I say to all the Elders of Israel, if it makes you sick and so sleepy that you cannot keep out of bed unless you have tobacco, go to bed and there lie. How long? Until you can get up and go to your business like rational men, like men who have heads on their shoulders and who are not controlled by their foolish appetites. I have said to my family, and I now say to all the sisters in the Church, if you cannot get up and do your washing without a cup of tea in the morning, go to bed, and there lie. How long? {286} Until the influence of tea is out of the system. Will it take a month? No matter if it does; if it takes three months, six months, or a year, it is better to lie there in bed until the influence of tea, coffee and liquor is out of the system, so that you may go about your business like rational persons, than to give way to these foolish habits. They are destructive to the human system; they filch money from our pockets, and they deprive the poor of the necessaries of life. 13:278. The sisters may inquire, "What can we do?" Rule your own passions, and exercise faith until you can govern and control your appetites, instead of drinking tea, coffee, and hot drinks. That is one of the smallest duties I can think of. Permit your bodies to have natural forms; also take pains to have the bodies of your daughters grow naturally, and teach them what they are made for, and that they, through faith, must overcome every besetting sin and every unholy passion and appetite. 8:283. And now that we have commenced to observe the Word of Wisdom, never treat resolution with a cup of tea or coffee, for as sure as you treat resolution once, it will plead hard for a treat again. Keep the Word of Wisdom--help the poor, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. Never let it be said of the Territory of Utah that a poor person had to go to the second house for a morsel to eat. 12:54-55. Many of our sisters think they cannot live without tea. I will tell you what we can do--I have frequently said it to my brethren and sisters--if they cannot live without tea, coffee, brandy, whiskey, wine, beer, tobacco, etc., they can die without them. This is beyond controversy. If we had the determination that we should have, we would live without them or die without them. Let the mother {287} impregnate her system with these narcotic influences when she is bringing forth a family on the earth, and what does she do? She lays the foundation of weakness, palpitation of the heart, nervous affections, and many other ills and diseases in the system of her offspring that will afflict them from the cradle to the grave. Is this righteous or unrighteous, good or evil? Let my sisters ask and answer the question for themselves, and the conclusion which each and every one of them may come to is this, "If I do an injury to my child, I sin." 13:276.