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
to realize the harm that tobacco is doing to his health, he has simply
to stop its use for a short time and watch the effect on his system.

Tobacco is not a food that God intended man to eat. In man's case it
feeds only a craving that it has itself created. But the leaves of the
tobacco plant do serve as food for the large, green worms that live and
thrive in tobacco fields. Yes; tobacco is "very good" for the "creeping
things" for which it was created; but it was not intended as food for
man.