Deliverance Through the Gospel

Deliverance Through the Gospel

By W. J. Coleman

Prof. N. L. Nelson, of the Brigham Young University,

writes that from Elder W. J. Coleman of Knightsville comes to

him this "humble testimony against the cigaret."

"Brother Coleman," continues Prof. Nelson, "is one of our

recent converts from England. The facts he sets forth as to the

enslaving power of tobacco — and especially of tobacco in this,

its most vicious form — are typical of England's army, whether

industrial or military. A great reformer has expressed serious

doubt as to whether the cigaret slave can ever muster will

power enough to free himself. Millions make the attempt again

and again; but the number that really reassert their manhood

are so few as to be negligible. Only under the stress of some

great emotion — as of pride or shame, fear, or love — does the

victim rise to the power of breaking his shackles. But these

emotions are frequently transitory; and so 'respectable' is the

vice, by the standards of the world, that too often the ex-slave

goes back to a bondage from which only death will thereafter

set him free — if indeed his spirit does not go with its thraldom

of poison upon it, into the spirit world.

"Elder Coleman points out how futile, in his own case, were

all minor motives to reform; such as love of mother, or of

wife and family; and notes how honor itself was in danger of

going down before the cravings of this terrible drug. He then

points out how the gospel saved him. The power of God is equal

to any emergency in our lives, if we can but get this power to

re-enforce our enfeebled will. And that is precisely what the

gospel is: the 'power of God unto salvation' — not merely an

ultimate salvation, which is of relatively little importance, but

of present salvation — salvation in the here and now — without

which there can be no ultimate salvation."

"For twenty years," writes Brother Coleman, "I was a cig-

aret fiend, beginning the vicious habit when only twelve years

of age. Thanks to my heavenly Father, the message of 'Mor-

monism' rescued me; and my only purpose in writing this letter

is to convey my testimony to my friends in England, many of

whom are struggling to free themselves from the cigaret, and

I know the Improvement Era will reach them.

"A tree is to be known by its fruit. Cigaret-smoking

DELIVERANCE THROUGH THE GOSPEL 517

was the beginning of all evil in my life. It took me to the ale-

houses. For over two years I did not know what a bed was on

Saturday nights. On receiving my week's wages I made straight

for a saloon, and when this closed about midnight, I went next

to a gambling den.

"All the time I knew my dear old mother was lying awake,

or perhaps sitting up waiting the long night through for the

return of her son. Again and again, I tried to quit, but failed,

for I did not go to the right Source for strength. Once I lay sick

for three months, and a leading doctor of Birmingham told me

I must give up smoking or I would die. But even with the

grave staring me in the face, I couldn't stop. I was crazy for it,

and I had the vile stuff hidden under a chair, and lit my cigaret

the moment the doctor left.

"Well, I didn't die, for a wonder, and on getting up, I joined

the army, which was all the worse for me, for ninety-nine out

of every hundred soldiers smoke cigarets. We were ordered

out to the war in South Africa, and there, one dark night, I

was on duty as sentinel, at post number one, the most responsi-

ble post in the field, with strict orders to keep a sharp look-out

for the enemy. To strike a light was the last thing I must think

of doing.

"And now the craving was upon me — and I couldn't resist.

I lay down, covered my overcoat about my head, and lit my

cigaret. When next I looked out, the sight before me made me

wish the earth would open and let me in. The penalty for what

I had done was death or a long term of imprisonment; and

there before me, not forty yards away, stood four men.

"Think, my brethren and sisters, the lives of a thousand

men depended upon me, and the happiness of more than a

thousand fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, wives and

children at home. Luckily for me, the men were of our own

army, and not the advance guard of the enemy! I got off that

time, but it did not cure me of smoking cigarets.

"Finally the gospel message reached me through a simple

tract, and when 1 spoke to the missionary — he was a young man

from Provo — he told me that smoking was contrary to God's

word, and in my heart I knew he had the truth. I finallv became

a member, but the craving did not leave me. I was ashamed to

be one among the Priesthood of God — all clean men, and I the

only filthy one among them.

"Then my wife and I and our children fasted, and prayed,

over and over again, that I might get strength to quit, and I

cried unto my heavenly Father for help. The elders knew how

hard I was trying, and one day the president of the conference

laid his hand on my shoulder and said: 'Brother, you shall

win, and shall know the very day and hour that you gain the

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victory,' and I did — I am no longer subject to this terrible

craving.

"I rejoice that I am today numbered with a people who,

though despised and rejected of men, worship a God who hears

and answers prayers. I thank him for the ministration of that

humble 'Mormon' boy — some fond mother's son — who brought

the light and truth to me. My prayer is that this letter may

reach and help rescue some mother's son enslaved, as I was, with

the vilest of vile poisons to both spirit and body — that of the

cigaret."