The Bible object book : $b A book of object lessons which are different, written in plain English and in common wordsWoolston, C. H. (Clarence Herbert)
Religion
The Bible object book : $b A book of object lessons which are different, written in plain English and in common words
Woolston, C. H. (Clarence Herbert)
Children's sermons
Call a little boy to the platform and ask: "What is a child worth?
Not long ago in the great city of Philadelphia a little girl was
fatally hurt by a trolley-car. The jury awarded a verdict of $5,000
for damages. Five thousand dollars was the legal value of a child.
Would you sell your little girl for that figure? Is that what your
child is worth? Are children for sale in this world of sin and
unbelief? This child is for sale, and the world, the flesh, and the
devil bid for him. Who bids first for this child?"
A man then walks up to the platform saying, "A business man makes the
first offer." Read the card and say: "Mr. A. Cigaret, representing
the Smoke and Brownleaf Co., bids for the child. He offers good
fellowship, the thrills of the happy smoker, and the name of a jolly
good fellow." This card you have prepared before the service, and
placed in the hands of one of your assistants who delivers it to you
at your call; after he presents the card he takes his seat. In reply
to this bid you say: "This bid is rejected. King Tobacco cannot have
this boy with the pure life and happy smile. The bid is rejected for
the following reasons.
"It is a deadly poison. 'In a cigaret there are five poisons: the oil
of nicotine, the oil in the paper, saltpetre to preserve the tobacco,
opium to make it mild, and the oil in the flavoring.'
"It leads to insanity. Dr. Forbes Winslow says, 'Cigaret smoking is
one of the chief causes of insanity.'
"It is a crime-maker. A New York City magistrate says: 'Yesterday I
had before me thirty-five boy prisoners; thirty-three were confirmed
cigaret smokers. Tobacco is the boy's easiest and most direct road to
whisky.'
"It is the highway to disease. 'Tobacco is the admitted cause of
upward of eighty diseases, including blindness, and cancers of the
lower lip and tongue, and is credited with killing twenty thousand in
our land every year.'
"It is an agent for death. Dr. J. J. Kellog says: 'I had all the
nicotine removed from a cigaret and made a solution of it. I injected
half of it into a frog, and the frog died almost instantly. The frog
was full grown and average size. A boy smoking twenty cigarets in a
day inhales enough poison to kill forty frogs.'
"A cigaret smoker is slain before he is dead. Slain to all the good
chances for success in life.
"E. H. Harriman, former head of the Union Pacific R. R. System, says,
'We might as well go to the lunatic asylum for our employees as to
hire cigaret smokers.'
"The cigaret is a deadly thing. You are seeking the young child's
life. Your bid is therefore rejected."
The next bid is brought to the platform by an assistant who hands you
the prepared business card marked: "Mr. Pool-room. I will give a
jolly evening for years to come in my game-room. There will be a
bunch of happy lads there, full of glee, happy all night long. I will
give him the thrill of making money easy. Will preserve him from hard
work. Will help him drive away dull care."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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