Church Reform and Health
By Wm. Carthy
Bro. WHITE: The church here at Little Prairie are striving to come up to the help of the Lord. Bro. Matteson while preaching in the Norwegian settlement west of this place, spent the Sabbaths with us, and labored faithfully to raise us from the low state that we were in. Some of the stumbling-blocks over which we were falling are being taken away. We enjoyed much of the blessing of God on those days set apart for humiliation and prayer. We felt truly that it was time to humble ourselves, confess and forsake our sins, and get right in the sight of God. I can see great beauty, and wisdom in reforming our habit of living. To say nothing of the benefit derived from it in this life, how could we consistently expect to be ready for the times of refreshing, for Jacob's trouble, and for translation, while thus abusing ourselves? It appears that good men of past days have thought on this subject also. The following I extract from James B. Finley's Memorials of Prison life. "For the two following days, Wednesday and Thursday, I was quite sick with a bilious attack. I was my own physician, and nursed myself. This I did, not because we had not a good physician in the prison, but because for years I have been fearful of taking medicine; and when I prescribe for myself I know what I am doing, and whether I need much or little physic. I am an old man, and I have long since learned, by observation in civilized as contrasted with savage life, that the health and lives of thousands are annually sacrificed to the stupid practice of depending on medicine too much. Did we take care of ourselves, we should need medicine but seldom; and when we did, simple remedies would answer. We do not learn that the antediluvians, who lived in such ages, had any doctors at all; and the old patriarchs after the flood preserved their health and protracted their lives by temperance, good air, abundant exercise, and a calm trust in God. The most modern diseases come from the bad habits of what we call civilized society. Let us become really civilized, and live according to good sense and observation, and ninety-nine out of every hundred of our physicians might be dismissed, to engage in some other employment. "We learn from the facts here daily presented, the great law that dispositions are made very much by their habits. Let a person eat much meat, feed abundantly, drink spirituous liquors, spend much time in idle and wicked conversation, and take no thought of governing or even checking his natural appetites and he is almost sure to become a fearless, violent, and ambitious villain. But take him, now, from the excessive indulgence of his animal propensities, oblige him to spend his time in silence, keep him from the use of spirits, let his diet be nourishing but not exciting, consisting chiefly of vegetables, then raise his mind to intellectual, moral, and religious topics even though it be only occasionally, and the whole man begins to wear a new aspect, to feel a new current of emotion, to enjoy a serene and higher kind of being. Imprisonment, therefore, on any plan, is often a blessing to these desperate characters, some of whom go out reformed in soul, mind, and body. "We see, too, that the world at large has a great interest in the habits of the people. Savages who live mostly on flesh, are the most ferocious of mankind; while those nations and tribes who live on vegetables, chiefly, are generally the most peaceable, docile, and intellectual. The free use of alcohol has done much, not only in killing off thousands on thousands of promising individuals, and in destroying the quiet and happiness of families, but what is vastly worse, it has exerted an incalculable influence in barbarizing the human species. It has counteracted to an alarming degree, the humanizing influence of learning and religion. "The same is true of many of the common practices of civilized society; and never, no, never, shall we see the triumph of peace, of right, of Christianity, until the daily habits of mankind shall undergo a thorough revolution. Could we all be put on prison fare, for the space of two or three generations, the world would ultimately be the better for it. Indeed should society change place with the prisoners, so far as habits are concerned, taking to itself the regularity, and temperance, and sobriety of a good prison, and condemning the culprits of the country to quarter themselves in great houses, live on a sumptuous and exciting diet, hold intercourse with all manner of social evil, and suffer the consequences of this course of living, it would show itself quite as sensible as it now is." Wm. Carthy.
Little Prairie, Wis.