Last Sunday, I mentioned that Charles Spurgeon was once quoted to have said he could “smoke a cigar to the glory of God”. Here’s the background story, which I read in Dallimore’s biography on Spurgeon (ppg. 179-181).
In 1874, Spurgeon preached a sermon on “the necessity of giving up sin, in order to success [sic] in prayer,” and he applied it to the “seemingly unimportant little habits many Christians practice that keep them from true fellowship with God”. At the end of his sermon he invited a visiting Baptist pastor from America, Dr. George F. Pentecost, to conclude with an application. Pentecost went on to apply Spurgeon’s principle by recounting his own experience of giving up cigars. As he praised God for victory, he portrayed smoking as an enslaving habit and a sin! Now Dallimore suggests that, in all probability, Pentecost was unaware of Spurgeon’s penchant for cigars, but nevertheless it made for an awkward moment. Spurgeon arose once more and stated to his congregation (who were well aware of his habit):
Well, dear friends, you know that some men can do to the glory of God what to other men would be a sin. And, notwithstanding what Brother Pentecost has said, I intend to smoke a good cigar to the glory of God before I go to bed to-night.
Well needless to say, his statement drew much criticism. He was accused of being careless and setting a bad example, especially for young people. Now it must be noted that, in Spurgeon’s day, smoking was not a social stigma (like it is today). Of course it had its opponents, but even the majority of ministers in the Church of England had no qualms with the practice. It was even believed to be beneficial to one’s health. Spurgeon, a chronic sufferer of rheumatism and gout, was convinced and largely motivated by these supposed health benefits. This fact is clear from a letter he wrote soon after, in defense of his statement.
Together with hundreds of thousands of my fellow-Christians, I have smoked, and with them I am under the condemnation of living in habitual sin, if certain accusers are to be believed. As I would not knowingly live even in the smallest violation of the law of God, and sin is the transgression of the law, I will not own to sin when I am not conscious of it . . . . When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm, refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt grateful to God, and have blessed His name: that is what I meant.
Now with all our modern knowledge of tobacco’s health hazards, such thinking seems ridiculous to us, especially coming from such a pious and godly man as Spurgeon. But biographers tell us that in later years Spurgeon “partially desisted” from smoking, and about two years prior to his death he quit completely, perhaps realizing the fallacy of smoking’s benefits. I think it is fair to assume that if Spurgeon was informed at an early age of smoking’s health hazards (including second-hand smoke), his opinion and practice towards cigars would have changed. He probably still would not consider it a direct violation of God’s law – thereby leaving it in the category of “grey matters” – but I assume he would not be so liberal as to publicly advocate the practice.
