Importance of the Body

I rejoice, my brethren and sisters, in my membership in this great Church, the Church of Christ. I shall never have the power to express fully my gratitude to the good men who left the valleys of the mountains and came into far distant Scandinavia and brought the gospel to my mother, to me and to mine. The gift of that visit is beyond earthly expression. While Brother Peterson was speaking to us this afternoon, having returned from one of the Scandinavian countries, my heart was filled with gratitude, and with the prayer that the time may never come when we shall lack the courage to go forth among the nations of the earth to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thousands of men and women in the Scandinavian countries are ready and ripened for the greater truth, and I pray, in behalf of the people whose blood runs in my veins, that ways and means may be found continually to do missionary work in those countries until the truly honest in heart may be brought to a testimony of the truth of the gospel. ¶

IMPORTANCE OF THE BODY ¶

I have rejoiced also in the proceedings of this great conference. I was deeply impressed yesterday by the voice of authority with which President Grant spoke to us about a number of important topics. I was happy to hear him mention to the Latter-day Saints the tremendous importance of caring properly for the human body. Man is an eternal spirit inhabiting a body of this earth, a perishable body, which some day we believe will be made imperishable. By means of that body, given by our Father in heaven, we are able to accomplish the great mission known as earth life. Through the body the spirit speaks, and through the body the experiences of earth are made the possession of the spirit. It is well that we give due care and consideration to the welfare of the body, which is the one great characteristic of this epoch in our eternal journey. ¶

A STRONG BODY PERMITS SPIRITUAL STRENGTH ¶

There have been times in the history of the world when the doctrine has been taught that spiritual strength may best be known if the body is weak; and that the weaker the body the stronger may be the spiritual experiences of life. Latter-day Saints have no such belief. We believe that in a strong, healthy body the spirit may do more effectively and efficiently the work which it is called upon to do here upon earth. It is a duty of Latter-day Saints to live well. We all agree to that. But it is important to Latter-day Saints also to live long upon the earth, just as long as the Lord may permit us to live. We take no pride in disease. We take pride only in those things which build us and make us strong both in body and in spirit. ¶

TWO LAWS OF HEALTH ¶

As I have learned to understand the laws that govern our body, it seems that one fundamental law in preserving human bodies is the law of moderation. All things must be done in wisdom. No unnecessary strain must be put upon the body, nor must indolence seize upon us. A second great law for the preservation of bodily health, including the needs of both mind and body, is that all the faculties of man must be given due and proportionate exercise. The mind must be used and the body must be used, neither to excess nor to the exclusion of the other; otherwise, we shall not attain to that fulness of perfection of life on earth which we believe is the right of all Latter-day Saints. ¶

THE WORD OF WISDOM A BINDING LAW ¶

The Lord, as was called to our attention yesterday by President Grant, has given us a series of principles, laws if you choose, specific in their nature, which may be used safely by the Latter-day Saints for the preservation of physical and mental health. I refer to the Word of Wisdom, a great and a marvelous document, given us for our good, itself a witness that in the economy of the Lord the care of the body is very important, not to be neglected or forgotten. I know that many people believe that the Word of Wisdom is not a binding law upon us. To that view, I can only answer that yesterday I heard the prophet of God -- I believe and know him to be a prophet of God -- say to the Latter-day Saints that it was their duty to obey the Word of Wisdom. That ought to be sufficient for all Latter-day Saints. But, we find that from the very beginning, the Word of Wisdom has been held to be a binding law upon the Latter-day Saints. The Patriarch Hyrum Smith, brother of the Prophet, in a sermon which has been preserved and reproduced a number of times, warned the people of that day, about 1843, against following any elder of the Church who declared that the Word of Wisdom was not binding upon the Latter-day Saints. Brigham Young, the great successor of the Prophet Joseph Smith, upon many occasions urged the Latter-day Saints to obey the Word of Wisdom; and at least on one occasion said definitely that the Spirit had directed him to tell the Latter-day Saints to obey the Word of Wisdom. If I read the revelation on the Word of Wisdom correctly, I find that it says that the Word of Wisdom shows "forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation" of his people. Whatever is the will of God appears to me to be equivalent to a commandment. ¶

