PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 BV 85 .L65 1895 
 Lonsdale, Herman Lilienthal 
 1858- 
 sht Lent, past and present 
 

 
 
 
 
 f?%^^.',»?3irrai^, 'i^-s 
 
p- 
 
LENT 
 PAST AND PRE SENT 
 
 A STUDY OF THE PRIMITIVE ORIGIN OF LENT, 
 ITS PURPOSE AND USAGES 
 
 BY 
 
 HERMANN LILIENTHAL, M. A. 
 
 WITH AN introduction' BY 
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS, D.D, LL. D., 
 
 Bishop of Connecticut. 
 
 flew ]J)ot:ft 
 THOMAS WHITTAKER 
 
 2 AND 3 Bible House 
 1895 
 
Copyright, 1895 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS WHITTAKER 
 
 THE CAXTON PRESS 
 NEW YORK 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE, 
 
 Much has been written on the history of Lent, 
 its purpose, its uses and abuses. And still there is 
 room for more, and the present volume is intended 
 to meet what is believed to be a popular want. 
 
 There is always danger that any positive ordi- 
 nance, or any institution may come to be considered 
 as an end in itself, and not as a means to a great 
 moral end. In such case, the means are in the 
 first place exaggerated, and then in the reaction 
 the means are disparaged and, oftentimes, aban- 
 doned. It is a matter of the utmost importance to 
 keep the balance true between these two extremes, 
 and it seems to me this is accomplished in the fol- 
 lowing pages. 
 
 Besides this, the whole "study," as the writer 
 modestly terms it, contains a vast amount of useful 
 
4 Introductory Note. 
 
 information, presented in a plain and attractive 
 way ; information that cannot fail of being practi- 
 cally useful. 
 
 I gladly and cordially commend this volume to 
 the careful attention of those who desire to under- 
 stand the history and uses of an institution which is 
 to-day commended and, to a certain extent imitated 
 in quarters where it was once strongly denounced. 
 
 J. Williams. 
 
 Middletown^ Conn., 
 August 17, 1894. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 The present book has grown out of the needs of 
 the writer ministering in a suburban parish, to 
 investigate more fully the early origin of Lent, its 
 purpose and primitive usages ; and inasmuch as he 
 knows of no single work which covers exactly the 
 same ground, he ventures to hope the present pub- 
 lication will not be found unnecessary. 
 
 The Lectures here printed were delivered as 
 Sermons on the Sunday mornings of last Lent, 
 which will account for the instances of direct 
 address. These by advice have been retained. 
 
 The general title of the book, " Lent — Past and 
 Present," will indicate its scope. Not only are the 
 primitive origin, the purpose, and the usages of 
 Lent traced, but an attempt has also been made to 
 apply to our times the principles underlying the 
 institution of Lent. 
 
6 Preface, 
 
 ' It is hoped that this book will be found helpful 
 to clergymen pressed for time ; to lay readers who 
 may wish to give connected instructions during 
 Lent on its origin, etc., to the congregations under 
 their charge ; and also to earnest laymen and lay- 
 women who desire to know more of the early origin 
 and usages of Lent than is generally known. 
 
 Owing to the popular character of the book it 
 has been deemed inexpedient to give footnote 
 references for the many quotations. It is needless 
 to say that the author is under deepest obligations 
 to Bingham's Antiquities; and among many more 
 authorities to such fathers as St. Chrysostom and 
 St. Augustine. 
 
 The pleasant duty remains to the author to here 
 publicly express his thanks to the Presiding Bishop 
 of the Church, who has most kindly written an 
 Introductory Note ; also for the great privilege 
 which during three years the writer enjoyed of the 
 reverend prelate's instructions, and for many other 
 kindnesses since continued. 
 
 H. L. 
 Wethersfield, Conn.^ 
 August 22, 1894. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 I. 
 
 THE PRIMITIVE ORIGIN OF LENT. 
 
 The variety of usages in regard to festivals and fasts. 
 Study of their variation. The Lenten fast. Some of 
 its names. Its early origin. Probable origin in the 
 last years of the first century; reasonable certainty 
 of its origin at the beginning of the second century. 
 Origin traceable to St. John through Polycarp. 
 Probable original length of the fast. Its gradual ex- 
 tension to thirty-six days and next to forty. Rea- 
 sons therefor. Ash-Wednesday. Institution of the 
 fast ? Whether of divine, apostolical, or ecclesiasti- 
 cal appointment.? Summary. Present day reasons 
 for the fast. . . . . . 13-35 
 
 II. 
 
 THE PRIMITIVE PURPOSE OF LENT. 
 
 Originally intended as a season of mourning for the 
 death and burial of the Saviour. Next to revive the 
 fast declining piety and devotion of Christians. 
 This decline due to alliance of Church with State. 
 Still another purpose to prepare the negligent and in- 
 different for the Easter Communion. Also a time 
 for preparing catechumens >for baptism. Once more 
 
8 Contents, 
 
 a time of special discipline for penitents who were 
 expecting absolution in Holy Week. The likeness 
 of the present day needs to those of the primitive 
 Christians render necessary the continuance of the 
 Lenten season. • . , , 39-58 
 
 III. 
 
 LENTEN OBSERVANCES. 
 
 Diversity of usage consistent with apostolic liberty. Dif- 
 ference of customs in the primitive Church in regard 
 to observance of Easter. Reasons for variation of 
 practices and usages in ante-Nicene period, due {a) 
 to the Christian faith being proscribed, [b] to the 
 consequent need of non-publicity, {c) to the lack of 
 centralization and unity of organization, and {d) to 
 the practical necessity of local self-government of the 
 churches. Nicene Council a turning point in 
 Church organization, and the nascent approximation 
 to unity of usage. The Lenten usages — chiefly post- 
 Nicene — considered under three heads. I. Ecclesi- 
 astical ; II. Civil ; III. Domestic. L Ecclesiastical, 
 (a) multiplied services, {b) increased celebrations, 
 (<:) prohibition of celebration of festivals of martyrs 
 except they fall on Saturday and Sunday, II. Civil, 
 {a) cessation of law business, {b) closing of the 
 courts, ((f j bodily punishments forbidden. III. Do- 
 mestic, {a) fasting, {b) prohibition of birthday cel- 
 ebrations, and marriages, (r) abstinence from games, 
 theatres, etc. Present day attitude to these early 
 usages is to be manifested in an adaptation of the 
 principles underlying these former observances to 
 modern needs and environment. . . 61-86 
 
Contents. 9 
 
 IV. 
 
 FASTING. 
 
 Difference of opinion on the subject of fasting. This 
 practice not exclusively Christian, but widely adopted 
 among Orientals, Mohammedans, etc. Fasting dur- 
 ing Lent in the early Church. I. Time,— how long 
 daily, how many days weekly ? II. Food— varieties, 
 quality, quantity. Examples of the abuse of the 
 spirit in observance of the letter. The principle of 
 fasting in the early Church one of great elasticity. 
 Its purpose twofold, in relation {a) to the individual, 
 {b) to others. Patristic rebuke of the abuse of fast- 
 ing. Modern application. No definite hard and fast 
 rule possible. Need of wide allowance and adapta- 
 tion to circumstances, climate, modes of life, etc. 
 Fasting but a special application of the higher princi- 
 ple of abstinence. , . . • 89-112 
 
 V, 
 
 HOLY WEEK. 
 
 Special usages of this week. Names of this week. Gen- 
 eral observances of the week {a) greater strictness 
 in self-denial, fasting, etc., {b) greater liberality in 
 almsgiving {c) week of rest for servants, {d) a time 
 for manumission of slaves, {e) courts closed, (/) 
 prisoners liberated. Observances of certain days. 
 Maundy Thursday, [a] its names, {b) the practice 
 of feet-washing, {c) the institution of the Last Sup- 
 per, and Evening Communion, {d) the public recita- 
 tion of the Creed by catechumens for baptism, {e) 
 the solemn ablutions of catechumens preliminary to 
 
10 Contents. 
 
 baptism, (/) the absolution of penitents, {g) day for 
 servants to receive the communion. The ancient 
 usages not all of utility, or of practical application to- 
 day. Advice of Gregory the Great to Augustine, first 
 archbishop of Canterbury, in regard to the adaptation 
 of diverse usages and rites to local needs. . 1 15-135 
 
 VI. 
 
 HOLY WEEK. 
 
 Special usages continued. Good Friday, (a) Its names, 
 {b) day kept with great solemnity, fasting and 
 prayer, {c) day of general indulgence, [d) the practice 
 of the administration of Holy Communion on this 
 day — ancient and modern usage contrasted. The 
 Great Sabbath {a) its names; its twofold aspect — 
 of humiliation, of rejoicing {/') its Lenten aspect, 
 strictness of fasting, etc., {c) this night kept as a 
 vigil, {d) its joyful aspect ; the illuminations of this 
 night, — their significance. (<?) The special day for 
 baptism — reasons for this practice. Summary of 
 study. Two leading thoughts, ist, Lent depend- 
 ent on certain permanent principles, and 2d., The 
 usages of Lent are {a) some of them only tem- 
 porary and therefore may be disused, {b) some appli- 
 cable to our modern life. The use and abuse of 
 Lent. Use of Lent in two aspects {a) to the indi- 
 vidual, {b) to the Church and world. Abuse of 
 Lent. Its perfunctoriness ; its lack of continuity 
 with the past and future, etc. Closing exhorta- 
 tion. ,...,, 139-161 
 
I. 
 
 The Primitive Origin of Lent. 
 
LENT-PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE PRIMITIVE ORIGIN OF LENT. 
 
 One man esteemeth one day above another : another 
 esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully per- 
 suaded in his own mind. Rojuatis xiv. 5. 
 
 TN the Christian world to-day there is such a 
 ■*■ variety of usage as to fasts and festivals, or 
 to absence of them altogether, that the minds 
 of many might easily be confused as to their 
 validity or utility. One Christian body claims 
 right for its usage, another for its usage, and 
 still another would claim liberty to observe no 
 day of festival or fast whatsoever. 
 
 What then in the face of this diversity are 
 we to do ? The course most reasonable to 
 take for our guidance seems to be the apostolic 
 precept " Let every man be fully persuaded in 
 
14 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 his own mind." We may premise at the out- 
 set that we have nothing to do with the usages 
 of other Christian bodies. We are concerned 
 with our own festivals and fasts. Are we, how- 
 ever, fully persuaded as to their authority and 
 their utility? If we are faithful communicants 
 we will in all probability accept the usages of 
 the Church of which we are members. Yet, 
 notwithstanding the Church's appointment of 
 festival and fast, we wish also to know, if we 
 can, the reasons for such appointment, that 
 when we are questioned by others who keep 
 not our days and esteem them not as we do, we 
 may be able to give an answer ; yes, a reason- 
 able answer, to him who questions us. For our 
 own sake, to confirm us in our attachment to 
 our own observances, and also for the sake of 
 those who know nothing of our Church and her 
 ways, we wish and ought to be fully instructed 
 and fully established. 
 
 It will be my purpose, therefore, during the 
 Sunday mornings of this Lenten season to 
 study with you the origin, purpose and observ- 
 
The Primitive Origin of Lent. 1 5 
 
 ance of Lent. I shall endeavor to study the 
 subject historically, forming no theories, and 
 twisting no facts to fit theories. If theories do 
 not agree with facts then theories must go. 
 Any study to be worth anything must be 
 honest. We must not form opinions and then 
 try to fit facts to these opinions. We will 
 endeavor neither to stretch statements nor cur- 
 tail them. Thus only shall we reach any result 
 that will be at all satisfactory. The search, and 
 the end of all inquiring is truth. Knowl- 
 edge itself is of value only in so far as it leads 
 to truth ; and even faith is worthless only as 
 it leads to God. 
 
 To-day we will consider the institution of 
 the Lenten fast — its early origin, duration, 
 gradual extension, and by whom instituted. 
 
 L But first let us consider several of the 
 names of the Lenten fast. 
 
 The earliest name given to this fasting sea- 
 son seems to be Quadragesima — the Latin 
 equivalent for the Greek term — or the Quadra- 
 gesimal Fast, referring to its length, "but 
 
l6 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 whether for its being a fast of forty days or 
 only forty hours " is a point on which differ- 
 ence of opinion has existed. 
 
 Another name given to this season is the 
 Ante-Paschal Fast, referring to the fact that 
 ** from the very first age it was customary to 
 fast before Easter" — the paschal feast or pass- 
 over. 
 
 Still another name is the one with which we 
 are most familiar, viz. Lent. This name of 
 the season is supposed to be *' derived from 
 the old English word for Spring ' Lencten, * 
 meaning perhaps, the time when the days 
 lengthen." 
 
 Not to enter into a more detailed examina- 
 tion we have these three names : Quadrages- 
 ima, referring to the length of the fast whether 
 according to hours or days ; Ante-Paschal fast, 
 referring to the position of the fast in the 
 Christian year ; and Lent, referring to its posi- 
 tion in the natural year. 
 
 IL Having considered some of the names 
 of the season, we are now ready to consider 
 
TJie Primitive Origin of Lent. 17 
 
 the origin of Lent. The earliest reference we 
 have to it is in a letter preserved by Eusebius 
 in his Church History. Eusebius, who was 
 born about the year 260 A. D., quotes in his 
 history (Book v. ch. 24) a passage from a 
 letter of Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons in Gaul, to 
 Victor, Bishop of Rome. The letter was writ- 
 ten in reference to the diversity of usage of 
 keeping Easter in the primitive Church, and 
 incidentally the fact is brought out of the 
 observance of Lent. " For the controversy," 
 writes Irenaeus, "" is not only concerning the 
 day (i. e. Easter) but also concerning the very 
 manner of the fast (/. e. the fast before Easter). 
 For some think that they should fast one day, 
 others two, yet others more ; some moreover 
 count their day as consisting of forty hours, 
 day and night. And this variety in its observ- 
 ance has not originated in our time, but long 
 before in that of our ancestors." Now Iren- 
 aeus, the writer of this letter, was born about the 
 year 130 A. D., and had sat at the feet of 
 Polycarp, who was himself a disciple of St. 
 
1 8 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 John. This is what Irenaeus says of Polycarp : 
 " Polycarp was instructed by apostles, and con- 
 versed with many who had seen Christ ; and 
 I saw him in my early youth." " I can recall 
 the very place where Polycarp used to sit and 
 teach, his manner of speech, his mode of life, 
 his appearance, the style of his address to the 
 people, and the accounts which he gave of his 
 intercourse with (St.) John and with the others 
 who had seen the Lord ; how he used to repeat 
 from memory their discourses, and the things 
 which he had heard from them concerning our 
 Lord, His miracles, and His teaching." And 
 in addition he says, " These things being told 
 me by the mercy of God, I listened to them 
 attentively, noting them down, not on paper, 
 but in my heart." 
 
 I am particular to observe this connection of 
 Irenaeus with Polycarp because it gives us a 
 hint how early must have been the origin of a 
 Lenten fast. Irenaeus was a disciple of Poly- 
 carp, and Polycarp was a disciple of St. John. 
 By spiritual descent we might say Irenaeus was 
 
The Primitive Origin of Lent. 19 
 
 a spiritual grandson of the beloved disciple St. 
 John. In this letter to Victor we further 
 notice, the writer says of the observance of 
 Lent, it " has not originated in our time ; but 
 long before in that of our ancestors." Now as 
 Polycarp was the teacher of Irenseus, we may 
 safely say that a Lenten fast must have been 
 observed as early as the time of this teacher, 
 and this teacher lived in the later years of St. 
 John the apostle. Again, if '' ancestors " refers 
 back to more than one generation, we have 
 then the Lenten fast referred back to St. John, 
 the teacher of Irenaeus. It seems reasonable 
 and worthy of credit therefore, that some 
 Lenten or ante-paschal fast was an established 
 custom at least as early as the beginning of 
 the second century, and perhaps earlier, at the 
 close of the first century in the last years of 
 the beloved disciple himself. 
 
 The place of institution of this fast, connect- 
 ing it as we do with St. John, was, we may 
 believe, in the East, in Ephesus and the cities 
 adjacent. 
 
20 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 Again, we have evidence of the early origin 
 of the Lenten fast in the writings of TertuUian, 
 who lived in the second and third centuries, 
 and who after his perversion to Montanism, in 
 controversy with the primitive Church about 
 fasts, chides it for keeping only the two days 
 before Easter. We hear again of the observ- 
 ance of Lent by the allusion of the First 
 General Council held in 325 A. D., and the 
 reference to Lent by this Council tends to con- 
 firm us in the belief that this season had 
 already been long established. In the fifth 
 canon of this Council concerning excommuni- 
 cation, in order that this discipline may not be 
 arbitrarily exercised, it is advised that two 
 synods be held in a year when questions of 
 discipline might be reviewed. In determining 
 the time when these synods shall be held the 
 canon says, '' Let one synod be held before 
 Lent," or, according to the Latinized form of 
 the original Greek, before the Quadragesimal 
 Fast. 
 
