I had
no idea that I needed rest or recreation. It never entered into my mind
that I could get to the end of my mental strength, and when I was
actually exhausted,--when I had wearied both body and mind to the
utmost, so that writing and even reading became irksome to me, I still
accused myself of idleness, instead of suspecting myself of weariness. I
wonder that I lived. If my constitution had not been sound and elastic
to the last degree, I should have worn myself out, and been silent in
the dust, more than thirty years ago.

7. All the time that I was laboring to correct and enlarge my views of
Christian truth and duty, I was endeavoring to improve my way of
speaking and writing. I wished, of course, to be able to speak and write
correctly and forcibly, but what I longed for most of all, was to be
able to speak with the greatest possible plainness and simplicity to the
poorer and less favored classes. If there were things in Christianity
that were inexplicable mysteries, I had no wish to meddle with them at
all; if there was nothing but what was explicable, I wished to be able
to speak in such a manner as to make the whole subject of religion plain
to them. My belief was that there were _not_ any inexplicable mysteries
in Christianity; that though there were doctrines in Christianity which
had been mysteries in earlier times, they were mysteries now no longer,
but revelations; that the things which were inexplicable mysteries,
belonged to God, and that none but things that were revealed belonged to
us. My impression was, that all things spiritual could be made as plain
to people of common sense and honest hearts, as things natural; that all
that was necessary to this end, was first to separate from Christianity
all that was _not_ Christianity, and secondly, to translate Christianity
out of Latin and Greek, Hebrew and Gibberish, into the language of the
common people.

To qualify myself for this work of translation was the next great object
of all my studies. Paul regarded the unnecessary use of unknown tongues
in the assemblies of the Church, as a great nuisance. He demanded that
everything said in those assemblies, should be spoken in a language that
all could understand. Whether men prayed, or sang, or preached, he
insisted that they should do it in such a manner as to make themselves
intelligible. His remarks on this subject are the perfection of wisdom,
and deserve more attention from religious teachers than the