July 17

"Let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink."—Daniel 1:12.

PLAIN living, let me remind myself, is often the ladder up which I mount to high thinking.

So let me set myself against the undue indulgence of my body in eating and drinking. Nothing is surer to befog and darken and blunt the mind. Nothing more unfits the soul for the lofty and sublime delights of fellowship with God, Father and Son and Holy Ghost.

And let me beware of overmuch restfulness and ease in sleep. While I am slumbering, others are climbing upward through the night, learning more of truth, drawing nearer the far-off glittering summit of the Hill of Holiness. It is high time that I should awake.

And let me guard against the sloth and spiritual dulness which are engendered by material prosperity. Many a man who has lived near God in days of poverty has forgotten Him in days of wealth. The wheels of his chariot have been clogged by the abundance of the flowers which carpet his path.

Sometimes a season of fasting, not only from food but from any bodily pleasure that may ensnare me, will be found a helpful regimen. Jesus fasted in the wilderness. The apostles prayed with fasting. St. Paul was in fastings often. Let me copy such exemplars.

"I shall be spare of sleep, sparer of diet, and sparest of time,"—they were the words of a devout Englishman of a past century,—"that, when the days for eating, drinking, clothing, and sleeping shall be no more, I may eat of my Saviour's hidden manna, drink of the new wine in my Father's kingdom, and inherit that rest which remaineth for the people of my God for ever and ever."