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THE 
 
 HISTORY, OBJECT, 
 
 AND 
 
 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 OF THK 
 
 HOLY SEASON OF LENT: 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rt. Rev. W.m. INGRAHAM KIP, d. d. 
 
 BISHOP OF CALIFORNIA, 
 ilTTnoR OF "the double -witness of the ciiuRcn;" "the early conflicts Of 
 
 CHRISTIANITY ; " ETC., ETC. 
 
 " Tie" wort"i 18 wRxing stirong, 
 
 i. The day is hoLJ^i^-Oigbt is lofifj TT 1 
 i/TT^5erUbretfbir5Bt."~ A b 
 
 11 W »^ * Rev./F . W. Fabkr. 
 
 " LKT US PB^^N T^fCWKCa, WITH THE CHURCH, AJVD ^K THE CHURCH." 
 
 ^f ^, I D- Mart. Lc'treri, Coiluq, ifent, ch. 
 
 STtoHft!) sS&ition. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO., 
 
 COOPER UNION, FOURTH AVENUE. 
 1881. 
 
Copyrighted bt 
 E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. 
 
 1881. 
 
 Tkow's 
 
 prikting and bookbinding compant, 
 
 201-213 East Txcelfih Street, 
 
 NKW YORK. 
 
I>\ 
 
 \ 
 
 ><5( 
 
 INSCRIBED 
 
 TO 
 THE EIGHT EEVEEEND 
 
 WILLIAM riEATHCOTE DELANCEY, H. D. LL. D., 
 
 -- BISHOP OF WESTEEN NEW TOKK, 
 
 AS A StIGUT TESTIMONY OF EESPBCT ANT5 
 
 AFFECTIONATE EEGAKD 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
O every where we find our sufiering God, 
 
 And where he trod 
 May set our steps : the Cross on Calvary 
 
 Uplifted high 
 Beains on the martyr host ; a beacon light 
 
 In open fight. 
 
 To the still wrestlings of the lonely heaii" 
 
 He doth impart 
 The virtue of his midnight agony, 
 
 When none was nigh, 
 Savt Vjtod and one good angel, to assuage 
 
 The tempest's rage. 
 
 Mortal ! if life smiles on thee, and thou find 
 
 All to thy mind, 
 Thmk, who did once from Heaven to Hell descend 
 
 Thee to befriend: 
 So shalt thou dare forego, at His dear call. 
 
 Thy best, thine all. 
 
 K£BIi& 
 
THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 FoK some years past eacli return of Lent lias 
 been, we believe, regarded with additional inter- 
 est. Many wlio were not trained iix» within 
 the pale of the Church, are looking to lier fold 
 
 as a refuge more fixed and stable than a ay they 
 
 < 
 
 can find elsewhere. They of course eagerly in- 
 quire into the History, Object, and Proper Ob- 
 servance of the Holy Seasons which are set forth 
 in her Calendar. Among those, too, who have 
 been educated to attend her services, there seems 
 to be a growing appreciation of their beauty, and 
 a wish to know more of their origin. They ap- 
 pear to be turning away from the empty, boast- 
 ful professians of this age of novelties, and to be 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 more inclined to adopt as a settled principle, that 
 golden decision of the Council of Mce, e&ti app^aia 
 
 xpareirw, LeT ANCIENT USAGES PREVAIL. 
 
 In this state of things, the writer has frequent- 
 ly sought — but without success — for something, 
 which in a small compass might contain the ne« 
 cessary information with respect to the Lenten 
 Fast. He could only find, a few pages by one 
 author — a sermon by another — or perhaps some 
 brief tracts, which, although excellent in them- 
 selves, did not attempt to discuss the whole sub- 
 ject. Having waited therefore for several years 
 in vain, in the hope that the desired work would 
 be furnished by some one better able to do it jus- 
 tice, he has at length ventured himself to under- 
 take the task. 
 
