DR TORREY ON MINISTERS SMOKING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12445, 30 August 1902, Page 8

DR TORREY ON MINISTERS SMOKING.

The Rev. Dr Torrcy, who will shortly commence a mission in Dunedin, objects apparently to clergymen being devotees of My Lady Nicotine. Asked at Sydney if ho thought it lawful for a minister to smoke in private ho replied:— ■ "If it injures a minister's influenoo to smolco in public and ho smokes in private, some follow will catch him some timo, and lie 11 say, 'I've'no further use for that man, Ho smokes on the sly.'"—(Laughter and applause.) Another minister asked if it was wrong for a minister to smoke with men who smoked, if he believed that he could thereby influence thorn for good. Dr Torrcy .did not favour such an interpretation of tho apostolic axiom, " All things to all men. Would it, on the same principle, be expedient- to go among drinkers und get nearly drunk in the hope of influencing them? "If any man has influenced you to believe that you can influenco men more by smoking with them, he lias dcccivetl you. Gentlemen, you don't need to stoop to anything questionable to win men." Tho men of this world respected a clean minister, even. if they were not clean themselves. The world had a higher standard than the Church sometimes as to what a minister ought to bo. ■ Physically, whoever else could afford to smoke, ministers could not. "Look at your eyes. Whoever saw » smoker with a good clear eye?—(Laughter.) Tho use of tobacco is more enslaving than tho uso of liquor. It just goes through your wholo system and right into your nervous system. 1 believe there aro a lot of good men smoking, but I also believe that they aro robbing their ministry of power. It robs you of clearness, makes you nervous, uncertain, and higher critical.—(Laughter.) A few years ago our American theological seminaries were clcan from smoking, but with the incoming of the Higher Criticism to our theological halls came in smoking."— (Laughter and applause.)