pendence, is the fact of
strict responsibility and the assurance of individual accountability. In
the judgment with which we shall be judged, all the conditions and
circumstances of our lives shall be considered. The inborn tendencies
due to heredity, the effect of environment whether conducive to good or
evil, the wholesome teachings of youth, or the absence of good
instruction--these and all other contributory elements must be taken
into account in the rendering of a just verdict as to the soul's guilt
or innocence. Nevertheless, the divine wisdom makes plain what will be
the result with given conditions operating on known natures and
dispositions of men, while every individual is free to choose good or
evil within the limits of the many conditions existing and
operative."--_Great Apostasy_, p. 21; see also _Articles of Faith_,
iii:1, 2.

3. The Fall a Process of Physical Degeneracy.--A modern revelation given
to the Church in 1833 (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 89), prescribes rules for
right living, particularly as regards the uses of stimulants, narcotics,
and foods unsuited to the body. Concerning the physical causes by which
the fall was brought about, and the close relation between those causes
and current violations of the Word of Wisdom embodied in the revelation
referred to above, the following is in point. "This, [the Word of
Wisdom] like other revelations that have come in the present
dispensation, is not wholly new. It is as old as the human race. The
principle of the Word of Wisdom was revealed unto Adam. All the
essentials of the Word of Wisdom were made known unto him in his
immortal state, before he had taken into his body those things that made
of it a thing of earth. He was warned against that very practise. He was
not told to treat his body as something to be tortured. He was not told
to look upon it as the fakir of India has come to look upon his body, or
professes to look upon it, as a thing to be utterly contemned; but he
was told that he must not take into that body certain things which were
there at hand. He was warned that, if he did, his body would lose the
power which it then held of living for ever, and that he would become
subject to death. It was pointed out to him, as it has been pointed out
to you, that there are many good fruits to be plucked, to be eaten, to
be enjoyed. We believe in enjoying good food. We think that these good
things are given us of God. We believe in getting all the enjoyment