The Health Reformer October 1, 1871 Words to Christian Mothers On the Subject of Life, Health, and Happiness—No. 2 Obedience to the laws of our being should be regarded of great importance, and to every individual, a matter of personal duty. Indifference and ignorance upon this subject is sin. The two great principles of God’s moral government are supreme love to the Creator, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are under obligations to God to take care of the habitation he has given us, that we may preserve ourselves in the best condition of health, that all the powers of our being may be dedicated to his service, to glorify his name, whose we are, and whom we ought to serve. It is impossible to render to God acceptable service while we, through wrong habits, are diseased physically and mentally. We are also under obligation to ourselves, to pursue a course which will not bring unnecessary suffering upon ourselves, and make our lives wretched, we groaning under the weight of disease. If we injure unnecessarily our constitution, we dishonor God, for we transgress the laws of our being. We are under obligation to our neighbors to take a course before them which will give them correct views of the right way to pursue to insure health. If we manifest an indifference upon this great subject of reform, and neglect to obtain the knowledge within our reach, and do not put that knowledge to a practical use, we will be accountable before God for the light he has given us, which we would not accept and act upon. I have heard many say, I know that we have wrong habits that are injuring our health; but our habits have become formed, and it is next to impossible to change, and do even as well as we know. By hurtful indulgences these are working against their own highest interest and happiness in this life, and are, in so doing, disqualifying themselves to obtain the future life. Many who are enlightened still follow in a course of transgression, excusing themselves that it is very inconvenient to be singular. Because the world at large choose to war against themselves and their highest earthly and eternal interest, they who know better venture to do the same, disregarding the light and knowledge which hold them responsible for the result of their violation of nature’s laws. God is not responsible for the suffering which follows the nonconformity to natural law and moral obligations to him. Enlightened transgressors are the worst of sinners, for they choose darkness rather than light. The laws that govern physical life, they may understand if they will; but the desire with them is so strong to follow popular, sensual indulgences of the day that are in opposition to physical and moral health, that they are insensible to its importance, and will not impress it upon others either by precept or example. Their neglect of this important subject exposes them to a fearful accountability. Not only are they suffering themselves the penalty of nature’s violated law, but their example is leading others in the same course of transgression. But if men and women would act in reference to their highest temporal good, untrammeled by fashion, living naturally, we should see fewer pale faces, hear less complaint of suffering, and attend less death-beds and funerals. Because the majority choose to walk in a path which God has positively forbidden, shall all feel compelled to tread the same path? The question is not, What will the world do? but, What shall we as individuals do? Will we accept light and knowledge, and live simply and naturally, feeling that we are under obligation to society, to our children, and to God, to preserve health and a good constitution, serene tempers, and unimpaired judgment? We have a duty to live for the interest of others. In order to benefit others, many think they must conform to custom, or they will lose the influence they might have upon the world. But when they do this, their influence to reform and elevate is lost, and their example leads away from reform. They are on a level with transgressors, therefore, cannot elevate them while their own example sanctions the customs and enslaving fashions of this age. The only hope of benefiting society is in showing them a better way by proper instruction sustained by a correct course on our part. Those who have means at their command, can do a good work if governed by religious principles. They can demonstrate, if they will, to rich and poor, that happiness does not consist in outward adornings and needless display. They may show by their own simplicity of dress and unaffected modesty of manners that there are higher and nobler attainments than conformity to the latest styles of fashion. If we would have happiness in this life, we must live for it, and show to society that we can preserve firm principles in defiance of extravagant and injurious fashion. If we conform to the world and bring on disease by violating the laws of life and health, fashionable society cannot relieve us of a single pain. We shall have to suffer for ourselves, and if we sacrifice life, we shall have to die for ourselves. We should as individuals seek to do right, and to take care of ourselves by living naturally instead of artificially. We cannot afford to live fashionably, for in doing thus, we sacrifice the natural to the artificial. Our artificial habits deprive us of many privileges and much enjoyment, and unfit us for useful life. Fashion subjects us to a hard, thankless life. A vast amount of money is sacrificed to keep pace with changing fashion, merely to create a sensation. The votaries of fashion who live to attract the admiration of friends and strangers, are not happy—far from it. Their happiness consists in being praised and flattered, and if they are disappointed in this, they are frequently unhappy, gloomy, morose, jealous, and fretful. As a weather vane is turned by the wind, those who consent to live fashionable lives are controlled by every changing fashion, however inconsistent with health and with real beauty. Very many sacrifice comfort and true elegance, to be in the train of fashion. The most enfeebling and deforming fashions are now enslaving those who bow at her shrine. Fashion loads the heads of women with artificial braids and pads, which do not add to their beauty, but give an unnatural shape to the head. The hair is strained and forced into unnatural positions, and it is not possible for the heads of these fashionable ladies to be comfortable. The artificial hair and pads covering the base of the brain, heat and excite the spinal nerves centering in the brain. The head should ever be kept cool. The heat caused by these artificials induces the blood to the brain. The action of the blood upon the lower or animal organs of the brain, causes unnatural activity, tends to recklessness in morals, and the mind and heart is in danger of being corrupted. As the animal organs are excited and strengthened, the moral are enfeebled. The moral and intellectual powers of the mind become servants to the animal. In consequence of the brain being congested its nerves lose their healthy action, and take on morbid conditions, making it almost impossible to arouse the moral sensibilities. Such lose their power to discern sacred things. The unnatural heat caused by these artificial deformities about the head, induces the blood to the brain, producing congestion, and causing the natural hair to fall off, producing baldness. Thus the natural is sacrificed to the artificial. Many have lost their reason, and become hopelessly insane, by following this deforming fashion. Yet the slaves to fashion will continue to thus dress their heads, and suffer horrible disease and premature death, rather than be out of fashion. Pleasure-seeking and frivolity blunt the sensibilities of the professed followers of Christ, and make it impossible for them to place a high estimate upon eternal things. Good and evil, by them, are placed upon a level. The high, elevated attainments in godliness, which God designed his people should reach, are not gained. These lovers of pleasure seem to be pleased with earthly and sensual things, to the neglect of the higher life. The enjoyments of this life, which God has abundantly provided for them in the varied works of nature, which have an elevating influence upon the heart and life, are not attractive to those who are conformed to the fashions of the world. They rush on unmindful of the glories of nature, seen in the works of God’s hands, and seek for happiness in fashionable life, and in unnatural excitement which is in direct opposition to the laws of God established in our being. The Marshall Statesman says: “A physician, writing a series of letters to a school-girl, devotes one to the nice keeping of the hair. Among other directions he remarks that much is said against wearing switches, or jutes, or chignons, because they breed pestiferous vermin, whose life is fed by their drain on the small blood-vessels of the scalp; but all such objections to these monstrosities become as nothing compared with the objection which arises from the congested condition of the blood-vessels of the back brain by reason of their use. A switch or chignon is a substance which, in itself, is a great conductor of animal heat. As the back of the head has a great deal of blood, and a great deal of blood has a great deal of heat in it, the surplusage of this heat should be allowed to pass off outwardly. To wear one of these appliances is to keep the heat in, and as the part thus dressed becomes excessively heated, disease takes place in a little while, and the whole bodily structure becomes affected. In women there is such an intimate connection between the back brain and the reproductive structure, that when the former becomes enfeebled the latter invariably takes on morbid conditions.”
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 20:44:19 +0000
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