_THE WORD OF WISDOM_
_Moderation_--By temperance and moderation lay the foundation for
the development of the mind. 19:68.
Indulgence of appetite is not worthy the notice of men and women,
though the body must be sustained, for that is a duty God has placed
upon us. 8:141.
Satisfying the appetite brings to an end the pleasure of eating; and
where food is partaken of chiefly to gratify the pleasureable sensation
derived from eating, disease is engendered, and true misery springs
out of this unwise gratification. Some healthy, strong-constitutioned
persons can eat large quantities of food with apparent impunity; but,
in so doing, the tax they place upon their systems will ultimately
bring disease and death. 8:139.
As I said to the brethren the other day in the Thirteenth Ward
schoolhouse, with regard to worldly pleasure, comfort, and enjoyment:
you may take as much as you please of the Spirit of the Lord, and it
will not make your stomach or head ache. You may drink nine cups of
strong spiritual drink, and it will not hurt you; but if you drink nine
cups of strong tea, see what it will do for you. Let a person that is
very thirsty and warm satiate his appetite with cold water, and when
he gets through he will perhaps have laid the foundation for death,
and may go to an untimely grave, which is frequently done. Excessive
eating, drinking, or exercise all tend to the grave. 11:329.
The blessings of food, sleep, and social enjoyment are ordained of God
for his glory and our benefit, and it is for us to learn to use them
and not abuse them, that his Kingdom {283} may advance on the earth,
and we advance in it. 6:149.
_The Word of Wisdom_--This Word of Wisdom prohibits the use of hot
drinks and tobacco. I have heard it argued that tea and coffee are not
mentioned therein; that is very true; but what were the people in the
habit of taking as hot drinks when that revelation was given? Tea and
coffee. We were not in the habit of drinking water very hot, but tea
and coffee--the beverages in common use. And the Lord said hot drinks
are not good for the body nor the belly, liquor is not good for the
body or the belly, but for the washing of the body, etc. Tobacco is not
good, save for sick cattle, and for bruises and sores, its cleansing
properties being then very useful. 13:277.
I know that some say the revelations upon these points are not given by
way of commandment. Very well, but we are commanded to observe every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God. 13:3.
Now I want you should recollect--Bishops, Elders of Israel, High
Priests, Seventies, the Twelve Apostles, the First Presidency, and all
the House of Israel, hearken ye. O my people! keep the word of the
Lord, observe the Word of Wisdom, sustain one another, sustain the
household of faith, and let our enemies alone. 12:29.
Now, Elders of Israel, if you have the right to chew tobacco, you have
a privilege I have not; if you have a right to drink whisky, you have
a right that I have not; if you have a right to transgress the Word of
Wisdom, you have a right that I have not. 12:30.
I said to the Saints at our last annual Conference, the Spirit whispers
to me to call upon the Latter-day Saints to observe the Word of Wisdom,
to let tea, coffee, and tobacco alone, and to abstain from drinking
spirituous drinks. {284} This is what the Spirit signifies through me.
If the Spirit of God whispers this to his people through their leader,
and they will not listen nor obey, what will be the consequences of
their disobedience? Darkness and blindness of mind with regard to the
things of God will be their lot; they will cease to have the spirit of
prayer, and the spirit of the world will increase in them in proportion
to their disobedience until they apostatize entirely from God and his
ways. 12:118.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command the Elders of
Israel--those who have been in the habit of getting drunk--to cease
drinking strong drink from this time henceforth. But some may think
they need it as soon as they go out of this house. Let me be your
physician in this matter. So long as you are able to walk and attend
to your business, it is folly to say that you need ardent spirits to
keep you alive. The constitution that a person has should be nourished
and cherished; and whenever we take anything into the system to force
and stimulate it beyond its natural capacity, it shortens life. I am
physician enough to know that. When you are tired and think you need a
little spirituous liquor, take some bread and butter or bread and milk,
and lie down and rest. Do not labor so hard as to deem it requisite to
get half drunk in order to keep up your spirits. If you will follow
this counsel, you will be full of life and health, and you will
increase your intelligence, your joy, and comfort. 7:337.
I now again request the authorities of this Church in their various
localities to sever from this society those who will not cease getting
drunk. 7:338.