 After this First Council had concluded its 
 
The Primitive Origin of Lent. 21 
 
 deliberations the Emperor Constantine wrote 
 an encyclical letter to the bishops of the 
 Church urging uniformity in the observance of 
 Easter, and from this letter we indirectly learn 
 of the universal practice of an ante-paschal 
 fast. Thus the Emperor writes, " Let your 
 pious sagacity, {i. e. the bishop) reflect how 
 evil and improper it is, that days devoted by 
 some to fasting should be spent by others in 
 convivial feasting ; and that after the paschal 
 feast, some are rejoicing in festivals and relax- 
 ations, while others give themselves up to the 
 appointed fasts." By the year 325 A. D. we 
 may say the observance of the Lenten fast 
 was universal in the Church. Its earliest origin, 
 as we have seen, may reach as far back as to 
 the later years of the apostle St. John; but if 
 this early date be questioned, then certainly to 
 the generation of Christians immediately suc- 
 ceeding the apostle one of whose disciples was 
 Polycarp. We may safely say that a Lenten 
 or ante-paschal fast of some kind has been 
 observed continuously in the Christian Church 
 
22 Lent — Past a?id Present. 
 
 from the beginning of the second century down 
 to our time. 
 
 III. We have already seen from the letter 
 of Irenaeus that there was a difference of usage 
 as to the time of keeping, and also as to the 
 length of the fast. Let us now observe what 
 was presumably the original duration of the 
 fast, and how it has been developed to its 
 present length. 
 
 The early historians notice diversity of 
 usage in regard to the fast ; still they lead us to 
 think that originally the Lenten fast was but 
 forty hours long, begun about twelve on Friday 
 before Easter, /. e. Good Friday, and continued 
 till Sunday morning, the time of our Saviour's 
 resurrection. Irenseus, whom we have already 
 mentioned, refers to this fast as '^ the fast of 
 forty hours before Easter.'* It perhaps is only 
 right to notice that a difference of punctuation 
 of this passage from Irenaeus gives us a differ- 
 ent interpretation, viz. that the fast was of 
 forty days, but the general concensus of modern 
 scholars interpreting with the light of the his- 
 
The Primitive Origin of Lent. 23 
 
 torical development of this season thrown upon 
 this passage, favors the rendering " forty hours " 
 rather than " forty days." 
 
 TertuUian also refers to the Lenten fast as 
 coinciding with the two days, the time our 
 Lord lay in the sepulchre, and his allusion to 
 this period leads us to think that in his day the 
 ante-paschal fast was not of more than forty 
 hours in length. We may well believe that 
 the Church, even from apostolic times, observed 
 this season, basing the fast, as TertuUian and 
 others tell us, on the words of our Lord, '* The 
 days will come that the Bridegroom shall be 
 taken from them and then shall they fast." 
 Our examination seems so far to establish the 
 view that at the first the Lenten fast extended 
 only over about forty hours. 
 
 Without being able to trace the gradual in- 
 crease in length of this season, we notice that 
 by the end of the third and beginning of the 
 fourth century the Lenten fast had greatly 
 lengthened ; but even so, though the practice of 
 a fast was universal, there was no absolute unifor- 
 
24 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 mity as to its duration. The historian Socrates 
 writes, " One may observe how the ante-paschal 
 fast is differently observed by men of different 
 churches. The Romans fast three weeks before 
 Easter, only the Sabbaths and Lord's Days 
 excepted ; the Illyrians and all Greece and the 
 Alexandrians fast six weeks ; others {i. e. the 
 Church of Constantinople) begin their fast seven 
 weeks before Easter, but only fast fifteen days 
 by intervals." 
 
 Cassian, another historian, tells us, " Though 
 some churches kept their Lent six weeks, and 
 some seven, yet none of them made their fast 
 above thirty-six days in the whole." Yet not- 
 withstanding the fact that the various churches 
 had different periods for their fast, they all 
 called it the Quadragesimal Fast. So the name 
 Quadragesima is by no means proof positive of 
 the belief of some, that the fast was always one 
 of forty days. In fact, as we have just seen, 
 Cassian says none "' made their fast above 
 thirty-six days in the whole," and the reason 
 given for this period of observance was that it 
 
The Primitive Origin of Lent. 25 
 
 was one tenth of the year, a tithe of time which 
 should be devoted to God. As Christians 
 tithed their alms so should they tithe their 
 year. 
 
 But the variation in the number of weeks 
 kept by different churches leads us to consider 
 the way in which the fast was computed. 
 Thus those who kept six weeks reckoned only 
 thirty-six days for their fast, for from the 
 forty-two days of six weeks was deducted the 
 six Sundays, thus leaving but thirty-six days. 
 Again, those churches which kept seven weeks 
 kept only thirty-six fasting days : for though 
 seven weeks give us forty-nine days, yet all 
 the Saturdays — the Saturday before Easter 
 being excepted — as well as Sundays were taken 
 out ; thus thirteen days were deducted from 
 the forty-nine days, which still made the fast 
 one of thirty-six days. It was the Eastern 
 Church rather than the Western which kept a 
 greater number of weeks, because in the Eastern 
 Church Saturday — the great Sabbath excepted 
 ■ — has never been a fast day, not even in the 
 
26 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 Lenten season. This accounts for the Lenten 
 fast beginning earlier in the Eastern than in the 
 Western Church, and so lasting through a 
 greater number of weeks, though the actual 
 number of fasting days was the same. 
 
 It is interesting to observe the reason given 
 by St. Chrysostom for the exception of Satur- 
 days and Sundays from fasting. ''As there 
 are stations," says he, ''and inns in the public 
 roads, for weary travellers to refresh themselves, 
 and rest from their labors, that they may more 
 cheerfully go on again in their journey ; and 
 as in the sea there are shores and havens for 
 seamen to betake themselves to, when they are 
 in a storm, and refresh themselves from the 
 violence of the winds, and then begin sailing 
 again ; so the Lord hath appointed these two 
 days (Saturday and Sunday) in the week, as 
 stations, and inns, and shores, and havens, for 
 those to rest in who have taken upon them the 
 course of fasting in this holy time of Lent, that 
 they may refresh their bodies a little from the 
 labor of fasting, and recreate their minds, and 
 
The Primitive Origiii of Lent. 27 
 
 after the two days are past, to go on again with 
 cheerfulness in the journey which they have 
 begun." 
 
 But to return to the extension of this season 
 the next advance is to the exact period of 
 forty days which now prevails throughout west- 
 ern Christendom. Who added Ash-Wednes- 
 day and the three days following it to the be- 
 ginning of Lent in the Western Church so as to 
 make the season exactly forty days is not unan- 
 imously agreed upon by historians. " Some 
 say it was the work of Gregory the Great, but 
 others ascribe it to Gregory II., who lived over 
 a hundred years later. " But whichever of these 
 Bishops added the four extra days, they are an 
 addition made to the season some time after it 
 had been an established usage of the Church to 
 observe a Lenten fast, as Cassian has told us, of 
 only thirty-six days. If the four extra days 
 were added by Gregory L, the Lent fast of forty 
 days would not be earlier than the close of the 
 sixth or beginning of the seventh century. If 
 the change was made by Gregory II., then the 
 
28 Le7it — Past and Present. 
 
 practice of a Lent fast of forty days does not 
 antedate 715 A. D. 
 
 But we may see a reason for the change from 
 thirty-six days — the tithe of the year — to forty 
 days. Forty days is a period that occurs 
 frequently in the Bible as a time of fasting and 
 prayer. Moses when first he went up into the 
 mount to receive the Law says of himself, '' I 
 abode in the mount forty days and forty nights. 
 I neither did eat bread nor drink water." 
 Again he says of himself after he had broken 
 the two Tables of the Law because of the 
 idolatry of his people, "■ And I fell down before 
 the Lord as at the first, forty-days and forty 
 nights, I did neither eat bread nor drink water, 
 because of all your sins which ye sinned." So 
 too it is inferred by many that Elijah fasted 
 forty days after he had twice eaten of food 
 prepared for him by an angel, " and went in the 
 strength of that meat forty days and forty 
 nights unto Horeb the mount of God." Briefly 
 to instance a few more Old Testament examples 
 of this number forty : " This was the number of 
 
The Primitive Origin of Lent. 29 
 
 days God covered the earth with the deluge ; 
 this the number of years in which the children 
 of Israel did penance in the wilderness ; and the 
 Ninevites had this number of days allowed for 
 their repentance." But chiefly is the parallel 
 found in the life of our Lord, who, led up of 
 the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted 
 of the devil, " fasted forty days and forty 
 nights." The change then which was made 
 from thirty-six to forty days we may believe 
 was based on the scriptural analogies which 
 have been quoted, and which at the same time 
 made the number of days agree with the name 
 of the season itself — Quadragesima — a name 
 which notwithstanding the variation in the 
 length of the season in different sections of the 
 primitive Church, was indifferently applied. 
 
 It may not be amiss to briefly state how the 
 forty days' fast is computed. Ash-Wednes- 
 day to Easter — a period of six weeks and four 
 days — gives us forty-six days, from which num- 
 ber of days are subtracted the six Sundays in 
 Lent, thus giving us the Lenten fast of forty 
 days. 
 
30 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 Here too a word may be permitted as to the 
 origin of the word Ash-Wednesday. We have 
 learned that originally there was no Ash- 
 Wednesday connected with the Lenten fast. 
 This day was not added, at the earliest, until 
 the time of Gregory I., and it derives its name 
 from the custom which was instituted at the 
 time the day was added of sprinkling ashes 
 upon the heads of penitents to remind them of 
 their mortality. Further, as to this practice 
 we are led to believe that ashes were not 
 sprinkled upon all the worshippers, but only on 
 the heads of those who were penitents, and 
 were under sentence of ecclesiastical discipline. 
 
 IV. We are now in a position to come to the 
 question of the institution of the fast. Is it of 
 divine, apostolic, or ecclesiastical institution ? 
 As to its divine institution we may perhaps 
 say that if the word divine is limited to verbal 
 scriptural precept, then the fast as we observe 
 it to-day cannot claim for itself divine institu- 
 tion. Next we ask what is meant by apostolic 
 institution? If by this term be meant a posi- 
 
The Primitive Origin of Lent. 31 
 
 tive precept of the apostles, again we may say 
 that there is no such direct injunction left to 
 us. Further, the widely varying length of the 
 fast in the early Church would also preclude 
 any apostolical directions. There is left then the 
 third alternative — the ecclesiastical institution 
 of this fast. Historically we notice that " from 
 the first age of the Christian Church it was 
 customary to fast before Easter," a custom 
 which may be reasonably supposed to be 
 derived from scriptural precedent and apos- 
 tolic practice, yet without positive scriptural or 
 apostolic injunction. St. Augustine's summary 
 of the question may assist us here. He says, 
 that *' the authority and foundation which the 
 Lent-fast has out of the Gospel, is the same that 
 it has out of the Old Testament, which was not 
 any precept, but the example of Moses and 
 Elias. And second, that the Lent-fast is owing 
 to the councils of the fathers and the custom 
 of the Church, in like manner as the eight days 
 of the neophytes and the fifty days of Pen- 
 tecost owe their observation to the same 
 
32 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 original." This clearly points to the ecclesias- 
 tical institution of the Lenten-fast. To sum 
 up, we may say that the fact of some fast of 
 varying length before Easter has since apostolic 
 days been observed in God's Church ; but that 
 its duration is nowhere definitely laid down, this 
 detail being left to the several churches. But 
 little by little changes were made until at the 
 last in the Western Church either in the seventh 
 or eighth century the season practically as we 
 observe it to-day was fixed. 
 
 V. Let me now in closing briefly summarize 
 what we have gathered from our study of the 
 origin of Lent. 
 
 Some fast can be traced to the beginning of 
 the second century if not to the close of the first, 
 and so would seem to be of apostolic practice 
 and perhaps precept, though we have no 
 authentic record of its apostolic institution. 
 
 This fast has among other appellations been 
 known by the names of Quadragesima, the 
 Ante-Paschal Fast, and Lent. 
 
 Its length has varied, extending at the first 
 
The Primitive Origin of Lent, 33 
 
 presumably from Good Friday and ending 
 Easter morning — about forty hours. In time 
 this period was lengthened to thirty-six days, 
 and still later in the seventh or eighth century 
 to forty days. 
 
 To draw now a few practical conclusions, if 
 anyone should ask me " Why do you keep 
 Lent ? seeing that you yourself acknowl- 
 edge there is no direct scriptural injunction 
 therefor," my answer would be that since the 
 days of the apostles the Church of God through- 
 out the world has observed a fast preceding 
 Easter. Its length I grant has varied, but now 
 for about 1300 years in Western Christendom 
 ecclesiastical usage has adopted a period of 
 forty days. And this time — set apart for a 
 special season of fasting, penitence, prayer and 
 almsgiving, which in God's providence and 
 mercy has during all the past centuries been 
 blessed by Him as a season of conviction and 
 devotion, of repentance and pardon for the 
 many millions of the sons and daughters of 
 men who have gone before — will I believe be 
 
34 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 blessed to-day to me and to all others who will 
 in the spirit of the holy men and women of old 
 afflict ourselves in like manner, make like hum- 
 ble confession of sins, and come and kneel in 
 the divine presence for pardon and peace. 
 What nourished and brought up saints of old 
 will I believe be found equally able to bring up 
 and nourish saints in these latter days of this 
 nineteenth century ; and so I accept the season 
 of Lent as the Church's appointment for my 
 spiritual needs and wants and for my spiritual 
 edification and sanctification. '' The Church 
 is holier than the holiest of its members, 
 and likewise is wiser than the wisest of her 
 members." And because the spiritual needs of 
 men and women to-day are just as pressing as 
 in the earliest day of the Christian Church and 
 Christian life, because we sin the same sins, 
 and are in need of like penitence as the men 
 and women of old, and because what can be 
 done at any time is usually done at no time, I 
 as a loyal son and member accept this stated 
 definite provision of the Church for a special 
 
TJie Primitive Origin of Lent. 35 
 
 season of penitence and prayer not only for the 
 whole Church, but also for me individually. 
 And because, brethren, your needs are the 
 same as mine, I commend this present season 
 of Lent to your acceptance, in order that you 
 too by special and sincere self-examination, by 
 increased prayer, and by deeper penitence may 
 go on from strength to strength, and increase 
 in grace and holiness, without which we none 
 shall see the Lord. 
 
II. 
 
 The Primitive Purpose of Lent. 
 
II. 
 
 THE PRIMITIVE PURPOSE OF LENT. 
 
 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the 
 house of God. i Peter iv. 17. 
 
 'T^HE history of the origin of Lent, when 
 ■'■ instituted, and the gradual lengthening 
 of the season, we have already considered. 
 We now come to the consideration of the 
 object or purpose of its institution. Why was 
 the Lenten season established and what was 
 its aim ? This is the question we shall now 
 endeavor to answer. 
 
 I. The primary reason we find to be the 
 mourning for the death and burial of the 
 Saviour — the remembrance of which naturally 
 occurred to the Church when it made prepara- 
 tion for celebrating the joyful feast of the 
 Resurrection. As it has been said, the reason 
 
40 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 for the original institution was due to '' the 
 apostles' fasting at this time, because the 
 Bridegroom (their Lord) was taken away from 
 them." '' In compliance with which practice, 
 the ancients generally observed those two 
 days in which our Saviour lay in the grave" 
 as a season of mourning. " Of this mourning 
 Lent is the perpetual reminder." From this 
 earliest of reasons that has been given by 
 Church historians for the observance of Lent, 
 we incidentally learn that primitively — at least 
 in the latter part of the first or beginning of 
 the second century — the Lenten fast had no 
 connection or reference to our Lord's fast of 
 forty days in the wilderness. It was later, 
 when the season of Lent had been lengthened, 
 that the connection with our Lord's fast and 
 temptation was advanced. The first reason 
 then for the establishment of this season was 
 connected with the Saviour's crucifixion and 
 burial, not with his earlier life and temptation. 
 '' The primary object of the institution of a 
 fast before Easter was doubtless that of per- 
 
TJie Primitive Purpose of Lent. 41 
 
 petuating in the hearts of every generation of 
 Christians, the sorrow and the mourning which 
 the apostles and disciples felt during the time 
 that the Bridegroom was taken away from 
 them." 
 
