David Starr Jordan's Writings Confirming Value of the Word of Wisdom

David Starr Jordan's writings confirming value of the Word of Wisdom— Card playing denounced. ¶

I might incidentally remark that our clocks are both five minutes too fast. I thought I would give you this information to save your time and prevent you looking at them so often, as it is my intention to speak until four by our clocks, which will leave five minutes for prayer and singing. ¶

Some of the remarks made today have called to my mind a subject upon which I had no intention of speaking. I hold in my hand a little book written by David Starr Jordan, "The Strength of Being Clean." The retail price, I believe, is thirtyfive cents, but if you purchase the book, one hundred copies at a time you can get it for twenty-five cents. I have given away at least a couple of hundred copies. ¶

There are many people who, if the servants of the Lord preach to them year after year, what is said has no particular effect upon them. But these same people, if they receive advice of some man of worldly wisdom, immediately follow it. I remember going to Sanpete county and preaching a sermon upon the Word of Wisdom. Subsequently I learned that a good sister who heard my sermon was taken sick and wired for a doctor to come from Salt Lake City, by special engine, and it cost ¶

her several hundred dollars to learn from this doctor that she was drinking too much tea, and unless she quit, would be sure to die. She accepted his advice and got well. Had she listened to my advice which would have cost her nothing, she would have saved several hundred dollars, to say nothing about being in perfect harmony with the teachings of the Lord, as revealed in the Word of Wisdom. We sing more than we do any other hymn, ''We thank thee, O God, for a Prophet, to guide us in these latter days." I recommend that some of the Saints add, "provided he doesn't guide usto keep the word of wisdom." ¶

I have been much pleased with the book, "The Strength of Being Clean." I understand that President Joseph F. Smith says it is one of the strongest ever written by a nonmember of the Church in vindication of the Word of Wisdom. Mr. Jordan was for years the President of the Leland-Stanford, Jr., University of California. The Latter-day Saints should be grateful to this great educator, one of the greatest in our country, for writing a book which confirms the teachings of Joseph Smith, the Prophet; an "ignoramus" in the estimation of many people. ¶

Mr. Jordan says : ¶

"It is vulgar to like poor music, to read weak books, to feed on sensational newspapers, to trust to patent medicines, to find amusement in trashy novels, to enjoy vulgar theaters, tofind pleasure in cheap jokes, to tolerate coarseness and looseness in any of its myriad forms.* * * ¶

It is the hope of civilization that our republic may outgrow the toleration of vulgarity, but that is still a long way in the future.* * * ¶

"A form of vulgarity is profanity. This is the sign of a dull, coarse, unrefined nature. * * * "Alcohol gives a feeling of warmth or vigor or exhilaration, when the real warmth or vigor or exhilaration does not exist. Tobacco gives a feeling of rest which is not restfulness. The use of opium seems to intensify the imagination, giving its clumsy wings a wonderous power of flight. It destroys the sense of time and space, but it is in time and space alone that man has his being. Cocaine gives a strength which is not strength. Strychnine quickens the motor response which follows sensation. Coffee and tea, like alcohol, enable one to borrow from his future store of force for present purposes, and none of these make any provision for paying back the loan. ¶

''People who borrow and do not pay back, are classed among the dishonest. The Lord has loaned us our bodies, and it is our duty to return them to Him when the battle of life is ended, without their having been polluted by our breaking His commandments. ¶

"One and all these various drugs tend to give the impression of a power or a pleasure, or an activity, which we do not possess. One and all their function is to force the nervous system to lie. One and all the result of their habitual use is to render the nervous system incapable of ever telling the truth. One and all their supposed pleasures are followed by a reaction of subiective pains as spurious and as unreal as the pleasures which thev follow. Each or them, if used to excess, brings in time insanity, incapacity, and death. With each of them, the first use makes the second easier. To yield to temptation makes it easier to yield again. The weakening effect on the will is greater than the iniury to the body. In fact, the harm alcoholic and similar excesses do to the body is wholly secondary. It is the visible reflex of the harm alreadv done to the nervous system." ¶

I heard that a non-"Mormon" banker in Salt Lake said he would be willing to employ a gentile boy who' drank or smoked, but he would not think of employing a "Mormon" boy who did these things, because he had been taught better all his life and would, therefore, be violating ¶

the teachings of his parents, and his Church, as well as his own conscience. A young man who did this, he did not wish in his bank. "Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." If we could implaint this teaching in the hearts of our children it would be a magnificent lesson. ¶

We, as a people have been told not to play cards. Ever since I can remember, the Presidency of the Church and others have been writing and talking against card playing. Many fathers and mothers say, "Oh, there is no harm in cards," and they let their children play. Recently a daughter of mine, and her cousin went to a social gathering at a Latter-day Saint home, and they' were the only ones who did not play cards. Upon another occasion, this same daughter was again in a Latter-day Saint home, and in the room where she was, when refreshments were served, she was the only one who did not drink tea or coffee. Again I say, "Obedience is better than sacrifice." It is a serious thing for parents to set examples before their children contrary to the commandments of the Lord and instructions of His servants, no matter how insignificant they may think these commandments are. While card playing may be considered harmless, yet it is a very serious matter to the young man or young woman who indulges this habit in disobedience to the instructions of parents or the servants of the Lord. It is well for parents to teach their children obedience,, both by precept and example. ¶

Quoting again from Mr. Jordan : ¶

"It is not for you to seek pleasure and strength in drugs, whose only function is to deceive you, whose gifts of life are not so real as your own face in the glass. ¶

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"A man ought to be stronger than anything that can happen to him. He is the strong man who can say no. He is the wise man who, for all his life, can keep mind and soul and body clean. ¶

" 'I know of no more encouraging fact,' — says Thoreau, 'than the ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. It is something to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so make a few objects beautiful. It is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look. This morally we can do.' " ¶

"So far as the drink of the drunkards is concerned, prohibition does not prohibit. But to clean up a town, to free from corrosion, saves men, and boys and girls, too, from vice, and who shall say that moral sanitation is not as much the duty of the community as physical sanitation? ¶

"The city of the future will not permit the existence of slums and dives and tippling-houses. It will prohibit their existence for the same reason that it now prohibits pig-pens and dung-heaps and cesspools. For where all these things are, slums and cesspools, saloons and pig-pens, there the people grow weak and die." ¶

Lo and behold! I have got through, and it is not yet four o'clock. The Lord bless you. Amen. ¶