| Show THE TOBACCO HABIT an address delivered at nervil conference of the church in the tabernacle sau salt lake city saturday april ath 1896 by AY PROFESSOR JAMES E TALMAGE 1 BY ARTHUR WINTER my brethren and sisters and friends this indeed is an inspiring sight these thousands of people gathered from all parts of utah at and ad probably from adjoining states and territories also for a common purpose and I 1 particularly I 1 as that purpose is one of the most exalted that mankind can have in all its works I 1 esteem it a particular favor to be permitted to stand before you for a short time though as has been stated I 1 do it without premeditation not knowing that this privilege and courtesy would be bc extended to me I 1 am quite sure that all who aie ill admit the importance ot of p present r esen t will w the su subject b je c t that president george Q cannon has just announced the tobacco habit and its effects on the physical and moral nature of man and physical Shy anding myself in the stand I 1 shall I 1 take the opportunity of speaking for a lew few ano moments ments from the standpoint ol of an educator and a apac teacher her amongst the people I 1 doubt if there is any necessity in indeed of urging 1 upon you the necessity ot observing b alervin th the e laws ot of health beadth those laws abicht which have avii keen been found by man oft timed through study investigation and experiment peri ment and abos rules that have so often been revealed of god for the governing ot of his children we all pro less to be observers of these laws to a greater gr imater or loss less extent while many of us MS and forgetfulness in our carelessness selfishness aire are apt to tread them under loot and to feel that the penalties that have been threatened will never fall us I 1 do not believe however that upon we should shun this habit babit merely because ot of the penalty but tor for the higher that we know it is unmanly and purpose that it is contrary to the will and the purposes and the laws of god the using ot of tobacco has been denounced for reasons tobacco that are g good founded on physiological grounds and others of an intellectual nature and there are objections from a moral standpoint which ch have be been enand and are repeatedly urged many present wilt will remember ber that at of those the last conference of the church the general beneral authorities devoted a great deal ot of attention to this subject and their efforts were e applauded not only by members of the church but by those who do not profess process the laith faith that the majority maj of those before me bold and reve revolt lor for it is recognized not alone as a religious principle as a physiological as an ethical out as a moral principle that we should take care of our bodies every year the discoveries of learned men wise and earnest investigators convince us that the words of the great prophet were true when he declared that the body ot of man is fearfully and most wonderfully made no mechanism that man has ever shaped or framed can be compared to it in delicacy and in efficacy this organism that has been given unto us for the majority of those here believe that it has been given us to do with as we choose except with the provision that we shall be answerable for the consequences for a divine purpose can be disorganized very readily thrown into confusion made unfit lor for its exalted purpose what that purpose is is many people will answer differently I 1 take out one answer for the present from one of the wisest men whose words have comedown come down to us from a former age ilis it is indeed the temple of god and for that reason ought not to be defiled physicians have been telling us for many years of the ill effects manifesting themselves particularly in the young from the use e of tobacco they tell us that many of the vital organs are affected and affected in a manner that is most serious and permanent it is true the body has within it that tendency i god given in his mercy to right itsell to repair itself and to recover from injury juato to a very great extent but there are acme I 1 assaults assaults from which thi the body cannot recover and the effects ot of tobacco are among those from which it is most difficult to recover the injury wrought by it is amongst the most serious and far reaching of injuries affecting not only the immediate users but their bostet posterity ity lor for the weakening of the vital organs tue tae impairment of the senses particularly sight and hearing these weaknesses are transmitted from generation to generation and truly do we realize the fulfillment of the great declaration that the sins of the flithers fathers should be visited upon the children even unto the third and fourth generation but closely associated with these physical or physiological weaknesses are the intellectual troubles weaknesses depravities that assert themselves I 1 have declared many times and do it again that I 1 know oot not where you can find another community of men and women amongst whom are to be found so many children of promise promise because of their physical perfection or a condition approaching perfection because of their intellectual power because ot of their high moral beliefs and sentiments as am amongst the latter day saints I 1 believe that we