to find that the men marched infinitely better, with less fatigue and with fewer stragglers, than they had ever before known, and it was noticed by every one that the men were unusually cheerful and contented. There could not be a more convincing proof that the stimulus of spirits is quite unnecessary in the tropics, even during great bodily exertion and fatigue.

These facts are not merely remarkable, they are valuable: men in perfect health, whatever their vocation, will do well to follow the example. Wine, or spirits, or porter, may be useful, and even necessary to the aged, and the invalid, and others under various circumstances; but to men in their youth and prime they are needless, and they may be injurious.

EARLY RISING.

BY DR. HALL.

HEALTH and long life are almost universally associated with early rising; and countless old people are pointed at as evidence of its good effect on the general system. Can any of our readers on the spur of the moment give a good and conclusive reason why health should be attributed to this habit? We know that old people get up early, but it

simply because they can't sleep. Moderate old age does not require much sleep; hence in the aged early rising is a necessity or a convenience, and is not a cause of health in itself. Early rising, to be beneficial, must have two concomitants-to retire early, and, on rising, to be properly employed. An important advantage of retiring early is, that the intense

187

stillness of midnight and the early morning hours favour that unbroken repose which is the all-powerful renovator of the tired system. Without, then, the accompaniment of retiring early, early rising is worse than useless, and is positively mischievous. Every person should be allowed to have his sleep out; otherwise the duties of the day cannot be properly performed-will be necessarily slighted, even by the most conscientious. To all young persons, to students, to the sedentary, and to invalids, the fullest sleep that the system will take, without artificial means, is the balm of life-without it there can be no restoration to health and activity again. Never wake up the sick, or infirm, or young children of a morning-it is a barbarity; let them wake of themselves; let the care rather be to establish an hour for retiring so early, that their fullest sleep may be out before sunrise. Another item of great importance is :-Do not hurry up the young and weakly. It is no advantage to pull them out of bed as soon as their eyes are open; nor is it best for the studious, or even for those in health, who have passed an unusually fatiguing day, to jump out of bed the moment they wake up; let them remain, without going to sleep again, until the sense weariness passes away. Nature abhors two things-violence and a vacuum. The sun does not break out at once into the glare of the meridian. The diurnal flowers unfold themselves by slow degrees; nor fleetest beast nor sprightliest bird leaps at once from its restingplace. By all of which we mean to

of

say, that as no physiological truth is more demonstrable than that the brain, and with it the whole nervous system, is recuperated by sleep, it is of the first importance, as to the well-being of the human system, that it have its fullest measure of it; and to that end the habit of retiring to bed early should be made imperative on all children, and no ordinary event should be allowed to interfere with it. At ten o'clock at night, where possible, the year round, the old, the middle-aged, and the young should be in bed; and then the early rising will take care of itself, with the incalculable accompaniment of a fully rested body and a renovated brain. We repeat it, there is neither wisdom, nor safety, nor health in early rising itself; but there is all of them in the persistent practice of retiring to bed at an early hour, winter and summer.

NIGHT AIR. ANOTHER extraordinary fallacy is the dread of night air. What air can we breathe at night but night air? The choice is between pure night air from without, and foul night air from within. Most people prefer the latter. An unaccountable choice. What will they say if it is proved to be true that fully one-half of all the disease we suffer from is occasioned by people sleeping with their windows shut? An open window most nights in the year can never hurt any one. This is not to

GATHERING LILIES.-As a man that takes a walk in his garden, and spying a beautiful full-blown flower, crops it and puts it into his bosom, so the Lord takes His walks in His

say that light is not necessary for recovery. In great cities, night air is often the best and purest air to be had in the twenty-four hours. I could better understand in towns shutting the windows during the day than during the night, for the sake of the sick. The absence of smoke, the quiet, all tend to making night the best time for airing the patients. One of our highest medical authorities on consumption and climate has told me that the air in London is never so good as after ten o'clock at night. Always air your room, then, from the outside air if possible. Windows are made to open, doors are made to shut; a truth which seems extremely difficult of apprehension. I have seen a careful nurse airing her patient's room through the door, near to which were two gaslights (each of which consumes as much air as eleven men), a kitchen, a corridor, the composition of which consisted of gas, paint, foul air, never changed, full of effluvia, including a current of sewer air from an ill-placed sink, ascending in a continual stream by a well-staircase, and discharging themselves constantly into the patient's room. The window of the said room, if opened, was all that was desirable to air it. Every room must be aired from without; every passage from without. But the fewer passages there are in a hospital the better."Notes on Nursing." By Miss Nightingale.

SAMUEL SPROULE was born 7th July, 1828, at Glasmullah, County Tyrone, in Ireland. Of the first seventeen years of his life the ensuing sketch in his own handwriting will give a general idea :

"When I was about seven years of age, I went to reside with my grandfather; shortly after going there, I was sent to school, but not having the same wholesome restraint exercised over me as at home, I became by degrees almost totally indifferent, not only to learning, but also to all the punishment inflicted upon me by the master. This at times was very severe. I recollect on one occasion being laid up about three months, from the effects of a beating I got on the head. When I was about eleven years of age, my dear mother was called to enter into her rest; I shall recollect, as long as I live, the heavy pang of sorrow that rent my young heart when called to take the last look at her lifeless body. The sorrow and agony of that hour are still fresh before me. My heart was ready to break. But, thanks be to God, she has gone to her blessed home, the home where Jesus is the peaceful, happy heaven. About two years after this, my only sister was called to follow her sainted mother; she, too, had been taught of Jesus, and she, too, has gone to her home. Thus, at thirteen, I was left an orphan, as I might say, and worse than all, without any real thoughts about God. I was then

taken from my grandmother's, and brought home. Shortly after this, I was again sent to school; my father, I believe, intending me either for the medical profession or the ministry. I remained at a Latin school, studying for one of the above professions, until the summer of 1843, when my father was suddenly seized with a paralytic stroke. I was then called away from school, and placed at the head of the farm, but being little more than a child, only fifteen years old, I was more given to the so-called pleasures of the world than to looking after business, and instead of attending to the farm, I followed my childish sports. The servants, seeing this, took advantage of it, and did almost as they liked. Things went on in this state until November, 1846-little better than three years-when, to crown the whole of my folly, I ran off and enlisted."

