good we might have done but failed to perform because we had placed ourselves, through sinful indulgence, in a position of physical and mental weakness, where he could not accept our service.” {Good Health, February 1, 1880}

Grab a friend and share the wealth, from what you’ve learned in the School of Health! In next week’s class, we shall start a new section entitled, “Health & Alcohol”. Until then. God bless!

Tell us what you learned from today’s class, in the comment section below!

Previous Classes From This Segment: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3