 II. This fast of forty hours or two days was 
 at a time however when Christian fervor was 
 deep and lasting. *' And so long/' says Cas- 
 sian, ''as the perfection of the primitive Church 
 remained inviolable there was no observation 
 of Lent [as a period of self-discipline, which is 
 now the radical thought connected with the 
 season.] But when the multitude of believers 
 began to depart from apostoHc devotion, and 
 brood continually upon their riches ; when, 
 instead of imparting them to the common use 
 of all, they labored only to lay them up and 
 augment them for their own private expenses ; 
 then it seemed good to all bishops, by a 
 canonical indiction of fasts, to recall men to 
 holy works, who were bound with secular 
 cares, and had almost forgotten what conti- 
 nency and compunction meant ; and to compel 
 
42 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 them by the necessity of a law, to dedicate the 
 tenth of their time to God." In this state- 
 ment of Cassian we may notice the unde- 
 signed evidence for the ecclesiastical institution 
 of the Lenten fast in its later form. The rea- 
 son then given by Cassian for the institution 
 of the fast is the loss of apostolic fervor and 
 devotion. This decline took place so soon as 
 the Church became connected with the State. 
 When the alliance between the Church and the 
 Empire was formed, the lust of the world crept 
 into the Church. The Master had said, '' My 
 kingdom is not of this world," but his professed 
 disciples, many of them in high places, pre- 
 ferred not to accept or else to disregard this 
 truth. They clutched at temporal power when 
 it came within their reach. When the Church 
 was persecuted by Emperors and officials, and 
 by law, then the Church was pure. Because 
 then as a rule no one would venture to declare 
 himself a Christian who was not so from stern 
 inward conviction and moral necessity, when 
 he knew that such declaration involved the 
 
TJie Primitive Purpose of Lent, 43 
 
 flames, the cross, the lions, banishment, impri- 
 sonment. To be a Christian when the Emper- 
 ors were heathen and frowned upon and 
 persecuted the Church, meant the readiness 
 and willingness to sacrifice not only property 
 but life, family, and everything that man holds 
 dear in this world. The ante-Nicene Church, 
 therefore, was in a measure pure and devoted, 
 consistent and spiritual. But when the 
 Emperor Constantine declared in favor of 
 Christianity ; and the Christian religion from 
 being one of the proscribed and persecuted 
 faiths — fides illicitce — was honored above all 
 others ; then multitudes hastened to join the 
 Church, not because of inward conviction, not 
 because of moral necessity, not because of 
 devotion to Christ, but because the Church 
 meant for them possible imperial favor, aggran- 
 disement, worldly prosperity, outward success, 
 political honor. Men of no moral convictions 
 were willing to profess adherence to the Chris- 
 tian faith, and thus courtiers, libertines, politi- 
 cians, and profligates, all were willing to submit 
 
44 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 to the Church if thereby their several aims were 
 advanced. It was necessary, therefore, to 
 enforce by ecclesiastical injunction some sub- 
 stitute for the civil persecution which was now 
 a thing past and gone. Persecution had pre- 
 served the Church in purity. The fires of 
 martyrdom had refined the Church of dross. 
 Something, even though immeasurably in- 
 adequate, had to take the place of persecu- 
 tion in order to maintain the primitive purity. 
 There was but one course, that was to impose 
 a season of self-discipline on all Christians. 
 No time was more fitting than the fast before 
 Easter. Here too we see a reason why in the 
 growing worldliness and corruption of the 
 Church the season of mourning and fasting 
 which in the sub-apostolic Church was presum- 
 ably but forty hours long, had to be increased 
 to thirty-six and at last to forty days. The 
 need of some severe self-discipline to purify 
 the Church called for a lengthened Lenten 
 fast. 
 
 III. As the Church through imperial favor 
 
The Primitive Purpose of Lent. 45 
 
 and alliance grew impure and lost its apostolic 
 fervor, we can readily see how this loss of zeal 
 would react on the devotions and worship of its 
 members. There is much dispute, and at best 
 uncertainty, whether it ever was the custom 
 of the Church to observe a daily communion. 
 Authorities are to be found for and against 
 such observance. This practice we might say 
 was in some part of the Church observed, and 
 perhaps also for some time, but never we think 
 universally and for all time. But I think it 
 may be conceded that the primitive Church 
 observed a weekly communion, through the 
 period of its purity, and not only was the offer- 
 ing made weekly, but all Christians communi- 
 cated weekly. With the loss of devotion, even 
 though the communion was weekly adminis- 
 tered, yet all Christians did not as formerly 
 partake weekly. Their loss of zeal, their loss 
 of devotion, their lukewarmness caused many 
 to abstain altogether from the Lord's Table, or 
 to approach it as rarely as possible. It became 
 the custom by degrees for some '' to communi- 
 
4^ Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 cate chiefly at Easter"; for others to communi- 
 cate " at no other time but that only." 
 Accordingly the Lenten fast before Easter 
 was appointed as a time for special preparation 
 for communion at Easter, that '' by proper and 
 spiritual exercises those might be duly pre- 
 pared to receive the communion at Easter, 
 who could not be prevailed upon to frequent 
 it at other seasons." St. Chrysostom says of 
 this reason, '' Because men were used to come 
 indevoutly and inconsiderately to the commun- 
 ion, especially at Easter, therefore the Fathers, 
 considering the mischiefs arising from such 
 careless approaches met together, and ap- 
 pointed forty days of fasting : that in these 
 days men, being carefully purified by prayer, 
 and almsdeeds, and fasting, and watching, and 
 tears, and confession of sins, and other like 
 exercises, might come with a pure conscience 
 to the holy table." So again in another place 
 to the same purpose this Father says, *• As they 
 that take great pains to run in a race, reap no 
 advantage if they fail of the prize ; so we have 
 
The Primitive Purpose of Lent. 47 
 
 no benefit from all the labor and pains we 
 bestow upon fasting, unless we can come with 
 a pure conscience to partake of the holy table. 
 For this end we use fasting, and Lent, and 
 assemblies for so many days together, and 
 hearing, and praying, and preaching ; that by 
 our diligence in the use of these means, and 
 regard to the Divine commands, we may wipe 
 off the sins of the whole year that stick to us, 
 and so with spiritual boldness and reverence 
 partake of the unbloody sacrifice." If this be 
 so do we not gather a hint for our own con- 
 duct ? If the Lenten fast was established in 
 the early Church as a preparation for commun- 
 ion at Easter; if all the preaching, services, 
 prayer, fasting, almsgiving were to be means of 
 preparation ; then we see how to-day those of 
 us who expect to communicate at Easter 
 should make use of the Lenten season, how 
 we should take advantage of the opportunitie 
 of the services provided, the opportunities of 
 almsgiving and deeds of mercy and charity 
 which are also offered. Let me say as did the 
 
48 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 sainted Chrysostom of old, the Lenten season 
 is given us for one reason at least, as a time of 
 preparation for our Easter communion ; we are 
 to be made ready by the pains which we now 
 take to come then with a pure conscience : 
 how then I ask can any come on that great 
 festival who neglect the means of preparation 
 now offered at this time of Lent. Consider 
 this you who propose to come to the commun- 
 ion at Easter, and yet think you may neglect 
 the preparation therefor which the Church dur- 
 ing this season affords you. 
 
 IV. Once more, the Lenten fast was made use 
 of — if not originally so designed — in later cen- 
 turies as the special time for preparing cate- 
 chumens or candidates for their baptism on 
 Easter-even. True it is that in the days of 
 the apostles as also with us to-day, baptism 
 was administered at any time. Candidates 
 were not put off by the apostles, but just so 
 soon as they were prepared they baptized 
 them. This is proven by the baptism of about 
 3000 on the first Whitsunday. Again, we 
 
TJie Primitive Purpose of Lent. 49 
 
 notice that the Evangelist Philip after duly 
 preaching Christ to the Eunuch, when they 
 come to some water is asked by him saying, 
 '' See, here is water : what doth hinder one to be 
 baptized?" And believing, he is baptized. So 
 too this same Philip preaching in Samaria con- 
 verts many men and women who believing were 
 baptized. It would be possible to multiply 
 examples to prove that in the apostolic Church 
 men and women were baptized as soon as they 
 professed their belief that Jesus is the Son of 
 God. Yet in course of time it became the prac- 
 tice in the early Church to defer baptism — ex- 
 cept in case of extreme sickness — to Epiphany, 
 Easter, and Pentecost ; but of these three times 
 of baptism Easter was the most celebrated. 
 The reason perhaps why this delay in baptism 
 was ordered seems to be due in great measure 
 to that root of evil which troubled the Church 
 after her connection with the State, viz. the 
 loss of piety, and fervor, and the creeping in of a 
 worldly spirit. Accordingly it seemed best to 
 make catechumens wait, *' to proceed more 
 
50 Lent — Past and Present, 
 
 slowly with the candidates of baptism, both in 
 the instruction and the trial of them because of 
 their dulness, and negligence, and frequent 
 relapses." The season of Lent, therefore, be- 
 came the special season set apart for the 
 instruction of the candidates in the Christian 
 faith. But not only was there at this time 
 something for teachers to do, the candidates 
 themselves were required to pray, and with 
 fasting to beg of God remission of sins. Cyril 
 of Jerusalem, who has left to us some of his 
 catechetical lectures given to catechumens for 
 baptism, thus addresses them concerning Lent : 
 " The present season is a season of confession, 
 all worldly cares are to be laid aside, for you 
 strive for your souls. You that have been 
 busy about the things of the world, and troub- 
 led in vain so many years, will ye not bestow 
 forty days in prayer for the salvation of your 
 souls?" Thus one of the purposes of this 
 Lenten season was for the special preparation 
 of catechumens for their Easter baptism. 
 
 V. But this fast of Lent served still another 
 
The Primitive PiLvpose of Lent. 5 1 
 
 purpose. And we see how in this case also 
 the reason is due to the loss of purity of the 
 Church owing to its alliance with the State. 
 This other purpose was that Lent should be a 
 season of special preparation for penitents who 
 looked for re-admission into the Church at 
 Easter. It was a few days before this great 
 feast that offenders, those who were under 
 ecclesiastical discipline, were absolved after a 
 season of penitence and prayer. *' Lent was 
 always more strictly observed by them, as a 
 decent preparation for the absolution they then 
 expected." The discipline of this season for 
 penitents was one of rigor, involving fasting, 
 prayer, and a strict observance of the rules laid 
 down for their conduct. For forty days they 
 gave evidence of the sincerity of their repent- 
 ance and submission in hopes of being restored 
 to the assembly of the faithful, to receive 
 absolution, and also to be admitted to the 
 communion. On this custom Gregory of 
 Nyssa has said, *' The anniversary solemnity of 
 Easter was not only the time of regenerating 
 
52 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 catechumens, but of begetting those again to a 
 Hvely hope, who had forfeited it by their sins, 
 but were desirous to regain it by repentance 
 and conversion from dead works to walk again 
 in the paths of Hfe." 
 
 These then were some of the reasons for 
 and aims of the institution of Lent — as a 
 reminder of our Lord's death and burial and 
 the mourning of the disciples ; as a season in 
 which to stimulate the declining fervor and 
 piety of the Church ; as a time of special prep- 
 aration for the reception of the Communion 
 at Easter; as the period during which catechu- 
 mens were instructed in the Faith, and them- 
 selves exercised self-discipline by fasting, 
 prayer, and almsgiving preparatory to baptism 
 at Easter ; also as a season during which peni- 
 tents by strict observance of the fast of these 
 days, and by other evidences of penitence 
 hoped to receive absolution at Easter and to 
 be restored to the fold and to full communion. 
 
 And now it may be asked, in the divided 
 state of Christendom, with such diverse condi- 
 
TJie Primitive Purpose of Lent. 53 
 
 tions surrounding us to-day, do the same 
 reasons hold, do the same purposes remain for 
 observing Lent ; do we have like aims ? We 
 reply, if all the specific reasons of the early 
 Church do not remain valid, yet some of them 
 do, and certainly the principles which lay at 
 the bottom of all those reasons still hold true. 
 It is evident that the discipline exercised by 
 the primitive Church has in these later centu- 
 ries failed. Were we now to say to an offender 
 that unless he gave evidence of penitence for 
 some scandalous offence he would be disci- 
 plined or excommunicated, I venture to think 
 he would not mind the threat. Old things, 
 and old discipline have passed away. So, too, 
 the usages have varied. We no longer delay 
 baptism, but administer the sacrament when- 
 ever requested, and when the candidate — if 
 adult — is sufficiently instructed. But notwith- 
 standing the loss of ancient discipline, and also 
 the change of usage, the root principle which 
 caused a lengthening of the fast from forty 
 hours to forty days still remains to be consid- 
 
54 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 ered, viz. the decline of fervor, devotion and 
 piety, in the Church and in its members. The 
 same reason that accounted for this loss in the 
 fourth century, accounts for it to-day, viz. the 
 strong desire to unite the service of the world 
 and of God, to make God's kingdom a king- 
 dom of this world, in direct opposition to the 
 statement of our Lord. And because of the 
 loss of fervor and devotion we need to-day 
 just as much as the Church did fifteen centu- 
 ries ago to appoint a special season, during 
 which by increased zeal in God's house, by 
 self-denial, by self-discipline, by fasting, by 
 prayers, by almsgiving to arouse the whole 
 Church and each individual member of it to 
 the great need of a closer walk with God, and 
 a heartier consecration of self and self's belong- 
 ings to Him. 
 
 The influence of the world on the Church 
 and on each of us is too apt to make us lose 
 sight of spiritual realities, their importance, 
 and their eternal value; and so little by little 
 we yield to the narcotic influence of the pres- 
 
TJie Primitive Purpose of Lent. 55 
 
 ent — be it its pleasures or gaities, its business 
 or its duties, its hopes or its struggles, its joys 
 or its sorrows, until we become benumbed to 
 all higher interests and hopes, and joys and 
 realities, until we gradually lose sight and 
 experience of the former peace and rapture 
 and ecstacy with which spiritual things and 
 communion filled us. This season then has 
 for its purpose to-day the object of meeting 
 the spiritual needs and wants of our nature 
 which we are certain to neglect if we are not 
 specially warned and called to take heed to 
 our ways. 
 
 *' In this hallowed season then the Church, 
 by the voice of all her holy services calleth 
 the world to repentance from the rising of the 
 sun to the going down thereof. And if ever 
 there was an institution calculated to promote 
 the glory of God, by forwarding the salvation 
 of man, it is this appointment of a certain set 
 time for all persons to consider their ways, to 
 break off their sins. For though most certain 
 it is, that sorrow should be the constant atten- 
 
5 6 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 dant on sin, and daily transgressions call for 
 daily penitence ; yet fatal experience convinces 
 us of another truth no less certain, that in a 
 body so frail, and a world so corrupt, care and 
 pleasures soon oppress the heart, and insensi- 
 bility brings on the slumbers of listlessness and 
 negligence as to its spiritual concerns, which 
 unless dissipated and dispersed by frequently 
 repeated admonitions, will at length seal it up 
 in the deep sleep of a final impenitence. It 
 was wisely foreseen that, should the sinner be 
 permitted to reserve for himself the choice of 
 a ' convenient season ' wherein to turn from 
 sin to righteousness, that ' convenient season ' 
 would never come ; and the specious plea of 
 keeping every day holy alike, would often be 
 found to cover a design of keeping none holy 
 at all." 
 
 You know, brethren, the deceitfulness of the 
 heart, you know the cares of this life are apt to 
 choke the good seed, you know that what spirit- 
 ual life you do possess is only maintained by 
 a constant struggle, you know too that at no 
 
The Primitive Purpose of Lent. 57 
 
 time in the life of the Church of God is she 
 called on to contend with her rival, the world, 
 so strongly and fiercely as now for the souls of 
 men, you know what mighty allurements and 
 fascinations the world is perpetually ofTering 
 to the minds and bodies of men to dazzle 
 them and to bewilder them, to sensualize them, 
 and to cause them to renounce God ; — if so, 
 then there is no time in the history of the 
 Christian Church for its own sake and struggle 
 for existence, and also for the souls committed 
 to her care and for the souls of all men, when 
 a set period of fasting and prayers is more 
 needed than now in these last years of this fast 
 fleeing century. We are threatened by god- 
 lessness, atheism, materialism and all the 
 hydra-headed isms, which clamor for recogni- 
 tion ; in most insinuating forms the adversary 
 of souls is tempting us; surely now is no time 
 to throw away the smallest weapon of defence 
 we may possess, certainly not this one of the 
 season of Lent, which the Church for now these 
 many centuries has found to be a means of 
 
58 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 reviving the sluggish, careless and indifferent 
 souls of her children, reanimating their piety, 
 increasing their fervor, and leading them to a 
 higher plane of service and devotion not only 
 to God but also to man. Nay ! we need if 
 possible to hold more firmly than ever to this 
 observance of the Lenten fast, that we fail not 
 in our duty, that we lose not our own souls, 
 that we miss not eternal life. Divine Provi- 
 dence has in the past guided the Church to 
 observe this season, and we believe that 
 because of the likeness of the needs and wants 
 of men and women to-day to that of their fore- 
 bears. Divine Providence will enable the Church 
 to maintain this holy season, until at last all 
 seasons will be holy, when this Church now 
 militant shall become the Church triumphant 
 and in God's presence we shall have peace, 
 and light, and joy forevermore. 
 
III. 
 
 Lenten Observances. 
 
III. 
 
 LENTEN OBSERVANCES. 
 
 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord : 
 and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth 
 not regard it. Rom. xiv. 6. 
 
 THESE words of the apostle give us the 
 hint that the observance of days might 
 vary, and yet the Lord honored. St. Paul 
 points to a great truth which he so frequently 
 dwells upon in his teaching, viz. that in the body 
 of Christ there is diversity of gifts, adminis- 
 trations and operations, yet it is the same Spirit 
 that worketh all in all. Liberty in Christ he 
 desires to maintain not only for himself, but 
 also for others. If in the Christian world to-day 
 there was more of that ancient Pauline spirit 
 of liberty, there would be I think a great deal 
 more of Christian unity, and also Church unity. 
 
62 The Prhnitive Purpose of Leitt. 
 
 We hear high-sounding phrases such as "■ in 
 essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all 
 things charity," and yet this great sentiment 
 is practically worthless in numberless cases 
 because we are so determined to overlap 
 essentials and non-essentials. We are not 
 willing. Christians though we call ourselves, to 
 be content to refer to the Word of God for 
 essentials. But one here and another there 
 goes about to establish his or her righteousness 
 — one church or denomination here and another 
 there determines this to be essential which 
 another deems non-essential, and thus because 
 of the elastic and undetermined limits of essen- 
 tials and non-essentials — not only is there no 
 unity or liberty, but even the greatest virtue 
 of all — charity itself — is lacking. 
 
 Ah ! will the day ever come when the Body 
 of Christ, " the company of all faithful people " 
 shall be healed of its schisms and its sores, and 
 Christians everywhere shall call their fellow 
 Christians brother, sister ! 
 
