tion, but this sloth leads also to many other
evils.--Any one need but make the experiment of spending one, two, or
three hours in prayer and meditation before breakfast, either in his
room, or with his Bible in his hand in the fields, and he will soon
find out the beneficial effect which early rising has upon the
outward and inward man. I beseech all my brethren and sisters into
whose hand this may fall, and who are not in the habit of rising
early, to make the trial, and they will praise the Lord for having
done so.

III. It may lastly be said, but how shall I set about rising early?
My advice is, 1. Commence at once, delay it not. Tomorrow begin to
rise. 2. But do not depend upon your own strength. This may be the
reason why, before this, you may have begun to rise early, but have
given it up. As surely as you depend upon your own strength in this
matter, it will come to nothing. In every good work we depend upon
the Lord, and in this thing we shall feel especially how weak we are.
If any one rises that he may give the time which he takes from sleep,
to prayer and meditation, let him be sure that Satan will try to put
obstacles in the way. 3. Do trust in the Lord for help, You will
honour Him, if you expect help from Him in this matter. Give yourself
to prayer for help, expect help, and you will have it. 4. Use,
however, in addition to this, the following means: a, Go early to
bed. If you stay up late, you cannot rise early. Let no society and
no pressure of engagements keep you from going habitually early to
bed. If you fail in this, you neither can nor ought to get up early,
as your body requires rest. Keep also particularly in mind, that
neither for the body nor the soul is it the same thing, whether you
go to bed late and rise late, or whether you go to bed early and rise
early. Even medical persons will tell you how injurious it is to sit
up late, and to spend the morning hours in bed; but how much more
important still is it to retire early and to rise early, in order to
make sure of time for prayer and meditation before the business of
the day commences, and to devote to those exercises that part of our
time, when the mind and the body are most fresh, in order thus to
obtain spiritual strength for the conflict, the trials, and the work
of the day. b, Let some one call you, if possible, at the time which
you have determined before God that you will rise; or procure, what
is still better, an alarum, by which you