Testimony for the Church — No. 18

Christian Temperance^*

“Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20. T18 1.1

We are not our own. We do not belong to ourselves. But we have been purchased with a dear price. We have cost an immense sum, even the sufferings and death of the Son of God. If we can understand this, and fully realize it, then shall we feel great responsibility resting upon us to keep ourselves in the very best condition of health, that we may render to God perfect service. T18 1.2

But when we take any course which decreases our strength, expends our vitality, beclouds the intellect, and destroys the powers of the mind, we sin against God. In pursuing this course we are not glorifying him in our bodies and spirits which are his; but are committing a great wrong in his sight. T18 1.3

Has Jesus given himself for us? Has this dear price been paid to redeem us? And is it so, that we are not our own? Is it true that all the powers of our being, our bodies, our spirits, all that we have, and all we are, belong to God? Is this so? It certainly is. And when we realize this, what obligation does it lay us under to God to preserve ourselves in that condition that we may honor him upon the earth in our bodies and in our spirits which are the Lord's. T18 1.4

We believe without a doubt that Christ is soon coming. This is not a fable to us. It is a reality. We have no doubt, neither have we had a doubt for years, that the doctrines we hold today are present truth, and that we are preparing for the Judgment. We are preparing to meet Him who is to appear in the clouds of heaven with the holy retinue of angels, to escort Him on his way, to give the faithful and the just the finishing touch of immortality. When he comes he is not to cleanse us of our sins. He is not then to remove from us the defects in our characters. He will not then cure us of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. He will not do this work then. Before that time this work will all be accomplished, if wrought for us at all. Then those who are holy will be holy still. They are not to be made holy when the Lord comes. Those who have preserved their bodies, and their spirits, in holiness, and in sanctification, and honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. And when he comes, those who are unjust, and unsanctified, and filthy, will remain so forever. There is then no work to be done for them which shall remove their defects, and give them holy characters. The Refiner does not then sit to pursue his refining process, and remove their sins, and their corruption. This is all to be done in these hours of probation. It is now that this work is to be accomplished for us. T18 2.1

We embrace the truth of God with our different organizations, and as we come under the influence of truth, it will accomplish the work for us which is necessary to be accomplished, and give us a moral fitness for the kingdom of glory, and for the society of the heavenly angels. We are now in God's workshop. We are, many of us, rough stone from the quarry. As we lay hold upon the truth of God, its influence must affect us. It must elevate us. It must remove from us every imperfection. It must remove from us sins of whatever nature. And it must fit us, that we may be prepared to see the King in his beauty, and finally to unite with the pure and heavenly angels in the kingdom of glory. This work is to be accomplished for us here. Here we are, with these bodies and spirits, which are to be fitted for immortality. T18 3.1

We are in a world that is in opposition to righteousness, holiness, a growth in grace, and to purity of character. Everywhere we look we see deformity and sin. We see corruption. We see defilement on every hand. And what is the work that we are to undertake here just previous to immortality? It is to preserve our bodies holy, our spirits pure, that we may stand forth unstained amid the corruptions teeming around us in these last days. And if this work is to be performed for us, we need to engage in it heartily, and engage in it at once. We want to take hold of the work now. We want to understand it just as it is. Selfishness should not come in here to control us. We want the Spirit of God to have perfect control of us. It should influence us in all our actions. And if we have a right hold on Heaven, a right hold of the power that is from above, we shall feel the sanctifying influence of the Spirit of God upon our hearts. T18 3.2

