Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 13 (1898)

Lt 101, 1898

Pallant, J.; Chapman, T. A.

November 20, 1898

Portions of this letter are published in KC 20-21.

Dear Brethren Pallant and Chapman:

I feel deeply in regard to your cases. You are indeed in need of repairs. You need the power and the skill of the great Physician. You have not treated your bodies as you should. The Lord is not pleased to have any of our ministering brethren present so sad an experience to the world. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 1

The light given me in regard to your case, Brother Pallant, is that you have made a mistake. You have tried to put all that there is of you into the work. You have not observed regular hours for eating or for rest. For a long time, Brother Pallant, you have abused your physical powers; you have labored above your strength. This is not to be the example you are to give to others. You are now to enter the field as an ordained minister, but if you do as you have done in the past, you will be able to work only as a broken down piece of machinery. Call a halt, I beg of you for it does not please the Lord to have you in this state of health. Present yourself to God, I beseech of you. Ask Him to forgive your transgression, and to help you to bring into your future life all the cheerfulness that you possibly can. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 2

You are to apply the laws of life and health to your own case. In violating the laws of health, even in doing the service of God, you misrepresent your Maker. He is not unmindful of your work of diligence, of your fervor, but you must remember that you are not a sound man. Your digestive organs are in a very bad state. You ought to be where you can have the most nutritious food. Vegetables should not come into your diet. Some can subsist on vegetable food, but you cannot. When your food produces gases and an offensive breath, you should know that things are not as they should be. You need a better circulation. Your imagination is very active. The Lord would have the human machinery better cared for. You do not bring yourself to time. You cannot keep up this strain as you have done, for you are lessening your physical, mental, and moral power. You must have periods of rest. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 3

The Lord values His children. He would have them happy, not suffering. The system must have nourishment. Your food need not be measured; you have an observing mind. Study the articles of food you can best assimilate. But that which is of the greatest importance is regularity and simplicity in your diet. Do not have a starvation diet, but do not take a variety at one meal. Get the very best things, if they cost you more, and eat not more than two or three articles at a meal. Two are better. Then there will not be so much quarrelling going on in your stomach. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 4

Some have tried to make a precise measurement of the food they eat. This keeps their mind upon themselves, and is fully as bad as eating too much. You must try to govern your eating. It will be a difficult matter for you to follow this plan when you go to other places as you have to do. But eat plain food. Do not drop out the third meal, but eat light food. This will call the blood from the brain. Many who eat the third meal would be better without it, but there are cases where three meals are better than two full meals. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 5

You have not given nature a chance to do her work. You have abused yourself. Now bring yourself to time just as soon as you can. Leave the work for a few weeks, and place yourself under treatment. Do not keep up your work. Brother Olsen, who died in Colorado, might have lived to labor many years had he realized that it was his duty to take care of the temple of God. The Lord would have used him as His co-laborer. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 6

There are many now under the shadow of death who have prepared to do a work for the Master, but who have not felt that a sacred obligation rested upon them to observe the laws of health. The laws of the physical system are indeed the laws of God. There are many who have limited themselves to a diet that cannot sustain them in health. In the efforts made to discard a meat diet, there has not been sufficient care taken to provide nourishing food to take the place of meat. It is really contrary to health reform to cut off the great variety of dishes, and then go to the opposite extreme, taking no pains to understand that the living machinery must be fed in order to work, and reducing the quantity and quality of the food to a low degree. Instead of health reform, this is health deform. After some have made the change in their diet, they have not considered that they must have tact and ingenuity to prepare their food in the most healthful manner. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 7

Brother Pallant, your stomach is in such a condition that you must give yourself into skillful hands. You must have proper food prepared for you, without having to give particular thought to it yourself. It is your duty to guard the citadel of the soul and the brain power by taking weeks of rest and not trying to labor until a change takes place in you for the better. Your system must have nourishment. Your whole system will become deranged if you have to take charge of your own diet. This continual mental anxiety is a tax you must not bear. If any physician prescribes meat for you, say, No; the flesh of dead animals shall not compose my diet. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 8

Flesh meat is not necessary for the health and strength of mind or body. If the Lord had not furnished all that is essential in the vegetable world, there would be an excuse for meat-eating; but animals are now so diseased that it is now really dangerous, it is unclean, to eat meat. Flesh meat formed no part of the food provided for man in the beginning. It was after the transgression and fall, when death was to be man’s portion, that God permitted that long-lived race to eat the flesh of clean animals. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 9

But enough of this. God help you to act wisely. You cannot treat yourself as a well man. You are a sick man. Do what you can to place yourself in a healthful condition. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 10

There is no need for me to speak more definitely in regard to animal food, because you have nothing to do with it. But I ask you to go to the great Restorer, and plead with God for health. Do your part. Co-operate with God, and you will improve. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 11

In haste. 13LtMs, Lt 101, 1898, par. 12