larity as possible, always prepared, nevertheless, to sacrifice regularity to charity. In doing so, he will spare himself much trouble, and gain much time.*

The economy of time is a secret which no one ought better to understand than the minister, since no one as much as he should reverence time, of which eternity is made. He may lose much time without gaining a proportional amount of rest. We save time by doing nothing superfluous, and by not adding superfluous things to our necessary works, and by combining some works with others. We save it by knowing how to defend it against importunity and indiscretion: It is diffi cult to do this when looked at in a worldly aspect, but easier when regarded as a religious duty.†

We can not here too earnestly recommend to the minister the habit of early rising. The hour of dawn is the golden hour. Later, there is in the mind a sort of noise of all external and internal ideas. At dawn nothing has preceded our impressions, and nothing embarrasses them. Without considering that the minister can answer less than another for what his day is to be, he ought to appreciate more than any other the advantages of this custom. It was thus with the royal

* Duguet refers to a bishop who dismissed persons who interrupted him in his reserved hours with these words: "Sufficient unto

the day is the evil thereof.”—Traité des Devoirs d'un Evéque, art. ii., § 90.

† An aged American pastor relates that in London, at the beginning of his ministry, he visited the Rev. Matthew Wilks, who received him with cordiality. After some moments, when they had told each other the most important religious news they had heard, the conversation dropped. Mr. Wilks broke the silence by saying, "Have you any thing more to tell me?" " Nothing of special interest." "Do you desire any further information from me?" "None." "Then it is best we should separate: I am engaged in my Master's business; good-by, sir." I thus received, continued the pastor, a lesson on the impropriety of encroaching on another's hours, and on the firmness with which we should defend them.-Anecdotes on the Christian Min istry: an English work.

prophet, who says, "In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up."-Ps. V., 4. My heart said to me on thy part, Seek my face."*-Ps. xxvii., 8. "I prevented the dawning of the day, and cried."-Ps. cxix., 147. Now who should say this with more propriety than a minister?† Moreover, it is a victory over the senses; and the minister, whatever may be his situation and his views, should act as if he were preparing himself for a career of privations and fatigues: He should, more than any other, be poor in spirit, and exercise himself every day in dying to himself.

This brings us to ascétisme.‡

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Bodily exercise profiteth little," says St. Paul.-1 Tim., iv., 8. He speaks elsewhere of human ordinances, which have, as to truth, an appearance of wisdom in will-worship, and in a certain humility, in that they do not spare the body, and that they have no respect to what may satisfy the flesh. -Col., ii., 23.

Saint Paul is against bodily exercise, apart from piety, to which he opposes it in the same verse of the first epistle to Timothy; and certainly such an exercise does profit little. He found only an "appearance" in human ordinances, of which the principle was self-righteousness and the merit of works. He there opposes in advance, and for all times, the ever reappearing hydra of self-righteousness. But, on the other hand, he would not have us make our liberty a pretext for living after the flesh.-Gal., v., 13. He says elsewhere: "I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection, lest, after having preached to others, I myself should be cast away." -1 Cor., ix., 27. Again, he says: "Make no provision for the flesh, to satisfy the lusts thereof."-Rom., xiii., 14. Hence I do not think that he has condemned, under the name of bodily exercise, any thing besides legal practices, "ordinances," * The French version.-Tr.

Prayer of Bacon.

Not asceticism.

See Appendix, note G.

The French word is retained.-Transl.

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as he himself calls it; I think he does not condemn exercise as such-voluntary exercise. I do not find, in truth, a trace of fasting, or any thing parallel, in the history of the apostles; but, on the other side, why should these exercises have been mentioned if they had a place, since the apostles' aim was not to permit abolished servitude to put itself in the place of liberty? If these exercises were practiced, it must have been in secret; for they must have conformed themselves to the recommendation of the Savior: Thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father, who is in secret."-Matt., vi., 17, 18. Besides, the life which the apostles led was a continual fast, which they had no need to aggravate; exercise was not wanting as to them. It is, however, remarkable that St. Paul, whose life, certainly, was no less a continual fast than that of the other apostles, should have said, "I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection."*-1 Cor., ix., 27.

I do not think that, in a more happy external condition, it is either forbidden or useless to treat our body with severity, and to impose on ourselves, at least now and then, certain privations which our ordinary condition does not impose on us. Moreover, it is well to break through our habits. Do we know to what we are to be called? As to our liberty to do so, "I see that our Lord fasted."-Luke, iv., 21. I see also, in many places, that he supposed the legitimacy of these exercises, forbidding only publicity and ostentation, as the passage above cited proves (Matt., v., 17, 18); and this other place: "When the bridegroom shall be taken from them, then shall they fast" (Matt., ix., 13); which presents fasting under a

"I was in fasting and in prayers:" Cornelius the centurion.— Acts, X., 30. "That ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer.” -1 Cor., vii., 5. Fasting is always represented as inseparable from prayer; but voluntary fasting is fully sanctioned by this passage: "This kind (of demons) goeth not forth but by prayer and fasting."Matt., xvii., 21. Now we have demons to cast out.

new aspect, that of a memorial or symbol. Jesus Christ does not recommend the keeping of the Sabbath any more than fasting; He supposes both. The utility of these exercises would be overbalanced, would be absorbed, by the sentiment of self-righteousness, if it should mingle itself with our exercises: But, can not we separate the use from the abuse which corrupts it? We can oppose scarcely any thing to these practices, except the idea of Christian liberty; but in what respect does liberty suffer by an action entirely free? and if there is, in fasting, an appearance of humility which deceives, may there not be, in the suppression of fasting, a liberty which equally deceives?

We now see these things only through the abuse which has been made of them in the Romish Church; but is it through this medium that we ought to look at them? I admit that Massillon, in his sermon on fasting, presents this practice, and recommends it precisely in the sense in which St. Paul condemns it. We must avoid too special prescriptions, which destroy liberty; but liberty has been given to us in order to better obedience.

If it be admitted that bodily exercise, supposing it to be free and gratuitous, is generally useful, and even necessary to Christians, it were superfluous to insist much on its utility to pastors. It is, we may add, unnecessary, in any case, to inflict sufferings on ourselves; but we may refuse ourselves lawful enjoyments-even those simple enjoyments, the habitual privation of which would constitute a real injury, and be incompatible with our health.

We ought to remember, in a general way, that the body weighs us down; that by it we are connected with and belong to inert matter; that it is a weight we must throw overboard in order to save the ship. We must not forget that the body is likewise a slave who would be the master: The Christian should treat it with severity. But it is not an intermittent fast which we need; it is a continual fast, one of

every day, of the whole life. True fasting, the true askèse,* should be applied to the appetites of the nind as well as of the body. Curiosity, ambition, external activity, the desire of influence, the thirst for power, all these appetites, all these attractions, which would turn us out of our course, that is to say, in reality, make us change our course, are very strong and very difficult to vanquish. It is only love, and a holy enthusiasm for our profession, which can carry us through.

* Elsewhere M. Vinet wrote ascèse. See page 99.-Edit.