It is my positive counsel and command that drinking liquor be stopped.
If I had the influence the world gives me {285} credit for, I would
not have a single drunkard, thief, or liar in this society. I do not
profess to have that influence, but I can raise my voice against those
evils. 1:337.
This Word of Wisdom which has been supposed to have become stale, and
not in force, is like all the counsels of God, in force as much today
as it ever was. There is life, everlasting life in it--the life which
now is and the life which is to come. 12:209.
It is a piece of good counsel which the Lord desires his people to
observe, that they may live on the earth until the measure of their
creation is full. This is the object the Lord had in view in giving
that Word of Wisdom. To those who observe it he will give great wisdom
and understanding, increasing their health, giving strength and
endurance to the faculties of their bodies and minds until they shall
be full of years upon the earth. This will be their blessing if they
will observe his word with a good and willing heart and in faithfulness
before the Lord. 12:156.
Mankind would not become attached to these unnecessary articles were it
not for the poison they contain. The poisonous or narcotic properties
in spirits, tobacco and tea are the cause of their being so much liked
by those who use them. 13:276.
I say to all the Elders of Israel, if it makes you sick and so sleepy
that you cannot keep out of bed unless you have tobacco, go to bed and
there lie. How long? Until you can get up and go to your business like
rational men, like men who have heads on their shoulders and who are
not controlled by their foolish appetites. I have said to my family,
and I now say to all the sisters in the Church, if you cannot get up
and do your washing without a cup of tea in the morning, go to bed, and
there lie. How long? {286} Until the influence of tea is out of the
system. Will it take a month? No matter if it does; if it takes three
months, six months, or a year, it is better to lie there in bed until
the influence of tea, coffee and liquor is out of the system, so that
you may go about your business like rational persons, than to give way
to these foolish habits. They are destructive to the human system;
they filch money from our pockets, and they deprive the poor of the
necessaries of life. 13:278.
The sisters may inquire, "What can we do?" Rule your own passions, and
exercise faith until you can govern and control your appetites, instead
of drinking tea, coffee, and hot drinks. That is one of the smallest
duties I can think of. Permit your bodies to have natural forms; also
take pains to have the bodies of your daughters grow naturally, and
teach them what they are made for, and that they, through faith, must
overcome every besetting sin and every unholy passion and appetite.
8:283.
And now that we have commenced to observe the Word of Wisdom, never
treat resolution with a cup of tea or coffee, for as sure as you treat
resolution once, it will plead hard for a treat again. Keep the Word of
Wisdom--help the poor, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. Never let
it be said of the Territory of Utah that a poor person had to go to the
second house for a morsel to eat. 12:54-55.
Many of our sisters think they cannot live without tea. I will tell
you what we can do--I have frequently said it to my brethren and
sisters--if they cannot live without tea, coffee, brandy, whiskey,
wine, beer, tobacco, etc., they can die without them. This is beyond
controversy. If we had the determination that we should have, we would
live without them or die without them. Let the mother {287} impregnate
her system with these narcotic influences when she is bringing forth a
family on the earth, and what does she do? She lays the foundation of
weakness, palpitation of the heart, nervous affections, and many other
ills and diseases in the system of her offspring that will afflict them
from the cradle to the grave. Is this righteous or unrighteous, good or
evil? Let my sisters ask and answer the question for themselves, and
the conclusion which each and every one of them may come to is this,
"If I do an injury to my child, I sin." 13:276.
Last week I received a note in which was enclosed three dollars from a
sister; I cannot tell her name, for she did not give it. She said she
had not drunk any tea since Conference, and she had saved about three
dollars, which she enclosed for me to do good with. I felt "God bless
her," and she will be blessed as sure as she lives. 12:52.
If you observe faithfully the Word of Wisdom, you will have your
dollar, your five dollars, your hundred dollars, yea, you will have
your hundreds of dollars to spend for that which will be useful and
profitable to you. Why should we continue to practice in our lives
those pernicious habits that have already sapped the foundation of the
human constitution, and shortened the life of man to that degree that
a generation passes away in the brief period of from twenty-seven to
twenty-nine years? The strength, power, beauty and glory that once
adorned that form and constitution of man have vanished away before the
blighting influences of inordinate appetite and love of this world.