 After the following pages were prepared for the 
 Press, there was accidentally brought to his no- 
 tice, a treatise by Dr. Gunning (afterwards Bishop 
 of Chichester), entitled, " the Paschal or Lenten 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 Fast," wMcli fills a quarto volume of between 
 five and six hundred pages, published about the 
 year 1670. Its size, however, together with the 
 style in which it is written, would render it at 
 the present day useless to any but the theologian 
 or the scholar. The author has also confined his 
 attention principally to one single point, owing 
 to the circumstances under which he wrote. The 
 work was prepared after the Restoration, when in 
 consequence of the rule of the Puritans for so 
 many years in England, the observance of Lent 
 had been almost entirely discontinued. The ob- 
 ject of Dr. Gunning is, therefore, to revive in the 
 minds of men a reverence for this ancient season 
 by proving its Apostolical authority ; and the 
 argument he presents is rendered most conclusive 
 by extracts from every prominent writer who 
 treats of the subject during the first seven centu- 
 ries of the Church. It is evident however that 
 this truth, if sustained by quotations from the 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 first tliree centuries, is as well established as if 
 tlie testimony of tlie remaining four was added. 
 The present writer found therefore, that even if 
 he had met with this treatise at an earlier period, 
 from its being thus narrowed down to a single 
 topic, it would have afforded him but little assist- 
 ance. He mentions it however in this place, as 
 it is the only work with which he is acquainted 
 devoted to this subject, and because he was hap- 
 py to find in its numerous quotations, a full con- 
 firmation of the statement he had made with 
 regard to the origin of the Lenten Fast. 
 
 It would of course have been easy, after once 
 commencing the investigation, to have entered 
 more deeply into the subject and expanded this 
 volume to twice its present size by multiplying 
 quotations from the early writers. In refraining 
 from doing so, and in turning aside from many 
 tempting paths of historical inquiry which opened 
 before him, the writer (although acting contrary 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 to the opinion of some of his friends), has been 
 influenced by the consideration, that to have 
 yielded, would entirely have changed the char- 
 acter of the work. It is intended, not for the 
 clergy (for they must be professionally familiar 
 with all it contains), but for those among the 
 laity whose daily avocations prevent them from 
 searching the early records of the Church and 
 to whom information conveyed in this form is 
 sometimes acceptable and useful. The object 
 has therefore been, to quote from the ancient 
 Fathers, merely enough to sustain and illustrate 
 the different points brought forward. 
 
 It was for a similar reason that advantage was 
 taken of the subject of Easter Even, to introduce 
 a discussion of the intermediate state. Those 
 arguments we already have, able as they are, 
 seem rather too controversial and theological in 
 their character to be adapted to general readers. 
 An attempt has therefore been made, to present 
 
xu 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 this important subject in a more simple and 
 popular form. Perhaps excej)tion may be taken 
 by some, to the adoption of Bishop Horsley's 
 rendering of 1 Peter, iii. 19, 20. If so, the writer 
 can only say, that some years ago he himself 
 thought differently, but after frequently studying 
 this difficult point with all the help he could de- 
 rive from the learned labor of others, he was 
 finally obliged to settle down upon this interpre- 
 tation, as giving the most natural explanation of 
 the passage. It is the one adopted by Dr. 
 Bloomfield and other eminent Biblical critics of 
 the day. If, however, this passage should be 
 entirely withdrawn from the argument the loss 
 would not materially weaken it. There is, even 
 without it, abundant Scripture evidence to prove 
 the doctrine. 
 
 In conclusion then the writer would say, that 
 it is with unfeigned diffidence he commits this 
 little volume to the Press, Occupied with the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 engrossing cares of a parish, he has been obliged 
 to prepare these pages almost entirely after the 
 regular duties of the day were over, at night; 
 and in times redeemed from sleep. Yet while 
 engaged in the work, he has felt that such silent 
 hours, when the noise and din of the busy city 
 around had subsided into quietness, seemed an 
 appropriate season in which to turn over those 
 writings, bequeathed to us by the ages of a dim 
 antiquity, and which we may well style — in 
 Milton's eloquent language — " the precious life- 
 blood of so many master sjDirits, embalmed and 
 treasured up on 23urpose to a life beyond life." 
 Their words, coming down through the mist and 
 haziness of fifteen centuries, appeared to be gifted 
 with a more touching emphasis when read in 
 that still and solemn time, while the outward 
 world, wrapped in slumber, gave no token of 
 existence. To him therefore this labor has al- 
 ready brought its own reward. It has deepened 
 
^y PREFACE. 
 
 his love and reverence for the Churcli at whose 
 altars he is permitted to minister, and whose 
 services he has here endeavored to illustrate. It 
 has taught him to realise more fully than ever 
 before, the beauty of her ancient ritual, in which 
 the solemnities of religion are performed — to 
 use the words of Edmund Burke — "with modest 
 splendor, with unassuming state, with mild ma- 
 jesty, and sober pomp." 
 
