Extremes in Diet
99
Those who advocate unpopular truth should be most consistent in
their lives, and should be extremely careful to shun everything like
extremes. They should not labor to see how far they can take their
position from other men; but otherwise, to see how near they can come
to those whom they wish to reform, that they may help them to the
position which they themselves so highly prize. If they feel thus, they
will pursue a course which will recommend the truth they advocate to
the good judgment of candid, sensible men and women. These will be
compelled to acknowledge that there is a consistency in the subject of
health reform.
I was shown the course of B in his own family. He has been severe
and overbearing. He adopted the health reform as advocated by Bro.
C, and, like him, took extreme views of the subject; and not having
a well-balanced mind, he has made terrible blunders, the results of
which time will not efface. Aided by items gathered from books, he
commenced to carry out the theory he had heard advocated by Brother
C, and like him, made a point of bringing all up to the standard he
had erected. He brought his own family to his rigid rules, but failed to
control his own animal propensities. He failed to bring himself to the
mark and to keep his body under. If he had had a correct knowledge of
the system of health reform, he would have known that his wife was
not in a condition to give birth to healthy children. His own unsubdued
passions had borne sway without reasoning from cause to effect.
Before the birth of his children, he did not treat his wife as a woman
in her condition should be treated. He carried out his rigid rules for
her, according to Bro. C’s ideas, which proved a great injury to her.
He did not provide the quality and quantity of food that was necessary
to nourish two lives instead of one. Another life was dependent upon
her, and her system did not receive the nutritious, wholesome food
necessary to sustain her strength. There was a lack in the quantity and
in the quality. Her system required changes, a variety and quality of
food that was more nourishing. Her children were born with feeble
digestive powers and impoverished blood. From the food the mother
was compelled to receive, she could not furnish a good quality of
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blood, and therefore gave birth to children filled with humors.
The course pursued by the husband, the father of these children,
deserves the severest censure. His wife suffered for want of whole-
some, nutritious food. She did not have sufficient food or clothing to