 From the text we learn that the great 
 
Lenteii Observances. 63 
 
 apostle among even his converts recognizes the 
 individuaUty of man, and provides for their 
 differences. He will not compel all to conform 
 to one mould. They shall not all speak after 
 the same manner. He knows this is an im- 
 possibility. He knows it is directly opposed 
 to divine truth and divine operation. " The 
 manifestation of the Spirit is given to every 
 man to profit withal. For to me is given by 
 the Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the 
 word of knowledge by the same Spirit ; to 
 another faith by the same Spirit ; to another 
 the gift of healing by the same Spirit ; to 
 another the working of miracles ; to another 
 prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to 
 another divers kinds of tongues ; to another 
 the interpretation of tongues ; but all these 
 worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, divid- 
 ing to every man severally as he will." Thus 
 in practice and devotion he makes no attempt 
 to circumscribe the liberty of his converts by 
 enforcing unchangeable observances and in- 
 flexible rites. The great truth he inculcates is 
 
64 Lent — Past and Present, 
 
 " the kingdom of God is not meat and drink ; 
 but righteousness and peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 This apostolic spirit of liberty, and of diver- 
 sity in unity we find maintained in the sub- 
 apostolic church. Here great variation of usage 
 is allowed. Liberty in Christ is an accepted 
 and acknowledged principle, and whether the 
 church be found in Asia Minor or Corinth, in 
 Alexandria or Carthage, in Rome or Gaul, 
 diversity of usage does not destroy unity of 
 faith, nor hinder intercommunion and charity 
 to all. 
 
 To-day in the consideration of our subject we 
 reach the question pf the observances, practices, 
 customs, usages, rules and habits adopted or 
 enforced by authority during Lent. 
 
 In the study of our subject we need to bear 
 in mind the marked distinctions in the periods 
 of the Church's life. A critical turning-point 
 was the Nicene Council held in the year 325 
 A. D. The period previous to this date, church 
 historians speak of as the ante-Nicene period ; 
 
 1 
 
Lenten Observances, 65 
 
 after this date as the post-Nicene age. The 
 ante-Nicene days present to us a church scat- 
 tered over the Roman empire, with certain 
 fundamental points of agreement, yet with 
 many marked differences of usage. One 
 marked difference was in the time of keeping 
 Easter. Some churches, especially those of 
 Asia Minor, kept Easter according to the 
 Jewish Calendar regardless whether it fell on a 
 Sunday or not. Other churches, more espe- 
 cially the Latin, kept Easter always on a Sun- 
 day. Not until the Nicene Council of 325 A. D. 
 was there a general unanimity of practice, 
 corresponding to the usage which prevails 
 to-day, viz. of keeping Easter always on a 
 Sunday. We see in this diversity of custom 
 of observing Easter, the great liberty and wide 
 difference of usage, which was allowed and 
 asserted, accepted and adopted by different 
 churches in the ante-Nicene period of the 
 Church. What was true of Easter was true in 
 like degree of nearly every other practice. 
 Usages varied, and this is especially true of 
 
66 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 Lent. From a letter of Irenaeus which has 
 already been referred to, we notice that the 
 length of the Lenten season varied in different 
 churches. The same is true of the customs 
 and usages in connection with this season. If 
 we think a while we see a reason for this varia- 
 tion of practice. Before the Nicene Council, 
 or up to within a few years of it, the Christian 
 faith was under nominal if not practical pro- 
 scription. If any one chose to bring a com- 
 plaint against a Christian as being unwilling to 
 sacrifice to the gods, or offer incense, the 
 official to whom the complaint was made was 
 obliged to investigate the case and to afford 
 the accused an opportunity to prove the falsity 
 or truth of the charge by requiring of him to 
 offer incense. If the Christian accused re- 
 fused, he could be punished, and the severity 
 of the punishment would often be determined 
 by the strength of the attachment of the 
 official to the heathen faith, or by the degree 
 of bitterness or popular feeling and clamor 
 against Christians at the time in the place of 
 
Lenten Observances. 6"] 
 
 accusation. Occasionally, owing to famines, 
 pestilences, drought, or any physical calamity, 
 heathen populations would stir up enmity 
 against Christians, accusing them as being 
 responsible for all these disasters. Then 
 Christians had to suffer. Again, the strength 
 of the adherence of the Emperor to the pagan 
 worship of the State would also determine in 
 great measure the violence of the persecution 
 or its leniency. In a word, whatever organiza- 
 tion the Church had in the ante-Nicene period 
 was to a great extent local. It could not in 
 the face of imperial and popular opposition 
 make an open show of its customs and usages. 
 Thus each church holding in essentials of the 
 faith with all other Christian churches where- 
 ever found, and holding communion, and 
 granting to travelling communicants letters 
 commendatory to the faithful everywhere, was 
 yet of necessity, because of the liability to per- 
 secution, obliged to determine for itself in 
 great measure its own usages and customs, 
 adapting them to their peculiar situation and 
 
6S Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 needs and according to the circumstances of 
 the time, place, popular feeling. There was no 
 central council to issue orders and directions. 
 The tendency to yield to centrahzed authority 
 was not yet in existence, because there was no 
 central authority. The union of Church and 
 State — the foundation of centralization — was 
 yet future. Local self-government was for pru- 
 dential reasons almost a necessity. 
 
 The alliance of the Church with the State 
 under Constantine in 325 A. D., gave to the 
 Church a political status, and an external unity 
 which it had hitherto lacked. At the same 
 time that state recognition was accorded to 
 the Church, there naturally sprang up the 
 desire not only for external unity of commun- 
 ion, but also unity of usage, and uniformity 
 of customs and practices. The tendency of 
 thought within the Church now led to centrali- 
 zation and some seat of authority. The influ- 
 ence of the State upon the Church became 
 paramount, and it looked to the State for 
 models of its constitutions, divisions, usages. 
 
Lenten Observances. 69 
 
 Accordingly, after the Nicene Council we 
 notice in all directions this tendency to unifica- 
 tion, to a similarity of customs, seasons, festi- 
 vals and fasts. We note this gradual approxi- 
 mation of observances in the usages of Lent. 
 Councils now issued canons ; synods pre- 
 scribed practices ; and with the division of the 
 Church into patriarchates, provinces and 
 dioceses, we see how observance«s would gradu- 
 ally approach uniformity throughout the 
 Church. 
 
 Our consideration of the Lenten usages 
 after they became practically uniform will 
 necessarily be chiefly of those that prevailed 
 after 325 A. D., when already the influence of 
 the State and the world had begun to lower 
 the tone of ancient piety and fervor, when 
 already there were beginning to show them- 
 selves traces and tendencies to formality and 
 superstition ; when already the lust of author- 
 ity had crept into the Church, and power was 
 grasped after rather than love. 
 
 For the purposes of our study we may 
 
^0 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 classify the observances and usages of Lent 
 under three heads: I. Ecclesiastical; W. Civil; 
 III. Domestic. 
 
 I. Ecclesiastical. The decreasing devotion 
 and growing worldliness of the Church de- 
 manded serious consideration. The fast of 
 Lent therefore was made use of to increase if 
 possible the fervor and spirituality of all Chris- 
 tians. Accordingly multiplied services were 
 held, and sermons preached daily through 
 Lent, at least in large city churches and cathe- 
 drals. These services and sermons the people 
 were urged to turn to profit. It is due to 
 these daily Lenten services that to-day we 
 possess so many patristic commentaries. The 
 daily sermon or homily through Lent gave the 
 early Fathers opportunity to take up some 
 book of the Bible and expound it consecu- 
 tively. And what is more to the point, from 
 contemporary notices we learn that numbers 
 availed themselves ot these biblical and devo- 
 tional privileges. We are led to believe from 
 reliable authority that crowds went daily to 
 
Lenten Observances, 71 
 
 hear St. Chrysostom in Antioch, and also in 
 Constantinople. The same is true of the num- 
 bers who went to hear St. Ambrose at Milan, 
 and St. Augustine in North Africa. 
 
 Again, not only were there daily services and 
 sermons, but weekly the communion was ad- 
 ministered and received, except by those who 
 were excommunicated or who were in the class 
 of penitents and under discipline. It has 
 already been observed that the matter of a 
 daily celebration is uncertain. The truth 
 being, perhaps, that in some parts of the 
 Church a daily celebration was the custom, in 
 others not ; again, the size of the church would 
 enter into the consideration of the practice ; 
 and once more what might be true of a prac- 
 tice in later centuries would not necessarily be 
 true of the period which we are considering. 
 But in connection with the communion one 
 custom observed in the Eastern Church until 
 some time in the seventh century needs to be 
 noticed. By a canon of the Council of Lao- 
 dicea (<:?>. 365 A. D.) it was ordered "that the 
 
7^ Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 Eucharist should not be offered in Lent, on 
 any other day except the Sabbath and the 
 Lord's Day." The reason alleged for this 
 restriction by the Eastern Church is " that the 
 consecration service is proper only for festivals ; 
 and, therefore, all other days in Lent, besides 
 Saturdays and Sundays being fast days, they 
 did not consecrate on those days, but only 
 communicated in the elements which had been 
 consecrated before," or as those elements are 
 also called, the pre-sanctified. It must be 
 noted that this canon did not forbid commun- 
 ion or participation, but only the consecration 
 of the elements on any day except Saturday 
 and Sunday. This custom however was not 
 adopted in the Latin Church. It '' used to 
 consecrate, as well as communicate about three 
 in the afternoon all the days of Lent." 
 
 Once again, ecclesiastical orders of this 
 period " forbade the celebration of all festivals 
 of martyrs at this season, except it were on the 
 Sabbath {i. e. Saturday), or upon the Lord's 
 Day : because all festivals were days of rejoic- 
 
Lenten Observances, 73 
 
 ing which were not consistent with deep 
 humiUation and mourning belonging to a strict 
 and severe fast ; but (inasmuch as) the Sab- 
 bath and the Lord's Day were excepted from 
 fasting even in Lent. . . . therefore on these 
 days the festivals of martyrs might be cele- 
 brated but on no other during the whole time of 
 Lent." There was one exception to this rigid 
 rule, viz. the feast of the Annunciation, on 
 which day whenever it fell in Lent, though not 
 on a Saturday or Sunday, there was nevertheless 
 a celebration. 
 
 n. Civil observances. The alliance of the 
 State with the Church reacted on the former. 
 This reaction is manifested in certain state and 
 imperial regulations and laws concerning the 
 conduct of business in courts, the treatment of 
 prisoners, the cessation of public amusements 
 during Lent. Thus *' imperial laws forbade 
 all prosecution of men in criminal actions 
 which might bring them to corporal punish- 
 ment and torture during the whole season " of 
 Lent. '' In the forty days " so the imperial 
 
74 Z^/2/ — Past and Present. 
 
 law runs '* which by the laws of religion 
 are solemnly observed before Easter, let the 
 examination and hearing of all criminal ques- 
 tions be superseded ; and in the holy days of 
 Lent, let there be no punishments of the body, 
 when we expect the absolution of our souls." 
 Thus civil enactments prescribed postpone- 
 ment of lawsuits in Lent, and forbade infliction 
 of bodily punishment such as flogging and 
 branding. There were other civil usages of 
 this season, but they will be better considered 
 in connection with the days of Holy Week with 
 which they were specially associated. 
 
 in. Domestic usages. Usages which were 
 in some cases of ecclesiastical imposition, in as 
 much as they refer more to the conduct of 
 believers at home or in society, I have preferred 
 to classify as domestic. The first of these 
 usages touching the home that call for notice 
 would be that of fasting and abstinence. To 
 consider this at all fully at the present time 
 would most probably tax your patience. I will 
 therefore reserve this usage for separate con- 
 
Lenten Observances. ^5 
 
 sideration. Leaving then the consideration of 
 the usage of fasting for the present the next 
 domestic rule of the Church was to forbid all 
 celebrations of birthdays and marriages during 
 Lent. The reason for this prohibition was that 
 these festivities *' being celebrated with great 
 tokens and solemnities of joy, with feasting 
 and other ceremonies of pleasure and delight, 
 it was not proper to keep them in the time of 
 fasting, as being things inconsistent, and in- 
 compatible with one another. And they were 
 to be forborne because at this time the Church 
 did not allow the solemnizing of the nativities 
 or birthdays of her martyrs, which otherwise 
 were of great esteem in the Church." We see 
 from this how if the Church forbade the celebra- 
 tion of saints' days through Lent, it was only 
 consistent that she should forbid the celebra- 
 tions of the birthdays and marriages of her 
 ordinary members during this same season. 
 
 Once again, the Church would have all her 
 faithful children abstain from attending public 
 games, shows, races, which might be held in the 
 
7^ Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 amphitheatre or circus, as being inconsistent 
 with the profession of penitence, humiliation, 
 fasting, and mourning, which was at this time 
 made. Of course, then as now, it was impossible 
 to restrain everybody from such indulgences. 
 Human nature is the same everywhere and at 
 all times. There were inconsistent, lukewarm, 
 or indifferent Christians then as now. There 
 were also those who perhaps took a dehght in 
 doing what they were urged not to do. In one 
 of his Lent sermons St. Chrysostom depre- 
 cates and sets himself to correct if possible this 
 abuse of indulging in games, plays, races, etc., 
 during the holy season. '' When I consider," 
 says he, '' how at one blast of the devil ye have 
 forgotten all my daily admonitions, and con- 
 tinued discourses, and run to that pomp of 
 Satan, the horse race in the Circus ; with what 
 heart can I think of preaching to you again 
 who have so soon let slip all that I said before ? 
 This is what chiefly raises my grief, yea, my 
 anger and indignation, that together with my 
 admonition ye have cast the reverence of this 
 
Lenten Observances. 77 
 
 holy season of Lent out of your souls, and 
 thrown yourselves into the nets of the devil." 
 Strong words these, but the speaker was not in 
 the habit of mincing his words, and calling 
 black white, or darkness light. Once again, to 
 urge them to prove sincere and to show how 
 their inconsistent conduct gave the lie to their 
 profession and did harm to the Church, Chry- 
 ostom says, " Subdue I beseech you this wicked 
 and pernicious custom ; and consider that they 
 who run to the Circus, not only do much harm 
 to themselves, but are the occasion of great 
 scandal to others. For when the Jews and 
 Gentiles see you who are every day at church 
 to hear a sermon, come notwithstanding to the 
 horse race and join with them in the Circus, will 
 they not reckon our religion a cheat and enter- 
 tain the same suspicion of us all? They will 
 sharpen their tongues against us all, and for the 
 offence of a few, condemn the whole body of 
 Christians." How true this is to-day as well ; 
 and of how many professing Christians might 
 these words be repeated ; yet they were uttered 
 
78 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 nearly 1500 years ago — so unchanged is human 
 nature. 
 
 To recapitulate, we find that Lenten observ- 
 ances during the post-Nicene period, affected 
 Christians in their ecclesiastical, civil and 
 domestic relations ; that they were positive and 
 negative directions what to do, and what not 
 to do. We notice too how they affected the 
 details of life, prescribing rules for the minutest 
 circumstances. According to the thought of 
 those early years men and women had to be 
 directed in most of the details of the conduct 
 of life. Large principles with diverse applica- 
 tions to diverse circumstances were dropping 
 out of sight. The State in those days re- 
 spected neither privacy nor individual liberty, 
 but whenever it felt disposed intruded into, 
 and interfered with the most sacred relations. 
 It is scarcely to be expected that the Church, 
 living in this atmosphere and thus environed, 
 could escape the time spirit. We are all more 
 or less influenced by the thought of our age, 
 the social and intellectual atmosphere which 
 
Lenten Observances. 79 
 
 surrounds us. So the Church, newly alHed to 
 the State, most naturally adopted for its gov- 
 ernment many of the state ideas, and was in- 
 fluenced by the prevailing thought and custom 
 of the period. As a matter of course it pre- 
 scribed minute directions for the conduct of 
 individuals in all their earthly relations. To 
 have expected anything different would be to 
 expect the people of those days of the fourth 
 century to think and act as those of this nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
 Now in consideration of the ancient usages 
 of Lent and their application to our times, 
 what shall be our attitude to them ? Shall we 
 say they are all wrong and need no attention, 
 in fact may be treated with contempt? or 
 shall we on the other hand observe them to 
 the minutest particulars and reverence them 
 because of their antiquity ? Shall we ignore 
 them altogether, or shall we observe their 
 every jot and tittle ? Thus some to-day would 
 have the Church impose minute regulations 
 governing the details of daily life, others 
 
8o Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 would reject any imposition whatever, even of 
 a season of Lent. The former err, I think, in 
 trying to revive in the nineteenth century, 
 conditions of thought and life of the fourth 
 and fifth centuries — an impossibility because 
 of our totally changed circumstances and en- 
 vironment ; the latter err in that they break the 
 continuity of life, and though right in requir- 
 ing changed rules for changed circumstances, 
 ignore the truth of the sameness of human 
 nature in all centuries, in the nineteenth as in 
 the first. But are these two the only alterna- 
 tive ; implicit acceptance of the past as a 
 standard of guidance, and on the other hand 
 total repudiation of that past ; or is there not 
 still another alternative which will harmonize 
 the present with the past, individualism with 
 authority, liberty with law ? I think there is 
 this alternative, and it seems to me that the 
 true course to follow is to try to gather the 
 spirit and reason for the specific observances of 
 the early Church, and then having discerned 
 the principles underlying these usages, to en- 
 
Lenten Observances. 8 1 
 
 deavor to apply them with the necessary modi- 
 fications to modern Church life, social life, and 
 the individual life. We should be neither wil- 
 ful and obstinate iconoclasts, neither should we 
 be blind worshippers of tradition. We must 
 remember that reasons and principles lay back 
 of most of the Lenten rules which the early 
 Church laid down, and if we can grasp them, 
 then I think we shall have a clue for our pres- 
 ent conduct. 
 