THE WARNINGS OF THE WORD OF WISDOM ¶

The Word of Wisdom contains certain very important warnings. It declares that alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee are not good for the body. The revelation says "hot drinks," but before the revelation was a year old, "hot drinks" were defined to include tea and coffee. Those who read the revelation intelligently understand that it has reference to all drugs or substances that act upon the human body to produce a constant desire for them. All habit-forming substances are included. Perhaps right here is one reason why we quibble about the meaning of the Word of Wisdom. When a taste is begotten, a habit is established, or when our appetites are concerned, almost every one of us is inclined to quibble just a little so that we may satisfy that appetite. The fact that the Prophet Joseph Smith spoke of alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee and similar substances as injurious to the body and handicaps in the journey of life, is an evidence of the divine inspiration of the latter-day prophet, for the physiological value of these substances was not known in that early day. Only after the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith did the world of science establish the fact that these substances act injuriously upon the human organism. ¶

WHAT TO EAT ¶

The Lord seldom says "thou shalt not" without declaring also what we shall do. Therefore, the Lord prescribed in this revelation the foods that man may eat safely: meat in moderation, grain, vegetables "in the season thereof," and fruits "in the season thereof." Perhaps, were we more careful to obey the part of the Word of Wisdom that deals with the "do's" it might be easier to obey the "don't's," and thereby be able more easily to conquer our appetites for the forbidden things. The more completely the body is able to function as intended by nature, the better control man has over himself and less desire he has for stimulants and for all things injurious. ¶

MODERN KNOWLEDGE CONFORMS TO THE WORD OF WISDOM ¶

It is probably common knowledge to the Latter-day Saints that during the last fifteen to twenty years, the science of nutrition, the science of eating, has been developed greatly by those who make researches into this branch of knowledge. The old learning has been laid aside; and some very remarkable discoveries have enabled a new science of nutrition to be built up which is becoming very generally understood. That new science of nutrition is built largely upon the doctrine that human beings must use meat in moderation, must use the grains as nature provided them, that vegetables must be eaten freely in the season thereof, which often means as they come from mother earth; that fruits must be eaten in larger abundance than before -- all practical applications of the Word of Wisdom, given in 1833, long before the science of nutrition or of physiological chemistry had been developed. ¶

One of the teachers in the summer school of the Utah Agricultural College, during the last two years, was Dr. E. V. McCullom, a leader in this field, who has done outstanding work in the domain of modern nutrition. On the last day of the Summer term, Dr. McCullom devoted a part of his closing lecture to a discussion of the fact that the "Mormon" Word of Wisdom coincided very well, indeed almost perfectly, with the doctrine which he had been elaborating in detail to his students throughout the preceding six weeks. It brought gratitude to my heart, when my children and some of my friends reported that this man bore such a testimony to the authoritative teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith. ¶

WE SHOULD USE ALL KNOWLEDGE ¶

What we eat is of tremendous importance. We possess not only wisdom of men, but also wisdom from heaven, all of which we should use for our welfare. We should be anxious to secure and use all learning that may yet be developed. It should be our ideal to make and keep our bodies just as perfect as possible; that our lives may be extended as long as possible; so that we may accomplish as much as may be possible during our earth careers. ¶

AN EXAMPLE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF CORRECT FOODS ¶

Last November, when I was in Washington, I had the opportunity to look into the new nutrition of which the Prophet spoke a long time ago. I went to Baltimore and into the laboratory maintained by one of the great foundations in this country. There, those in charge, to show the thorough going effect of food on the body, took two rats, one fed improper food, the other, food conforming to our new knowledge, both classes of foods in common use. The rats were chloroformed before our eyes, and opened, and their bones treated with a stain, placed under the microscope. The bony tissue of the rat which had been fed correctly was normally developed; while the tissue of the rat which had been fed improperly was imperfectly developed and diseased. This is but one of the hundreds of illustrations that might be used to verify the truth of the Word of Wisdom. ¶

CONCLUSION ¶

I have taken the liberty of offering these reflections upon the very authoritative and emphatic teaching of our President yesterday; and to call your attention, not in detail, for this is not a scientific lecture, to the importance of our obeying in detail all of the Word of Wisdom. We must refrain from the things forbidden; but we must also obey the teachings with respect to that which we should do. Already it has become evident that one of the great revelations given to man for his good is the Word of Wisdom, and also that it is one of the great evidences of the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph. ¶

May God bless us and be with us. May we fully understand the greatness and the grandeur and the mighty possibilities of the gospel of Jesus Christ, endless in their nature and for our good, I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