Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/155

Rh Such then being the filthy and abominable character of an unsubmitted intellectual activity, is it to be wondered at, that the, in His adorable wisdom, should have devised the means of its purification by a temporary suspension of its powers during bodily sleep? For how forcibly is man instructed by this suspension, that his activities are not his own, but that he is continually indebted to other beings, not only for his faculty of intellect, but for every other faculty which lie enjoys as an intelligent and rational agent!

But there is yet another use and benefit resulting- from bodily sleeping and awaking, to which I am eager to call your attention, and that is—the connection existing between such sleeping and awaking and the sleeping and awaking of the mind; together with the tendency of the former to call into recollection the interesting concerns of the latter.

For if we believe the testimony of Divine Revelation, we are forced to confess, that so long as man continues in a state of mere natural thought and affection, exalting the interests and pleasures of this lower and transitory world above the infinitely more important concerns and joys of the eternal world, so long his immortal soul is in a state of deep sleep. On the other hand, no sooner is this stale changed through the admission of