God calls upon you to do a work which through His grace you can do. How many sound bodies are there which can be presented to God as a sacrifice that He will accept in His service? How many are standing forth in their God-given manhood and womanhood? How many can show a purity of tastes, appetites, and habits that will bear comparison with Daniel’s? How many have calm nerves, clear brain, unimpaired judgment?—The Signs of the Times, April 4, 1900.
(Te 62.1)
MC
VC
Inconvenient, Expensive, Uncleanly—The use of tobacco is an inconvenient, expensive, uncleanly habit. The teachings of Christ, pointing to purity, self-denial, and temperance, all rebuke this defiling practice.... Is it for the glory of God for men to enfeeble the physical powers, confuse the brain, and yield the will to this narcotic poison?—Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 17, 18.
(Te 62.2)
MC
VC
Looking Through Clouded Windows—The youth who has made a practice of using tobacco has defiled the whole man. The will has no longer the promptness and force which made him trustworthy and of value before he accepted the enemy’s poison.... His mind need not have decayed. He need not have lost the inspiration that comes from God. But when the human agent works in perfect harmony with the destroyer, enervating the sinews and muscles, the fluids and solids, of the whole human structure, he is dulling the machinery through which the intellect works. He is clouding the windows through which he looks. He sees everything in a perverted light.—Manuscript 17, 1898.
(Te 62.3)
MC
VC
Incense to His Satanic Majesty—As I have seen men who claimed to enjoy the blessing of entire sanctification, while they were slaves to tobacco, spitting and defiling everything around them, I have thought, How would heaven appear with tobacco users in it? The lips that were taking the precious name of Christ were defiled by tobacco spittle, the breath was polluted with the stench, and even the linen was defiled; the soul that loved this uncleanness and enjoyed this poisonous atmosphere must also be defiled. The sign was hung upon the outside, testifying of what was within.
(Te 62.4)
MC
VC