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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
eat simple food, or I will not eat at all.” Bread was distasteful to
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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.
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 a healthful, nourishing diet.
I do not regard it a great privation to discontinue the use of those
things which leave a bad smell in the breath and a 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; where 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 again 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 could 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.
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We can have a variety of good, 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 to know how to cook. There are more
souls lost from poor cooking than you have any idea of. It produces
sickness, disease, and bad tempers; the system becomes deranged,
and heavenly things cannot be discerned. There is more religion in a
loaf of good bread than many of you think. There is more religion in