 If then the perusal of this little work should 
 strengthen these feelings in the mind of any mem- 
 ber of our Holy Apostohc Church, or awaken 
 mthin one single soul which in uncertainty is 
 "sounding on its dim and perilous way," the 
 wish to turn to her as an Ark of safety, the 
 writer will be most richly recompensed for all 
 that he has done. If it can not thus aid the 
 cause of truth and holiness, let it be like " the 
 arrow shot into the air, which strikes no mark, 
 creates no noise, leaves no track behind it, acd 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 is discovered after a little space, lying idly on tlie 
 ground." But lie hopes tliat this humble effort 
 will not prove entirely in vain, and sends it forth 
 therefore with the earnest prayer, that in some 
 way it may be permitted to advance the glory of 
 that Lord, whose blessed Passion the Church 
 would solemnly commemorate on earth, while in 
 Heaven a remembrance of its benefits will 
 through all eternity furnish the theme for her 
 noblest, loftiest anthem. 
 
 Ash Wednesday, :\rDcccxLni. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAQIh 
 
 THE OBJECT OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH IN INSTI- 
 TUTING THE HOLY SEASON OF. LENT 21 
 
 THE PROPER OBSERVANCE OF LENT 65 
 
 THE WEEK-DAT PRAYERS 105 
 
 HOLY WEEK 141 
 
 GOOD FRIDAY 161 
 
 EASTER EVEN 191 
 
! 
 
 O LOKD, WHO FOR OUR SAKE DIDST FAST FORTY 
 DATS AND FORTY NIGHTS ; GIVE US GRACE TO 
 USE SUCH ABSTINENCE, THAT OUR FLESH BEING 
 eUBDUED TO THE SPIRIT, WE MAY EVER OBEY 
 THY GODLY MOTIONS IN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND 
 TRUE HOLINESS, TO THY HONOR AND GLORY, 
 WHO LIVEST ^ND REIGNEST WITH THE FATHER 
 AND THE HOLY GHOST, ONE GOD, WORLD WITH- 
 OUT END. AMEN. 
 
 COLLECT FOR THE FIRST SUNDA.T IN LENT. 
 
VEE 
 
 C'y^ 
 
 47.rt:^A-:*&^^ 
 
 THE OBJECT OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH IN INSTI 
 TUTmG THE HOLY SEASON OF LENT. 
 
 Welcome, dear feast of Lent ! who loves not thee, 
 He loves not temperance, or authority. 
 
 But is composed of passion. 
 The Scriptures bid us fast; the Church says now/ 
 Give to thy mother, what thou wouldst allow 
 
 To every corporation. 
 
 " The Churchj'' by BLert.ert. 
 
I. 
 
 OBJECT OF THE PKIMITIYE CHURCH 1:N" 
 mSTITUTmO THE HOLY SEASON 
 
 OF LENT. 
 
 At length tlie clianging months have brought 
 us to another division of our ecclesiastical year. 
 We have again entered on that solemn season, 
 in which the Church commands her children to 
 " turn unto the Lord with all their hearts, and 
 with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourn- 
 ing,"^ — " worthily lamenting their sins, and 
 acknowledging their wretchedness, that they 
 may obtain of Him who is the God of all mercy, 
 perfect remission and forgiveness, through Jesus 
 Christ, their Lord."^ Her services now give ut- 
 terance to the language of sorrow and abase- 
 
 ^ Passage appointed for the Epistle for Ash- Wednes- 
 day. 
 
 2 Collect for Ash- Wednesday. 
 
22 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 ment, as we prepare for tlie solemn commemora- 
 tion of our Lord's agony and death. It is inter- 
 esting therefore to look back to the records of 
 he early Church in her holiest day, that as we 
 see the origin of this season, and the object for 
 which it was appointed, we may be enabled to 
 decide, whether we are so observing it, that it 
 shall answer for us its high and important pur- 
 poses. 
 
