Re.: Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards, “Sixth General Epistle of the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from Great Salt Lake Valley, to the Saints scattered throughout the Earth, greeting,” September 22, 1851
Commenting on the
semi-annual conference of the Church on September 7, 1851:
Ezra T. Benson and Jedediah M. Grant were appointed
agents to gather the poor, and president O[rson] Hyde’s agency was continued.
Elders Samuel W. Richards, Willard Snow, Abra[ha]m O. Smoot, Dorr P. Curtiss [Curtis],
and Vincent Shurtliff [Shurtleff], were appointed missions to the British
Isles, and Daniel Cairn to Germany. President John Young received a mission to
Ohio, to preach the gospel and gather the saints; and elder John L. Dunyon to
preach the Gospel in the States. The conference voted to observe the word of
wisdom, and particularly to dispense with the use of tea, coffee, snuff, and
tobacco, and in this thing, as well as many others, what is good for the saints
in the mountains is good for the saints in other places; and if all who profess
to be saints would appropriate the funds lavished on luxuries and articles
unwise to use, to the benefit of the public works, we would soon see another “Temple
of the Lord.” (“Sixth General Epistle, September 1851,” in Settling the
Valley, Proclaiming the Gospel: The General Epistles of the Mormon First Presidency,
ed. Reid L. Neilson and Nathan N. White [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017],
154)
In 1833, Joseph Smith received a revelation that
discouraged the use of alcohol, tobacco, and “hot drinks” (which came to be
interpreted as coffee and tea). The revelation was later canonized as section
89 of the Doctrine and Covenants and became known as the Word of Wisdom. It was
not originally viewed as a commandment that must be followed by all Latter-day
Saints but as good counsel. Although Brigham Young asked the Saints to follow
it on September 9, 1851. It apparently did not become an official church worthiness
requirement until the twentieth century. McCue, “Did the Word of Wisdom Become a
Commandment in 1851?,” 68-69. (Ibid., 154 n. 43)
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