The Story of our Health Message

Constant Instruction

For a period of more than ten years the columns of the Review and Herald were used in an effort to remove this evil from all who claimed to be children of God. The scientific arguments against the use of tobacco were often urged, and from time to time the workers added a word of encouragement to those who were hesitating or who were seemingly unable to overcome the appetite. There were also appeals through the pen of Mrs. Ellen G. White for the believers to “lay aside such hurtful stimulants as tobacco, tea, and coffee,” and to put the cost of “those idols” into the “treasury of the Lord.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:224, 222. SHM 69.2

Little by little the good work was accomplished. But it was not without much patient teaching, line upon line, precept upon precept, that the camp of the believers was finally cleansed. Listen, for example, to the plea of Elder M. E. Cornell, as late as 1858: SHM 69.3

“The thought that some among us, who are called brethren, after all that has been written on the subject, should still persist in using the infamous weed, is truly distressing: I can no longer hold my peace; for duty imperatively demands that the servants of God should ‘cry aloud and spare not’ on this subject.”—The Review and Herald, May 20, 1858. SHM 69.4