When we have tried to present to our brethren and sisters the health reform, and have spoken to them of the importance of their eating, and drinking, and in all that they do, to do it to the glory of God, many, by their actions, have said, “It is nobody's business whether I eat this or that. Whatever we do, we are to bear the consequences ourselves.” Dear friends, you are greatly mistaken. You are not the only sufferers from a wrong course. The society you are in bears the consequences of your wrongs, in a great degree, as well as yourselves. If you are suffering from your intemperance in eating or in drinking, we that are around you, or associated with you, are affected by your infirmities. We have to suffer on account of the course you pursue, which is wrong. If it has an influence to lessen your powers of mind or body, we are affected by it. We have to feel it. When in your society, instead of your having a buoyancy of spirit, you are gloomy, and cast a shadow upon the spirits of all around you. If we are sad, and depressed, and in trouble, you could, if in right conditions of health, have a clear brain to show us the way out, and speak a comforting word to us. If your brain is so benumbed by your wrong course of living that you cannot give us the right counsel, do we not meet with a loss? Does not your influence seriously affect us? We may have a good degree of confidence in our own judgment, yet we want to have counsellors; for in many counsellors there is safety. We desire that our course should look consistent and proper to those we love, and we wish to seek their counsel, and have them able to give it with a clear brain. But what care we for your judgment, if your brain nerve-power has been taxed to the utmost to take care of improper food, or an enormous quantity of even healthful food, placed in your stomachs, and the vitality withdrawn from the brain? What care we for the judgment of such persons? They see through a mass of undigested food. Therefore your course of living affects us. It is impossible for you to pursue any wrong course without others suffering beside yourself. T18 4.1

“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” In running the race, in order to obtain that laurel which was considered a special honor, those who engaged in running were temperate in all things. They were temperate, that their muscles, and their brains, and every part of them, should be in the very best condition to run. If they were not temperate, they would not have that elasticity that they would have if they were temperate in all things. If temperate, they could run that race successfully. They were more sure of receiving the crown. But notwithstanding all their efforts in the direction of temperance, and to subject themselves to a careful diet, in order to be in the best condition, yet they only ran at a venture. They might do the very best they could, and yet after all not receive the token of honor; for another might be a little in advance of them, and take the prize. One only received the prize. But we can all run in the heavenly race, and all receive the prize. It is not an uncertainty. It is not to run at a risk. We must put on the heavenly graces, with the eye directed upward to the crown of immortality, keeping the Pattern ever before us. He was a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief. The self-denying life of our divine Lord we are to keep constantly in view. His life of poverty, humbleness, and self-denying, we must not forget. And then as we seek to imitate him, keeping our eye upon the mark of the prize, we can run this race with certainty, knowing that if we do the very best we can we shall certainly secure the prize. Men ran to obtain a corruptible crown, one that would perish in a day. All this self-denial practised by those who ran these races was to obtain a corruptible crown, which was only a token of honor from mortals here. T18 6.1

But we are to run the race, at the end of which is a crown of immortality and everlasting life. Yes, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory will be awarded to us as the prize when the race is run. “We,” says the apostle, “an incorruptible.” And if they could be temperate in all things, who engaged in this race here upon earth for a temporal crown, cannot we be temperate in all things, who have in view an incorruptible crown, an eternal weight of glory, and a life which measures with the life of God? When we have this great inducement before us, cannot we run, with patience, this race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith? He has pointed out the way for us. He has marked it for us by his own footsteps all the way along. It is the path that he traveled. You may, with Christ, experience the self-denial, and the suffering, and walk in this pathway imprinted by his own blood. T18 7.1

“I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” There is work to do here, for every man, woman, and child. Satan is constantly at work, that he may have control of your bodies and spirits. But Christ has bought you, and you are his property. And now it is for you to work in union with Christ, in union with the holy angels that minister unto you. It is for you to keep the body under, and bring it into subjection. Unless you do this, you will certainly lose everlasting life, and the crown of immortality. T18 8.1

And yet some will say, “What business is it to anybody what I eat? or what I drink?” I have shown you what relation your course had to others. You have seen that it has much to do with the influence you exert in your families. It has to do with your manner of acting. It has much to do with moulding the characters of your children. T18 8.2