What induced him to take this rash step does not appear, but probably the temptation, to a thoughtless, uncontrolled youth, was too strong to be resisted, and like the

แ

ox going to the slaughter, he followed his tempter, and knew not that it was for his hurt."

The regiment which Samuel Sproule joined was the 44th, in connexion with which he served for ten years in Ireland, Malta, Gibraltar, Turkey, and the Crimea.

His first foreign destination was Malta. Here he resided from 1847

to 1851, and here it was God met with him, and by the preaching of the Gospel, in connexion with the visitations of His providence, brought him to repentance.

During his residence in this island, there was a severe visitation of cholera, from which many of his regiment died. The effect of this on the survivors was awakening and solemn. Many were led to reflection. Prayer meetings were established. The chaplain of the army was in constant requisition both for the living and the dying, and though the effect gradually wore off in the case of many, with others it proved the forerunner of conversion -amongst these was Sproule.

Of his conversion he thus writes to a friend:

:

"In all probability you will think it strange to receive the present letter from one, who has acted so vile a part as that of which I have been guilty. Truly, my conduct towards him who has gone the way of all flesh (his father, who had recently died) was heinous in the extreme. But the deeds I have been guilty of I cannot undo, tears of repentance are unable to wash them away, though these would freely flow; but blessed be the name of the Lord, there is an all-sufficient cleansing efficacy in the atoning death of Christ, therefore on that I rest.

"How marvellous are the ways of God, and 'His judgments past finding out.' Little did the things of heaven and heaven's great King occupy my mind at the time I, with a company of the 44th regiment, was marching through Clones, in the spring of 1847, on my way to Killi

shandra. But the Lord had mercy in store for me, though He did not reveal Himself unto me as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ until after I had landed in Malta. There it was, in the very island in which the Apostle Paul, eighteen hundred years ago, proclaimed the everlasting Gospel, there, with my feet standing on the very soil on which the Apostle stood, did the Lord say unto my poor trembling soul, Thy sins are all forgiven thee, go in peace.' O glorious hour, O blessed day, in which I first stood upon its shore!

6

"August 4th, 1853."

Speaking of his youth, he also says:

"Oh the madness of my former life; but God, who is rich in mercy, had compassion on me, and I trust that I can humbly say that He has enabled me to choose that good part that shall never be taken from me."

The following resolutions appear to have been penned about this time, at the commencement of the year, and show his deliberate purpose in religion:

"I enter upon the performance of the following resolutions, not in my own unassisted strength, but in the all-sufficiency of Almighty God, and may He enable me by His Spirit to carry them into effect :

"1. Never to break my fast in the morning without first reading a portion of God's Word, and asking His blessing thereon, except when prevented by duty, or other lawful

causes.

"2. Never to speak without purpose, or merely to gratify an idle curiosity.

"3. Ever to act as in God's sight, knowing that all my ways are open to Him with whom I have to do.

"4. Whenever Satan tempts me to sin, to cast my eyes towards Gethsemane and Calvary, and cry unto the Lord for strength.

"5. Never to absent myself either from the public or private means of grace, except when prevented by duty or other lawful causes.

"6. Ever to remember that I am a dying mortal, and that in a few years at most I must go the way of all living.

"7. Always to endeavour, both by my works and words, to advance the kingdom of God upon earth, and spread the spiritual dominion of His Son.

"8. Never to withhold my hand from any subscription which has for its aim the glory of God and the good of man.

"9. Never to speak an unnecessary word tending to injure my neighbour, or contributing to lower him in the estimation of his fellow-men.

ARE you a Christian? Do you believe the Bible to be the Word of God, and Jesus Christ to be a Divine and Almighty Redeemer? Do you rest your hope of eternal salvation on Him alone? Do you love Him as your Saviour? and have you in secret given your heart to Him, and committed your soul to His hands?

Anything that would imply a doubt concerning you, on these points, on the part of your Christian friends, you would probably deem uncharitable. "Yes," you reply, "I trust I am a Christian, and, by the grace of

"10. Never to allow sin to go unreproved when opportunity presents itself, either in my equals or superiors, and always to reprove them in an humble, Christian spirit.

"11. Never to strive to win over Christians from other denominations to my own.

"12. Always to read over these resolutions at least once every week, and at the same time remembering that it is only through the assistance of Divine grace that I can be enabled to carry them into effect.

"13. Every night to pray unto the Lord for the Holy Spirit's influence, so as I may be enabled to fulfil these resolutions, and that I may be strengthened to adorn the doctrine of God my Saviour in all things.'

9

"SS- the twenty-fourth year of his life, and the fourth of his pilgrimage."

""*

*For a full and beautiful narrative, "The Soldier's Hidden Life," by the Rev. J. Viney.

see

God, can answer each of these questions in the affirmative."

Then, why not "confess Christ before men" (Matt. x. 32), and obey His dying command. "This do, in remembrance of me?" 1 Cor. xi. 24.

1. True, it is a duty; but may I not be saved without making this public profession?

It is not to be denied that you may; but your salvation will be rendered more difficult, and, in the view of men, more doubtful, if you continue to neglect so clear a command, so blessed a privilege. Christ