By Cigar Voss
You’ve surely heard of Winston Churchill, and you’ve most certainly dreamed of smoking with him. There are great figures in universal history who shared our passion for tobacco. Some more controversial than others. From the left and the right, pipe or cigar, tobacco has been the common denominator. Today, we want to introduce you to another character—controversial within his own circle. We are talking about the “prince of preachers,” the Briton, Charles H. Spurgeon.
This man not only shook up the church of the era with his unique style of preaching (reaching audiences of 20,000 people), but he was also firm in his arguments that smoking cigars per se was not a sinful activity. This led to fierce debates and amusing anecdotes.
According to William Williams, in his book Personal Reminiscences of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he recounts the witty response to a person who, surprised to learn the rumors about Spurgeon’s passion were true, went to demand an answer from the minister. To satisfy the curiosity of this person, he replied: “I cultivate my flowers and burn my weeds.”
Another amusing anecdote took place when Pastor Spurgeon lived in Nightingale Lane, Clapham. An excursion was organized with young men from one of the minister’s classes. Early in the morning, the young men, excited for the day of fun ahead, each lit their pipes and cigars, respectively. Spurgeon was already ready, waiting for the group he would spend the rest of the day with. Seeing them all with astonished expressions, he exclaimed:
“What, gentlemen! Are you not ashamed to be smoking so early?”. The surprised and somewhat embarrassed young men began one by one to extinguish their cigars and pipes. It was not until the last participant in the excursion put out his puro that the pastor calmly pulled out his own tobacco, lit it, and began a tranquil walk. The astonishment among the young men was immediate, although only a few ventured to ask: “I thought you said you objected to smoking, Mr. Spurgeon?”. He replied with a smile on his face: “Oh no,’ he replied: ‘I did not say I objected. I asked if they were not ashamed, and it appears they were, for they have put them all out”. And he puffed away quite serenely.” This led to great laughter, and the tobaccos returned to the scene, setting the stage for a great day”.
As you must be imagining, Pastor Spurgeon’s smoking habit was not exempt from controversy. A newspaper of the time details an impromptu debate with Dr. Pentecost, which took place one Sunday where Spurgeon spoke on doctrine and Pentecost provided an illustration to reaffirm it. The tension arose because the Doctor illustrated his point by describing his abandonment of tobacco and attributing divine direction to quitting. Upon finishing the illustration, Spurgeon rose to the pulpit and, with a playful smile, addressed his congregation, referring to his intention to smoke:
“‘The expression smoking to the glory of God standing alone has an ill sound, and I do not justify it; but in the sense in which I employed it I still stand to it. No Christian should do anything in which he cannot glorify God; and this may be done, according to Scripture, in eating and drinking and the common actions of life. 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; this is what I meant, and by no means did I use sacred words triflingly.’”
No one was able to show him, based on the Bible, that smoking was a sin, and he was not willing to turn the 10 commandments into 11 or 12.
This matter caused great reactions, especially from Spurgeon’s detractors, who argued that no Christian teacher should desire this habit of smoking tobacco.
The war against tobacco is not a contemporary thing; we find glimpses of it as far back as the 1800s. Spurgeon has not been the only relevant smoking Christian. We can add J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Karl Barth, among others, to the list. But what makes him special is that many of those who call for quitting smoking because it is a sin admire the teachings of Charles H. Spurgeon. Tobacco, though we love it, does not define us.