As I said before, It is a corrupted age in which we live. It is a time when Satan seems to have almost perfect control of minds that are not fully consecrated to God. Therefore there is a very great responsibility resting upon parents and guardians who have children to bring up. Parents have taken the responsibility of bringing these children into existence. And what now is their duty? Is it to let them come up just as they may? and just as they will? Let me tell you, a weight of responsibility rests upon these parents. Whether you eat, or whether you drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Do you do this when you are preparing food for the table, and when you place it upon your tables, and call your family to partake of it? Are you placing only the food before these children that you know will make the very best blood? Is it that food that will preserve their systems in the least feverish condition? Is it that which will place them in the very best relation to life and health? Is this the food that you are studying to place before your children? Or are you careless and reckless of their future good? and provide for them unhealthful, stimulating, irritating food? Let me tell you that the children from their very birth are born to evil. Satan seems to have control of them. He seems to take possession of their young minds, and they are corrupted. Why do fathers and mothers act as though a lethargy was upon them? They do not mistrust that Satan is sowing evil seed in their families. They are as blind, and careless, and reckless, in regard to these things as it is possible for them to be. Why do they not awake, and study these things? Why are they not reading up? Says the apostle, “Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience,” &c. Here is work resting upon every one who professes to follow Jesus Christ, to live upon the plan of addition. T18 9.1

Chapter after chapter has been opened to me. I can select family after family of children in this house that are, every child of them, as corrupt as hell. And some of them profess to be followers of Jesus Christ. And you, the parents, are as indifferent as though you had had a shock of paralysis. T18 10.1

I have said that some of you are selfish. You have not understood what I have meant. You have studied what food would taste best. Taste and pleasure, instead of the glory of God, and to advance in the divine life, and perfect holiness in the fear of God, have ruled. It is to consult your own pleasure, your own appetites; and while you have been doing this, Satan has been gaining a march upon you, and, as it generally happens, has frustrated your efforts every time. Some of you fathers have taken your children to the physicians to see what was the matter with them. I could have told you in two minutes what was the matter. Your children are corrupt. Satan has obtained control of them. He has come right in past you, while you, who are as God to them, to guard them, were at ease, stupefied, and asleep. God has commanded you to bring them up in the fear and nurture of the Lord. But Satan has passed right in before you, and has woven strong bands around them. And yet you sleep on. May Heaven pity these parents, and these children, for they, every one of them, need his pity. T18 10.2

Had you taken your position upon the health reform; had you added to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, things might have been different. But you have only partially aroused, opened your eyes a little, and then composed yourself to sleep again, over the iniquity and corruption that is in your very houses. Do you think angels can come into your dwellings? Do you think your children are susceptible of holy influences with these things in your midst? Yet I can count family after family that are almost entirely under the control of Satan. I know these things are true, and I want the people to arouse before it shall be eternally too late, and the blood of souls, even the blood of the souls of their own children, be found upon their garments. T18 11.1

The minds of some of these children are so weakened that they have but one-half, or one-third, of the brilliancy of intellect that they might have had had they been virtuous and pure. They have thrown it away in self-abuse. Right here in this church, corruption is teeming on every hand. Now and then there is a sing, or some gathering of pleasure. Every time I hear of these, I feel like clothing myself in sackcloth. “Oh! that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears.” “Spare thy people, O Lord.” I feel distressed. I have an agony of soul that is beyond anything that I can describe to you. You are asleep. Would the lightning and thunder of Sinai arouse this church? Would they arouse you, fathers and mothers, to commence the work of reformation in your own houses? You should be teaching your children. You should be instructing them how to shun the vices and corruptions of this age. Instead of this, many are studying how to get something good to eat. You place upon your tables the meat, the butter, and the eggs. The children partake of these things. The parents are feeding them with the very things that will excite their animal passions, and then they come to the meeting and pray, and ask God to bless their children, and save them. How high do your prayers go? You have a work to do first. When you have done all for your children which God has left for you to do, then you can with confidence claim the special help God has promised to give you. T18 12.1

You should study temperance in all things. You must study it in what you eat, and in what you drink. And yet you say it is nobody's business what I eat, or what I drink, or what I place upon my table. It is somebody's business, unless you take your children and shut them up, or go into the wilderness where you will not be a burden upon others—where your unruly, vicious children will not corrupt the society in which they mingle. T18 13.1