have here a chosen people physically intellectually and morally and I 1 believe too that this being chosen in this se sense being distinguished as a community because of these elements and perfections concerning them the lord our god will allow no trifling no trampling under toot foot of those laws that he has established and that you have accepted as true and binding As a teacher I 1 cau testify to the fact that those who come to us having been born perhaps with this ten dency toward the use of such things this stimulant of the appetite they come with a burden on their backs that it will perhaps cost them the greatest effort of their lives t escape from what would you think of starting a boy upon a race tying his hands and legs so that he could scarcely move and then expect him to keep pace with his free competitors yet in such way are many of those who are in the habit of using these things placing an incubus upon their children and bringing them into the world with a curse from the time of their birth but I 1 address my remarks not so much to their parents tor for their own sakes as tor for the sake of their children born and unborn these young boys and girls who have been appropriately termed the pride of utah are indeed choice sons and daughters ot of god godana and as such they should be guarded most jealously from temptation in the first place and from these weaknesses that are liable to assert themselves the germs and seeds ot of which may be implanted within them through the indis creations cret ions ot of parents and through the weaknesses of associates and professed mends friends there is one point in the philosophy of the nineteenth century that I 1 have never been able to 10 master indeed one among many mady but there is one that appeals to me as being particularly illogical and absurd although it is defended defend Id olt times with many so called arguments it is this that if wa know a thing to be wrong it we know a certain habit to be injurious it we know that it works evi to the state to the community to the family to the individual that then we will countenance it in any way directly or indirectly I 1 do not mean that I 1 would recommend any effort to destroy the liberty of the man who chooses to kill himself in that way but I 1 do say that if i the latter day saints know that these things are wrong if as they profess in their testimonies from time to time the revelations ot of god have denounced them and the lord has told you that tobacco is not good lorhe body then why do we sanction its use v why rhy do we permit it to be brought before the children in a manner that will deceive them we see our dealers who claim good standing amongst us offering these things in the most attractive and alluring manner possible their advertising devices are in many instances calculated to ab lead ad I 1 dh those dose who have neves never yet ra c ant tc habit and to conf c irai t taase t 0 Cs e afi s A haye adopted it ali and d atvin even ah the 14 S ersoll our do cal and g general en I 1 lk ral fill their advertising columns with it re m 11 ij P A actions telling you where you may find the best brands of tobacco what houses sell the best liquors for and table use and where you tan can get drunk for the least money I 1 only speak of this because of the effect produced among the children I 1 have bave a great deal to do with these children and if I 1 could take you into my confidence and tell s me of the fathers and mothers of the young latter day saints that have come to me in the capacity of students concerning the heart burnings that I 1 have wit hessed and the tears that I 1 have seen fall from those who have told me that if only their fathers and mothers had warned them against these weaknesses they would not have come to me bound in chains from which it required more than human effort to escape I 1 do not believe I 1 say too much if I 1 do there are those here who can temper what I 1 say and correct my words when I 1 declare that these sins will be upon the heads of the parents if they will persist by means direct or indirect in leading their children on to sin in this manner land and to adopt these soul destroying habit habian with which they stand scarcely a chance in the fierce competition that is growing every year fiercer and stronger in this world of ours we have heard much misrepresentation of the so called principles of evolution but there is this principle ot of evolution which I 1 believe is declared as much by the words of god through revelation as by the wor s of nature the fittest will as a rule survive when disaster and pestilence stalk through your town although there may be some who are permitted by the lord to fall because of wise purpose of his and not because of aay weakness of their own or any sins of their parents depend upon it if he does not stretch forth his arm of miracle the weak and the sick y and those whose bodies are predisposed to disease are the ones that will fail during the te trible cholera scourge in tiflis a few years ago an english observer server oo who was sent there to take notes of that fearful pestilence and to report home sent across the wires these terrible words jn in the town of tiflis alone thousands had gone to their graves during the last wee week and amongst thern them every intemperate