He
threeped down our throats that it was tobackka, and that it was the root
of bitterness, and the tares among the wheat, which was not rightly
translated in our English Bible. He said using tobackka was the
foundation of all sin, and that, if you counted up the letters in the
Greek tobakko, because Greek has no _c_, the number would be 483, and,
if you add 183 to that, it would make 666, the mark of the Beast; and,
says he, any man that uses tobackka is a beast! It was a powerful
sarmon, and everybody was looking at everybody else. When the meetin'
was over, I met Andrew Hislop, a Sesayder, and I said to him, 'Annerew!'
says I, 'what do you think of that blast? Must we give up the pipe or be
Christians no more?' Says Andrew, 'Come along wi' me,' and I went to his
house and he took down a book off a shelf in his settin' room. 'Look at
this, Mr. Hill,' says he, 'you that have the book larnin', 'tis written
by these godly Sesayders, Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, and is poetry.' I
took the book and read the piece, and what do you think it was?"
"Charles Lamb's farewell to tobacco," said Coristine wildly:--
Brother of Bacchus, later born,
The Old World were sure forlorn,
Wanting thee.
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