The kind of food a man eats, and the time and manner of his eating it, are not merely a question of medicine, but one of the first questions of morals. The effects of food on the passions and feelings are thus described by Prior: “Observe the various operations Of food and drink in several nations; Was ever Tartar fierce and cruel Upon the strength of water gruel? But who shall stand his rage and force When first he rides, then eats, his horse? Salads and eggs and lighter fare, Tune the Italian spark’s guitar; And if I take Don Confrere right, Pudding and beef make Britons fight.” If, therefore, our meat has something to do with our morals, or if our food in some way affects our faith, it seems to me that many of our efforts at moral reform ought to be preceded by instruction in hygiene. In other words, efforts to make a man genuinely devotional ought to be prefaced by efforts to correct bad dietetic habits. A father, by prayer and precept and flogging, had done his best to reform his boy, whose staple diet was meat and sausage and pie and cake at his meals, with lunch between. The family physician said to the father, “If you will put a leech back of each of your boy’s ears once a week for a month, you will do more to reform him than your preaching and pounding will do in a year.” The father asked for the philosophy of this prescription. “Why,” said the doctor, “your boy has bad blood, and too much of it; he must behave badly or he would burst.” “Then,” said the father, “I’ll change his diet from beef and pie to hominy and milk.” In three months thereafter a better boy for his age could not be found in the neighborhood. The acrid, biting, evil blood had not become food for leeches, but it had done its wicked work and passed away, and a cooler, blander, purer, safer blood had been supplied from sweeter, gentler food sources. In your use of animal food be very particular as to quality and quantity. Lamb and mutton are considered the most healthy by the authorities. Avoid as you would contagion the use of pork, unless you raise it yourselves, and feed it with good grain, and not the refuse of the house or barn, and keep the animals as clean as you do your pet dogs. Never fry your meat with hogs’ lard, but stew, bake, boil, or broil it. Use hogs’ lard in no form for cooking. Most of it is said to be reeking with scrofulous elements. Displace it in _all_ your cooking by milk or butter. If you want to aid and not hinder the growth of your soul Godward, if you desire to have pure thoughts and a pure heart and a pure life, see that you make your blood out of pure food, or you will find that your soul will have an enemy within the castle of its body more treacherous and deadly than any of its enemies without.