The Use and Sale of Tobacco

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Improvement Era Vol. XXIII AUGUST, 1920 No. 10

The Use and Sale of Tobacco* Slogan: "We stand for the non-use and non-sale of tobacco.

By Elder Melvin J. Ballard, of the Council of the Twelve

I desire ot read a portion of section 89 of the book of Doctrine and Covenants, a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, in Kirtland, Ohio, February 27, 1833 " A Word of Wisdom, for the benefit of the Council of High Priests, assembled in Kirtland, and church; and also the saints in Zion. — "To be sent greeting not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom, showing forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days. "Given for a principle with promise, adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints, who are or can be called saints. "Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, in consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation, "That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him. "And, behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the vine, of your own make. "And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies. "And again, tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill."

I desire to impress this thought, my brethren and sisters, that there is in this revelation no particular argument of a scientific character to show why these things that are forbidden are not good for man. Quite like the teachings of the prophets in all ages is this revelation through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Not by way of argument nor scientific reasoning giving forth

*Delivered at the M. I. A. Conference, Sunday evening, June 13, 1920.

876 IMPROVEMENT ERA evidences of the correctness of the doctrine have the prophets taught, but by positive, clear-cut statements, principles of truth, afterwards demonstrated to be correct. The prophet himself never engaged in any fine theories as to why tobacco was not good for man. The Lord Jesus taught in this same way: "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." That was sufficient. This ought to be sufficient for Latter-day Saints. It is on the basis of this revelation that we shall conduct our campaign. I am glad, however, that those who have given the subject attention have brought forth abundant evidence to prove that the revelation is true and the doctrine correct, and that there is no good in those things which the Lord has commanded we should not use, and the commandment came when men did not know that tobacco was injurious. There is one suggestion in the revelation that the Lord gives as a reason for that commandment: In consequence of designs that are in the hearts of men now and that shall be hereafter, he warns us that we may escape the result of those designs. In the last verse of the revelation is this wonderful promise to us if we will keep his commandments "I, the Lord, give unto them :

[who keep this commandment] a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them." We have all experienced the truth of the revelation. God knew what was in the hearts of designing men. He knows He knows what is yet to come. what is in their hearts today. He did not promise that the judgments of the latter days w|ould not be in the midst of the Latter-day Saints. They were about the chlidren of Israel, for men died on the one side, and on the other, death passed by the door whose lintels were marked with the blood of the Lamb. The judgments that shall reap down the nations of the earth shall be in the midst of the Latter-day Saints. They shall be on the right hand and on the left, and shall pass if we keep the commandments of God and thereby become immune. I had it impressed upon me with very great-force two years ago during the first epidemic of influenza. In my visits at the hospitals in the northwest I learned from the physicians, and the records prove it, that whenever influenza attacked an inveterate smoker there was no hope for him. His resisting powers were gone. His lungs were so weakened that they could not thr«y*v off the effect of the influenza and the result was that the death rate among this class of individuals was greater than in any other. I have visited sanitariums Where victims of the white plague are kept, victims of consumption, and we have discovered that in many instances the affliction came because of a weakened ondition - f the lungs produced through the use of tobacco. I, therefore, feel, my brethren and sisters, that all the reasons others have for the non-

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use of tobacco, we have, and in addition to that we have this commandment of the Lord. And so far as we are concerned we ought to be willing to abstain from the use of tobacco and the sale of it because the Lord has forbidden it. Some of our brethren and sisters seem to excuse themselves because the Lord did not come out and positively make it a commandment, but to me it has all the force of a commandment, for the second verse declares that this revelation is given to show "forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all Saints in the last days." If it is the will of God, then it has all the binding force upon me, as a member of this Church, that a commandment of the Lord would have; for how can I excuse myself when the Lord makes known his will to me, and I disregard it? It is written in the scriptures that he that knoweth the Master's will and docth it not shall be beaten with many stiipes, and the responsibility of having known the will of God rests upon the membership of the Church, and we can not excuse ourselves, not be excused in the day of judgment, when we attempt to say "Well, you didn't command me, Lord." He made known :

