"_Cleanliness is next to godliness_" (Vol. iv., p. 256.).--The author of
the Epistle to the Hebrews says (ch. x. v. 22.):
"Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies
washed with pure water."
It has long been my opinion that the proverb in question arose from the
above text, in which _a pure conscience_, a necessary condition of
_godliness_, is immediately followed by an injunction to _cleanliness_.