S C R I B N E R ' S M A G A Z I N E Important ... - Rparchives.org

wa)'s on guard. AMien he felt his system
\veakening under the continual attacks' upon
him he went aside to use the tonic of prayer
so that he might be immune. Never was
man so tried by friend and fue to break his
defer ces, but without avail.
Only in like fashion ma)' the Christian escape
diseases that would weaken, or destroy,
his life. He can not have isolation. The
lives of priests and nuns piove that the gerrns
of sin are present and active. AA'e can have
immunity only by keeping the soul active
and healthy. AA'hen on,e can say to his soul
"take thine ease" it affords the best culture
in which the germ of sin may grow. Often
do ChristianSI need a tonic to keep the soul
in such condition that the microbes may find
no unguarded entrance.
Jesus could say "The prin:e of this world
cometh and hath nothing in me." This is
the immunity which the Christian should
seek.
DISUSE OF TOBACCO.
The Internal Revenue reports show a vast
expenditure for Liquor and Tobacco, but the
sober judgment of men is against their use.
The tobacco habit is opposed on various
counts. A wail comes from Philadelphia because
of Faculty action:
"Philadelphia, O'ct. 31.—A loud wail comes
from the undergraduates of the University
of Pennsylvania. No longer may the student
get a whiff from his pipe otr a 'drag"'
from his cigarette. The new order is posted
in College Hall and in the AVharton School,
and it met an indignant reception from the
undergraduate body.
There was inuch talk
of sendin,g a petition to the faculty praying
that the privilege be restored. Dean Quinn
said there were two reasons for the edict—
one that the fire inspectors had warned him
of the great risk and ad\'ised bim to order
the prohibition; the other that the privilege
was attended by dirt and insanitation,"
'J'he Youth's Companion has long had
weekly editorials On Flealth and Hvgiene, not
in the sickly style of present day Etigenics
and Sexology, but sober, sensible discussions
of human ills. The following is the leader
for November 6th:
"TOBACCO"
"Although tobacco has been smoked, chewed
and snuffed by civilized man fofr three
hundred years, by no means every one understands
its precise effect upon the human
organism. No person of cleanlines-^ or refinement
takes snuff or chews tobacco nowadays
; it is the practice of smoking that
needs to be considered. Tnlia.cco contains a
virulent poison, nicotin, to the action of
which its bad effects are usually attributed;
hut it is probable that certain prorlnrts of
THE CHRISTIAN NATION. Vol. 59.
combustion—pyridin, carbon monoxid, and a
volatile oil—are also hurtful. That tobacco
does affect tbe human organism hurtfully is
certain; the only question is ho)w much tobacco
it takes to produce those effects. First
of all, there is a.n element of idiosyncrasy,
which enters into the action of any drug,
poisonous or otherwise. A few men smoke
for a long life-time without suffering any apparent
harm; but others pay the penalty of a
very moderate indulgence by continual indigestion,
hardening of the arteries, or a nervous
breakdown early in life. The same fate
awaits any man who smokes to excess. No
One can safely smoke more than four
cigars, or six pipes, or eight or ten
cigarettes, even without inhaling; most men
had better not use more than this allowance.
The symptoms of over-indulgence in tobacco
are nervousness, poor sleep, indigestion,
schnetimes failing eye-sight, and frequently
an irritable heart, with a rapid pulse, frequent
palpitation, irregular beat, and occasional
paroxysm of pain. Most of these disturbances
are functional and disappear if
the smoker gives up his tobacco; but if he
persists in the indulgence after these warnings,
premature hiard.ening of the arteries
will follow, with abnormal changes in bloodpressure
from which, he can hardly recover.
All this is applicable chiefly to the young and
middle-aged adult. Of course boys and
ycTuthis should not smoke in any circumstances,
and old men usually lose their taste
for smoking little by little, and often give
up the habit entirely. It is hardly necessary
to add that smoking is a habit that by reason
of its costliness and the difficulty of restraining
it within the very narrow limits that safety
dictates, is far better shunned altogether.''
Such is the verdict of this widely circulated
paper, a verdict which is read in many, many
homes by old and young, AVho- then will allow
himself or herself (we must add this
nowadays) even a little of this poison, knowing-
how it plants the desire for more? Are
not your boWies the temples of the Holy
Ghost ?
THE KIND OF MAN THE WORLD IS
LOOKIN(; FOR,
In The American l\Iaga.::ine Ray Stannard
Baker, writing about Colonel Goethals, the
builder of the Panama Canal, reports Colonel
(joethals as saying:
" 'The world toda)- is above all else a
1 radical world and it demands results, AVhat
it is looking for is men who can and will do
things. It is recorded of Lord Kitchener
that, when during the South .African campaign
a subordinate officer reported to him a
failure to obey orders and gave rea-sons
therefrir, he said to him: "Your reasons for
not doin.g it are the best I ever heard; now
,go and do it!" That is what the world demands
to-dav,' "
The National Reform Association is arranging
for its annual meeting in Pittsburgh
this year, December i and 2, It is
planning to reproduce in part the recent
A'A'orld's Christian Citizenship Conference
held in Portland, Oregon, Both national
and internatiojial speakers are to be
present and participate. Ainotng the latter
are Dr, Armenag Haigazian of Turkey and
the inimitable Ng Poon Chew, the i\Iark
Twain of China. Among the other speakers
are Judge McKeu'zie Cleland, of Chicago,
who has gained a national reputation on the
subject of prison reform; Dr, J. A, McKelway,
of Washington, D. C, of the National
Commission of the United States Government
on Child Labor; Prof, A^on Kleinschmidt, of
the Indiana State Reformatory, who has of
late made some startling revelations of the
average low state of mentality among prisoners
generally, and Prof, O. F, Da.vis, of AA^sconsin,
who, with the aid of Senator Frank J.
Cannon and others, has issued the latest word
on Mormonism which is declared by Mrs. D,
B, Wells in the October number of the Home
Mission Monthly to be "a clear, dispassionate,
convincing array of facts, stated with
such cumulative force as to fall upon all unprejudiced
minds like the successive blows of
a bamimer." This was one of the commission
reports made at the world's conference.
It is proposed to repeat the sectional conferences
on "Public Education," including the
Bible in the Schools, "Prison Reform," "Immigration,"
"Mormonism,"' etc. • For this
purpose the First and Second Presbyterian
churches in the city have been secured for
the afternoons of December ist and 2nd. The
evening meetings are to be held in the Exposition
Building, and are to be of the nature
of mass meetings to- be addressed by national
speakers after the manner of the
great mass meetings held in the Multnomah
Stadium, Pon'tland, at the World's Conference,
A limited number of free special admission
tickets are being issued through
the'pastors of the various churches to their
people. These can also be obtained upon ap^
plication, so long as they last, at the headquarters
of the National Reform Association,
603-604 Publication Bldg,, Pittsburgh.
In the Sabbath School
Les-:on N, Dec, 7th, 1913.
B\- the Rev, A\^ A, Aikin,
THE FALL OF JERICHO,—Joshua 6:8-
Ti, 14-20, Read Joshua 5 and 6.
Golden Te.vt.—All things are possible to
bim that believeth,—Alark 9:23,
Psalms.—20:4-7, C, AI,; 47:1-4. C. AI,;
50:1-4, S, AI,
Time.—B, C, 1451, Just 40 years after Exodus,
.Shortly after the observance of the
Passover,
Place.—The City of Jericho, west of the
JoC-dan and south of the Dead Sea,
ANALYSIS AND COAIMENT,
Tn the story of our lesson we have the ac-