God are careful to preserve their
physical health. When one continues using a certain article of food and
drink because it is pleasing to the taste, and yet hurtful to the body, he
will soon by such selfishness destroy his spiritual life. "Whether
therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of
God." 1 Cor. 10:31. "But I keep under my body, and bring it into
subjection." 1 Cor. 9:27. "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:
but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live." Rom. 8:13. "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." 1 Pet.
2:11. "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the
lusts of the flesh," Gal. 5:16. "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." Rom.
13:14. The lust of the flesh as used in these and many other texts
includes the use of alcohol, opium, tobacco, tea and coffee. So we have
not departed from the Word of God, which is a lamp unto our feet and a
light unto our path, when writing on these subjects. Those who most
perfectly manifest the life of Christ, those who are the most brilliant
spiritual reflectors, do not indulge in such narcotics. If you value your
spiritual prosperity make these sayings subjects of earnest prayer before
rejecting them.

Secret Vice.

When we speak of secret sins many are ready to charge us with immodesty.
It is those who indulge in those secret evils that blush the deepest when
they are publicly mentioned. There are many habits and indulgences of man
that the pure-hearted Christian feels it is a shame to speak of publicly,
yet his love for fettered, perishing souls moves him to look up to God for
a modesty and delicacy of speech that will not in any sense corrupt the
mind of the pure, who may read, and yet in terms sufficiently plain to
reveal these sins and bring deliverance to many. As we have before said,
temperance is a law of heaven. For the propagation of the race, God has
implanted in his creatures, male and female, a passion for sexual
connection. This desire in the nature of mankind is really the highest and
most sacred. By it this world is being populated with souls bound on
toward an eternity. This passion legitimately indulged to the glory of God
is one of the most sacred, holy and pure. Since it is the highest and
noblest of all the faculties