James Gilmour of Mongolia: His diaries, letters, and reportsGilmour, James
Religion
James Gilmour of Mongolia: His diaries, letters, and reports
Gilmour, James
Gilmour, James, 1843-1891; Missions -- Mongolia
'In connection with all this, there is another fact that must not
be forgotten. Drinkers of whisky, and smokers, especially of opium,
the better the year is, the more they indulge. In a poor year they
use less whisky and opium; the better the year, and the cheaper
tobacco, whisky, and opium are, the more they use, so that in place
of making a proper return to heaven for a good year, they only take
the opportunity afforded them of running deeper into waste and
wrong-doing. Is this the way to get better harvests? Considering
the excessive growth and consumption of tobacco and opium, and the
excessive manufacture and use of whisky, what could any honest,
straightforward man say to the people, when they earnestly asked
how they were to get good harvests, but "_Repent, and cease this
great waste_"? And thus from no deliberate plan of mine, but from
the plain leading of circumstances, it came to pass that I felt
compelled to call upon the inhabitants of the district to lay aside
the use of not only opium but also of whisky and tobacco, as one of
the first steps toward worshipping the true God. Many friends have
demurred to my making teetotalism an essential of Christianity, and
many more have still more strongly demurred to my taking such a
pronounced stand against the use of tobacco. The position of my
friends is exactly the position I held myself before going into
that region, but after going to that region and seeing just how
things were, no other course seemed open to me, but to demand in
all who wanted to do right the abandonment of the whole three; and
I am convinced that almost any other missionary placed in the same
circumstances would have taken the same stand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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