Experience
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up speedily, for he has not the injurious influence of drugs to recover
from. Nature has nobly done her work to rid the system of impurities.”
I related to him my worn-out condition, my pressure for breath, and
the relief obtained by opening the door. Said he, “That which gave
you relief, will also relieve your child. He needs air. You have kept
him too warm. The heated air coming from a stove is injurious, and
were it not for the air coming in at the crevices of the windows, would
be poisonous, and destroy life. Stove heat destroys the vitality of the
air, and weakens the lungs. The child’s lungs have been weakened by
the room being kept too warm. Sick persons are debilitated by disease,
and need all the invigorating air that they can bear to strengthen the
vital organs to resist disease. And yet in most cases air and light are
excluded from the sick room at the very time when most needed, as
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though dangerous enemies.”
This dream and my husband’s experience was a consolation to
us both. We found in the morning that our boy had passed a restless
night. He seemed to be in a high fever until noon. Then the fever left
him, and he appeared quite well, except weak. He had eaten but one
small cracker through his five-days’ sickness. He came up rapidly, and
has had better health than he has had for several years before. This
experience is valuable to us.
I have thought for years that I was dependent upon a meat diet for
strength. I have eaten three meals a day until within a few months. It
has been very difficult for me to go from one meal to another without
suffering from faintness at the stomach, and dizziness of the head.
Eating would remove these feelings. I seldom allowed myself to eat
anything between my regular meals, and have made it a practice to
often retire without supper. But I have suffered greatly for want of
food from breakfast to dinner, and have frequently fainted. Eating
meat removed for the time these faint feelings. I therefore decided that
meat was indispensable in my case.
But since the Lord presented before me, in June, 1863, the subject
of meat-eating in relation to health, I have left the use of meat. For a
while it was rather difficult to bring my appetite to bread, for which,
formerly, I have had but little relish. But by persevering, I have been
able to do this. I have lived for nearly one year without meat. For
about six months most of the bread upon our table has been unleavened
cakes, made of unbolted wheat-meal and water, and a very little salt.