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To the Brethren in Iowa

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 5, 1866

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 28, No. 1.

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To the Brethren in Iowa.

By D. T. Bourdeau; A. C. Bourdeau

DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS IN IOWA: You have doubtless seen in the Review, that our lots have been cast among you for the coming season; and as we have learned from dear and sad experience, the value of health, and as our usefulness among you will depend much on the vitality that we possess, we deem it a duty that we owe to ourselves, to you, and to God, to pursue such a course, healthwise, as will promote our health, and add to the strength and blessing that the Lord has given us in obeying the laws of our being. In order to this, several things are requisite, among which are the following:
1. A simple, plain, and nutritious, vegetable diet, free from grease and all other stimulating ingredients. Such a diet we use with wonderful relish, and it promotes clearness of mind, rest, etc.
2. Moderate labor. Experience and reason have taught us that this kind of labor accomplishes the most in the long run. We would not shrink from burdens, that the glory of God, and the good of the cause demand that we should bear; neither would we, on the other hand, labor to excess, in gratifying the wishes of well-meaning brethren to visit them promiscuously, irrespective of their real wants, or in holding late and protracted meetings, or in various other ways.
3. A full amount of rest. This we must have or we cannot labor. Nature must have a chance to recuperate. Let none, therefore, feel hard or disappointed, if we refuse to sit up late, nights, and to appoint business meetings, involving important matters requiring long investigations. We intend to hold such meetings, and do our visiting in the day time.
4. Proper beds and sleeping rooms. By this we do not mean feather beds. These we object to sleeping on in the warm season at least. Neither do we ask for sumptuously-furnished rooms; but we mean clean, and well-aired beds, and rooms into which we can let the pure and invigorating air of heaven, even though these should be in a log cabin.
5. But above all we need your confidence and co-operation. As to your confidence we hope to so comport ourselves by the grace of God as to have it; and we earnestly desire and pray that our labors together may not be in vain, but may tend to our furtherance in the great work of preparation to meet the Lord at his coming.
D. T. BOURDEAU.
A. C. BOURDEAU.