Wesley and His Preachers.
He prescribed the minutest rules of life for them, even such as concerned their physical habits. He found that some became "nervous" more probably by too much work than by too little, though he thought otherwise. He gave them advice on the subject, "Touch no strong drink, tobacco, or snuff. Eat very light, if any, supper. Breakfast on nettle or orange-peel tea. Lie down before ten; rise before46five. Every day use as much exercise as you can bear; or murder yourself by inches." "These rules," he adds, "are as necessary for the people as the preachers." He interrogated them closely in his printed Minutes about their habits. "Do you," he asked, "deny yourselves every useless pleasure of sense, imagination, honor? Are you temperate in all things?—to take one for instance, in food? Do you use only that kind, and that degree, which is best both for the body and soul? Do you see the necessity of this? Do you eat no flesh suppers! no late suppers? These naturally tend to destroy bodily health. Do you eat only three meals a day? If four are you not an excellent pattern to the flock? Do you take no more food than is necessary at each meal? You may know, if you do, by a load at your stomach, by drowsiness or heaviness, and, in a while, by weak or bad nerves. Do you use only that kind and that degree of drink which is best both for your body and soul?—Dr. Steven's History of Methodism.