Those who have adopted the health reform, many of them, have left off every hurtful thing; but does it follow that because they have left off these things, they can eat just as much as they please? They sit down to the table, and instead of considering how much they should eat, they give themselves up to appetite, and eat to great excess. And it is all they can do, and all they should do, the rest of that day, to let the stomach worry away with its burden imposed upon it. All the food that is put into the stomach that the system cannot derive benefit from, is a burden to nature in her work. It hinders the living machine. The system is clogged. It cannot successfully carry on the work of life. The vital organs are unnecessarily taxed. The brain nerve-power is called to the stomach to help the digestive organs carry on their work of disposing of an amount of food which does the system no good. So you see you have lessened the power of the brain by drawing so heavily upon it to help the stomach get along with its heavy burden. And after it has accomplished the task, what are the sensations you have experienced as the result of this unnecessary expenditure of vital force? A feeling of goneness, a faintness, as though you must eat more. Perhaps this feeling comes just before meal time. What is the cause of this? Nature has worried along with her work, and is so thoroughly exhausted in her efforts in consequence, that you have this sensation of goneness. And you think that the stomach says, More food, when, in its faintness, it is distinctly saying, Give me rest. The stomach needs rest to gather up its exhausted energies for another work. But instead of your allowing it any period of rest, you think the stomach needs more food, and so you heap another load upon nature, and refuse it all the rest it needs. It is like a man laboring in the field all through the former part of the day until he is weary. He comes in at noon. He says that he is weary and exhausted; but you tell him to go to work again and he will obtain relief. This is the way you treat the stomach. It is thoroughly exhausted. And you call the vitality from other parts of the system to the stomach in the effort of digestion. T18 13.2

You have felt a numbness around the brain. You have felt disinclined to take hold of any special labor, which required exertion. You have felt as though you did not want to engage in labor, mental or physical, to any extent, until you have rested from the sense of this burden imposed upon your system. Then, again, there is this sense of goneness. But you say it is more food that is wanted. You place a double load of food for the stomach to take care of. Even if you are most strict in the quality of your food, do you glorify God in your bodies and spirits, which are his, by partaking of such a quantity of food? Those who place so much food upon the stomach, and thus load down nature, could not appreciate the truth, should they hear it dwelt upon. They could not arouse the benumbed sensibilities of the brain to realize the value of the atonement, and the great sacrifice that has been made for fallen man. It is impossible for such to appreciate the great, precious, and exceedingly rich reward that is in reserve for the faithful overcomers. The animal part of our nature should never be left to govern the moral and intellectual. T18 15.1

And what influence does overeating have upon the stomach? The stomach is debilitated, the digestive organs weakened, and disease, with all its train of evils, is brought on as the result. If they were diseased before, they are now increasing the difficulties upon them, and lessening their vitality every day they live. They call their vital powers into unnecessary action to take care of the food that they place in their stomachs. What a terrible condition is this to be in! We know something of dyspepsia by experience. We have had it in our family. And we feel that it is a much-to-be-dreaded disease. And when a person becomes a thorough dyspeptic, he is a great sufferer, mentally and physically, and his friends must also suffer, unless they are as unfeeling as brutes. And yet will you say, It is none of your business what I eat, or what course I pursue? Does anybody around the dyspeptic suffer? Just take a course that shall irritate them in any way. How natural to be fretful! They feel bad. Their little children appear to them to be very bad. They cannot speak calmly to their children. They cannot, without especial grace, act calmly in their families. All around them are affected by the disease upon them. All around them have to suffer the consequences of their infirmity. They cast a dark shadow. Then, does not your eating and drinking affect others? It certainly does. And you should be very careful to preserve yourself in the best condition of health, that you may render to God perfect service, and do your duty in society and to your family. Then, even health reformers can eat immoderately of a healthy quality of food. They can err in the quantity. Some in this house err in the quality. They have never taken their position upon health reform. They have chosen to eat and drink what they pleased, and when they pleased. They are injuring their systems in this way. They are tearing down their systems, and injuring their families, by placing upon their tables a feverish diet, which will increase the animal passions of their children, and lead them to care but little for heavenly things. The parents are thus strengthening the animal, and lessening the spiritual, powers of their children. And what a heavy penalty will they have to pay in the end! And then they wonder that the children are so morally weak! T18 16.1