 Now what are the principles lying back of 
 the details of Lenten observance ? Are they 
 not that there is a moral necessity in the life 
 of every individual to give at stated times, in 
 addition to the ordinary regular attention to 
 the religious life, some special attention to re- 
 Hgious duties, to the stirring up and quicken- 
 ing of the spiritual life to increased piety and 
 devotion ; also the need of there being some 
 fixed time set for this special attention to be 
 given, otherwise the weakness of our nature 
 will not of itself make the time ; and also that 
 this set time is intended for us to get at the 
 
82 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 roots of our religious life, '' to dig about them 
 and dung them " ; to set before ourselves the 
 duty of earnest and sincere self-examination, 
 of true repentance, of steady self-discipline ; 
 and to achieve these the Church would afford 
 us increased services as helps, multiplied ser- 
 mons and communions ; and also because she 
 knows that we are easily distracted she would 
 suggest the inexpediency at this time of Lent 
 of engaging in festivities, pleasures, banquet- 
 ings — perfectly lawful and harmless in them- 
 selves in moderation, but which at this sea- 
 son would perhaps seriously interfere with our 
 attention and determined efforts to win and 
 maintain a higher level of holy thought and 
 hfe. 
 
 This then is, I think, the position of the 
 Church to-day: It recognizes the changed 
 conditions of thought and life, and how im- 
 possible it is to prescribe details of conduct, 
 and to regulate the minutiae of domestic life. 
 She knows, too, that with the greatest diversity 
 of circumstances to prescribe minute details 
 
Lenten Observances. 83 
 
 and rules for conduct would be likely to injure 
 some where it was intended to help ; and 
 perhaps still more it might lead some to a 
 certain unconscious reliance upon the meritori- 
 ousness of works, supposing that outward 
 observances made up for inward reform — a 
 mistake that all too minute regulation of life is 
 apt to engender ; — that formality is necessarily 
 sincerity, and that the postures of the body in- 
 dicate the posture of the heart : accordingly 
 the Church would lay down broad principles 
 such as I have already stated and leave them 
 for each of us to apply to our individual cir- 
 cumstances. She says now is the holy season 
 of Lent — called so because of its purpose, viz . 
 to increase in us holiness — a time it is for self- 
 examination and prayer, a time for self-disci- 
 pline and charity, a time for repentance and for- 
 giveness, a time to draw closer to God and to 
 Idealize more truly the sweetness of com- 
 munion with Him, a time to consider how 
 transitory this life is and how we are hastening 
 to the life beyond the veil ; — therefore increased 
 
84 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 services are afforded which may be helpful if 
 you will use them as helps, but the Church does 
 not say how many services or which you shall 
 attend, she leaves that to you to decide accord- 
 ing to your individual circumstances. Once 
 more, she advises self-denial and abstinence, 
 but she does not prescribe the precise form it 
 shall take, she leaves that to you to decide. 
 If you are lovers of rich living, then it might 
 take the form of abstinence from food or 
 luxuries of diet ; if you are excessively fond of 
 gaiety and pleasure and of social enjoyment, 
 then your abstinence might take the form of 
 seclusion, retirement, the abandonment of 
 pleasures which so fritter away what holy 
 thought and purpose you possess ; if you are 
 fond of gay clothing, then your abstinence 
 might take the form of dressing in less striking 
 costumes ; if you are fond of hoarding, then 
 your abstinence might take the form of 
 almsgiving in more generous and bountiful 
 measure ; if your tongue is given easily to 
 slander or to speak harshly, then your absti- 
 
Lenten Observances. 85 
 
 nence might take the form of learning to 
 speak well and kindly of your neighbor. Thus 
 without multiplying illustrations, we may each 
 apply the principles which lie at the bottom 
 for the appointment of this holy season to 
 every relation of our life, ecclesiastical, civil, 
 and domestic ; yes, if we will, we may apply 
 these principles with even greater minuteness 
 than the early Church ever could, because of 
 the great subdivision of life which obtains to- 
 day, and so by the diversity of application to 
 differing individual needs and circumstances 
 we can each of us make this season more search- 
 ing and more helpful than any arbitrary impo- 
 sition of specific rules common to all alike. 
 
 This then is the thought I would close with. 
 Circumstances to-day differ radically from what 
 they did in the early post-Nicene age. The 
 thought and life of our time are also totally 
 different, yet in spite of changed circumstances 
 our deepest needs are the same, and our human 
 nature with its weakness and follies, its crimes 
 and its sins is the same. The fundamental 
 
86 Le7tt — Past and Present. 
 
 principles governing the spiritual life remain to- 
 day as true as they did 1500 years ago. We 
 need some set time for special examination and 
 prayer, and determined effort to overcome be- 
 setting sins and rise to the life of righteousness, 
 but different conditions of life require different 
 application of the means at our disposal. In- 
 dividual prescription must take the place of 
 ecclesiastical prescription ; only in the broad 
 liberty granted to us of personal application 
 let us beware lest our very liberty tempt us to 
 make no application whatsoever, and thus we 
 lose not only what benefit individual prescrip- 
 tion but also what benefit external prescription 
 might afford us. Let not our liberty run to 
 license. Let not the boast of possessing prin- 
 ciples lead us to ignore all practice. The sea- 
 son of Lent is yours to profit withal— see that 
 you do not fail of profit because the Church 
 has not prescribed minute rules to govern 
 your conduct and life, has not imposed upon 
 you the tithe of mint, anise and cummin. 
 
IV. 
 
 Fasting, 
 
IV. 
 
 FASTING. 
 
 He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God 
 thanks ; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth 
 not, and giveth God thanks. Romans xiv. 6. 
 
 'T^HE question of fasting is one that has 
 -*■ always given more or less occasion of dif- 
 ference of opinion, both as to its necessity, and 
 also as to its practice. By some fasting has 
 been looked upon as an end in itself, and a 
 rigid observance has been insisted upon ; by 
 others it has been looked upon only as a means 
 to an end and so modifications have been 
 made according to circumstances ; by others 
 again its value either as end or means is abso- 
 lutely denied and never practiced. Until the 
 end of time there will doubtless be these differ- 
 ences of views dependent on the temperament 
 or religious associations of individuals. 
 
90 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 Still it may be stated that the practice of 
 fasting is by no means limited to Christians. 
 Fasting is common among many Oriental relig- 
 ionists, and indeed we may say that the ascetic 
 idea of the value of the mortification of the 
 flesh by fasting or other bodily discipline is 
 Oriental rather than Occidental. To this very 
 day among Eastern nations, some of the forms 
 of religion of the East put a high value on 
 fasting, and see in it either a means of attain- 
 ing a high state of sanctity or else regard it as 
 an end in itself. Even Islam has its annual 
 monthly fast of Ramadan, which is kept by 
 Mohammedans with religious strictness. 
 
 In considering the question of fasting in the 
 Christian Church and its relation to the Lenten 
 season, I shall not enter into any abstract dis- 
 cussion of the value or non-value of fasting, but 
 simply endeavor to state what was the actual 
 practice in the early Church, and note certain 
 consequences of abuse which followed upon 
 the attempt to lay down minute rules for fast- 
 ing. When we approach this subject we need 
 
Fasting, 91 
 
 to bear in mind the early geographical origin 
 of the Church, viz. its origin in Eastern lands 
 and among an Eastern people. We must 
 remember the associations, the atmosphere of 
 thought, the native practices and habits which 
 environed the early Christians, if we are to 
 gain a fair estimate of their regard for fasting. 
 Let us remember then that the teachers and 
 converts of the early Church were chiefly 
 Orientals, whose manner of life was totally 
 different from ours ; let us also consider that 
 the difference of climate between the East and 
 the West must never be lost sight of. With 
 these preliminary thoughts we may now pro- 
 ceed to consider the usages of fasting during 
 Lent in the early Church. 
 
 L Time. Daily — how long? Weekly — 
 how many days ? The first fact that we note 
 concerning fasting particularly in the Eastern 
 Church is the strictness with which the fast 
 was observed. It "consisted in a perfect 
 abstinence from all sustenance for the whole 
 day till evening" in the case of those who 
 
92 Lent — Past and Present, 
 
 were piously disposed and able to abstain thus 
 long. Others "fasted till nine o'clock, that is 
 three in the afternoon." In regard to the 
 days of the week, the Eastern Church kept as 
 fast days all days of Lent except Saturday and 
 Sunday ; while the Western Church kept 
 Saturday as well. This accounts for the differ- 
 ence of time of beginning the Lenten fast 
 which exists between the Eastern and Western 
 Churches, though the actual days of fasting 
 agree in number. There were also certain 
 special usages in connection with fasting that 
 were limited more to the week before Easter, 
 such as absolute fasting for the whole week if 
 possible by those able to forego food entirely 
 for so long a time, or the disuse of food by 
 others through the days of Good Friday and 
 Easter-even. But apart from these more 
 rigorous practices we may say that fasting in 
 the early Church meant a total abstinence 
 from food on all the strict fasting days of Lent 
 until three in the afternoon, or even until the 
 eveniner. 
 
Fasting. 93 
 
 II. Kind and variety of food, also its 
 quality. We next ask what was the practice 
 as to the food to be taken, after fasting, because 
 this is a point on which much misapprehension 
 exists to-day by reason of the modern usage of 
 the Roman church. In this respect of the 
 kind of food to be taken, we learn that in the 
 early Church a great variety, in fact all varie- 
 ties of food were allowed. The historian 
 Socrates, writing of the diverse practices of the 
 early Church in regard to its Lenten fast, says, 
 "■ Some abstained from all living creatures ; 
 others of all living creatures only ate fish ; 
 some ate fowls together with fish ; others ab- 
 stained from berries and eggs ; others ate dry 
 bread only; and some not so much as that." 
 In this account we notice the wide latitude of 
 choice, there being no restriction in kinds of 
 food. The great object was to practice moder- 
 ation in eating, was to put a restraint upon 
 excessive indulgence. We may safely say that 
 in the beginning there was no rule requiring 
 abstinence during Lent from any special kinds 
 
94 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 of food, whether flesh, fowl, or otherwise, pro- 
 vided after the period of abstinence had ex- 
 pired all foods were used with sobriety and in 
 moderation. The abstinence and fast con- 
 sisted therefore not in abstaining from any 
 particular kind of food, but in moderate use of 
 all foods. Generally, indeed, there was absti- 
 nence from ^' flesh and wine and fish and all 
 other delicacies at this season ; but yet there 
 was no such universal rule, or custom, in this 
 matter, but that when men had fasted all the 
 day, they were allowed to refresh themselves 
 with a moderate supper upon flesh or any 
 other food without distinction." So soon 
 however as restrictions in kinds of food were 
 attempted, straightway the ingenuity of man 
 found means of observing the letter yet of 
 violating its spirit. " The greatest ascetics 
 made no scruple to eat flesh in Lent when a 
 just occasion required it," but there were 
 some observers of Lent who made a pretence 
 of fasting because they abstained from flesh 
 meat, while they deliberately violated the 
 
Fasting. 95 
 
 spirit of abstinence. St. Augustine has a word 
 for these self-deceivers. '' There are some ob- 
 servers of Lent," says he, "that study deli- 
 ciousness more than rehgion, and seek out new 
 pleasures for the belly, more than how to 
 chastise the concupiscence of the old man. . . . 
 They are afraid of any vessels in which 
 flesh has been boiled, as if they were unclean ; 
 and yet in their own flesh fear not the luxury 
 of the throat and the belly. These men fast, 
 not to diminish their wonted voracity by tem- 
 perance, but by deferring a meal to increase 
 their immoderate greediness. For when the 
 time of refreshment comes they rush to their 
 plentiful tables as beasts to their manger, and 
 stuff their bellies with great variety of artificial 
 and strange sauces, taking in more by devour- 
 ing than they are able to digest again by 
 fasting. There are some, likewise, who drink 
 no wine, that they may provide themselves 
 other more agreeable liquors to gratify their 
 taste, rather than set forward their salvation ; 
 as if Lent were intended not for the observa- 
 
96 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 tion of a pious humiliation, but as an occasion 
 of seeking out new pleasures." Thus we see 
 that as soon as men were limited to particular 
 kinds of food the principle of abstinence was 
 violated, though the letter might be kept. St. 
 Augustine on this violation of the spirit of 
 abstinence says not unjustly that that was no 
 fast if the " abstinence of the day was spoiled 
 by any immoderate indulgence of an evening 
 banquet ; much less did he esteem it a fast to 
 dine upon delicacies as a substitute for the 
 abstinence from flesh." 
 
 The early Church did not make the fast con- 
 sist in simple abstinence from a particular 
 kind of food ; it would reach a deeper princi- 
 ple and result than such superficial prescrip- 
 tion. '* The pretence of keeping Lent only by 
 change of diet from flesh to fish, or a more 
 delicious food, Avhich allows men the use of 
 wine and other delicacies, is but a mock fast, 
 and a mere innovation utterly unknown to the 
 ancients." 
 
 If I understand the principle of fasting 
 
Fasting, 97 
 
 which the early Church laid down, it would be 
 that fasting consisted not simply in abstinence 
 from food for a stated length of time, and 
 from a certain kind of food, but it was the prac- 
 tice of moderation in all kinds of food at all 
 times, with a total abstinence from food for a 
 certain portion of all the fasting days of Lent ; 
 and that together with his moderation should 
 be exercised charity, almsgiving, forgiveness, 
 and other Christian deeds of mercy. We also 
 are led to believe that the liberty of the in- 
 dividual was left untouched in great measure ; 
 that each was to be his own judge of his 
 ability to fast. In proof of this we may quote 
 from the greatest of the early preachers, and 
 also most reasonable of Fathers, St. Chrysos- 
 tom. He says to his hearers during Lent, 
 " If thou canst not pass all the day fasting by 
 reason of bodily weakness no wise man can 
 condemn thee for this. For we have a kind 
 and merciful Lord, who requires nothing of us 
 above our strength. He neither requires ab- 
 stinence from meat, nor fasting simply of us ; 
 
98 Lent — Past and Present 
 
 nor that for this end, we should continue with- 
 out eating only ; but that sequestering our- 
 selves from worldly affairs, we should spend 
 all our leisure time in spiritual things. For if 
 we would order our lives soberly, and lay out 
 our spare hours upon spiritual things, and eat 
 only so much as we had need of and nature 
 required, and spend our whole lives in good 
 works, we should not need the help of fasting." 
 Then he proceeds to advise as follows — at- 
 tempting thereby to correct abuses in the 
 matter which had become prevalent: "If 
 therefore there be any here present who are 
 hindered by bodily infirmity and cannot con- 
 tinue all the day fasting, I exhort them to have 
 regard to the weakness of their bodies. . . . 
 For there are many ways besides abstinence 
 from meat which will open to us the door of 
 confidence towards God. He therefore that 
 eats and cannot fast, let him give the more 
 plentiful alms; let him be more fervent in 
 his prayers ; let him show the greater alacrity 
 and readiness in hearing the divine oracle ; let 
 
Fasting. 99 
 
 him be reconciled to his enemies, and forget 
 injuries, and cast all thoughts of revenge out 
 of his mind. He that does these things will 
 show forth the true fasting which the Lord 
 chiefly requires." 
 
 Thus we see it was something more than 
 abstinence in eating and drinking that was 
 involved in the Lenten fast as St. Chrysostom 
 understood it. '* Tell them what the apostle 
 says, ' Both he that eateth, eateth to the Lord ; 
 and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth 
 not, and giveth God thanks,' therefore he that 
 fasteth giveth God thanks, who has enabled 
 him to bear the labor of fasting ; and he that 
 eateth gives God thanks Hkewise, that this is 
 no prejudice to the salvation of his soul if he 
 be otherwise willing and obedient." In a word, 
 every particular church in the beginning in a 
 great measure on this question of fasting ** left 
 all her members to judge of their own abilities 
 by Christian prudence and discretion ; exhort- 
 ing men to fast, but imposing rigidly upon 
 none more than they were able and willing to 
 
100 Lent — Past and Present, 
 
 bear, nor enforcing it under pain of ecclesias- 
 tical censure." 
 
 Our study so far will lead us to learn that 
 fasting was not an end in itself. It had two 
 objects — one which looked to some gain for 
 the individual practicing it ; another which 
 looked to procuring some benefit for others. 
 For the individual profit it was desired that 
 the one fasting should practice moderation, 
 that he devote more time to spiritual exer- 
 cises, that he abstain from unseemly and un- 
 seasonable amusements and from pleasures at 
 this time inexpedient. For the profit of 
 others it was desired that the faster should 
 exercise forgiveness, cast out revenge, and 
 through savings made from abstinence in food, 
 luxuries and other expenses, be enabled to 
 assist more liberally with alms the poor. 
 Thus one of the early Fathers says, '' That which 
 is gained by the fast at dinner ought not to 
 be turned into a feast at supper but expended 
 for the feeding of the poor." So too Leo the 
 Great: — ''That which is not expended upon 
 
Pasting. lot 
 
 our tables should be laid out in alms, and 
 then it will bring us in great gain." So 
 Chrysologus : " Fasting without mercy is but 
 an image of famine ; fasting without works of 
 piety is only an occasion of covetousness, be- 
 cause by such sparing what is taken from the 
 body only swells in the purse." 
 
