Whilst the rooms of our house are filled with air, it is otherwise with water, which we require in less degree than air. If we have not the artificial means by which water is brought to our houses, through the pipes of a water company, there is a spring or a pump in the garden; or in the absence of these, a good sound cask, standing at the end of our house, forming a receptacle to the water-pipes that surround it, provides us with a supply of water distilled from the clouds. If we were to drink a good draught of water once a day, that would be sufficient for all the purposes of life, as far as regards the alimentary uses of water. Man is, therefore, allowed to go to the stream for his drink, and is required to raise it to his lips at those moments when he uses it. Although, in breathing, man separates the _oxygen_ of the air from the _nitrogen_ thereof, he does not separate the _oxygen_ of the water from the _hydrogen_. Water, in fact, undergoes no change in the body, excepting that of admixture with the substances of the body. And its uses are, to moisten, to cool, to cleanse, and also to nourish the parts with which it comes in contact. But it affords no nourishment of itself; it mixes with the blood, of which it forms a material part, and is the means of conveying _the nourishment of the blood_ to every part of the system. After it has filled this office, and taken up impurities that are required to be removed, it is cast out of the system again, without undergoing any chemical change. Man's body is to his Soul, in many respects, what a house is to its occupant. But how superior is the dwelling which God erected, to that which man has built. Reader, come out of yourself, and in imagination realise the abstraction of the Soul from the body. Make an effort of thought, and do not relinquish that effort, until you fancy that you see your image seated on a chair before you. And now proceed to ask yourself certain questions respecting your bodily tenement--questions which, perchance, have never occurred to you before; but which will impress themselves the more forcibly upon you, in proportion as you realise for a moment the idea of your Soul examining the body which it inhabits. There sits before you a form of exquisite proportions, with reference to the mode of life it has to pursue--the wants of the Soul for which it has to care, and which it has to guard, under the direction of that Soul, its owner and master.