Parents have not given their children the right education. They have frequently manifested the same imperfections which are upon the children. They have eaten improperly, which has called the nervous energies of the being to the stomach, therefore they could not have vitality to expend in other directions. They could not properly control their children, because of their own impatience. Neither could they teach them the right way. Perhaps they would take hold of them roughly, and give them an impatient blow. I have said that to shake a child would shake two evil spirits in, while it would shake one out. If a child is wrong, to shake it only makes it worse. It will not subdue it. When the system is not in a right condition, the circulation broken up, and the nervous power has all that it can do to take care of the bad quality of food, or too great quantity even of that which is good, parents have not self-command. They cannot reason from cause to effect. Here is the reason that, in every move they make in their families, they create more trouble than they cure. They do not seem to understand and reason from cause to effect, and they go to work just like blind men. They seem to act as though it would especially glorify God for them to move like wild men, and if anything wrong should occur in their families, to put it down with roughness and violence. Who are our children? They are only our younger brothers and sisters of the family that God acknowledges as his. We are dealing with the members of the Lord's family. And while the care of them is committed to us, how careful should we be that we bring them up for the Lord, so that when the Master comes we can say, “Here, Lord, are we, and the children that thou has given us.” Shall we then be able to say, We have tried to do our work, and we have tried to do it well? T18 17.1

I have seen mothers of large families, who in the family could not see the work that lay right in their pathway, just before them. They wanted to be missionaries, and do some great work. They were looking out for themselves some high position, but neglecting to take care of the very work at home which the Lord had left them to do. How important that the brain be clear! How important that the body be as free as possible from disease, in order that we may do the work which Heaven has left for us to do, and to perform it in such a manner that the Master can say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” My sisters, do not despise the few things which the Lord has left you to do. Let each day's actions be such that you will not be ashamed to meet the record made by the recording angel, in the day of the final settlement of accounts. T18 19.1

But what about an impoverished diet? I have spoken of the importance of the quantity and quality of food being in strict accordance with the laws of health. We would not recommend an impoverished diet. I have been shown that many take a wrong view of the health reform, and live upon an impoverished diet. They subsist upon a cheap, poor quality of food, prepared without care or reference to the nourishing of the system. It is important that the food should be prepared with care, that the appetite, when not perverted, can relish it. The idea should never be given that it is of but little consequence what we eat, because we, from principle, leave meat, butter, mince pies, spices, lard, and that which irritates the stomach and destroys health. There are some who go to extremes. They must eat just such an amount, and just such a quality, and confine themselves to two or three things. They allow only a few things placed before them, or their families, to eat. In eating a small amount of food, and that not of the best quality, they do not take into the stomach that which will suitably nourish the system. And the system cannot convert poor food into good blood. An impoverished diet will impoverish the blood. I will mention the case of Sr. Hartshorn, of Amherst, N. H. That case was presented to me to show an extreme. Two classes were presented before me: First, those who were not living up to the light God had given them. They started in the reform because somebody else did. They did not understand the system for themselves. There are many of you who profess the truth, who have received it because somebody else did, and you could not, for your life, give the reason. This is why you are as weak as water. Instead of your weighing your motives in the light of eternity, instead of your having practical knowledge of the principles underlying all your actions, instead of your having dug down to the bottom, and built upon right foundations for yourself, you are walking in the sparks kindled by somebody else. And you will fail in this, as you have in the health reform. Now if you had moved from principle, you would not have done this. There are two classes. One class cannot be impressed with the necessity of eating and drinking to the glory of God. The indulgence of appetite affects them in all the relations of life. It is seen in their families, in their church, the prayer-meeting, and in the conduct of their children. It has been the curse of their lives. You cannot make them understand the truths of these last days. God has bountifully provided for the sustenance and happiness of all his creatures; and if his laws were never violated, and all acted in harmony with the divine will, health, peace, and happiness, would be experienced, instead of misery and continual evil. T18 19.2

Another class have taken hold of the health reform, who are very severe. They take a position, and will stand stubbornly in that position. They carry nearly everything over the mark. This Sr. Hartshorn was one of these. She was not sympathizing, and loving, and affectionate, like our divine Lord. Justice was nearly all she could see. She carried matters further than Dr. Trall. Her patients had to even leave her, because they could not get enough to eat. Her impoverished diet was giving her impoverished blood. T18 22.1

