that “the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." The epistle of James speaks of moth-eaten garments, of corrupt riches, of cankered gold. The apostle Peter speaks of "filthy lucre," of "covetous practices,” of "wages of unrighteousness." St. John says, "if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

The superiority of the soul to the body, of the treasures of the mind to the things of the earth, is the commanding truth of Christianity? We are warned over and over that the body is mortal, and must see corruption, that all property is insecure, that riches take wings and fly away, that the tooth of time consumes all earthly estates.

It is sheer folly, therefore, to be wholly engrossed in things of this world. They perish with the using. They are deceitful riches. Persons who have a surfeit or superfluity, find there vanity and vexation, that they cannot cool a fevered brain or console an aching heart. For the happiness of life, a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold. In one of his parables Jesus spoke of a rich man who wanted nothing but to eat and drink and be merry, as a fool, and said, "So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." In the parable of the unjust steward Jesus told his disciples to "make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." There were rich men in the early churches and Paul followed the example of Jesus, when he said to a young minister, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come,

that they may lay hold on eternal life." Nor is there any better wisdom with reference to property than the prayer of Agur, "Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain."

Excessive riches and beggarly poverty have each the same tendency to belittle and debase the mind, and to vitiate and destroy piety. Therefore, avoid both; poverty, lest it come upon thee as an armed man, and bring thee into distress and want; and riches, "the toil of fools," as Jesus calls them, in Milton's verse,

"The wise man's cumbrance, if not snare; more apt
To slacken virtue, and abate her edge

Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise;"

and be satisfied with a moderate and reasonable competency, and with godliness, which with contentment is great gain.

XXIV

THE CARE OF THE BODY

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. — Roм. 6: 12.

M

AN is of a double nature, the two parts mixed and affiliated, but separate and distinct. One part belongs to the material world, to the world of sense, to the sight of the eye, the hearing of the ear, the taste of the mouth, the handling of the hand, the movement of the feet. The other part belongs to the world of thought, of reason, to things of the mind, of the imagination, things invisible, intangible.

Over his body man has instant control. No other form of matter is so close to him as his eyes and hands and feet. They do his bidding immediately. They are his servants, and they are under his exclusive management, direction, and control. They are the instruments of his activity, by which he comes to know himself, and to know other persons and other things.

A man's body is his own, his five senses, his speaking tongue, his hands and his feet. It is through them that he does his work, makes his mark in the world, and fixes his destiny. Religion teaches that the deeds done in the body are to determine our place in the hereafter.

The care of his body is, therefore, man's first and foremost duty. Here your power is absolute; no one else can see with your eyes, hear with your ears, speak with your tongue, or go here and there with your feet. While you live on earth, your body and mind are in an inseparable union, and, after the period of childhood is passed, the care of the body belongs exclusively

to yourself. The responsibility is wholly yours, until death snaps the vital cord that connects body and mind.

Because of the inferiority of the body, because it is made of the dust of the earth and is subject to corruption and decay, because it is often made the instrument of vice and shame, some persons have conceived of the body as unworthy of respect, and have even made it a part of religion to neglect it.

It was an ancient speculation that the material body is the product of an evil principle, and that, with everything material, the human body ought to be neglected and ignored. The chief father of the Latin Church was carried away with this speculation from his nineteenth to his twenty-eighth year, and in his "Confessions" tells a dreary story how he was deceived by a false-named religion into pride, superstition, and vanity. To believe, on the contrary, that it is God who has made and fashioned the human body, gives dignity to life, and makes the care of the body a religious duty.

The continual round of work in providing food and clothing for the body, in arranging for the labor of the day and for the rest of the night, is of equally religious concern and importance with services of prayer and praise. He who does not provide for his own in these respects, denies the faith and is worse than an infidel.

Jesus was a friend of man's earthly life. He recognized the sanctities of home, of marriage, and birth, and cherished a deep sympathy for those in distress and want. He did not shut his eyes to the fact of sickness, or deny the reality of palsy and lunacy and demonism, but put his hand in healing touch upon them, so that men said, "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." It was in a body like our own that he did the work of our salvation. He made every member and sense, his eyes and hands and power of speech, agents of his mercy to mankind. And in his great sacrifice, his head was crowned with thorns, his hands

and feet were pierced with nails, and his side ran blood. It is by the use of the members of the body in honest industry and faithful work, giving a friendly hand to one another, laying hands upon the sick, laying hands upon children, and walking in the footsteps of him who went about doing good, that the divine mission of our Saviour is carried forward in the world, and the profitableness of godliness, "having promise of the life that now is," has fulfilment.

The proper care and the right use of the body is, then, the condition both of personal salvation and of the salvation of the world. This is the ground of the various exhortations of Holy Writ, that we present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service, that we let not sin reign in our mortal bodies, that we yield our members as servants to righteousness, and have our bodies washed with pure water.

The flesh, when unclean, unruly, and ungoverned, becomes man's worst enemy. What might add a thousand blessings to life, the eye, the ear, the voice, the hand, the feet, that in their proper use are exquisite and powerful agents to ennoble man, become to many men agents of their degradation and ruin. Care and caution are imperative if we have any regard for ourselves, for our own advantage and happiness, or any regard for others. The problem of virtue is not a hard one. Her ways are pleasantness. A man is happier when he keeps his body under the law of his mind, nor lets his head, nor hands, nor feet, offend against his conscience.

The wide world is not our charge, only a little portion of its dust, the five senses, and a few members, muscles, and nerves, that make up the body. Here you hold the scepter. Here you have absolute command. Here then, maintain the ascendency of reason and conscience, and of wisdom and virtue. of man is good, when each part is kept in its place. water in their place are good servants, but out of their place are

Every part

As fire and