The health and power and beauty that once adorned the noble form of
man must again be restored to our race; and God designs that we shall
engage in this great work of restoration. Then let us not trifle with
our mission, by indulging in the use {288} of injurious substances.
These lay the foundation of disease and death in the systems of men,
and the same are committed to their children, and another generation of
feeble human beings is introduced into the world. Such children have
insufficient bone, sinew, muscle, and constitution, and are of little
use to themselves, or to their fellow creatures; they are not prepared
for life. 12:118.
A man who indulges in any habit that is pernicious to the general good
in its example and influence, is not only an enemy to himself but to
the community so far as the influence of that habit goes. A man who
would not sacrifice a pernicious habit for the good it would do the
community is, to say the least of it, lukewarm in his desires and
wishes for public and general improvement.
So we see that almost the very first teachings the first Elders of this
Church received were as to what to eat, what to drink, and how to order
their natural lives that they might be united temporally as well as
spiritually. This is the great purpose which God has in view in sending
to the world, by his servants, the Gospel of life and salvation. 12:158.
There is more strength and nutriment in a bowl of water gruel than
there is in tea; and there is no unhealthy influence in the water
gruel, but there is in tea and coffee. 11:350.
_Live Long._ Take care of yourselves, and live as long as you can,
and do all the good you can. 4:302.
The first principle that pertains to the intelligence God has bestowed
upon us is to know how to preserve the present organization with which
we are endowed. It is man's first duty to his existence, a knowledge of
which would cause him to use all prudent efforts for the preservation
{289} of his life on the earth until his work here is completed. 8:281.
Prepare to die, is not the exhortation in this Church and Kingdom;
but prepare to live is the word with us, and improve all we can in
the life hereafter, wherein we may enjoy a more exalted condition of
intelligence, wisdom, light, knowledge, power, glory, and exaltation.
Then let us seek to extend the present life to the uttermost, by
observing every law of health, and by properly balancing labor, study,
rest, and recreation, and thus prepare for a better life. Let us teach
these principles to our children, that, in the morning of their days,
they may be taught to lay the foundation of health and strength and
constitution and power of life in their bodies. 11:132.
This is the duty of the human family, instead of wasting their lives
and the lives of their fellow-beings, and the precious time God has
given us to improve our minds and bodies by observing the laws of life,
so that the longevity of the human family may begin to return. By and
by, according to the Scriptures, the days of a man shall be like the
days of a tree. But in those days people will not eat and drink as they
do now; if they do their days will not be like a tree, unless it be a
very short-lived tree. This is our business. 14:89.
We are trying to become natural in our habits, and are striving to
fulfil the end and design of our creation. 13:233.
The fathers and mothers have laid the foundation for many of these
diseases, from generation to generation, until the people are reduced
to their present condition. True, some live to from fifty to ninety
years of age, but it is an unusual circumstance to see a man an hundred
years old, or a woman ninety. The people have laid the foundation of
{290} short life through their diet, their rest, their labor, and
their doing this, that, and the other in a wrong manner, with improper
motives, and at improper times. 2:269.
You, mothers and daughters in Israel, who are taking this course, how
do you expect to live to accomplish the work the Lord has assigned
you? You get up in the morning and have your cup of tea, your fried
ham, your cold beef and mince pies, and everything you can possibly
cram into the stomach, until you surfeit the system and lay the
foundation for disease and early death. Says the mother--"Do eat, my
little daughter, you are sick; take a piece of pie, toast, or meat,
or drink a little tea or coffee; you must take something or other."
Mothers in Israel, such a course engenders disease, and you are laying
a foundation that will cut off one-half or two-thirds of the lives of
your children. 12:37.
_Eating for Health_--Instead of doing two days' work in one day,
wisdom would dictate to our sisters, and to every other person, that
if they desire long life and good health, they must, after sufficient
exertion, allow the body to rest before it is entirely exhausted.
