im have
to go down from Cambridge earlier, which would be a great grief to him.
Dawson applauded this determination, and it was arranged that as Ernest
was still more or less of a weak brother, Dawson should take him, so to
speak, in spiritual tow for a while, and strengthen and confirm his
faith.

An offensive and defensive alliance therefore was struck up between this
pair (who were in reality singularly ill assorted), and Ernest set to
work to master the books on which the Bishop would examine him. Others
gradually joined them till they formed a small set or church (for these
are the same things), and the effect of Mr Hawke's sermon instead of
wearing off in a few days, as might have been expected, became more and
more marked, so much so that it was necessary for Ernest's friends to
hold him back rather than urge him on, for he seemed likely to develop--as
indeed he did for a time--into a religious enthusiast.

In one matter only, did he openly backslide. He had, as I said above,
locked up his pipes and tobacco, so that he might not be tempted to use
them. All day long on the day after Mr Hawke's sermon he let them lie in
his portmanteau bravely; but this was not very difficult, as he had for
some time given up smoking till after hall. After hall this day he did
not smoke till chapel time, and then went to chapel in self-defence. When
he returned he determined to look at the matter from a common sense point
of view. On this he saw that, provided tobacco did not injure his
health--and he really could not see that it did--it stood much on the
same footing as tea or coffee.

Tobacco had nowhere been forbidden in the Bible, but then it had not yet
been discovered, and had probably only escaped proscription for this
reason. We can conceive of St Paul or even our Lord Himself as drinking
a cup of tea, but we cannot imagine either of them as smoking a cigarette
or a churchwarden. Ernest could not deny this, and admitted that Paul
would almost certainly have condemned tobacco in good round terms if he
had known of its existence. Was it not then taking rather a mean
advantage of the Apostle to stand on his not having actually forbidden
it? On the other hand, it was possible that God knew Paul would have
forbidden smoking, and had purposely arranged the discovery of tobacco
for a period at which Paul should be no longer living. This might seem
rather hard on Paul, considering all he had done for Christianity, but