at all fast unto me, even to me?" (Zech. vii. 5.) The severe reproofs our Saviour gave the hypocritical Pharisees of his day, who disfigured their faces that they might appear unto men to fast; (Matt. vi. 16.) and his implied disapprobation of him, who boastingly said, "I fast twice in the week," (Luke xviii. 12.) may convince us, that God regards the state of the heart, and requires it to accord with the external expressions of mourning.

We may judge of the importance of looking to the state of the heart, by considering that it is possible to engage in this duty, not only without obtaining benefit, but, as is the case in the perversion of other duties, to our own condemnation; for, as one observes, "Experience shews us that men may be very severe to their bodies, and yet favourable to their lusts, The Pharisees indeed fasted often, but they were very ravenous in another kind, they devoured widows' houses. It is possible that men may kill themselves by corporal austerities, and yet never mortify one lust; they may submit to a thousand penances, and yet never truly repent of one sin; they may turn pilgrims, and go as far as Jerusalem to visit our Saviour's sepulchre, and yet never know the power of his death."

It does not appear that the efficacy of fasting depends on the length of its continuance. Had this been the case, the Scriptures no doubt would have furnished us with some rule whereby to regulate the length of our fasts. A great difference seems to have formerly prevailed on this subject, as some fasted one day, and others several days. The silence of scripture upon the particular length of time our fasts should continue, leaves us at liberty to conclude that we must determine this

point by the magnitude of the calamity we deplore, and our physical ability to endure fasting: in this, however, we must exert great faithfulness of spirit, lest self-indulgence should prevail over duty.

Fasts may be of either a public or private sort. An attentive reader of the Bible will find that some therein mentioned were national and general, as was that on the day of atonement, (Lev. xxiii. 27.) and that others were of a more private kind, and observed sometimes by a few persons only, as the Jews who were resident in Shushan in the time of Queen Esther; (Est. iv. 16.) but more frequently they were limited to a single individual: such were the fasts of David, (2 Sam. xii. 16.); Daniel, (Dan. ix. 3.); Anna, (Luke ii. 37.) and Cornelius, (Acts x. 30.) From these instances we may discover that the benefit of the observance is not confined to either public or private, social or solitary fasting; but is diffused through them all, to the souls of such as properly regard it.

Such is the view of the subject of religious fasting, which, by the help of the sacred Scriptures, we have been able to take. From the recorded good effects of those fasts observed by the faithful in ages past, as well as from the testimony of such as have kept them in more recent times, it is presumed that he who solemnly and sincerely devotes a portion of his time to the exercise of fasting, and observes it, by not only abstaining from food, but by prayer, serious examination of the word of God, almsgiving, and humbling of the spirit before the Lord, will find it an important auxiliary in warring the good warfare, and prevailing over the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh. But to make this the more apparent, we shall

Thirdly, CONSIDER ITS DESign.

The institution of any rite by the Divine Being, is a tacit proof of its importance; for infinite wisdom, in connexion with infinite love, so directs his proceedings, that he cannot lay an unnecessary burden upon any of his creatures. Supremely happy in himself, he wills the happiness of all his creatures; and to the accomplishment of this object, all his intercourse with man is directed; for this purpose alone, commandments have been given and observances enjoined.

It not unfrequently happens that the reasons for particular enactments are concealed from our view, and we are left to conjecture the design which God intends to accomplish by them; but we must remember that such enactments are neither less binding nor less important because their object is not discoverable by us. In the present world we are called to "walk by faith;" and let our knowledge be as extensive as it possibly can be in this life, we shall know but "in part" the designs and purposes of an infinite intelligence. With this

partial knowledge we must content ourselves till the period arrives when "we shall know, even as we are known." "What I do," said Jesus Christ to his inquisitive disciple," thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter."

It does not follow, however, that because our knowledge is small, we are not to employ it as far as it will go. If God does not tell us every reason for a particular appointment, he generally communicates some of them; and when this is the case, he requires us to make them the subjects of consideration and reflection; to think and pray over them, till, from a full conviction of their

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utility, we say, Just and true are thy ways, O thou king of saints."

Sometimes the particular design of the Almighty, though not entirely concealed, does not appear at once upon the face of revelation. In such cases

we have to " dig for it, as for silver," to compare one passage with another, and draw conclusions regulated by both; to look at the operation of a particular commandment on those who have preceded us in the way of religion, to consider well the peculiar bent of mind in those who have been under such an ordinance; and from these, and many such observations, to elicit the intentions of God, as far as they can be known. By an attention to these methods, we shall be able to arrive at some of the probable designs of God in instituting the rite of fasting, and of the purpose men have had in view in observing it.

It was the opinion of some of the early christian writers, that fasting was intended to be a memento and penitential acknowledgment of the first offence. That offence was committed by eating what was forbidden; man therefore acknowledges the crime by abstaining from eating what is allowed. This interpretation, however, goes on the supposition that the rite of fasting is as old as the time of Adam, which is a matter of pure conjecture, and consequently cannot be very strongly insisted

on.

The conjecture is, however, in the estimation of some, far from being contemptible.

That fasting was designed to be an expression of intense sorrow, is evident from the circumstances connected with its use in those instances the inspired penmen have recorded. This, indeed, seems to be the way in which nature, unaided by revelation or devotion, would conduct herself. When the mariners who sailed with the persecuted apostle, had nothing before them but the prospect of a watery grave, for fourteen days "they continued fasting." (Acts xxvii. 33.) It is not to be

wondered at, then, that when a person is concerned for the eternal interests of his soul, he should express his sorrow for sin in the same way; and that this should especially be the case with one just brought to a sense of his awful condition by nature, and yet without a saving interest in the Redeemer. The state of such a soul is strikingly depicted in one of the Homilies, in the following words: "When men feel in themselves the heavy burden of sin, see damnation to be the reward of it, and behold with the eye of the mind the horror of hell, they tremble, they quake, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart for their offences, and cannot but accuse themselves, and open this their grief to Almighty God, and call upon him for mercy. This being done seriously, their mind is so occupied, partly with sorrow and heaviness, partly with an earnest desire to be delivered from this danger of hell and damnation, that all desire of meat and drink is laid apart, and loathsomeness of all worldly things and pleasures cometh in place; so that nothing then liketh them more than to weep, to lament, to mourn, and both with words and behaviour of body, to shew themselves weary of this life." (Homily on Fasting, Part I.) Such was the sorrow the Lord designed the Israelites to express in the great day of atonement; and such was the overpowering distress of Saul of Tarsus after the vision on the way to Damascus, when he was three days without sight, and did neither eat nor drink." (Acts ix. 9.) Such sorrow, and such an expression of it, become every sinner, and will not be considered too severe by such as have their spiritual senses exercised to perceive the heinousness of sin, its infinite offensiveness in the sight of God, and the sufferings it has cost that "Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world."