-- Feb 27, 1833
Health guidelines with promise of health, wisdom, and deliverance from the destroying angel. D&C 89, Feb. 27, 1833.
Bro. Coltrin: When the Word of Wisdom was first presented by the Prophet Joseph (as he came out of the translating room) and was read to the School, there were twenty out of the twenty-one who used tobacco and they all immediately threw their tobacco and pipes into the fire.
Original: Fredrick, Newell (1)
-- May 23, 1833
[Word of Wisdom] Observance
... we arrived at Kirtland, Ohio, having travelled 500 miles ... on the next day we hired a house in the City of Brother Joseph Coe & moved into it. Brother Cousin Joseph took Brother Brown's family home with him--his Wife asked Sister Brown if she would like a cup of tea or coffee after her long journey--in a few days they settled in company with Elder Jos. H Wakefield they purchased a large wagon ... & settled [in Chagrin] contrary to the council of the Prophet & they all afterward apostatized, assigning as a reason that the Prophet's Wife had offered them tea & coffee <w[hi]ch was> contrary to the word of wisdom, & that they had actually seen Joseph the Prophet <come down out of> the translating room & go to play with his children. (1)
-- During 1833
During the American Temperance Movement, William Alcott writes in the 'Young Man's Guide,' "resolve to free yourselves from slavery to tea and coffee. Experience has taught me, that they are injurious to health... I do say, that to pour down regularly, every day, a quart or two of warm liquid, whether under the name of tea, coffee, soup, grog, or any thing else, is greatly injurious to health."
He also warns of the dangers of Tobacco, suggests the judicious consumption of fruits in the summer, encourages moderate consumption of spirits.
"Be not too hasty of meats; for excess of meats bringeth sickness ... Show not thy valiantness in wine; for wine hath destroyed many."
"there are so many reasons for early rising that if I can persuade the reader to go to bed early, I shall have little fear of his lying late in the morning." (2)
[Prohibition] Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were advised against the consumption of alcohol as early as 1833, when Joseph Smith received a revelation known as "The Word of Wisdom," which advised against the consumption of wine and strong drink. Smith's revelation came the same year that the United States Temperance Union with one million members was established to campaign for total abstinence from liquor because of the social and economic ills created by drunkenness. (3)
-- Feb 12, 1834
Kirtland Council meets at Joseph Smith's house. Joseph "went on to give us a relation of his situation at the time he obtained the record, the persecution he met with &c. He also told us of his transgression at the time he was translating the Book of Mormon." Council minutes go on to say "the case of Bro. Martin Harris, against whom certain charges were preferred by bro. Sidney Rigdon, [was presented]. One was that he told Edqr. A. C. Russel that Joseph drank too much liquor when he was translating the Book of Mormon and that he wrestled with many men and threw them &c. . . . Bro. Martin said he did not tell Edqr Russell that bro. Joseph drank too much liquor while translating the Book of Mormon, but this thing took place before the Book of Mormon was translated." Joseph Smith gives instruction to the council: -"In ancient days, Councils were conducted with strict propriety, that no one was allowed to whisper, be weary, leave the room, or get uneasy, in the least, until the v
oice of the Lord, by revelation, or the voice of the Council by the Spirit was obtained, which has not been observed in this Church to the present. It was understood in ancient days, that if one man could stay in Council, another could; and if the President could spend his time, the members could also; but in our Councils, generally, one will be uneasy, another asleep; one praying, another not; one's mind on the business of the Council, and another thinking on something else, etc." (4)
Footnotes:
1 - Kenny, Scott, Saints Without Halos, Mormon History 1830-1844, Word of Wisdom, http://www.saintswithouthalos.com/n/wow.phtml
2 - Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source
3 - Utah History Encyclopedia: Prohibition, http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/p/PROHIBITION.html
4 - Advent Adam website (defunct) - based on http://amzn.to/originsofpower
LDS History Chronology: the Word of Wisdom
Mormon Timeline: the Word of Wisdom
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
