CHAPTER XVI.
A RETROSPECT.
When I entered upon the Christian ministry fifty-six years ago, there was no probability that I would live to see four-score.

My father had died at the early age of twenty-eight, and several of his brothers and sisters had succumbed to pulmonary maladies.

My mother was dangerously ill several times, but had a wiry constitution and lived to eighty-five.
That my own busy life has held out so long is owing, under a kind Providence, to the careful observation of the primal laws of health.

I have eschewed all indigestible food, stimulants, and intoxicants;--have taken a fair amount of exercise; have avoided too hard study or sermon making in the evenings--and thus secured sound and sufficient sleep.

In keeping God's commandments written upon the body I have found great reward.