his will and that is enough. The Lord himself has said that he that waiteth to be commanded in all things is a slothful servant. Men ought to, notwithstanding they do not know the — will of God they ought to seek to bring to pass much righteousness. Now, having known what his will is, there is no excuse for us. We stand under the responsibility of knowing the will of God and if we disregard it, we shall be beaten with many stripes. I feel in my heart that we ought to respond as Adam did when given a commandment on a certain occasion, to build an altar and offer sacrifice to the Lord. He did it, and when the angel called upon him and saw him offering the sacrifice asked: "Why do you do this?" Adam gave that miajestio and sublime answer: "I know not, save God hath commanded :t." That was enough for him. It ought to be enough for every Latter-day Saint when the Lord has commanded it, and we are not left in ignorance as to the wisdom of the command, by reason of those evidences that have now come to us, showing the hurtfulness of the participation in the use of these things the Lord has forbidden. You know the story in "Faust," where there is a conspiracy to capture the beautiful maiden, Marguerite, who is to be given to Faust, fulfiling the promise of Mephisto, who represents Satan; in the contract that has been previously made, you remember, if you have seen the play, how they stand about the accustomed haunts where she is wont to go. They look at her as she enters the church and as she comes out, and Faust is impetuous to claim her, but he is informed by Mephisto that he must be patient. "She is so fortified that we can not capture her yet. We must find some way into her citadel. Some avenue

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must bo discovered by which we may enter, for if she remains fortified she is immune to us."They watch and finally discover vanity. The jewels are placed in the garden where she may find them, the mirror also in which she may look after adorning herself with the jewels. Only one weakness, perhaps. It was discovered with temptation. The weakness caused her citadel to fall, and when once entered, no matter how well fortified on all other sides she succumbed and fell. I want to tell you that the destroyer of the souls of men is not dead. We have succeeded in making some headway against him. We have stopped the traffic in liquor so that it is not legal; and some of us have folded our tents and feel that the battle is won, but it is not. The power that we have been fighting is highly awake and concentrating now his forces to enter into the citadel of the sons and daughters of God that he may claim them for his own, and he lays the temptation that those who have weaknesses may fall. I am sorry to say that tobacco users are rapidly increasing. There is a concentrated effort on the part of those who propose to perpetuate this evil to get gain and thereby also dragging down the bodies of the children of men; they propose to wage a mighty warfare, and it behooves us to put on the armor and to fight the battle in such a determined manner that we shall win, and rout this enemy who already has laid the trap and has found an ingress into the hearts of our boys, through their yielding to temptations, in violation of the pleading of parents and the commandments of God, adopting the use of that which will be hurtful to them and may mean their eternal destruction. I want to bear testimony to you, my brethren and sisters, that we shall not get rid of the force of the habits of life when death comes. Do not imagine that we shall come up from the grave with all these lustful desires and appetites conquered. It shall not be except through our own struggle, our own effort, our own determination to serve God and to keep his commandments. We shall have the unconquered part of nature still to conquer and to overcome, and it may detain us a long time before we are permitted to go forth in the resurrection from the dead to enjoy freedom and immunity from the consequence of our sinning and wrong-doing in the earth. I want to make an appeal to these girls. You are our greatest help in this battle. I remember in the days of my youth that there was a common saying among the daughters of Zion that lips that have touched tobacco shall never touch mine. I would like to revive that saying. Let it become a part of our battle-cry. I believe that there is no influence in the world so great as that which the young maidens of this Church wield over the boys. They will do most anything for you. They will

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do more for you than they will for their fathers and mothers. But, O, what a loss there would be if our daughters shall yield and tolerate the tobacco user, or worse than that, if they should participate in it themselves. You hold in your trust the destiny of thousands of young men who will honor you more if you shall take a determined stand with them than if you will excuse them and tolerate their breaking the commandments of God. Oh, I plead with you, my dear sisters, that you will go home and co-operate with the daughters of Zion in your wards and — stakes that they shall resolve among themselves but do not — make one or two the scape-goats to enter into some kind of an agreement and covenant that they will not let the lips that have touched tobacco touch theirs and that they will not consent to enter into the holy bonds of matrimony with a boy who has poisoned his body with the use of tobacco. A young man recently received in marriage one of the choicest daughters in all Zion, and after he had married her he returned to an old habit, the use of tobacco. I said to him: "I presume you think you have married the choicest girl in all the Church?" He said: "I surely do." "I presume that you also feel, if there are any extra choice spirits in the eternal world that the Lord contemplates sending at this time that your wife is worthy to be the mother of the very choicest and best?" He said: "I certainly do." "But," I remarked, "don't forget that He who holds the destiny of these extra choice spirits in his hands shall be extra particular where he sends them and he will say, undoubtedly, I would like to send this noble spirit to this worthy woman, but I hesitate because her husband will give unto the unborn a body tainted with the use of tobacco, and I decline to permit this extraordinary worthy son or daughter of mine to go through such a lineage." Boys and girls, like attracts like. If we want to draw unto ourselves the purest and best intelligences there are in the eternal world we must live like them and make a welcome for them, give them tabernacles that shall be worthy for them to come and enjoy. But we ourselves may be this very day closing the gates against ourselves because of our own disregard of this commandment of God. I call attention to the purposes of all this, and not only to our individual salvation and immunity from the consequences of these things. We have started to build something, we have started to do something. That is why our fathers and mothers left their homes in foreign lands and we came, one of a city and two of a family, here, that we may raise up a posterity that shall be better than any that went before. Here we have started to build an organization, a community of people that shall become the light of the world, the salt of the earth, that shall attract the attention of men who shall come from the east and the west