 Herein lies the danger of all bodily and 
 outward observances that they become formal, 
 that they produce no spiritual profit, unless 
 we guard our motives, and constantly examine 
 ourselves. 
 
 Even in so early a time as that of St. Chry- 
 sostom the danger was noticed ; already the 
 abuse of fasting was making way. He says, 
 ** It was usual in Lent for the people to ask 
 one another how many weeks they had fasted, 
 and one would answer he had fasted two 
 weeks, another three, another all." To this 
 that Father replies : " And what advantage is 
 it, if we have kept the fast without mending 
 our morals ? If another says ' I have fasted 
 the whole Lent,' say thou * I had an enemy 
 
102 Lent — Past and Present, 
 
 and I am reconciled to him ; I had a custom 
 of reviling and I have left it off ; I was used to 
 swearing and I have broken the evil habit.' 
 It is of no advantage to fast, if our fasting do 
 not produce such fruits as these." **Let no 
 one," he continues, " place his confidence in 
 fasting only, if he continues in his sins without 
 reforming. For it may be, that one who fasts 
 not at all may obtain pardon, if he has the 
 excuse of bodily infirmity; but he that does 
 not correct his sins can have no excuse." And 
 once more, to correct the abuse of supposing 
 that a bare fast was sufficient, St. Chrysostom 
 warns, " Let us set a guard upon our ears, our 
 tongues, our minds, and not think that bare 
 fasting till the evening is sufficient for our 
 salvation. What profit is it to fast and eat 
 nothing all the day if you give yourself to 
 playing at dice, and other vain pastimes, and 
 spend the whole day many times in perjuries 
 and blasphemies ? The true fast is abstinence 
 from vices. He that fasts ought above all 
 things to bridle his anger ; to learn meekness 
 
Pasting. 103 
 
 and clemency ; to have a contrite heart ; to 
 banish the thoughts of all inordinate desires ; 
 to set the watchful eye of God before his eyes, 
 and His uncorrupted judgment ; to set himself 
 above riches, and exercise great liberality in 
 giving of alms ; and to expel every evil 
 thought against his neighbor out of his soul. 
 This is the true fast. Therefore let this be 
 our care and let us not imagine as many do, 
 that we have fasted rightly when we have 
 abstained from eating until evening. This is 
 not the thing required of us, but that together 
 with our abstinence from meat, we should 
 abstain from those things that hurt the soul, 
 and diligently exercise ourselves in things of a 
 spiritual nature." 
 
 We are now in a position to gather up in a 
 few sentences what was the fast of the early 
 Church. We may say that if people were in 
 health and able to endure fasting the rule and 
 custom was that they should fast all the days 
 of Lent — Saturday and Sunday excepted in 
 the East, whereas in the West Saturday was 
 
104 Z^;// — Past and Present. 
 
 included. Next, that this fasting when prac- 
 ticed consisted in abstaining from food from 
 the morning until three in the afternoon, or 
 sometimes until the evening ; further, that 
 originally there was no rule as to diet, but each 
 person decided for himself what the food 
 should be which he would eat after fasting, 
 taking care however that the repast after the 
 diurnal fast should be moderate, and that 
 abstinence from any particular kind of food 
 should not be made an excuse for indulging 
 immoderately in other foods even more deli- 
 cious simply because they might not be flesh. 
 Next, as to the purpose of fasting, it was not an 
 end but a means ; it looked to the spiritual 
 improvement of the faster, and also to the 
 temporal improvement of those less favored. 
 Fasting was designed for the individual to sub- 
 due his appetites, passions, anger, to increase 
 the life of the spirit, to raise the whole tone of 
 living ; and next, designed for the benefit of 
 others, that by the repression of luxuries, 
 indulgences and expenses, the one thus prac- 
 
Pasting. 105 
 
 ■" ■ - ' 
 
 ticing self-denial might bestow alms of all that 
 was thus saved. What was saved was not to 
 be kept for future indulgence, but was to be 
 given to the poor, otherwise there was no 
 virtue in economy and retrenchment. Then 
 there were exceptions. In fact, every one 
 decided for himself how rigid should be his 
 fast, and for those unable to fast at all, the 
 Church made ample allowance, insisting more 
 on the need of spiritual fasting and discipline 
 than on the physical, and so would put a check 
 on those who might be inclined to indulge in 
 the pharisaic complacency that their absti- 
 nence made them better than those who did not 
 fast. This thought leads us to notice that the 
 abuse of the purpose of fasting soon crept into 
 the Church ; that by some the letter which 
 kills was observed, whereas the spirit which 
 giveth life was ignored. 
 
 But now we ask how shall we apply this 
 practice of fasting to our modern church life, 
 and to ourselves in this new continent unknown 
 to the early Church. There will be no diffi- 
 
io6 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 culty in seeing how far the practice can be 
 adopted, if we keep in mind what one of the 
 greatest of the Fathers of the early Church 
 would insist upon, viz. that fasting was a means 
 to an end, not the end. If, therefore, as a 
 means it fails to be valuable, then of course it 
 is to be disused. We must consider whether it 
 does fail in our time and land to be useful, or 
 whether it can be practiced so as to benefit us. 
 I am of the opinion that no definite rule for 
 fasting can be laid down, and the practice even 
 when adopted can only be observed with the 
 largest allowances and exceptions owing to dif- 
 ferences of climate, labor, living and individ- 
 uals. Those who live in cold regions need 
 more food, and more frequently, in order to 
 sustain life, than those do who live in warm 
 latitudes. Again, those who work hard, as most 
 do in our land, need to eat more than those 
 who labor intermittently, as in Eastern lands. 
 Once more, those who eat less at each meal 
 will need to eat oftener than those whose 
 habitual practice is to eat only two meals a 
 
Pasting. 107 
 
 ■ - I — - — ■■ ■- 
 
 day, but then to eat fully. Let me here quote 
 the words of one who would press the duty of 
 physical fasting as far as it can be. *' The 
 Church of England, " says Blunt, *' has not 
 expressly defined any rule on the subject of 
 fasting" (still less has our American Church). 
 ''The work that is set before most persons, in 
 the Providence of God, at the present day, 
 makes it quite impossible for those who have 
 to do it, to fast every day for six weeks until 
 evening, or even to take one meal only in the 
 day. And the ordinary mode of living is so 
 restrained among religious persons, that such a 
 custom would soon reduce them to an invalid 
 condition, in which they could not do their 
 duty properly in the station of life to which 
 God has called them, whether in the world or 
 in the sanctuary. And although it may seem 
 at first that men ought to be able to fast in the 
 nineteenth century as strictly as they did in 
 the sixteenth, the twelth or the third, yet it 
 should be remembered that (our) continuous 
 labor of life was unknown to the great majority 
 
lo8 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 of persons in ancient days ; and (also) that the 
 quantity and quality of the food which now 
 forms a full meal is only equivalent to what 
 would have been an extremely spare one until 
 comparatively modern days." " The problem 
 the modern Christian has to solve is to recon- 
 cile the duty of fasting. . . . with the duty of 
 properly accomplishing the work which God 
 has set him to do, that he may fulfil both duties 
 as a faithful servant." Once more, because of 
 our large differences of occupation, manner of 
 life, habits, no one can lay down for another 
 what shall be the degree of abstinence which 
 he shall observe. Yet because no one can lay 
 down for me, nor I for you what degree of 
 abstinence shall be practiced, shall there be 
 no abstinence ? There will be if we keep in 
 mind the purpose of abstinence, though the 
 form it may take will not necessarily always 
 be physical fasting. Thus those who already 
 are inclined to gluttony might well practice 
 fasting ; those who are epicurean in their 
 tastes, and are desirous of rich living and 
 
Fasting. 109 
 
 delicacies, might forego some of this choice 
 living ; while those who without temptations 
 of the palate are tempted by gaiety, pleasures, 
 social intercourse, might abstain from '' theatres, 
 balls, parties, sumptuous costumes." These 
 several forms of abstinence given as illustrations 
 — they are as manifold as the habits and occu- 
 pations of men — will have their advantage in 
 being just the forms of discipline needed for 
 our differing temptations by giving us what we 
 have saved in money for enlarged almsgiving, 
 what we have saved in time for increased at- 
 tendance at the public services in church, or 
 for private devotions. 
 
 And now after what has been said, we 
 might well ask is there much of the fasting of 
 the early Church practiced by us — the actual 
 abstinence from food throughout the day? I 
 venture to think there is not ; and I think that 
 the whole manner of our modern life precludes 
 the ability or the need. 
 
 What then is the thought and practical 
 lesson to be gained ? Is it not to realize the 
 
no Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 end or purpose of all the early Church obser- 
 vances of fasting, to realize that '' the honor of 
 fasting," as St. Chrysostom says, " consists not 
 in abstinence from food, but in withdrawing 
 from sinful practices. For let not the mouth 
 only fast but also the eye, and the ear, and the 
 feet, and the hands, and all the members of our 
 bodies. Let the hands fast by being pure from 
 rapine and avarice. ^ Let the feet fast by 
 ceasing to run to unlawful spectacles. Let the 
 eyes fast, being taught never to fix themselves 
 rudely upon handsome countenances, or to busy 
 themselves with strange beauties. Let the 
 ear fast, refusing to receive evil speakings and 
 calumnies. Let the mouth, too, fast from dis- 
 graceful speeches and railing. For what doth 
 it profit if we abstain from birds and fishes ; 
 and yet bite and devour our brethren ? " In 
 a word, ** what advantage shall we gain by 
 abstinence from meats, if we do not also expel 
 the evil habits of the soul? " 
 
 The end of all abstinence is self-discipline in 
 its widest sense of body, mind and will. If 
 
Fasting. Ill 
 
 you can practice fasting, brethren, do so, if it 
 will chasten your bodies and bring them into 
 subjection, but see to it that you fast not 
 simply to say you have so done. If it be not 
 a means to a higher end — if fasting tend only 
 to self-righteousness, then I say even as did 
 Chrysostom of old, of what use fasting if the 
 soul be not purified ? 
 
 We may sum up the matter for ourselves 
 somewhat as follows : Fasting is but a subor- 
 dinate practice — a special application — of the 
 higher and wider principle of abstinence. 
 Abstinence is for all, fasting may be only for 
 some. Its object is not to subdue the flesh, 
 but to subdue the flesh to the spirit. As an 
 end in itself it is valueless ; as a means to an 
 end it may be most valuable. Do not let us 
 talk about it as a rule of the Church and then 
 pay no heed to it. The Church to-day as in 
 its earliest days, would lay down the principle 
 of abstinence in its highest and widest sense, 
 and leave the application of this principle to 
 each individual to make according to his time 
 
112 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 and circumstances. And when all has been 
 said, It may be well to remember the words of 
 the apostle : '* He that eateth eateth to the 
 Lord, for he giveth God thanks ; and he that 
 eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and 
 giveth God thanks." And lest we who may- 
 practice fasting condemn those who fast not 
 let us further remember the apostolic precept : 
 **Who art thou that judgest another man's 
 servant? To his own master he standeth or 
 falleth." 
 
V. 
 
 Holy Week. 
 
V. 
 
 HOLY WEEK. 
 
 Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which 
 is called the Passover. Luke xxii. i. 
 
 IN our consideration of the early origin of 
 Lent, its purpose and its practices, we had 
 to omit mention of some of the usages because 
 of their special connection with a certain 
 portion of the Lenten season. To-day we are 
 in a position to take up the observances 
 connected with the Great Week, as it was called 
 — the week before Easter. In later times and 
 in our time the week before Easter is known as 
 Holy Week ; but in the early Church — and it 
 is the customs and usages of the early rather 
 than the later or mediaeval Church which we 
 have been considering — in the early Church 
 
ii6 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 this week was called the " hebdomas magna' or 
 the " great week " before Easter. 
 
 And first it was so called as St. Chrysostom 
 tells us, " not because it consisted of longer 
 days, or more in number than other weeks, but 
 because at this time great things were wrought 
 for us by our Lord. For in this week the 
 ancient tyranny of the devil was dissolved, 
 death was extinct, the strong man was bound, 
 his goods were spoiled, sin was abolished, the 
 curse was destroyed, Paradise was opened, 
 heaven became accessible, men and angels 
 were joined together, the middle wall of parti- 
 tion was broken down, the barriers were taken 
 out of the way, the God of Peace made peace 
 between things in heaven and things on earth, 
 therefore it is called 'the great week."* Be- 
 cause then of the great honor and special rev- 
 erence in which it was held, special observances 
 were connected with it, and still more with 
 certain days of this week. 
 
 We will consider the observances first for 
 the week in general, and next for certain of the 
 days in particular. 
 
Holy Week ii7 
 
 I. {a) This week was the culmination of the 
 season of Lent, therefore at this time many in- 
 creased their labors and disciplined themselves 
 with greater strictness than ever. Thus in the 
 matter of fasting, '' whereas in the foregoing 
 part of Lent, some refreshment was taken 
 every evening, and the Sabbath (i, e. Saturday) 
 was never observed as a fast, now many not 
 only fasted on the Sabbath in this week, but 
 added to it, some one day, some two, some 
 three, some four, some five days, which they 
 passed in perfect abstinence, eating nothing all 
 this week till the morning of the resurrection." 
 (b) Then again, in the matter of almsgiving 
 and charity, during this week many gave more 
 liberal alms, and '' exercised all kinds of charity 
 to those who stood in need of it. For the 
 nearer they approached to the passion and 
 resurrection of Christ by which all the bless- 
 ings in the world were poured forth upon men, 
 the more they thought themselves obliged to 
 show all manner of acts of mercy and kindness 
 toward their brethren." St. Chrysostom says 
 
ii8 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 of this week, '* As the Jews went forth to meet 
 Christ when He had raised Lazarus from the 
 dead, so now not one city, but all the world go 
 forth to meet him, not with palm branches in 
 their hands, but with alms-deeds, humanity, 
 virtue, fasting, tears, prayers, watchings, and all 
 kinds of piety which they offer to Christ their 
 Lord." 
 
 {c) Once more, in the domestic economy of 
 families, " this week before Easter, and the fol- 
 lowing week was a time of rest and liberty to 
 servants. All servants had a vacation from 
 their ordinary bodily labor, that they might 
 have more leisure and opportunity to attend 
 the worship of God and concerns of their 
 soul." And to give even more effect to this 
 practice than simple good will there was a rule 
 directing, " In the whole ' great week ' (before 
 Easter) and the week following, let servants 
 rest from their labors ; because the one is the 
 time of our Lord's passion, and the other of 
 His resurrection ; and servants have need to be 
 instructed in the knowledge of those myster- 
 les. 
 
Holy Week. 119 
 
 {d) Again, as many servants were also slaves, 
 this week was the time when many masters in 
 great charity granted freedom to their slaves, 
 *' in imitation of the spiritual liberty which 
 Christ, at this time, had procured for all man- 
 kind." 
 
 {/) Civil government was also affected after 
 the alliance of the State with the Church. 
 During this week civil business ceased, and 
 courts were closed. Referring to this great 
 week St. Chrysostom says, " And not only we, 
 but the emperors of the world honor this week, 
 making it a time of vacation from all civil busi- 
 ness ; that the magistrates, being at liberty 
 from business of the law, may spend all these 
 days in spiritual services. Let the doors of 
 the courts, say they, now be shut up ; let all 
 disputes and all kinds of contention and 
 punishment cease ; let the executioner's hands 
 rest a little ; common blessings are wrought 
 for us all by our common Lord, let some 
 good be done by us His servants." This cessa- 
 tion from all business of the law was decreed 
 
120 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 by Constantine, the design being "■ that noth- 
 ing of animosity, or contention, or cruelty, or 
 punishment, or bloodshed, should appear at 
 this holy season, when all men were laboring 
 to obtain mercy and pardon by the blood of 
 Christ ; and that men sequestering themselves 
 from all civil and worldly business might with 
 greater assiduity attend the exercises of piety 
 which were peculiar to the solemn occasion." 
 
 (/") But imperial recognition of this solemn 
 season did not end simply with the closing of 
 courts, Mercy was shown to prisoners. '' Im- 
 perial letters," says St. Chrysostom, '* are sent 
 abroad at this time commanding all prisoners 
 to be set at liberty from their chains. For as 
 our Lord, when He descended into hell, set 
 free those that were detained by death, so the 
 servants according to their power, imitating 
 the kindness of their Lord, loose men from 
 their corporal bonds when they have no power 
 to relax the spiritual." This imperial indul- 
 gence was shown especially during this great 
 week by the Emperors to all prisoners — crim- 
 
Holy Week, 121 
 
 inals as well as debtors. We notice also that 
 this indulgence was granted not only in the 
 East but also in the West. For St Ambrose of 
 Milan says, " The holy days of the last week in 
 Lent, was the time when the bonds of debtors 
 used to be loosed." Pardon was granted " to 
 all criminals who lay bound in prison for their 
 faults, except some that were of a more 
 malignant and unpardonable nature." 
 
 Such then were some of the special observ- 
 ances of this great week— ecclesiastical, do- 
 mestic, civil. Greater strictness, more rigorous 
 fasting, deeper and prolonged devotion, larger 
 almsgiving, increased deeds of charity and 
 works of mercy, servants were given time to 
 attend the services of the church and to be 
 instructed, slaves were often given their free- 
 dom, the courts were closed, legal business 
 ceased, and even prisoners — criminals and debt- 
 ors — with the exception of malignant and 
 capital prisoners were pardoned and set free 
 in these solemn days of the great week 
 preceding Easter. 
 
