The Heritage and Promise

THE HERITAGE AND PROMISE By John Henry Evans, Author of "One Hundred Years of Mormonism" II One of the things the "Mormon" youth are taught with increas- ing emphasis is that they must have good bodies — a fit habitation for the indwelling spirit, so that it may be an adequate means through which the intelligent spirit may express itself. Within the last quarter of a century there has come a direct reversal of the ideas and practice of the mediaeval saints concerning the value of the body. During the Middle Ages it was thought that the body is an incumbrance to the spirit. It was the body that surfeited on food, that craved the drink to steal away the brain, that induced laziness and a love of ease, that did a thousand things, in short, to serve the devil instead of the soul. Accordingly, it was believed that if the body was weakened by hunger and thirst and torture to the point of suffer- ing, the spirit might thus become ascendant and free to act. The story is told of a monk who, misguided by the idea that saintliness is synony- mous with sickliness, lived the greater part of his life on a pillar thirty feet high, without ever bathing or changing his clothing, till worms formed on his filthy body. Nor is this an isolated case. It represents the spirit of the age. Wearing coarse hair-shirts next the skin, emaci- ating the body by withholding food and the bath, beating the back with knotted cords till the blood ran, belting the waist with wide leathern strips filled with sharp tacks — these were common practices in an age with wrong-headed notions of Christianity. But all this has been changed by our modern ideas of efficiency. The body is now regarded as the instrument of the brain, and the brain and nervous system generally as the instrument of the mind. As the autoist keeps his car well-oiled, well-greased, well-cleaned that every part may function perfectly with safety, so every modern who really desires the highest mental and moral freedom in his daily work takes the greatest pains with his body — keeping it clean and healthy inside and out, — for he knows that only thus can he attain the greatest efficiency of which he is capable. We are beginning to feel that to live and breathe and move should be a delight. The thoroughly healthy person is full of optimism, rejoicing "like a strong man to run a race." Not only is it true that "the man or the woman who is unhealthy is now handicapped in opportunities for marriage," but persons of both sexes are equally handicapped for opportunities for employment by which to earn a livelihood. The wide-spread feeling on the subject is evidenced in "the great vogue today of sleeping out-of-doors, the

THE HERITAGE AND PROMISE 413 popularity, not always deserved, of health foods and drinks, the de- mand for uncontaminated water supplies, certified milk, inspected meat and pure foods generally, the world-wide movement against alcohol, and the legislation to correct wrong conditions of labor and to safe- guard the laborer." That there is an intimate relationship between the size of the human body and the mental capacity has been uniquely shown by the investigations of Professor Gowin, of New York University.* In order to bring statistical evidence to bear upon the question as to whether the body, "viewed as a chemical machine," supplies brain en- ergy according to its size, he sent out several hundred questionaries to presidents of banks, of railroads, of colleges, and of insurance com- panies, to reformers, religious leaders, governors, senators men in some forty-eight different callings. His findings are extremely interesting as well as instructive. According to these statistics, in each case "the larger position is held by the larger man" physically. Thus, bishops are taller and weigh more than preachers in small towns, university presidents than presidents of small colleges, city school superintendents than principals in small towns, sales managers than salesmen, railroad presidents than station agents. Railroad executives average five feet, ten and nine-tenths inches in height and weigh one hundred eighty-six pounds; governors of states are five feet, eleven and two-tenths inches tall and weigh one hundred eighty-two pounds; university presidents are five feet ten and eight-tenths inches in height and one hundred eighty-one pounds in weight; executive secretaries of reform move- ments in our nation have a mean height of five feet, eleven and four-tenths inches and an average weight of one hundred eighty-one pounds. All of which goes to show that "the first wealth is health." "Mormon" ideas of the body are in general agreement with those of our times. Not only so, but they ante-date, both in theory and practice, the notions regarding the body that prevail today in the best minds. And these ideals of the Saints are emphasized in a man- ner hardly possible by others, for the reason that with "Mormons" they are inseparably associated with thoughts of the human spirit, the future life, and religious duty — conceptions that react powerfully on conduct. According to the Saints, the spirit is a material substance, only more refined than any other with which we are now acquainted. It is in the exact form of the body, so that if we were to see it we should perceive a head, a trunk, and limbs and organs like those we see in the body. Also it had a pre-mortal existence, where it performed the same functions of thinking, feeling, and willing that it does now in the body. In this pre-existence the spirit progressed as far as it could ♦The reader would do well to read a most extraordinary article on "The Beauty of Lincoln," in the Pictorial Review for Feb., 1925. — Evans.

