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no divine injunction for the time to be spent in that service, though the practice of it is clearly revealed. It may be needful to observe, however, that care should be taken to prevent any inconvenience arising either rom the length or shortness of time set apart or the performance of so reasonable a service.
The hour in which this duty should be performed, is not particularly enjoined. I could suggest, however, that, in the evening, it ought, if possible, to be done before supper: because the animal frame is the less uncumbered, not so liable to drowsiness, and more at liberty to exert itself with vigour. Every man must be sensible that even necessary food, when first taken, has a natural tendency to blunt the operations of the mind in religious duties; and if some persons be not susceptible of inconvenience as others, yet think its influence must be more or less experienced by all; if, therefore, one moment be more favourable to devotion than another, ought to be embraced; for as one expresses