122 Le7it — Past and Present. 
 
 II. {a) We pass on now to consider observ- 
 ances connected with certain days of this 
 great week. The first of these is Thursday. 
 This day has had many names derived from 
 some circumstance connected with the first 
 great Thursday, but many of them are of 
 late origin. Thus we have the names — the day 
 of the Supper of the Lord ; the birthday of the 
 Eucharist ; the birthday of the cup ; the day 
 of the mysteries ; the day of the feet-washing, 
 and Maundy Thursday. Most of these names 
 explain themselves except perhaps the last. 
 " Maundy Thursday is in all probability a ver- 
 nacular corruption in English of ' Dies Mandati ' 
 i. e.y the day of the commandment, because on 
 this day our Saviour washed his disciples* feet, 
 and gave them commandment to follow His 
 example ; or because He instituted the Sacra- 
 ment of His Supper upon this day, command- 
 ing His disciples to do the same in remembrance 
 of Him." The name, however, which is most 
 frequently used in the early Eastern Church is 
 that used by St. Chrysostom, vis. " the holy 
 and great fifth day." 
 
Holy Week. 123 
 
 (^) Having considered the names we may 
 now proceed to consider some of the special 
 observances of this holy and great fifth day — 
 called by us Maundy Thursday, Thursday 
 before Easter, or Thursday in Holy Week. 
 
 There are two acts of our Lord on the Thurs- 
 day of the first holy week which are constantly 
 called to our mind by the evangelical records, 
 viz. the feet-washing, and the institution of the 
 Last Supper. As to the feet-washing, this cus- 
 tom has been preserved in various forms, and 
 for various periods by some branches of the 
 Church. Its connection in the early Church, 
 however, was chiefly with baptism. Its per- 
 petual obligation was never universally ack- 
 nowledged. Says Origen : '' It is not necessary 
 for any one who wishes to obey all the com- 
 mandments of Jesus, literally to perform the 
 act of feet-washing." Once again, in answer to 
 a set of questions, concerning ecclesiastical 
 usages and the different customs in different 
 parts of the Church, put to him by a friend, St. 
 Augustine replies, " As to the feet-washing, 
 
124 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 since the Lord recommended this because of 
 its being an example of that humility which He 
 came to teach, as He Himself afterwards ex- 
 plained, the question has arisen at what time 
 it is best, by literal performance of this work, 
 to give public instruction in the important 
 duty {i. e., humility) which it illustrates, and 
 this time (of Lent) was suggested in order that 
 the lesson taught by it might make a deeper 
 and more serious impression. Many, however, 
 have not accepted this as a custom, lest it 
 should be thought to belong to the ordinance 
 of Baptism ; and some have not hesitated to 
 deny it any place among our ceremonies." 
 We may perhaps accept what a wise commen- 
 tator — Alford — remarks, that '' the custom of 
 literally and ceremonially washing the feet in 
 obedience to this commandment is not found 
 before the fourth century." Since then it has 
 been adopted for a time in parts of the Church, 
 and Maundy Thursday has been the day set 
 apart for the fulfilment of this command. The 
 present Bishop of Durham in his commentary 
 
Holy Week, 125 
 
 on St. John's Gospel sums up the practice 
 historically by saying, '' By a decree of the 
 XVIIIth Council of Toledo, 694, it {i. e., feet- 
 washing) was made obligatory on the Thurs- 
 day in Holy Week ' throughout the churches 
 of Spain and Gaul.' The practice was contin- 
 ued in England by English sovereigns till the 
 reign of James II. ; and as late as 1731 the 
 Lord High Almoner washed the feet of the 
 recipients of the royal gifts at Whitehall on 
 Maundy Thursday." Even to this day, 
 though the feet-washing is discontinued, there 
 is still in use in the Chapel Royal at Whitehall 
 an " ofifice for the Royal Maundy," where on 
 Maundy Thursday there are distributed gifts 
 of money and clothing to a certain number of 
 poor men and women, and during the distribu- 
 tion the bishop who acts as the Queen's 
 Almoner, and his assistant are girded with 
 long linen towels. The custom of the feet- 
 washing is still retained at St. Peter's, Rome, 
 and the practice is also maintained by certain 
 Christian sects such as the Mennonites, and 
 
126 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 until recently by the United Brethren. The 
 literal practice and its obligation we have seen 
 were not required as a universal custom in the 
 early Church, nor indeed was it made a matter 
 of church appointment in any churches until 
 the seventh century in those of Gaul and 
 Spain. 
 
 (c) Let us now pass on to consider the 
 second act of our Lord on the Thursday before 
 His crucifixion, viz. that of the institution of 
 the Last Supper. It had become the custom 
 quite early in the history of the Christian 
 Church to celebrate the Lord's Supper in the 
 morning — a custom at first due more perhaps 
 to political exigencies than to any doctrinal 
 significance — but on this great fifth day " in 
 some of the Latin churches, the communion 
 was administered in the evening after supper, 
 in imitation of the communion of the apostles 
 at our Lord's last supper." In some places 
 St. Augustine tells us the communion "was 
 administered twice on this day ; in the morn- 
 ing for the sake of such as could not keep the 
 
Holy Week. 127 
 
 day a fast ; and in the evening for those that 
 fasted till evening, when they ended their fast 
 and received the communion after supper." 
 Thus we see that though custom had caused 
 the celebration of the communion to take 
 place in the morning, there were exceptions to 
 the rule, and the great exception was on this 
 Maundy Thursday evening. We know the 
 strong objections to evening communion in 
 our Church, and yet if to-day in any of our 
 parish churches this practice should be main- 
 tained according to the liberty and also preva- 
 lent practice of the early Church, it would ill 
 become us to criticise or condemn those who 
 so desire on this day to commemorate in the 
 evening the first institution of this sacrament. 
 Certainly the precedent and practice of the 
 primitive Church would countenance the cus- 
 tom. There are some weighty words on this 
 subject in a recently published book of the 
 Bishop of Manchester. 
 
 (d) Again, this great Thursday was marked 
 by other usages. On this day the candidates 
 
T2S Lent — Past and Present, 
 
 for baptism " publicly rehearsed the creed be- 
 fore the Bishop or Presbyter in the church," 
 and until the close of the fifth or the beginning 
 of the sixth century this was the only occa- 
 sion in the year when the creed was openly 
 recited. It was not until the close of the fifth 
 or the beginning of the sixth century that it 
 became the practice to regularly recite the 
 Nicene Creed in the Communion Office, at 
 which time it was introduced according to 
 some authorities by Peter the Fuller, the intru- 
 ding patriarch of Antioch ; according to other 
 authorities by Timothy, Bishop of Constanti- 
 nople. And singularly both these bishops are 
 charged with being Monophysites. 
 
 {/) Again, this great Thursday was the day 
 set apart for the solemn ablutions of the candi- 
 dates for baptism on Easter-even. St. Augus- 
 tine replying to some questions on this custom 
 says, '■'■ If you ask me whence originated the 
 custom of using the bath on (this) day, nothing 
 occurs to me when I think of it as more likely 
 than that it was to avoid the offence to decency 
 
Holy Week. 129 
 
 which must have been given at the Baptismal 
 font, if the bodies of" those to whom that rite 
 was to be administered were not washed on 
 some preceding day from the uncleanness con- 
 sequent upon their strict abstinence from 
 ablutions during Lent." It was also the prac- 
 tice with many who had already been baptized; 
 to abstain from bathing through Lent, think- 
 ing they thereby practiced greater self-disci- 
 pline, and they too took this day as the day for 
 ending this form of abstinence by bathing. 
 
 (/) Once more, the great fifth day— though 
 some defer the matter until the following day 
 — was the day on which penitents were ab- 
 solved or reconciled. ''All the doors (of the 
 church) were thrown open to intimate that 
 penitent offenders, whether they came from 
 the East or from the West, from the North or 
 from the South, or from whatever quarter of 
 the world, would be received into the bosom of 
 the Church, and into the arms of divine mercy." 
 
 {g) Also " on this day it was customary for 
 servants to receive the communion." 
 
130 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 There are still the usages of Good Friday, 
 and the great Sabbath or Easter-even to be 
 considered, but these we will postpone to the 
 next address. 
 
 In conclusion I would remark that of the 
 customs we have considered some have disap- 
 peared and been discontinued because they 
 were of temporary value ; some have been 
 retained because of their permanent worth. 
 What we need to remember at this day is that 
 usages arose according to needs and circum- 
 stances, that when these needs ceased naturally 
 the usages ceased. Again, we must notice that 
 the usages we have considered prevailed chiefly 
 in the East, and in the undivided Church. But 
 to-day we live under different conditions and 
 circumstances, and our aim should be not to 
 imitate in any particular the usage of the 
 ancient Church, a practice perhaps established 
 to meet a certain temporary need, or passing 
 phase of thought ; but to endeavor to separate 
 the essential from the non-essential, and main- 
 taining the same principles and spirit of the 
 
Holy Week. 1 3 1 
 
 Lenten season which prevailed in early days, 
 to apply that spirit and those principles under 
 necessary modifications and if necessary entirely 
 different usages, to our modern needs and cir- 
 cumstances. We notice plainly that owing to 
 our changed modes of life, many of the 
 ancient usages would to-day find no room for 
 exercise, no point of contact in our life. The 
 practice of feet-washing had a certain signifi- 
 cance in the East, where ceremonial ablutions 
 were of such consequence, and perhaps the 
 practice even to-day in the Orient might be 
 maintained with advantage ; but in the West, 
 where the practice had become so formal and 
 stiffened with ceremonial, the principle it was de- 
 signed to inculcate, viz, humility, may perhaps 
 best be practiced by disregarding rather than 
 observing the custom. The practice of humility 
 may well find expression in some other rite 
 more applicable to and needed for our times 
 and life. So again the practice of the ablution 
 of the catechumens on this day has ceased to 
 have any value in the West, because not only 
 
132 Le7it — Past and Present, 
 
 is infant baptism more extensively practiced, 
 but also the custom of deferring baptism until 
 Easter has largely passed away; and the 
 further belief that abstinence from bathing is 
 a mark of self-discipline or a means to the 
 attainment of a higher state of sanctity has 
 now little credence or reception among Chris- 
 tians, who believe that '■'■ cleanliness is next to 
 godliness," a phrase often supposed by some 
 to be of scriptural authority. 
 
 In the face of diversity of usage and of 
 opinion as to the value of the retention or 
 disuse of certain customs and observances of 
 the early Church in the present day, no word 
 seems to me more fitting to recall and act upon 
 than that written now nearly 1300 years ago 
 by Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, to 
 Augustine, monk and first Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, concerning this very Anglican Church of 
 which we are members. Augustine on his 
 arrival in England found that though the 
 Saxons and Angles were heathen, yet there 
 was in existence a British Church. But its 
 
Holy Week. 133 
 
 customs differed in many respects from those 
 to which Augustine, the monk of Rome, was 
 accustomed. Accordingly he writes to Gregory 
 for counsel and advice, and that large and wise 
 minded man — however we may differ in regard 
 to his ambitious designs — wrote back to Aug- 
 ustine : *' You, my brother, are acquainted with 
 the customs of the Roman Church, in which 
 you were brought up. But it is my pleasure 
 that if you have found anything either in the 
 Roman, or the Galilean, or any other Church 
 which may be more acceptable to Almighty 
 God, you carefully make choice of the same ; 
 and sedulously teach the Church of the Eng- 
 lish \i. e. the Church of the Saxons and Angles, 
 not the British Church] which is at present 
 new in the faith, whatsoever you can gather 
 from the several Churches. For things are not 
 to be loved for the sake of places, but places 
 for the sake of good things. Select therefore 
 from each Church those things that are pious, 
 religious, and correct." 
 
 The same wise words are needed to-day. 
 
134 Lent — Past and Present, 
 
 Many would enforce one and only one usage 
 or custom, forgetting that the practice of the 
 primitive Church was to allow great diversity of 
 customs ; others again would object to all 
 ancient usages, these also forgetting that unre- 
 strained individual liberty most frequently 
 degenerates unto lawless license. The true 
 spirit is, I think, to accept as nearly as we can 
 the customs and usages of the early Church 
 which have been found universally applicable, i. 
 e.y which are applicable to our unchanged needs 
 as human beings in this remote land, and in 
 these later years, and which the Church to-day 
 has accepted and sanctioned ; but to forego 
 without pain or complaint all those practices 
 and minute rites and usages which from the 
 nature of the case could only be local and tem- 
 porary. If we accept the order and the cus- 
 toms of the Church in this loyal spirit, we shall 
 grant that there may be room for great diversity 
 of customs and usages in God's Church through- 
 out all the world, and yet with all this varia- 
 tion we may maintain our belief in " one body 
 
Holy Week 135 
 
 and one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 
 one God and Father of all, who is above all, 
 and through all, and in us all." 
 
VI. 
 
 Holy Week. 
 
VI. 
 
 HOLY WEEK. 
 
 Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which 
 is called the Passover. Liike xxii. i. 
 
 AS in the Jewish Church the feast of the 
 Passover v^hich commemorated the great 
 deliverance from Egypt was celebrated by 
 special preparations, so too as we draw near 
 to the commemoration of the great spiritual 
 deliverance of mankind by the sacrifice of the 
 Saviour on the cross, the Church has always 
 made special preparation for that event, and 
 has commemorated it in most solemn manner. 
 We have considered the general observances 
 of the early Church in connection with Holy 
 Week, and also the special observances con- 
 nected with the great Thursday of this week, 
 to-day we shall consider the special observances 
 
140 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 connected with the remaining two days therein, 
 and close our Lenten studies with some 
 general reflections on the use and the abuse of 
 Lent. 
 
 L First we will consider the names given to 
 the Friday of Holy Week. There have been 
 many names given to this day, the earliest 
 being as was most natural connected with the 
 Jewish Passover, and the event which occurred 
 on this day. One of the earliest names there- 
 fore given to Friday in Holy Week is **the 
 day of the preparation," or as some would 
 translate "■ the day of the Passover," thus indi- 
 cating the connection of the day of the atone- 
 ment for the sins of the whole world with the 
 Jewish Passover when Israel was redeemed 
 out of Egyptian bondage. Others again, leav- 
 ing out of sight the parallel to Jewish history, 
 fastened their thoughts more on the actual 
 event of the day in connection with our Lord's 
 life and work, accordingly this Friday is also 
 known as " the day of our Lord's passion," or 
 " Passion day." '' In early English times this 
 
Holy Week. 141 
 
 Friday was known as Long Friday, called so 
 perhaps on account of the long fastings and 
 offices they then used." But the name by 
 which this Friday has now been best known 
 for many centuries among English speaking 
 Christians is '* Good Friday," called so " from 
 the blessed effects of our Saviour's sufferings, 
 which are the ground of all our joy ; and from 
 those unspeakable good things he hath pur- 
 chased for us by his death." So much for the 
 name. 
 
 From the earliest times Good Friday has 
 been observed with great solemnity. " Indeed, 
 this day was one of those two great days which 
 all Christians in general thought themselves 
 obliged strictly to observe." '' Even those 
 who kept no other Lent, religiously observed 
 this day and the following." 
 
 It was a day too when fasting was strictly 
 kept and a general attendance at divine service 
 was practiced. Work also ceased on this day, 
 except works of charity. 
 
 Again, on this day, according to some authori- 
 
142 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 ties, and not on the day preceding, penitents 
 who '' had completed their penance for one, 
 two, three years or more the Lent preceding, 
 were absolved." '' Nor was it only particular 
 absolutions that were granted to public peni- 
 tents on this day of the Passion, but a general 
 absolution or indulgence was proclaimed to all 
 the people observing the day with fastings, 
 prayers, and true contrition or compunction.'* 
 Yet in time laxity crept in, and some churches 
 omitted the observance of these strict acts of 
 devotion. On this day of the Lord's passion, 
 '' the church doors were shut up, and no divine 
 service performed." This laxity had to be cor- 
 rected by ecclesiastical censure, and in Spain, 
 where this loss of piety and decadence of 
 spirituality was specially marked, a canon had 
 to be passed, requiring the opening of churches 
 for service on this day. This canon was 
 passed about the seventh century. 
 
 We come now to consider a custom which 
 bears more closely upon our own practice, in 
 regard to the administration of the Holy Com- 
 
Holy Week. 143 
 
 munion on Good Friday. The custom largely 
 prevails in our Church to omit the administra- 
 tion of the Holy Communion on Good Friday. 
 Just why, it would puzzle many to say. One 
 reason is, perhaps many of us think that this 
 omission has always been the rule of the 
 Church. But has it? If we are to credit the 
 early Fathers we are led to believe that with 
 them even on Good Friday there was no omis- 
 sion. As early as the days of TertuUian {cir. 
 145-220) we read that in the African Church 
 — and this would in great measure involve the 
 whole of Latin Christianity — " the Eucharist 
 was received on Sundays, the fifty days be- 
 tween Easter and Pentecost which were but 
 one continual festival, and all their stationary 
 days, i. e, Wednesdays and Fridays in every 
 week throughout the year." TertuUian says 
 expressly of these Wednesdays and Fridays 
 '' that they were always observed with receiv- 
 ing the Eucharist." In the Eastern Church 
 St. Basil also agrees with TertuUian in making 
 these stationary days ''days of communion," 
 
144 Z^;/^ — Past and Present. 
 
 and as Saturday was also always a feast day in 
 the Eastern Church it appears *' that in many 
 churches they had the Communion four times 
 every week — on Wednesdays, Fridays, Satur- 
 days and Sundays." Further, if we are to 
 take literally and not rhetorically many of the 
 passages from St. Chrysostom and St. Augus- 
 tine we may well believe that the communion 
 was administered every day in the year. I 
 mention this fact not that I deem it necessary 
 we should do exactly as did the primitive 
 Church, nor that we should reproduce every 
 practice and adopt every usage which then 
 prevailed, but simply to show what was the 
 actual custom and thereby pass to the consid- 
 eration of the custom which to-day prevails so 
 largely, if not wholly with us, of omitting the 
 administration of the communion on Good 
 Friday. If the omission is based as it is by 
 some on the alleged practice of the primitive 
 Church, the omission is erroneously based, be- 
 cause as I have shown, the writings of the Fath- 
 ers of the early Church would lead us to believe 
 
Holy Week. 145 
 
 that the Communion was not omitted on this 
 day. It is well to be informed of this, that we 
 may not erroneously attribute our usage to 
 ancient practice ; and further, it would be well 
 to remember that oftentimes when we are said 
 to be following ancient usage, we are really de- 
 parting from it. 
 