When exhausted, some argue that they need stimulants in the shape of
tea, coffee, spirituous liquors, tobacco, or some of those narcotic
substances which are often taken to goad on the lagging powers to
greater exertions. But instead of these kind of stimulants they should
recruit by rest. Work less, wear less, eat less, and we shall be a
great deal wiser, healthier, and wealthier people than by taking the
course we now do. It is difficult to find anything more healthy to
drink than good cold water, such as flows down to us from springs and
snows of our mountains. This is the beverage we should drink. It should
be our drink at all times. If we {291} constantly drink even malt
liquor made from our barley and wheat, our health would be injured more
or less thereby. It may be remarked that some men who use spirituous
liquors and tobacco are healthy, but I argue that they would be much
more healthy if they did not use it, and then they are entitled to
the blessings promised to those who observe the advice given in the
"Word of Wisdom." Some few persons who have been addicted to the use
of hot drinks, etc. have reached the age of eighty, eighty-three, and
eighty-four years, but had they not been addicted to such habits of
living they might have reached the age of an hundred or an hundred and
five years. 12:122.
I do not mean to go without food and go to fasting. This is the other
extreme. A sufficient amount of food that will agree with the-stomach
is healthy, and should be partaken of. Aged or middle aged, youth or
children, never should go without food until their stomachs are faint,
demanding something to sustain their systems, and continue to undergo
this; for this lays the foundation of weakness, and this weakness will
tempt disease. But keep the stomach in a perfectly healthy condition.
Now I do not mean fasting, but eating moderately; and if my sisters
will go home and commence to adopt this rule, you will find that you
begin to get better, your children and neighbors will get better. We
do not expect all to be free from sickness. I have had a great deal
of sickness in my life. I do not expect to be free from the ills, the
weakness, debility and disease that prey upon the human family, but we
can amend our ways, and amend our life by being prudent; and I wish the
sisters to understand this, and to adopt these instructions. 19:68.
The citizens of this city are tolerably comfortable; a {292} great
many of them have an abundance of fruit, and they enjoy it. It is very
healthy for them and their children to eat in the season thereof.
11:141.
As we got richer and built warm houses, and have lived more richly,
indulging in sweet cake, plum pudding, roast beef and so on, we have
had more or less disease among us. 13:132.
Go into their houses and you will find beef, pork, apple pie, custard
pie, pumpkin pie, mince pie, and every luxury, and they live so as
to shorten their days and the days of their children. You may think
that these things are not of much importance; no more they are, unless
they are observed, but let the people observe them and they lay the
foundation for longevity, and they will begin to live out their days,
not only a hundred years, but, by and by, hundreds of years on the
earth. Do you think they will stuff themselves then with tea and
coffee, and perhaps with a little brandy sling before breakfast and a
little before going to bed, and then beef, pork, mutton, sweet meats,
and pastry, morning, noon and night? No; you will find they will live
as our first parents did, on fruits and on a little simple food, and
they will never overload the stomach. 12:37.
Suppose I happen to say, "Come, wife, let us have a good dinner today";
what does she get? Pork and beef boiled, stewed, roasted, and fried
potatoes, onions, cabbage, and turnips, custard, eggs, pies of all
kinds, cheese and sweet meats. 2:269.
A thorough reformation is needed in regard to our eating and drinking,
and on this point I will freely express myself, and shall be glad if
the people will hear, believe and obey. If the people were willing to
receive the true knowledge from heaven in regard to their diet they
would cease {293} eating swine's flesh. I know this as well as Moses
knew it, and without putting it in a code of commandments. The beef fed
upon our mountain grasses is as healthy food as we need at present.
Beef, so fattened, is as good as wild meat, and is quite different in
its nature from stall-fed meat. But we can eat fish; and I ask the
people of this community, Who hinders you from raising fowls for their
eggs? Who hinders you from cultivating fruit of every variety that
will flourish in the different parts of this Territory? There has not
been a day through the whole winter that I have not had fresh peaches,
and plenty of apples and strawberries. Who hinders any person in this
community from having these different kinds of food in their families?
Fish is as healthy a food as we can eat, if we except vegetables and
fruit, and with them will become a very wholesome diet. 12:192.
When we go on a trip to the settlements and stop at the brethren's
houses, it is, "Brother Brigham, let us manifest our feelings towards
you and your company." I tell them to do so, but give me a piece of
Johnny-cake; I would rather have it than their pies and tarts and sweet
meats. Let me have something that will sustain nature and leave my
stomach and whole system clear to receive the Spirit of the Lord and be
free from headache and pains of every kind.
