MH page 330

No human being needs tobacco, but multitudes are perishing for want of the means that by its use is worse than wasted. Have you not been misappropriating the Lord's goods? Have you not been guilty of robbery toward God and your fellow men? “Know ye not that ... ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20 .

Tobacco use is a misuse of financial resources and the human body. Presents a moral and economic argument about human needs and resource allocation.

“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it giveth his color in the cup, When it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder.” Proverbs 20:1 ; 23:29-32 .

Scripture warns against the deceitful and destructive nature of intoxicating wine. Consists entirely of biblical quotations from Proverbs concerning alcohol.

Never was traced by human hand a more vivid picture of the debasement and the slavery of the victim of intoxicating drink. Enthralled, degraded, even when awakened to a sense of his misery, he has no power to break from the snare; he “will seek it yet again.” Verse 35 .

Intoxication leads to psychological enslavement and compulsive drinking behavior. Describes the compulsive behavioral pattern characteristic of alcohol dependence and addiction.