Flesh-meats will depreciate the blood. Cook meat with spices, and eat it with rich cakes and pies, and you have a bad quality of blood. The system is too heavily taxed in disposing of this kind of food. Mince pies, which should never find a place in any human stomach, and the pickles, which never should have any place there, will give a miserable quality of blood. And then a poor quality of food, cooked in an improper manner, and not sufficient in quantity, cannot make good blood. Flesh-meats, and rich food, and an impoverished diet, will produce the same results. T18 22.2

Now in regard to milk and sugar: I know of persons who have become frightened at the health reform, and said they would have nothing to do with it because it has spoken against a free use of these things. Changes should be made with great care. And we should seek to move cautiously and wisely. We want to take that course which can recommend itself to the intelligent men and women of the land. Large quantities of sugar and milk eaten together are injurious. They impart impurities to the system. Animals from which milk is obtained, are not always healthy. They may be diseased. A cow may be apparently well in the morning, and die before night. Then she was diseased in the morning, and her milk was diseased, but you did not know it. The animal creation is diseased. Flesh-meats are diseased. Could we know that animals were in perfect health, I would recommend people to eat flesh-meats sooner than to eat large quantities of sugar and milk. It would not do you the injury that sugar and milk do. Sugar clogs the system. It hinders the working of the living machine. There was one case in Montcalm County to which I will refer. The individual was a noble man. He stood six feet, and was of noble appearance. I was called to visit him in his sickness. But previous to this, I conversed with him in regard to his manner of living. I do not like the looks of your eyes, said I. He was eating large quantities of sugar. I asked him why he did this? He said that he had left off meat, and did not know what would supply its place as well as sugar. His food did not satisfy him. It was simply because his wife did not know how to cook. Some of you send your daughters, who have nearly grown to the size of women, to school to learn the sciences before they know how to cook. It is of the first importance to teach them to cook. Here was a woman who did not know how to cook. She had not learned to prepare healthful food. The cooking was poor in that house. The wife and mother was deficient in this important branch of education, and as the result, poorly-cooked food not being sufficient to sustain the demands of the system, sugar was eaten immoderately, which brought on a diseased condition of the entire system. This man's life was sacrificed unnecessarily to bad cooking. When I went to see the sick man, I tried to tell them as well as I could how to manage, and soon he began to improve slowly. He imprudently exercised his strength when not able, ate a small amount not of the right quality, and was taken down again, This time there was no help for him. His system appeared to be a living mass of corruption. He died a victim to poor cooking. He tried to make sugar supply the place of good cooking, and it only made matters worse. T18 22.3

I frequently sit down to the tables of the brethren and sisters, and see that they use a great amount of sugar and milk. These clog the system, irritate the digestive organs, and affect the brain. Anything that hinders the active motion of the living machinery, affects the brain very directly. And from the light I have, a large use of sugar is more injurious than meat. These changes should be made cautiously, and the subject should be treated in a manner not calculated to disgust and prejudice those we would teach and help. T18 24.1

In regard to an impoverished diet, our sisters often do not know how to cook. To such I would say, I would go to the very best cook that could be found in the country, and remain there if necessary for weeks, until I had become mistress of the art, an intelligent, skillful cook. I would pursue this course if I was forty years old. It is your duty to know how to cook. It is your duty to teach your daughters to cook. And when you are teaching them the art of cookery, you are building around them a barrier that will preserve them from folly, and from vice, which they may otherwise be tempted to engage in. I prize my seamstress, I value my copyist; but my cook, who knows well how to prepare the food to sustain life, and nourish brain, bone, and muscle, fills the most important place among the helpers in my family. T18 25.1

Mothers, there is nothing that leads to such evils as to lift the burdens from off your daughters, and give them nothing especial to do, and let them choose their own employment, perhaps a little crochet, or some fancy work, to busy themselves. Let them have exercise of the limbs and muscles. If it wearies them, what then? Are you not wearied in your work? Will weariness hurt your children unless overworked more than it hurts you? Weariness will not hurt them. They can recover from their weariness in a good night's rest, and be prepared to engage in labor the next day. It is a sin to let them grow up in idleness. The sin and ruin of Sodom was abundance of bread and idleness. T18 25.2