The Americans, as a nation, are killing themselves with their vices
and high living. As much as a man ought to eat in half an hour they
swallow in three minutes, gulping down their food like the canine
quadruped under the table, which, when a chunk of meat is thrown down
to it, swallows it before you can say "twice." If you want a reform,
carry out the advice I have just given you. Dispense {294} with your
multitudinous dishes, and, depend upon it, you will do much towards
preserving your families from sickness, disease and death.
If this method were adopted in this community, I will venture to say
that it would add ten years to the lives of our children. That is worth
a great deal. 13:153-154.
If the days of man are to begin to return, we must cease all
extravagant living. When men live to the age of a tree, their food will
be fruit. Mothers, to produce offspring full of life and days, must
cease drinking liquor, tea, and coffee, that their systems may be free
from bad effects. If every woman in this Church will now cease drinking
tea, coffee, liquor, and all other powerful stimulants, and live upon
vegetables, etc. not many generations will pass away before the days
of man will again return. But it will take generations to eradicate
entirely the influences of deleterious substances. 8:63.
_Living out-of-Doors_--People need not be afraid of living out of
doors, nor sleeping out of doors. This country is much healthier than
the lowlands in the States, or than many places in the Old World. 4:92.
Good pure air is the greatest sustainer of animal life. Other elements
of life we can dispense with for a time, but this seems to be essential
every moment; hence the necessity of well ventilated dwelling-houses,
especially the rooms occupied for sleeping. You can live without
water and food longer than you can without air, and water is of more
importance than meat and bread. 8:168.
The out-door air is what the people need for health, it is good for
them to camp out. Close houses are injurious to the health; if our
houses were every one of them levelled to the ground, and we were
obliged to live in our wagons {295} and tents, the people would be
healthier, from year to year, than they are now. Good houses are
comfortable and very convenient, and please our feelings, and are
tolerably healthful when properly ventilated. 2:284.
What gives the people colds and makes them sick? You hear many say
"I had not had a cold this fall, until I came into our new house."
Brethren and sisters that have come into the city from living in the
canyons, and those who have arrived from the States this season, have
not been troubled with colds until they came into warm houses; that
gives them colds, by depriving their lungs of the benefit they are
organized to receive from the atmosphere. 4:91.
We should have plenty of pure, fresh air. If children are kept in close
bed-rooms, they become puny and weakly. Let them sleep where they can
have abundance of pure air, in well ventilated rooms, or out of doors,
in the summer time, in a safe place; it will be most beneficial for
their health. 12:218.
_Exercise and Mental Vigor_--Do you know that it is your privilege
so to live that your minds may all the time be perfectly within your
control? Study to preserve your bodies in life and health, and you will
be able to control your minds. 8:135.
My mind becomes tired, and perhaps some of yours do. If so, go and
exercise your bodies. 6:148.
In the eastern country there was a man who used to go crazy, at times,
and then come to his senses again. One of his neighbors asked him
what made him go crazy; he replied, "I get to thinking, and thinking,
until finally I think so far that I am not always able to think back
again." Can you think too much for the spirit which is put in the
tabernacle? {296} You can, and this is a subject which I wish the
brethren instructed upon, and the people to understand. The spirit
is the intelligent part of man, and is intimately connected with the
tabernacle. Let this intelligent part labor to excess, and it will
eventually overcome the tabernacle, the equilibrium will be destroyed,
and the whole organization deranged. Many people have deranged
themselves by thinking too much.
The thinking part is the immortal or invisible portion, and it is that
which performs the mental labor; then the tabernacle, which is formed
and organized for that express purpose, brings about or effects the
result of that mental labor. Let the body work with the mind, and let
them both labor fairly together, and, with but few exceptions, you will
have a strong-minded, athletic individual, powerful both physically and
mentally.
When you find the thinking faculty perfectly active, in a healthy
person, it should put the physical organization into active operation,
and the result of the reflection is carried out, and the object is
accomplished. In such a person you will see mental and physical health
and strength combined, in their perfection. 3:247.
As for health, it is far healthier to walk than to ride, and better
every way for the people. 4:103.
