panion, he said, "Pull up the first." This
the boy easily did.

"Now, pull up the second." The youth obeyed, but not with so much ease.

"And now the third." This time before the boy succeeded in uprooting the
plant, he had to put forth all his strength and to use both his arms.

"And now," said his master, "try your hand on the fourth." But although
the lad grasped the trunk of the tree in his arms, he scarcely shook its
leaves; and he found it impossible to tear its roots from the earth.
Then the wise old man explained the meaning of the four trials.

"This, my son," he said, "is just what happens to our bad habits and
passions. When they are young and weak, we can by a little watchfulness
and by a little discipline, easily tear them up; but if we let them cast
their roots deep down into our souls, no human power can uproot them.
Only the almighty hand of the Creator can pluck them out. For this
reason, my boy, watch your first impulses."

Or, could John have heard the story of the giant who fell in with a
company of pigmies, he might have taken a different course. The giant
roared with laughter at the insignificant stature and wonderful
boastings of the pigmies. He ridiculed their threats when they told what
they expected to do to him; but when he fell asleep that night, he was
at their mercy. And he did not know until he awoke in the morning that
while he was asleep these tiny people of whom he had made sport had
bound him with innumerable threads and that he was their helpless
captive. But John knew nothing of these stories or of other things that
teach the lessons he so much needed; and perhaps his father did not
know, so that he could tell his son what he should have been told.

The use of tobacco is an evil. When God made tobacco and pronounced it
good, He did not mean for it to go into the mouth of any man or woman,
much less into the mouths of children. Tobacco is a deadly poison; and
the constant use of any poison must injure the body of the one who uses
it. When it has sapped the strength from both the mind and the body, it
leaves the individual weakened in every way and makes it harder for him
to live a good, pure life.

No person who uses tobacco may be said to be perfectly well. Such a
person may not realize how his health is impaired, because the stupor
that the poison produces numbs his sensibilities; but the very appetite
he has for tobacco is in itself a disease. In order for an habitual user
t