EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 229 



by two years' academic, four years' collegiate, and 

 three years' theological studies. He preached, gave 

 much promise, and then died of a stomach disease. He 

 contracted it when a student. He did not alternate 

 bodily with mental labour, or he had lived and been 

 a blessing to the church. When he entered on his 

 studies, he was growing into full size and strength. 

 He sat down till his muscles dwindled, his digestion 

 became disordered, his chest contracted, his lungs con- 

 gested, and his head liable to periodical pains. He sat 

 four years in college, and three years in theological 

 application. Look at him nmv. He has gained much 

 useful knowledge, and has improved his talents ; he 

 has lost his health. The duties of his mind and 

 heart were done, and faithfully so ; but those of his 

 body were left undone. Three hundred and seventy- 

 five muscles, organs of motion, have been robbed of their 

 appropriate action for nine or ten years, and now they have 

 become, alike with the rest of his frame, the prey of near 

 one hundred and fifty diseased and irritable nerves" 

 " Look at another case. Exposure incident to the 

 parson or missionary has developed the disease in 

 his chest, planted there while fitting himself for 

 usefulness. He contracted a sedentary, while he 

 was gaining a studious habit. That which he sows, 

 that also shall he reap. The east winds give him 

 colds ; a pulpit effort causes hoarseness and cough, 

 oppression and pain. He becomes alarmed and 

 nervous. His views of usefulness begin to be 

 limited. He must now go by direction, and not so much 

 to labour where otherwise he would have been most 

 wanted, as to nurse his broken constitution. He soon 

 adds to the number of mysterious providences, to the 

 number of innocent victims, rather, of cultivating 

 the mind and heart, at the unnecessary and sinful 

 expense of the body, to the number of loud calls 

 to alternate mental and corporeal action daily, for 

 the reciprocal sanity and vigour of both mind and 

 body." 



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