man had fallen not one remains I 1 want to repeat a statement referred to a minute ago that this stimulant of the appetite this desire for nar cot izing effects effect ii once established establish ea in the system is like a monster that has been let loose that will require all the skill and the ph physical strength of manhood abs assisted isted by the power of god to subdue when once let loose you know not what it will do and the boy that begins with a cigarette will perhaps end in the opium joint ruined in body in mind and in soul by that for which there is no excuse in the first using the testimony of college presidents tg and other officers ot of our great institutions learning throughout the country is unanimous in declaring that as a rule they scarcely can find a man using tobacco standing near the head of his class our great philosopher franklin in answer to a question as to what was his bis arsaw to be b baa ikier ve r it m much ah an h he e adu d hot speak ea k froin ah extend extin f erih ce aut ut he did not b believe it ca could be good because lie he had never found an honest matr man who had used it and would becom mend a true friend of his to adopt the habit my brethren and sisters let the children learn of this in their homes and in that school of the family that never can be dispensed with though yuu you were to establish your public schools on every block put them right at your doors multiply them till they be numbered by the hundred where now you can count but the tens they can not take the place of that family school without which your children can never be properly trained jn that family school see that you do not annul the efforts that thai are being made in the public schools py by the teachers ot of your children to in instruct them in these things that tend tead to their physical and their intellectual as well as to their mural moral development when I 1 hear people denouncing these things and atthe at the same time directly or indirectly countenancing them I 1 am reminded of the liquor dealer who was converted through the efforts of some temperance advocates that came into his town next day an advertisement appeared in the paper announcing that he had learned ol of the error in his bis ways and had oitt determined to desert the business and to reform and then he gave a list ol of all the choice wines and liquors that he hau on hand and announced that to clear out his stock he would sell seli them at half price for a week come one come all I 1 believe that these physical weaknesses and these intellectual weaknesses are very closely associated although none can doubt that sometimes gud god tor for his wise purposes has placed one ol of his master minds in a mis misshapen and weakened body though lie he has bas permitted some of his choicest spirits for reasons that man with all his pail philosophy cannot lathom to be clothed in a body far far iram perfect yet I 1 oo 00 to not baft believe ev e there a bg single instance on earth oj of a body Y v originally strong that has become weak aued by a violation of the laws of health in which there resides a normal and a mind these physical weak nesses that we bring upon ourselves are arc steps sieps towards insanity and a great many ot of the innIa tes ol of our insane asylums art are those who have been led on from one depraving habit to another because ol of this unmanageable stimulant taste and appetite that has been planted within hem while perhaps they were children I 1 do not know whether the latter day saint fathers and mothers know how extensive is this practice amongst their children I 1 made it a rule a few years aga ago to go out at night upon the streets arid and wander about and whenever I 1 saw a little knot ot of boys or young men gathering I 1 watched them from a distance and then mingled with them and talked with them and I 1 came to the conclusion that at that time in the town in which I 1 lived nearly three fourths ol of the boys under sixteen years of age were addicted to the use of tobacco and do you know what that carries with it ii the love for unholy associations the tobacco users among the boys are in many instances the profane boys the boys who have no love for home nor for anything that is good if I 1 find a boy whose p it is to use tobacco or hoaas become addicted to any other V ft t tese se destructive five b s I 1 do no no eked VS ak k much about h ilk ome om life much bauthis bou 0 this his a oral balul batule Ba e I 1 believe with the g great rea t ruskin that if you can find out what a t a persons tastes are you know what his religion is and you will know just about what his spiritual status is but these physiological and these intellectual tel objections are to a very great extent but stepping stones to the great objection that can can be urged from a moral standpoint I 1 am not prepared to say that every man who smokes is a criminal but fam I 1 am prepared to say that every boy who smokes is more likely to become a criminal than he would be if he did not smoke we only need to look at a smoker when in the company ot of others to see in the first place how bow every feeling ot of regard lor for his fellows is stamped out by that terrible habit selfishness is with selfish ness come a host of weaknesses and a horde of minor and major |
