Can you Chew Tobacco and Preach the Bible at the Same Time?
Posted: March 15, 2010 Filed under: Just for Fun, Preaching/Speaking 4 CommentsWell Italian preachers did during the beginning of the 20th-century! This is my kind of preaching…
In Paul Bull’s Lectures on Preaching and Sermon Construction (Chapter 7, Section 5, Point 5) titled “Make a Right Use of Your Voice” he states,
“In normal sermons Italian preachers, arrived at the end of their first point, sit down, mop their faces with a large colored handkerchief, spit, take a pinch of snuff, and then, after two minutes, go on to their next point much refreshed. This would not be suitable in the present state of public opinion in England.”
Footnote: Paul B. Bull, Lectures on Preaching and Sermon Construction. (The MacMillan Co.: New York and Toronto, 1922), pp. 283.
Gospel-Centered Musings 
Sounds like great etiquette, I like!
Actually, the practice he is referring to is not chewing tobacco, but snorting or sniffing a pinch of “snuff”, which was originally what the finely-ground snuff was made for. Chewing tobacco never caught on in Europe, but snorting snuff is still popular in some places. The practice is to snort a little into the nasal cavity and then sneeze it out into a handkerchief. I’m sure this would be an invigorating experience which would help a preacher find the energy to continue on his sermon.
Riley, the reason that the chewing tobacco was cut finer, thinner, and smaller was for men to sniff or better called “insufflated”into their noses because chewing in most of Europe was not allowed any longer in the public eye nor in front of ladies. However snuff its’ self can be used both for sniffing and chewing. The title was for you to read, not an historical fact. Nonetheless the point was that the fact of a minster preaching with tobacco is funny.
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