for intellectual improvement, for
exercise and amusement, for social enjoyments, and for benevolent and
religious duties. And it is the _right apportionment_ of time, to these
various duties, which constitutes its true economy.

In making this apportionment, we are bound by the same rules, as relate
to the use of property. We are to employ whatever portion is necessary
to sustain life and health, as the first duty; and the remainder we are
so to apportion, that our highest interests, shall receive the greatest
allotment, and our physical gratifications, the least.

The laws of the Supreme Ruler, when He became the civil as well as the
religious Head of the Jewish theocracy, furnish an example, which it
would be well for all attentively to consider, when forming plans for
the apportionment of time and property. To properly estimate this
example, it must be borne in mind, that the main object of God, was, to
preserve His religion among the Jewish nation; and that they were not
required to take any means to propagate it among other nations, as
Christians are now required to extend Christianity. So low were they, in
the scale of civilization and mental developement, that a system, which
confined them to one spot, as an agricultural people, and prevented
their growing very rich, or having extensive commerce with other
nations, was indispensable to prevent their relapsing into the low
idolatries and vices of the nations around them.

The proportion of time and property, which every Jew was required to
devote to intellectual, benevolent, and religious purposes, was as
follows:

In regard to property, they were required to give one tenth of all their
yearly income, to support the Levites, the priests, and the religious
service. Next, they were required to give the first fruits of all their
corn, wine, oil, and fruits, and the first-born of all their cattle, for
the Lord's treasury, to be employed for the priests, the widow, the
fatherless, and the stranger. The first-born, also, of their children,
were the Lord's, and were to be redeemed by a specified sum, paid into
the sacred treasury. Besides this, they were required to bring a
freewill offering to God, every time they went up to the three great
yearly festivals. In addition to this, regular yearly sacrifices, of
cattle and fowls, were required of each family, and occasional
sacrifices for certain sins or ceremonial impurities. In reaping their
fields, they were required