 Once more, in the early Latin Church the 
 Sacramentary of Gregory clearly indicates that 
 there was Communion on Good Friday. In 
 fact, as a learned English divine — Blunt — says, 
 Communion " on this day was the prevailing 
 custom of the Church until the tenth century 
 at least." 
 
 Again, if we are to be guided by the implicit 
 teaching of the English Church, according to 
 her formularies, and also according to our 
 own, we would revive the Communion on 
 Good Friday. We know how the appointment 
 of a Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for any day has 
 so often been construed to imply that the 
 Church thereby presupposes a celebration on 
 that day ; if this be a valid inference then we 
 
146 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 see how the appointment of Collects, Epistle, 
 and Gospel for Good Friday would point to the 
 intention of the English Church, and also our 
 own. 
 
 Next, when we consider what the Com- 
 munion implies, surely there can be no day of 
 the year when the Communion could be or 
 ought to be more fitly administered than on 
 the day on which our redemption was wrought 
 by the sacrifice on the cross, the offering up of 
 the Body and Blood of Christ. It has, I say, 
 become customary with us to omit the Com- 
 munion on Good Friday, but if we do omit it, 
 let us remember it is a late usage, not that of 
 the primitive Church, and if we really desire to 
 follow the ancient Church in all her practices, 
 then we should most certainly restore this of a 
 Communion on Good Friday. But as I have 
 endeavored to show during this course of stud- 
 ies our aim is not to blindly imitate any special 
 practice, but to reasonably adopt with the lib- 
 erty we possess those principles and practices of 
 the early Church which we can adopt and fit to 
 
Holy Week. 147 
 
 our needs and circumstances. With the liberty 
 wherewith Christ has made us free we are 
 privileged to exercise our judgment and base 
 our methods and practices largely on our ex- 
 perience and needs. If, therefore, to-day we 
 omit the Communion on Good Friday, we are 
 justified in so doing if we base our omission on 
 the possession of the privilege of a true branch 
 of God's Church to adopt its customs to its 
 times and needs ; only when we do so let us 
 distinctly remember our present usage is not 
 that of the primitive Church. 
 
 11. {pi) Let us now pass to the consideration 
 of the Saturday in Holy Week. We know it 
 by the name of Easter-even, but in the early 
 Church it was known as the " Great Sabbath." 
 Here let me add a word of caution to remind 
 you that in all early use of this word Sabbath, 
 the primitive Church always meant by it Satur- 
 day, and not Sunday as many Christians to-day 
 mean when they use the word. This great 
 Sabbath had many special observances con- 
 nected with it, and necessarily so, as it was the 
 
148 Lent — Past and Present, 
 
 link, so to speak, between the days of Lent of 
 austerity, fasting and humiliation, and Easter, 
 which was the great day of thanksgiving. This 
 Great Sabbath therefore bears a twofold aspect 
 — one of humiliation and one of rejoicing. It 
 looks back to the cross, and forward to the res- 
 urrection. 
 
 {b) Let us consider first what we may call 
 its Lenten aspect. This was the only Satur- 
 day or Sabbath in the year that was ob- 
 served as a fast by the Eastern Church, and 
 also by some of the Westerns. The day was 
 kept most solemnly. In the well-known Con- 
 stitutions of the Holy Apostles we read, '* Do 
 ye who are able fast the day of the preparation 
 \i. e. Good Friday] and the Sabbath day 
 entirely, tasting nothing until the cock-crowing 
 of the night : but if anyone is not able to join 
 them both together \i. e. to fast both Good 
 Friday and Saturday] at least let him observe 
 the Sabbath day." Thus sacredly was this 
 Sabbath observed throughout the Church, and 
 the fast continued till cock-crowing on the 
 
Holy Week, H9 
 
 morning of Easter, which was the supposed 
 time of our Lord's resurrection. 
 
 (c) Again, it was the custom to pass this night 
 of the " great " Sabbath as a vigil, or season 
 of watch in the Church, " to perform all parts 
 of divine service, psalmody, reading the scrip- 
 tures, the law, the prophets and the gospels, 
 praying and preaching." The reason given for 
 this watching was twofold ; ''because on this 
 night our Lord was raised to life again after 
 His Passion ; and next, because on the same 
 night he was expected to return to receive the 
 kingdom of the world." As St. Jerome says, 
 " It was a tradition among the Jews, that 
 Christ would come at midnight, as He did upon 
 the Egyptians at the time of the Passover," 
 and so he thinks the custom arose " not to 
 dismiss the people on the Paschal vigil before 
 midnight, expecting the coming of Christ, after 
 which, presuming on security, they kept the 
 day a festival." 
 
 (d) As to the more joyful aspect of this day, 
 we learn that this vigil after the persecution of 
 
150 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 Christians had ceased, and the State and 
 Church had become allied, was kept with great 
 pomp. Eusebius tells us that in the time of 
 Constantine the emperor ''set up lofty pillars 
 of wax to burn as torches all over the city, and 
 lamps burning in all places so that the night 
 seemed to outshine the sun at noon-day." 
 And Gregory Nazianzen speaks of this custom 
 of setting up lamps and torches in churches 
 and private houses as symbolical " forerunners 
 of that great Light, the Sun of Righteousness, 
 arising on the world on Easter day." 
 
 (e) Then there was one more special custom 
 connected with this great Saturday, the last 
 which we shall note. This was the great day 
 and night for baptizing catechumens who had 
 been prepared by instruction and discipline 
 during the preceding days of Lent. It had 
 become the custom in the early Church after 
 the first century and a half to defer the bap- 
 tism of catechumens. There were two leading 
 reasons for this delay. One was ** to give 
 sufficient time to the Catechumens to prepare 
 
Holy Week. i5i 
 
 them for baptism ; the other to reform their 
 defection, when they happened to turn lapsers 
 or apostates before their baptism." We must 
 remember that to be a Christian in the first 
 three centuries of our era meant the possibility 
 of being, and the willingness to be at any time 
 tried, and persecuted, and put to death ; thus 
 the early Church desired by a long test before 
 baptism to have some partial assurance that 
 the catechumens were sincere, and would if 
 need be suffer martyrdom for the faith. There 
 had therefore gradually sprung up the custom 
 of deferring baptism to certain seasons, and of 
 the three special times of Epiphany, Easter and 
 Pentecost, the great Sabbath before Easter 
 was the time most favored. We read of 
 thousands being baptized at this season, in fact 
 on one special occasion during the episcopal 
 rule of St. Chrysostom, we hear of about three 
 thousand being baptized on one great Sabbath 
 in Constantinople, notwithstanding the lawless- 
 ness and the assaults of the soldiery on the 
 churches on that day. Thus the catechumens 
 
152 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 having been baptized on this day or night be- 
 fore Easter, ** were made complete Christians, 
 and admitted to the Communion " on Easter 
 day. 
 
 I think we see a reason why the " great " Sab- 
 bath before Easter was the time most favored 
 for baptism. This was the time when the 
 Lord was in the tomb just before His resurrec- 
 tion, and from the earliest days of the apostles 
 baptism has been connected with the death 
 and resurrection of Christ. Thus St. Paul 
 writing to the Romans says, *' Know ye not 
 that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus 
 Christ were baptized into His death ? There- 
 fore we are buried with Him by baptism into 
 death ; that like as Christ was raised up from 
 the dead by the glory of the Father, even so 
 we also should walk in newness of life. For 
 if we have been planted together in the like- 
 ness of His death, we shall be also in the 
 likeness of His resurrection." Once again, 
 writing to the Colossians he tells them that 
 they are '' buried with Christ in baptism. 
 
Holy Week. 153 
 
 wherein also ye are risen with Him through 
 the faith of the operation of God, who hath 
 raised Him from the dead." Thus as baptism 
 was typical of the death and resurrection of 
 Christ, so naturally Christians desired to be 
 baptized at the time when the Church specially 
 commemorated those events in our Lord's life; 
 and therefore what day could be more fitly 
 adapted than that which came between His 
 death and resurrection — the Great Sabbath 
 following Good Friday and preceding Easter ? 
 
 Here we bring our studies of this subject to 
 a close. We have endeavored during these 
 Sunday mornings in Lent to learn of the early 
 origin of Lent, its purpose, customs and ob- 
 servances. I hope those of us who have care- 
 fully followed the subject will be better able 
 than ever to give a reason for our keeping of 
 Lent, its origin, and the origin of many of its 
 observances. 
 
 HL And now to sum up for ourselves a 
 few lessons from the study in which we have 
 been engaged, we gather, I think, two leading 
 
154 LeJit — Past and Present. 
 
 thoughts: that in connection with Lent there 
 are first, certain permanent abiding principles 
 deep as our nature which we need to maintain 
 and apply ; and secondly, that connected with 
 the observance of Lent in the early Church 
 were customs and usages which could only be 
 of a temporary character. They were acci- 
 dental ; that is, adapted to the time, place, cir- 
 cumstances, political and social conditions of 
 the age. Some of these we are justified to-day 
 in maintaining ; some owing to our changed 
 circumstances and needs we cannot maintain. 
 The truth we need to learn is that the principle 
 which underlies the appointment of a Lenten 
 fast is of more importance than the garment 
 of usage which has been wrapped about it. 
 We need to consider and weigh more why the 
 season was observed than how it was observed. 
 This leads us to remember that there may be 
 such a thing as the abuse as well as the use of 
 Lent. 
 
 We will briefly consider the use of Lent, and 
 thereby gather certain indications of its abuse. 
 
Holy Week. i55 
 
 The use of Lent may be regarded in two 
 aspects : first, to the individual ; and secondly, 
 to the Church and to the world. 
 
 First, as to the individual. We learn the 
 need and importance of some definite time for 
 special self-examination, of deepening our spir- 
 itual life ; and we need this season appointed 
 for us by some external authority, else what 
 can be done by us at any time, will most likely 
 be done at no time. We need then some time 
 formally set apart for us for special self-exami- 
 nation, and for deepening our spiritualHfe, and 
 this is to be done in two ways : first, by a sense 
 of sin, and secondly, by a realization of God's 
 love. The sense of sin will lead to penitence, 
 self-discipline, and more frequent supplication ; 
 the realization of God's love will lead to a 
 more joyful spirit, a deeper thankfulness, and 
 so practically to enlarged alms-giving, greater 
 charity, a readier spirit of forgiveness, a delight 
 in communion with God. The Church, there- 
 fore, has for both these ends appointed in- 
 creased services whereby we may express our 
 
156 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 repentance and devotion ; and for our joy- 
 appointed increased opportunities for alms- 
 giving and deeds of mercy. 
 
 And — to be brief — in the next aspect as to 
 the Church and the world. The Church as a 
 whole, apart from the individual, needs a sea- 
 son of penitence and prayer, needs to be- 
 moan its lukewarmness and worldliness, needs 
 to draw deeper from the fountain of truth, 
 needs to have its light burn brightly, else He 
 who walks among the golden candlesticks 
 remove our candlestick. Yes, the Church itself 
 needs a season in which to be urged to a 
 deeper devotion and to a holier life, and this 
 too not only for itself, but also for the sake of 
 the world. It needs its missionary spirit to 
 be more deeply stirred and quickened, to be 
 reminded that one of the essential characteris- 
 tics which it must possess is to be a missionary 
 Church, and that if it fails in this respect it 
 ceases to be a Church ; yes, to remember that 
 its only ground of existence, the end for 
 which it was established by the Blessed Sav- 
 
Holy Week. 157 
 
 iour and our Lord and God, was that it might 
 go and preach the gospel to, and make disci- 
 ples of all nations. Deeper internal consecra- 
 tion, and a more intense missionary spirit and 
 zeal are the uses of Lent for the Church, and 
 through it to the world. Only as the Church is 
 true to its character and mission, can the 
 world be evangelized, purified, and brought 
 to the God of heaven and earth, when all the 
 kingdoms of this world shall become the king- 
 doms of our God and His Christ, and the 
 earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the 
 Lord as the waters cover the sea. 
 
 So much then in brief for the use of Lent ; 
 but we see that there may be abuses as well, 
 and the first is the danger arising from the 
 perfunctory use of the season. Indeed we 
 are apt from its annual occurrence to look 
 upon it as a season much as the annual holi- 
 day season, when the great exodus abroad 
 takes place, or the annual flight from our larger 
 cities to seaside or mountain resorts, or to 
 quiet secluded country villages. Because of 
 
158 Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 this perfunctory use of the season we yield a 
 very formal conformity to the observances of 
 Lent, and in consequence the services, the 
 modes of discipline are apt to grow isksome. 
 We chafe and fret under them, and instead of 
 deriving good we may derive harm. 
 
 Onoe again, another abuse is that we limit 
 our vision and our purpose. We so often 
 regard the Lenten season as a season absolutely 
 isolated both in time and in its spiritual rela- 
 tions to that portion of our life which precedes 
 or succeeds it. And so from the wildest 
 frivolity or levity we may enter upon the most 
 sober and serious of observances, fasts and 
 discipline, and then when the joyful Easter 
 morn breaks we cast aside all these observ- 
 ances as weeds of which we are only too glad 
 to be rid, and by a renewed or indeed in- 
 creased wildness of frivolity and levity give no 
 evidence of the deepenmg of character, the 
 sobering of thought, the elevation of mind, the 
 spiritual communion which we professed to 
 have desired to gain during the holy season. 
 
Holy Week, 159 
 
 Ah, friends ! It is not the season of Lent 
 which is so much blamed by the world as the 
 inconsistent conduct and character of Chris- 
 tians, who having gone through the austerities 
 and ascetic practices of Lent, come forth no 
 whit better in temper or life. And why? 
 Because of this unwholesome thought of dis- 
 sociating Lent and its use from the whole of 
 life, from what, has gone before, and also from 
 what is to follow. There has been no thicken- 
 ing of spiritual diameter. There has been no 
 gain in holiness. Let it not be so with us. 
 Yes, let me now ask as we stand on the thres- 
 hold of the last week of Lent — now that we 
 are to enter, as it were, into the dark valley of 
 humiliation, of shame; now as Gethsemane 
 and Calvary and the bitter cross loom in sight — 
 ere this Lent has forever fled let me ask what 
 has been its gain for you ? What has this 
 Lent done for you, my brethren ? Have you 
 examined your lives more searchingly ? have 
 you confessed your sins to God and asked 
 pardon and forgiveness ? have you cast out of 
 
i6o Lent — Past and Present. 
 
 your hearts old passions and endeavored to 
 cultivate the fruit of the spirit ? have you torn 
 from your souls the old hatreds and feuds and 
 angers which have been blackening and blast- 
 ing them? have you forgiven your enemies? 
 have you striven after holiness ? have you 
 been benefited by the services which this holy 
 season has afforded you ? He whom God has 
 placed over you has longed over you and 
 prayed for you that you all might come to 
 know the riches of His love ; that you all might 
 come to desire His approval more than aught 
 else ; that those of you who have not yet put on 
 Christ may put Him on with sincerity and 
 truth; and that "you who have put Him on 
 may be edified and strengthened in your life, 
 adding grace to grace, and virtue to virtue, 
 until we all come in '' the unity of the faith, 
 and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto 
 a perfect man unto the measure of the stature 
 of the fulness of Christ.'* 
 
 We have yet one more week of this peniten- 
 tial season, the deepest and most sorrowful and 
 
Holy Week. i6i 
 
 solemn ; let us so use the last remnant of this 
 Lent — the holy week of the Christian year ; 
 may it also be of our lives as well ! — that we 
 may be ready to enter into the supreme joy of 
 the resurrection morn, and draw near with 
 happy hearts and grateful lives to thank God 
 for His surpassing love; draw near in full 
 assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled 
 from an evil conscience, and void of offence 
 towards God and in perfect charity with all 
 men, to the great feast which He will spread 
 before us in the Communion of the Body and 
 Blood of His Son, our Lord and Saviour. 
 Come then with praises and thanksgivings to 
 meet your Risen Lord, who having passed 
 through His shame and humiliation shall then 
 have risen to His glorious triumph and victory 
 over the grave and death — that we too may 
 overcome sin and death, and rise to the new- 
 ness of the risen and glorified life in Him. 
 God grant this blessedness to each of us — 
 and in the end life immortal, and joy in His 
 presence for evermore. 
 

 i^^^l' 
 
 Date Due 
 
 
 
 •52 
 
 
 : v\ /I 
 
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