We want to work from the right standpoint. We want to act like men and women that are to be brought into Judgment. And when we take health reform, take it from a sense of duty, not because somebody else has adopted it. I have not changed my course a particle since I adopted the health reform. I have not taken one step back since the light from Heaven upon this subject first shone upon my pathway. I broke away from everything at once—from meat, butter, from the three meals, while engaged in exhausting brain labor, writing from early morn till sundown. I came down to the two meals a day, without changing my labor. I have had five shocks of paralysis. I have been a sufferer from disease. I have been with this my left arm bound to my side for months, because the pain in my heart was so great. When making these changes in my diet, I refused to yield to taste, and let that govern me. Shall that stand in my way of securing a greater growth of strength, that I may therewith glorify my Lord? Shall that stand in my way for a moment? Never! I suffered keen hunger. I was a great meat-eater. But when faint I placed my arms across my stomach, and said, I will not taste a morsel. I will eat simple food, or I will not eat at all. Bread was distasteful to me. I could seldom eat a piece as large as a dollar. Some things in the reform I could get along with very well. But when I came to the bread, I was especially set against it. When I made these changes I had a special battle to fight. The first two or three meals, I could not eat. I said to my stomach, You may wait until you can eat bread. In a little while I could eat bread, and graham bread too. This I could not eat before. But now it tastes good, and I have had no loss of appetite. T18 26.1

When writing Spiritual Gifts, volumes three and four, I would become, exhausted by excessive labor. I then saw that I must change my course of life, and by resting a few days I came out all right again. I left off these things from principle. I took my stand on health reform from principle. And since that time, brethren, you have not heard me advance an extreme view of health reform that I have had to take back. I have advanced nothing but what I stand to today. I recommend to you healthful, nourishing diet. T18 27.1

I do not regard it a great privation to leave off those things which leave a had smell in the breath, and bad taste in the mouth. Is it self-denial to leave these things, and get into a condition where everything is as sweet as honey? and no bad taste is left in the mouth? and no feeling of goneness in the stomach? These I used to have much of the time. I have fainted away with my child in my arms, time and again. I have none of this now; and shall I call this a privation, when I can stand before you as I do this day? There is not one woman in a hundred that can endure the amount of labor that I do. I moved out from principle, not from impulse. I moved because I believed Heaven would approve of the course I was taking to bring myself into the very best condition of health, that I might glorify God in my body and spirit which are his. T18 28.1

We can have a variety of food, wholesome food, cooked in a healthful manner, so that it can be made palatable to all. And, if you, my sisters, do not know how to cook, I advise you to learn. It is of vital importance to you that you know how to cook. There are more souls lost from poor cooking than you have any idea of. This produces sickness, disease, and bad tempers. The system is deranged, and heavenly things cannot be discerned. More depends upon cooking than you are aware of. There is more religion in a loaf of good bread than many of you think. There is more religion in good cooking than many of you have any idea of. We want you to learn what good religion is, and carry it out in your families. When I have been from home sometimes, the bread, and the food generally, brought upon the table, I knew would hurt me. But I would have to eat a little to sustain life. I have suffered for want of proper food. It is a sin in the sight of Heaven to have such food. For a dyspeptic stomach you may place upon your tables fruits of different kinds, but not too many at one meal. You may have a variety in this way, and it will taste good, and after you have eaten your meals, you will feel well. T18 28.2

I am astonished to learn that, after all the light that has been given in this place, many of you eat between meals! You should never let a morsel pass your lips, between your regular meals. Eat what you ought, but eat it at one meal, and then wait until the next meal. I eat enough to satisfy the wants of nature; but my appetite, when I get up from the table, is just as good as when I sat down. And when the next meal comes, I am ready to take my portion, and no more. Should I eat a double amount now and then, because it tastes good, how could I bow down, and ask God to help me in my work of writing, when I could not get an idea on account of my gluttony? Could I ask God to take care of that unreasonable load upon my stomach? That would be dishonoring him. That would be asking to consume upon my lust. Now I eat just what I think is right, and then I can ask him to give me strength to perform the work that he has given me to do. And I have known that my prayers have been answered. I have known that Heaven has heard my prayer, when I have offered this petition. T18 29.1