414 IMPROVEMENT ERA without a tabernacle of flesh and bone and blood. Hence, the body is absolutely essential to the spirit before there can be "a fulness of joy." This is as true in the next world as it is in the present world. And so there is to be a literal resurrection of the body, as was the case with Jesus Christ. That is, the spirit of man at some future time will be reunited with the body — the same that it had in the flesh, only with certain changes. Such, in brief, are the ideas which the "Mormons" entertain concerning the relationship of the spirit and the body, both here and hereafter. The teachings of the Saints respecting the care of the body — out- ward cleanliness, the food that should be eaten, especially the things that should not be done — are contained chiefly in the "Doctrine and Covenants," more particularly in one of the revelations, the "Word of Wisdom," but also in the sermons and writings of the Church leaders. While the sentence, "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord," may apply to the heart, still it is often used by the "Mormons" to apply to the exterior man. There is no doubt, however, that a literal application only is to be placed upon the words: "Let all things be done in cleanliness before me." The Saints are fond of using the quotations, "Cleanliness is next to godliness;" only, some of them would have it go: "Cleanliness is part of godliness." At all events, nothing can be much more offensive to God than a filthy body in a man. Cleanliness of the person, including the clothing, has always been a cardinal doctrine with the Latter-day Saints, and one that they have insisted upon in season and out, in sermon and book. The very fact that the body is an eternal adjunct of the spirit and not a tem- porary acquisition, dignifies the earthly tabernacle in the "Mormon" mind. As for man's food and drink, the "Word of Wisdom" is the standard, and the revelation is the more remarkable because it was announced in the year 1833, many years before people began to talk of the value of the body and while the blight of mediaeval ideas was still on the material world. In this utterance we are told that "inasmuch as any man drink- eth wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him." Strong drinks are condemned as being "not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies." Even tea and coffee are prohibited under the phrase "hot drinks," as it has always been interpreted to mean. Tobacco is classed with intoxicants, as "not good for man." On the contrary, it has its purpose as "an herb for bruises and all sick cattle," in which case it must be used "with judgment and skill." This prohibition of Lady Nicotine has come with such increasing emphasis that nowadays no one may hold a Church position unless he is free from the use of tobacco, or promises to quit it; and not even

THE HERITAGE AND PROMISE 415 a lay member may be properly classed as in full fellowship who smokes or chews the weed. The flesh of animals also, to a certain extent, is taboo. Al- though "the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven" are declared to be "for the use of man," to be used with thanksgiving, yet it is "pleasing to the Lord" that their use as food be restricted to the winter months, the cold season, and periods of famine, and even then but sparingly. There is a word of counsel too on cereals as food. Grain has been ordained, we are told, "for the use of man and beast, to be the staff of life" — the staff, that is, not only for man but for "the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven." Nevertheless, each has its particular use. "Wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine." Those who "remember to keep and do these sayings" are prom- ised bodily vigor and mental alertness. They shall receive "health in their navel and marrow to their bones;" "they shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint;" and the angel of destruction "shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them." Also they "shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hid- den treasures." All this is but an anticipation of the teachings of modern science on the main lines of food and drink, as the following facts suffi- ciently indicate: Professor Rubner of Berlin, "one of the world's foremost students of hygiene," condemns the present over-use of meat. Prevailing "false notions of the strengthening effect of meat," he says, are responsible for the "harmful" practice of eating too much meat, which is sup- planting almost everywhere "the characteristic local culinary art." And he goes on to say that "the medical profession started an opposition to the exaggerated meat diet, long before the vegetarian propaganda was started. It was maintained that flour foods, vegetables, and fruits should be eaten in place of the overlarge quantities of meat." The chief objection to a meat diet, it has been found, is that it furnishes more than the necessary amount of protein, which over-works the liver and kidneys and exceeds their "factor of safety," and that it tends to pro- duce an excess of acids, is prone to putrefaction, and contains "purins, which lead to the production of uric acid." As to alcohol, it has been proved conclusively by scientists that it is a narcotic and not a food. "Scientific experiments have resulted in the interesting discovery that the alleged 'strength' obtained from beer, ales, and all intoxicating beverages is a delusion and a snare. The poison simply gives a temporary feeling of greater strength through the paralysis of the sense of fatigue. But the strength does not exist. On the contrary, the user of alcohol in excess is weaker after taking it." The use of alcoholic beverages brings on a paralysis of the white corpuscles in the blood; it shortens life, as is evidenced by insurance

416 IMPROVEMENT ERA statistics; it retards simple mental processes, such as the addition of figures; it overcomes the higher brain elements and releases the lower ones; it depresses the heart and the circulation; it injures offspring by impairing the germ cells in males. "The restrictive and prohibitive measures of the French and Russian [and American] governments, the well known opposition of the Kaiser to alcohol, and the warnings uttered by Lord Kitchener and leading British statesmen, are sufficient evidence that the condemnation of alcohol represents the deliberate judgment of the world's strong men." While science is not so pronounced in its utterances against to- bacco as against intoxicating liquors, this is because its investigators have not covered so wide a scope. But all the evidence thus far gathered points in the same direction as the statement in the revelation that tobacco "is not good for man." It is certain from these investiga- tions that tobacco affects detrimentally the heart, the lungs, and the brain, lowering the vitality and increasing mortality. It is equally certain that it decreases mental efficiency, Bush says by more than ten percent. It has never been shown by the defenders of tobacco, who are chiefly those who profit by its sale, that "a sound healthy man, who has never been accustomed to the use of tobacco, can do better mental or physical work with tobacco than without it." Now, it follows, "as night the day," that a community which adheres to this standard of living will develop better bodies than a community which does not. It follows, too, that, other things remaining the same, their minds, since these act through the body, will function better. These facts should go without saying, but we need to be reminded of them once in a while, so as to be sure that they are in the forefront of our understanding. No operator can function through a machine perfectly unless that machine is kept in good con- dition. (To be continued) The Lesson of the Flower Sweetly smiling little flower, You have taught me while I murmured Thought of love you bring, And complained of ills not true, Visions of the sunlit valleys That dark clouds are not destroyers. And of birds that sweetly sing. But the life of such as you. Many days was nature painting Though your form is fastly drooping. On your face the lovely hue, And your lot is but to die, And I see therein is mirrored, You have taught me the great lesson: Fleecy clouds and skies of blue. Look not down, but to the sky. Meekly do you tell your story I hope, as future years pass by me, Of the joys that nature holds, Hues of loveliness may grace, Of the peace that's in your slumbers And a joy to those around me, As at night your petals fold. May become my human face. Ogden, Utah CLAUD S. GROW.