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and the north and the south, and say : "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." I thank God that in my veins no taint of these things was given to me by either my parents or my grand-parents. I grant it is my best heritage, but shame upon me if, after a whole life time of struggle upon their part to throw off these things that were injurious, I should return to wallow in the mire. How may I hold up the standard, how may I build upon the foundations that have been laid for the superstructure, so that which was intended can come to pass? And that which God intended was that we should add to the contributions of our fathers by a little closer observance on our part of the commandments of God, giving to our children and to our children's children the accumulated advantages that each generation shall thereby improve, catch up the standard, lift it to higher points of vantage until We shall triumph in glory one of these days and become the distinguished people of the earth God intended we should be. We can not do it while we hesitate, while we tamper with those things God has forbidden. I ask, my brethren and sisters, that you will go home from this convention determined to organize, not only to take up a campaign with the users of tobacco, but to organize in each of your associations a committee of the strongest men and women, and have them go to your storekeepers, particularly those who are Latter-day Saints, and to others, and preach the gospel unto them, the gospel of repentance that they shall cease to bring into your communities those things that tempt the youth of Zion. I remember the day when no man had a standing in this Church who would sell whisky. As I have read this revelation this morning I see no more emphasis placed upon the use of whisky than tobacco, and I tell you, as it was wrong for a man to sell liquor, it is wrong to sell tobacco, and men stand under condemnation who will sell tobacco. I pray that our brethren, if they have been in the dark on this subject, shall come to a right understanding, that they shall not be under condemnation or responsibility for having been the means of bringing degradation to one or more of these sons of our Father. As I think of this subject I recall the action of the Master when he went up on the temple ground and saw the money-changers violating the rules of the sacred precincts. He who was all gentleness rebuked them and drove them out. I testify to you that our hands shall not be clean in the day of accounting if we, in order to make merchandise in order to profit, traffic in the things that God has forbidden, and thereby bring sorrow and distress and misery to the sons and daughters of this Church. We who know the Master's will, let us beware, lest our hands

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shall not be found clean, and we be beaten with many stripes. I ask you to organize your forces, to lay siege to those who sell tobacco, persuade them, convert them to give it up and leave it alone and sell it not. I ask also that every member of our organizations shall become a member of our own social betterment committee, who shall be responsible to see that the laws are enforced. There are laws in this state and adjoining states that make it unlawful for a person to sell or give tobacco to a youth, but we often see them using it and pass them by, not wishing to be informers. We must rouse ourselves from that lethargy of expecting somebody else to do it. Every member in this association should be an informant and insist on the maintenance of the law and not put it off on to your neighbor. And if we will join together in this movement We will stop the unlawful traffic in tobacco. We are willing to co-operate with others along this line, such organizations as the No-tobacco League in this state, that are waging an excellent campaign, but the basis in the Mutual Association is that we have as our reason for doing this and our authority the commandment of the Lord. God bless us that we may feel the importance of the matter, that we may feel the weight and concern of it and take it to heart, and if we all unite we shall remove from our midst tho?e things that offend God and that offend us. We should take up a labor in our cities and have ordinances passed refusing the use of bill boards to display before our children tobacco advertising, that they may be taken away from us, as well as the tobacco itself. And we should further extend our campaign to see to it, if possible, that every newspaper in this state refuses to sell its space to degrade the sons of God. The Lord bless us in this worthy undertaking, that we shall succeed and not be in the rear, but in the vanguard, leading the way as God expects us to, because he has given us so much more than others. The Lord bless us to maintain and honor that place and position which is ours, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

Recompensed Through tedious watches of the darksome hour, I thought the light of dawn would never come, When lo! its silent gloriousness of power Uprose and every anxious fear was dumb.

comrade of the common pilgrimage, Read not thy portend in the leaden skies; Eradicate all thoughts of sin or shame I bear, There bloometh evermore some sweet surprise. Minnie Iverson Hodapp