Twelve Standing Rules

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 17, 1865

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 26, No. 20.

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Twelve Standing Rules

FOR ESTABLISHING AND PERPETUATING HEALTH.

1. Faith in God, and good conscience.

2. Temperance in all things.

3. Diligence and cheerfulness in an honorable avocation.

4. Avoid late hours—retire to rest early, rise early, or as soon as rested, wash, and seek the fresh morning air.

5. Dress warm in winter and in damp weather; dress cool in summer when the weather is hot; and, scorning unwholesome fashions, cultivate comfort everywhere.

6. When unwell, rest, with fasting and prayer, leaving drugs and stimulants to the impatient and unwary. Touch not; taste not; handle not!

7. If very sick, and you know not the cause, or remedy, call for a physician that will not administer poisonous medicine. Choose for your medical counselor a true and conscientious Hygienist.

8. Bathe the whole body at least twice a week in summer, and once a week in winter. Little children should be bathed once a day through the year. Do n't neglect the bathing. (See Dr. Muzzy on sponge bathing.)

9. Choose a plain diet, consisting mostly of fruit and farinaceous food; use very little of hot drinks or hot bread, and never eat that which is crude, or indigestible.

10. Leave utterly untouched, tobacco, opium, and all alcoholic liquors.

11. Sleep warm, but never on feathers. Ventilate your sleeping-rooms the year round.

12. Ventilate well, according to the season, every apartment of your dwelling, from the garret to the cellar, keeping your premises clear of all noxious or infectious substances, thus securing a pure atmosphere to be breathed by all the members of your family.

The above rules, observed in connection with zeal and perseverance in doing good, will insure a healthful, peaceful, happy life, and a composed, serene, and triumphant end.