IT was wisely said by Melancthon that God has not made “our knowledge all of a size any more than our bodies,” and that therefore people should “be afraid of making the articles of their faith too numerous lest they shortly become heretics themselves by disagreeing with themselves; and should be afraid of making too strict laws for those who differ in judgment on controvertible points, lest they should shortly change their own judgments, and so make a rod for their own backs.” The wisdom of that observation has been demonstrated in every case of legislation in behalf of religious customs, rites, or institutions, that there has been in the history of the world.
THE Christian Citizen says, “Except the state believe on Christ and accept and apply his law of righteousness and love as the fundamental law of the land, it cannot be saved.”
And the Lord said, “He that believeth and he baptized, shall be saved.”
Now will the Christian Citizen tell the people how the state can be baptized when it does “believe on Christ?”
Will the Christian Citizen tell the people, in a plain deliberate, and thoughtful way, just what the state is?
“Tobacco and Christianity” American Sentinel 12, 43, pp. 674, 675.
MR. E. A. KING, author of “The Cigarette and the Youth,” has gathered many facts relative to the use and effects of this most deadly instrument of modern civilization, among which we mention the following:—
“During the fiscal year 1895, the total output of the cigarette companies was 4,042,391,640. During one month nearly 358,000,000 were produced. During the fiscal year 1896, 4,043,798,737 were produced, making an increase of over one million for the year. During the month of October, 458,929,090 were produced…. It is stated on good authority that there are nearly 5,000 cigarette smokers in Chicago public schools.”
“This is a Christian nation,” declares the Supreme Court, and the statement is echoed in many places by pulpit and press. Yes; we are a smoking Christian nation,—four billions and over of cigarettes consumed in a single year by the youth, besides all the tobacco that is manufactured into cigars and smoked in pipes. Very suggestive is smoke of Christianity and all that pertains to it! Is this “Christian nation” to find at last in a realm of smoke its congenial home? An observer might well be pardoned for coming to this conclusion.
“Swearing like pirates, smoking like chimneys, and headed straight for the saloon, go young America by the thousands,” says an authority upon the subject of the tobacco habit in this country. And the cigarette habit is the first step in this downward career. And yet our Sunday laws allow the sale of tobacco on Sunday as a necessity, and prohibit the sale of bread! There is nothing to equal the sagacity and fine discernment of a Sunday law.
It steps are to be taken to save this nation and make it Christian, let them be first and foremost in the line of checking this terrible tide of evil that catches its human prey in the very outset of their lives. But what can be done to rescue the children from the tobacco demon while fathers and older brothers and even mothers voluntarily [675] bring him into their homes; yes, while these and even ministers of the gospel set the example in the use of the filthy weed?
The trouble with the youth of the country is first of all with those to whom the youth must look for guidance. The trouble with the whole country is not primarily with the bad men, but with the “good” men who, in their ambition to reform others, have become insensible to any applied reformation in themselves.