five hundred years, an angel came to him, and said, "Arise, Methuselah, and build thee an house, for thou shalt live five hundred years more."-" Five hundred!" exclaimed the patriarch, with some feeling of discontent, "only five hundred! then I am sure I will not build me an house."

Cleanliness is essential to health and comfort. This should be effected by washing; and not by washing the hands and the face only, but the whole body. The face and the hands being very conspicuous, the cleanliness of these parts is essential to a respectable character; but the other parts are almost equally necessary with respect to health. Dr. Cheyne observes, "washing the body in water cleanses the mouths of the perspiratory ducts from the glutinous foulness that is continually falling upon them, from their own condensed dewy atmosphere; whereby the perspiration would be soon obstructed, and the person become languid."-" An inattention to the surface of the body," Dr. Uwins remarks," is a fruitful source of stomach ailment." Filth closes up the pores of the body. A coat of paint would destroy the human frame; but a coat of dirt is almost as bad. The atmosphere is filled with particles of dust which adhere to our bodies; so that, even if we touch nothing, we soon become dirty. Epidemic diseases have raged most violently among nations of filthy habits; and families who are the least careful to maintain cleanliness are the most liable to these disorders.

One essential part of cleanliness relates to cloth

ing. Nothing of a linen or cotton kind should be worn many days without washing; and woollens should be left off occasionally, and hung in the If worsted hose be worn for a long open air. time, they not only become dirty and completely saturated with perspiration, but they become hard and smooth, so as to give the soles of the feet but little warmth. Clean clothing, except it have been pressed much, is warmer than dirty clothing; and even if it have been smoothed by ironing, it will soon become soft and fibrous. Stale and musty clothes should never be worn. Bed-linen should be seldom used longer than a week without washing.

The best method of producing general cleanliness is bathing. This may be practised in the house, or in a river, or the sea: the latter are the most effectual; but these cannot be continued throughout the year. If bathing in water be not practised, the body should be frequently washed. Dr. Uwins says, "It is a preventive both of stomach derangement and of that inordinate susceptibility of cold which is usually a concomitant of stomach weakness." If bathing be adopted, a few simple rules should be remembered; -no one should enter the water when he has a headach, a foul stomach, or weak lungs; nor at any time when he is unwell, without medical advice. He should not bathe when he is very warm, nor when he is cold and chilly. He should seldom remain more than five minutes in the water; and if he bathe twice in the week during the summer, it will be often enough. If a person feels exhilarated and

strengthened after bathing, it has been beneficial to him; but if chilly and languid, it has been injurious.

Air is the fluid in which we live, and on which we are dependent for health and comfort. Heat and cold are influences which powerfully affect us. Cleanliness is the means by which we become capable of bearing atmospheric changes, and from which we derive cheerful spirits.

replies, "I will not enjoy thy favours. This body (though fearfully and wonderfully made). is unworthy of my notice; I will treat it with contempt. The fruits of the earth I despise, and the provision which thou hast made for me I reject." This is an unnatural mode of obtaining the favour of Heaven! Abstinence arises from three causes, of which one only is proper. When a man expects by fasting to merit the favour of God, he will be disappointed; and when, by a dissatisfied and gloomy spirit, he rejects the blessings of life, he will bring upon himself condemnation. But when he lives abstemiously for the preservation of his health, which is necessary in some cases, or when he does so for the depression of his animal passions, and a closer and more uniform attention to religious duties, then he is praiseworthy in the sight of man, and acceptable to God. Virtue depends on motive. Luther was a man of almost ungovernable feelings; Erasmus termed him "a furious wild bull;" but Luther acted meritoriously, by maintaining the strictest temperance, he drank nothing but water, and practised abstinence by fasting for two or three days together.

The usual time for meals may sometimes be passed over, for the purpose of allowing the mind to engage itself more intently in devotion; and light meals may be serviceable for a person of plethoric habit; but abstinence is injurious for a thin person. When late or light meals, however, are adopted on public fast-days, merely because

other people do so, the practice is very objection

able.

Cowper enquires,

« Canst thou dream there is a power

In lighter diet at a later hour

To charm to sleep the threat'nings of the skies?"

Fasting is nothing in itself; it is only a help or facility for devotional feeling. Fasting will assist one man; but temperate eating will assist another. Abstinence is beneficial for the high feeder, both with regard to his body and his mind; but it is injurious for those who never eat to excess. Our Saviour is said to have come "eating and drinking," that is, he avoided the extreme of abstinence on the one hand, and that of intemperance on the other. He gave to men an example, by following which they might honour the Almighty, and acknowledge his beneficence towards mankind. Milton has very consistently said, in his "Comus,”

"If all the world

Should in a pet of temp'rance feed on pulse,
Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze;
Th' All-giver would be unthank'd, would be unprais'd,
Not half his goodness known, and yet despised."

There may be an exception to this regular system of living; and this will be applicable to solemn and important occasions, to days of national fasting, which are public acknowledgments of a Supreme Governor, and are calculated to cherish feelings of religious devotion.

But the practice of intemperance is much more common; because abstinence opposes the sensual