Again, when we eat immoderately, we sin against our own bodies. And Sabbath days, in the house of God, sitting under the burning truths of his word, gluttons will sit and sleep. They cannot keep their eyes open. And there they sit, and cannot comprehend nor understand the solemn discourses given. Do you think such are glorifying God in their bodies and spirits, which are his? No; they dishonor him. And the dyspeptic—what has made him dyspeptic, is taking this course. You have let appetite control you, not observing regularity, but eaten between meals. And perhaps your habits are sedentary. You have not had the vitalizing air of Heaven to help in the work of digestion. You have not had exercise that would be beneficial to your health. You feel as though you would like to have somebody tell you how much to eat. This is not the way it should be. We are to act from a moral and religious standpoint. We are to be temperate in all things, because an incorruptible crown is before us, and an heavenly treasure. T18 30.1

And now I would say to my brethren and sisters, I would have that moral courage to take my position, and see that I had moral courage to govern myself. I should not want to put that on somebody else. You sit down and eat too much, and then you are sorry. You have eaten too much, and so you keep thinking upon what you eat and drink. Just eat that which is for the best, and go right away, and feel clear in the sight of Heaven, and not have remorse of conscience. We do not believe in removing temptations entirely away from children, or any human beings. We all have a warfare before us, and must stand in a position to resist the temptations of Satan. We want to know that we possess the power in ourselves that we can do this. T18 31.1

And while we would caution you not to overeat, even of the best quality of food, we would also caution those that are extremists not to raise their false standard, and then endeavor to bring everybody up to it. There are some who are starting out as health reformers who are not good for any other enterprise, and not having sense enough to take care of their own families, or keep their proper place in the church. And what do they do? Why they fall back as physicians in the health reform, as though they could make that a success, and take the lives of human beings into their own hands. They assume the responsibilities of their practice, taking the lives of men and women into their hands, when they really do not know anything about the business. T18 31.2

My voice shall be raised against novices engaged in practicing the health reform, and undertaking to treat disease. God forbid that we should be the subjects for them to experiment upon! We are too few. It is altogether too inglorious a warfare for us to die in. We cannot afford to let them kill us in this way. Let those try to treat disease who know something about the human system. God deliver us from such dangers! We do not need such teachers and physicians. The heavenly Physician was full of compassion. This spirit is needed with those who deal with the sick. Some who undertake to become physicians, are bigoted, selfish, and mulish. You cannot teach them anything. It may be they have never done anything worth doing. They may not have made life a success. They know nothing really worth knowing, and yet they have started up to practice the health reform. We cannot afford to let such persons kill off this one and the other. No; we cannot afford it! T18 32.1

We want to be just right every time. We want to bring our people up to the right position on the health reform. “Let us,” says the apostle, “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” We must be right, to stand in the last days. We need clear brains, sound minds in sound bodies. We should begin to work in earnest for our children, for every member of our families. Shall we take hold of the work, and work from the right standpoint? Jesus is coming; and if you pursue a course to blind yourselves to the soul-elevating truths of these last days, how can you be sanctified through the truth? How can you be prepared for immortality? May the Lord help us, that we may commence to work here as never before. T18 32.2

We have spoken of having a series of meetings here. We have spoken of taking hold here for the people. But we dare not put our arms under to lift you. We want you to commence this work of reformation in your own houses. We want those that have been on the background to come right up. We want you to begin to work. And when we see that you have hold of the labor for yourselves, we will come in and lift. We hope to reform your children, that they may be converted to Christ, and that the spirit of reformation may spread all through your midst. But when you appear twice dead, and ready to be plucked up by the roots, we dare not undertake the work. We would rather go to an unbelieving congregation where there are hearts to receive the truth. The burden of the truth is upon us. There are enough to hear the truth; and we long to be where we can speak it to them. Will you help us by going to work for yourselves? T18 33.1

May the Lord help you to feel as you have never felt before. May the Lord help you to die to self, and get the spirit of reformation in your houses, that the angels of God may come into your midst to minister unto you, and that you may be fitted up for translation to Heaven. T18 34.1

* * * * *