 The fast of Lent (a Saxon word, signifying 
 the Spring) is of forty days continuance, during 
 the six weeks which precede Easter. As how- 
 ever the Sundays are Festivals, and must there- 
 fore be excepted, only thirty-six days are left. 
 To make ujd this deficiency, four days are added 
 at the beginning, commencing with Ash- Wed- 
 nesday,^ which derives its name from the ashes 
 which in the ancient Church were at this time 
 thrown upon the penitents, whose sins had de- 
 barred them from a participation in her services. 
 '' On the first day of Lent," says Gratian, in de- 
 scribing this ceremony, '' the penitents were to 
 
 ^ It is uncertain by whom this addition was made. 
 Most writers, however, ascribe it to Gregory the Great. 
 (See Bingham's Orig. Ecdes., Ub. xxi., ch. 1, section 5). 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 23 
 
 present themselves before the Bishop, clothed 
 with sackcloth, with naked feet, and eyes turned 
 to the ground ; and this was to be done in the 
 presence of the principal of the Clergy of the 
 Diocese, who were to judge of the sincerity of 
 their repentance. These introduced them into 
 the Church, where the Bishop, all in tears, and 
 the rest of the Clergy, repeated the seven peni- 
 tential psalms. Then, rising from prayers, they 
 threw ashes upon them, and covered their heads 
 with sackcloth ; and then with mournful sighs 
 declared to them, that as Adam was thrown out 
 of Paradise, so they must be thrown out of the 
 Church. Then the Bishop commanded the offi- 
 cers to turn them from the Church doors."* 
 Severe indeed this discipline may seem ; yet in 
 an age when the minds of men were reached only 
 by striking appeals to the outward senses, we 
 can not tell how mucK these ceremonies may 
 have availed to keep alive the purity of the 
 Church, and to impress upon the careless multi- 
 tude, the value of admission to her services. 
 An allusion to this ancient form is still pre- 
 
 * TVheatly on Common Prayer^ p. 233. 
 
24 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 served in tlie " Commination, or denouncing of 
 God's anger and judgment against sinners," 
 wliicli in tlie service of the Cliurcli of England 
 k commanded " to be used on the first day of 
 Lent." After Litany the Priest is directed to 
 say: 
 
 " Brethren, in the Primitive Church there was 
 a godly discipline, that, at the beginning of Lent, 
 such persons as stood convicted of notorious sin 
 were put to open penance, and punished in this 
 world, that their souls might be saved in the day 
 of the LoED ; and that others admonished by 
 their example, might be the more afraid to 
 offend. 
 
 " Instead whereof (until the said discipline may 
 be restored again, which is much to be wished), 
 it is thought good, that at this time (in the pres- 
 ence of you all) should be read the general 
 sentences of God's cui^ing against impenitent 
 sinners, gathered out of the seven and twentieth 
 chapter of Deuteronomy and other places ot 
 ScrijDture ; and that ye shall answer to every 
 sentence. Amen ; To the intent that, being ad 
 monished of the great indignation of God against 
 sinners, ye may the rather be moved to earnest 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 25 
 
 and true repentaDce ; and may walk more wari- 
 ly in these dangerous days ; fleeing from sucli 
 vices, for wliich ye affirm with your own mouths, 
 the curse of God to be due." 
 
 Then follow the anathemas, to which the peo- 
 ple respond. This form has been omatted in the 
 Liturgy of the Church in America, w^ith the ex- 
 ception of the three concluding prayers, which 
 on Ash- Wednesday are directed ''to be said im- 
 mediately before the General Thanksgiving." 
 
 All record of the precise time in which this 
 season first originated, is lost in the dim obscu- 
 rity of the early ages of the Church. We may 
 therefore speak of its services, in the words with 
 which the ancient tragic poet represents Anti- 
 gone as defending those sacred precepts of her 
 faith, which had come down upon the traditions 
 of a remote antiquity : 
 
 Ou yap ri vuv ys xa-)(Psg olKK^ ccsi -ttots 
 ^7] raura x'ovSsig ol5sv i^ orou oclvyj.^ 
 
 The Lenten fast is however frequently referred 
 
 ^ Not now, nor yesterday, but always thus 
 These have endured, their ancient source unknown. 
 