Many persons are so constituted, that if you put them in a parlor, keep
a good fire for them, furnish them tea, cake, sweet meats, etc., and
nurse them tenderly, soaking their feet, and putting them to bed, they
will die in a short time; but throw them into snow banks, and they will
live a great many years. Brother Heywood would have been in his grave
long ago, if he had not led an out-door life, and {297} such is the
case with others; but he is again here, and we have the privilege of
seeing him. 4:295.
_Physiological Differences_--The study and practice of anatomy and
surgery are very good; they are mechanical, and are frequently needed.
Do you not think it is necessary to give medicine sometimes? Yes, I can
see the faces of this congregation, but I do not see two alike; and if
I could look into your nervous systems and behold the operations of
disease, from the crowns of your heads to the soles of your feet, I
should behold the same difference that I see in your physiognomy--there
would be no two precisely alike. Doctors make experiments, and if they
find a medicine that will have the desired effect on one person, they
set it down that it is good for everybody, but it is not so, for upon
the second person that medicine is administered to, seemingly with the
same disease, it might produce death. If you do not know this, you
have not had the experience that I have. I say that unless a man or
woman who administers medicine to assist the human system to overcome
disease, understands, and has that intuitive knowledge, by the Spirit,
that such an article is good for that individual at that very time,
they had better let him alone. Let the sick do without eating, take a
little of something to cleanse the stomach, bowels and blood, and wait
patiently, and let nature have time to gain the advantage over the
disease. 15:225.
_Feeding Children_--Now, mothers, if you want to do good, do not
let your sons and daughters drink either tea or coffee, while under
your protection. 11:352.
Some mothers, when bearing children, long for tea and coffee, or for
brandy and other strong drinks, and if they give way to that influence
the next time they will want {298} more, and the next still more, and
thus lay the foundation for drunkenness in their offspring. An appetite
is engendered, bred, and born in the child, and it is a miracle if it
does not grow up a confirmed drunkard. 2:270.
Infants, children, youth, young men, and young women, thousands and
tens of thousands of them, go to an untimely grave through the diseases
engendered in their systems by their progenitors. 13:276.
Sisters, will you take notice, and instruct those who are not here
today, to adopt this rule--stop your children from eating meat, and
especially fat meat; let them have composition to drink, instead of
unhealthy water; let them eat a little milk porridge; let them eat
sparingly and not oppress the stomach so as to create a fever. No
matter whether it is a child or a middle-aged person, whenever the
stomach is over-loaded and charged with more than is required it
creates a fever; this fever creates sickness, until death relieves the
sufferer. 19:68.
Many husbands are made sick and many children are sent to an untimely
grave through eating badly prepared food, the result of ignorance or
carelessness. 10:28.
Children should have milk, bread, water, and potatoes; and everything
that would lay the foundation for disease should be strenuously kept
from their stomachs, that no appetites may be formed for pernicious
substances, which, when formed, cannot be overcome easily, if at all.
2:21.
I will tell you how you can enjoy health. You let your children have
a little milk in the morning. Give them a little bread with it--not
soft bread; teach your children to eat crust--hard baked bread, that
the Americans would call stale, but the English would not. Teach them
to eat this, {299} and to eat sparingly. Instead of drinking unhealthy
water, boil such water, and let it stand until it is cool. If the
children are in the least troubled with summer complaint, and are weak
in their bowels, make a weak composition tea, sweeten it with loaf
sugar and put a little nice cream in it; and let the children make a
practice of drinking composition instead of cold water. Mothers, keep
the children from eating meat; and let them eat vegetables that are
fully matured, not unripe, and bread that is well baked, not soft.
Do not put your loaf into the oven with a fire hot enough to burn it
before it is baked through, but with a slow heat, and let it remain
until it is perfectly baked; and I would prefer, for my own eating,
each and every loaf to be not thicker than my two hands--you tell how
thick they are--and I would want the crust as thick as my hand. 19:67.
Be careful of your bodies; be prudent in laying out your energies,
for when you are old you will need the strength and power you are now
wasting. Preserve your lives. Until you know and practice this, you are
not thoroughly good soldiers nor wise stewards. 8:136-137. {300}