the cradle and the birthplace of their fanaticism, hoping to find a grave far from the grasp of the Christian. You will find that so utterly dried up has Mahometanism become in Turkey in Europe, that there are now upwards of nine millions of Christians, and not above two millions and a half of Mahometans. You find the Sultan conducting the British ambassador's wife to the ball-room, and, if not taking a part in it himself, at least a spectator of the scene. Such a thing never occurred before since Mahometanism started on its missionary propagandism. Though Russia may not take possession, if left alone Mahometanism will die out in Europe; and the instant the last pool of the overflowing of the waters of the Euphrates has evaporated, we may expect the great Western superstition to reach the eve of its destruction also. We must, indeed, justly conclude, with the learned and pious nobleman to whom I have before referred, that we are at this moment on the eve of stupendous events, the first shock of which we had in 1848; the last shock of which God only knows where and to whom it will extend. The only thing for us to do is, out of the midst of the storm to draw hope from heaven, and to lift up our heads, for our redemption draweth nigh.* * See "The Great Tribulation,” and “Apocalyptic Sketches." FASTING AND PRAYER. CHAPTER IX. WE have, first of all, Daniel as a suppliant at the throne of the heavenly grace, approaching God in the name of Christ, the only Messiah-in words so humble, so spiritual, so evangelical, so expressive of the deep wants of a broken heart, uttered in the ear of a prayer-hearing God, that I know no liturgy, from Genesis to Revelation, more spiritual, more expressive, more appropriate than this. He begins by stating: "I understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem." These years were consumed in Babylon, after which the Jews were partially restored to their land; and the desolation denounced upon them for their sins, and experienced by them, so far came to an end. But Daniel saw far beyond this; and therefore he says, "I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes." Here are the three elements of humiliation. Many people think that fasting is a duty obligatory in the present day. I cannot see that in the sense of simple abstinence from food it is in the least obligatory as a duty nay, I venture to assert, what perhaps you will not at first sight see the force of, that in the whole New Testament Scripture there is not a single command to fast, in the sense of abstaining from food. Those that say that fasting is obligatory in its outward, ceremonial, and material aspect, ought to fast fully. What was a fast, a ceremonial fast? First, abstinence from food; secondly, sackcloth upon the body; thirdly, ashes sprinkled upon the head. Now to fast is not simply to abstain from food; that is but the third part of a fast in its ceremonial sense; and anybody who contends that abstinence from food is obligatory, must take all, and hold that wearing sackcloth and pouring ashes on the head are alike obligatory. If you will have the ceremonial fast to be obligatory now, you must not take one third of it, and give up two thirds. On what authority do you repudiate two thirds? You must accept the whole formula, or you must do, what I contend is the legitimate, and scriptural, and just construction of the thing, observe it in the spirit, and not in the letter. Then you say, What is meant by observing it in the spirit? First of all, what I said, there is no command to fast ceremonially in the New Testament. But does not our Lord say, "When ye fast, be not as the hypocrites" does not that imply that fasting is obligatory? No: he assumes the existing Jewish usage, not yet repealed, to be lawful, and explains it. So, in the same manner, when he says, "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift,"— that does not mean that an altar and gifts thus connected are obligatory for ever; but he seizes the exist ing usage, and explains the spirit of that usage. So when he says, " When ye fast," that does not assume that fasting, in the sense of wearing sackcloth, casting ashes on the head, and abstaining from food, is obligatory always; he accepts the existing custom as a fact he breaks the shell, and shows the kernel or the substance, the meaning and the significance of it. But to prove very plainly that fasting in the ceremonial sense is not obligatory-I mean as far as abstinence from food is concerned-let me refer to Joel. What does Joel do? God tells him to proclaim a fast. But when did he proclaim a fast? In a season of famine; when the whole stay of bread was broken. Do people abstain from food in a famine? They need not a command to abstain from what they cannot get. There is no sense in any such prohibition: it was their suffering that they abstained from food. Then what could be meant by proclaiming a fast in a famine? The meaning and end of the order was humiliation of soul and heart; abstinence from all that detaches the soul from thoughts spiritual, heavenly, holy, and divine. They were already fasting in the sense that they had no food what they were asked to do by Joel was, to fast in that high, and beautiful, and heavenly sense which is the consecration of the heart to God, and the sequestration of it from all earthly and material things. And therefore I understand first, that fasting in its ceremonial sense is not obligatory upon the Christian now; secondly, that fasting in its highest and its most exalted sense is obligatory always; and that the true significance of fasting, as detached from the mere ceremonial clothing, is sequestration from the world's employments, and consecration of the thoughts, the : feelings, the time, the substance, to the worship, and the service, and the study of God, the soul, the Saviour, and heaven. And therefore the true fast consists in the subservience of the highest and holiest ends, by the sacrifice of that in which you have indulged. If I were addressing, for instance, a miser, I would bid. him fast. But how would he fast? By feeding the hungry; by clothing the naked; by not hiding himself from his own flesh. The true fast is the withdrawal of the heart from that which most absorbs it, and the devotion of that heart to the study of that which most concerns it. Such, then, I understand to be the true fast, the fast that God hath chosen; not a fast of mere profession, not a fast of mere ceremony; but far higher than this. Here it is. When the Lord says, Behold, ye fast for strife and debate. Is it such a fast that I have chosen; a day for a man to afflict his soul; is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free; and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?" This is the true way to observe Lent; and not Lent only, but the whole year. 66 What is the practical effect of the compulsory observance of the merely ceremonial fast? In Rome, you are aware, they have first of all the Carnival; where buffoonery, dissipation, and all sorts of intolerable |