reason and harmony with the laws of our nature, and the plain testimony of the Word of God.
It is not however the intention of your speaker to enter into any illustration of the subject from Anatomical or Physiological facts, though this might be done very effectually, if here requisite or proper. Looking on the subject however in a religious light, we propose to treat it as such and to be guided in our labors by the Sacred Scriptures. They are confessedly the foundation of all moral, and of all religious principle. It is in them we have presented to our contemplation an unlimited source of knowledge. In them is recorded, for our edification, a Revelation of the will of the Almighty. Here we find those Sacred Precepts according to which we are commanded to regulate our lives, so that we may become the children of God. Here we have unfolded to us the astonishing work of Creation, and the still more wonderful operation of Redemption and Salvation for all that believe. Here also we are taught to know aright the nature and divine attributes of the Creator, and the Immortality of our own Souls. Here is presented to us a display of the end of our existence—the proper means by which to preserve that existence, and how to perpetuate our health, prolong our days and participate of the happiness intended for us by Our Maker. To the evidence of the Sacred pages therefore on the proper food for sustaining life, in accordance with the will of God—on preserving health and enjoying "A sound mind in a sound body"—and at the same time on progressively gaining more, and more of heavenly wisdom, our enquiries will this morning be particularly directed.
At the very commencement of the book of Genesis we find this plain and important commandment prominently set forth, as one of those laws of direction, essential to the health and happiness of new-created man:—"Behold I have given to you, even every herb bearing seed which is upon
