Waking the Brothers at the Right Hour

The one entrusted with the duty of calling the brothers to the assembly for worship, and with the care of the service, should not presume to wake them for their daily vigils irregularly, as he pleases, or as he happens to wake in the night, or as the chance of his own sleep or sleeplessness may incline him. Even though daily habit may keep him waking at the usual hour, he should still find the right hour for the service by checking often and carefully by the course of the stars, and only then call them to the office of prayer. Otherwise he may be found careless in one of two ways: either, overcome by sleep, he lets the proper hour of the night go by; or, wanting to go to bed and impatient for his sleep, he calls them too early, and so may be thought to have looked after his own rest instead of attending to the spiritual office and to the rest of all the others.