 Soph. Antigone, 462. 
 2 
 
26 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 to by writers of primitive days as au established 
 and well known custom, whicli bad been sanc- 
 tioned by Apostolical autbority. The probability 
 is, that even from tbe first — fi-om the time in 
 which " the Bridegroom was taken away " — His 
 followers thus in sorrow kept the anniversary 
 of His Passion, although the duration of this sea- 
 son, and the rules by which its observance was 
 regulated, may not have been definitely settled 
 until the age immediately succeeding that of the 
 Apostles. Philo, who was cotemporary with the 
 early disciples, and is even said " to have had 
 familiar conversation with Peter at Rome, whilst 
 he was proclaiming the Gospel to the inhabitants 
 of that city,"* refers to this season in his descrip- 
 tion of the Christians at Alexandria, who were 
 converted by St. Mark. " This author " — says 
 Eusebius, in his history composed about a. d. 
 324 — " has accurately described and stated in 
 his w^ri tings, the exercises performed by them," 
 (i. e. the Christians of Alexandria in the days of 
 St. Mark), " which are still in vogue among us 
 at the present day, and especially at the festival 
 of our Saviour'^ s jpassion^ wliicli we are accus* 
 « Eusebius' Eccles. Hist.^ liber ii., chap. 17, p. 66. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 2^ 
 
 ^omed to J9a^^ in fasting and watching, and in 
 the study of the divine word. These are the 
 same customs that are observed by us alone at 
 the present day, particularly the vigils of tJie 
 Great Festival!!'''^ meaning by this the Passion 
 Week, called by the Greek Fathers the Great 
 Week. 
 
 It is also mentioned incidentally by Irenaeus, 
 who lived but ninety years after the death of St. 
 John, and was trained up under the martyr 
 Polycarp, who had himself been a disciple of 
 that last surviving Apostle. When alluding to 
 a difference of opinion with regard to the time 
 in which it should be kept, he shows that the 
 custom itself was ancient, even in his day. His 
 words are : "This diversity existing among those 
 that, observe it, is not a matter that has just 
 sprung up in our time, but long ago, among 
 those before us."® 
 
 Tertullian too, who lived within one hundred 
 years of the Apostle St. John's departure, has 
 unwittingly as it were, recorded his testimony to 
 the general belief of the Church in the Apostol- 
 
 ^ EusEBius' Eecles. Hist., lib. ii., chap 17, p. 68. 
 8 Ibid^ lib. v., chap. 24, p. 210. 
 
28 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 ical Autlionty of this season. Having erred 
 from the ftiith, and embraced the heresy of the 
 Montanists, he found the voice of the Church 
 against him, when he endeavored to introduce 
 the new fasts which Montanus had commanded. 
 Thus therefore he argues against her authority, 
 in defence of his party. ''They" (i. e. the Ca- 
 tholic Christians) " accuse us that we observes 
 fasts of our own, peculiar to oui'selves. They 
 object therefore unto us novelty, and prescribe 
 against the unlawfulness of that, saying, it is 
 either to be judged Heresy, if presuming as men, 
 we so dogmatize, or we are to be pronounced 
 false prophets, if we inculcate these fasts, as from 
 the Spirit ; whilst on either hand we hear them 
 denounce an anathema against us. For as to 
 what pertains to fast, they argue, tliat tlieve are 
 certain days constituted hy God. They surely 
 thinh^ that in the Gospel those days are deter- 
 tnined for fasts^ in lohich the Bridegroom xoas 
 tahen aioay^ and that those days only are now 
 the legitimate days of Christian fasts, all legal 
 and prophetical old observances being antiquated 
 or abolished. Therefore as to other fasting, it is 
 to be indifferent, according to every man's occa- 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 29 
 
 eions and causes, at his own judgment, not of 
 command." (That is, as Montanus inculcated 
 the necessity of the fast, by pretended command 
 from God.) ''^ And tJiat thus the Apostles ob- 
 served the rule of fasting^ imposing no other yoke 
 of certain or set fasts to be kept of all in com- 
 mon. And ye prescribe against us, that the 
 soUmn times for this matter, are to he helieved 
 already constituted in tlie Scriptures^ or in the 
 tradition of our Elders, and that no further ob- 
 servance is to be superadded, for the unlawful- 
 ness of innovation."* 
 
 The first Christian Emperor, Constantine, im- 
 mediately after the meeting of the earliest general 
 council of the Church — that held at Nice, a. d. 
 325 — and which was composed, to use his own 
 words, " of all the Bishops, or the greater part 
 of them at least, assembled together," wrote a 
 letter to all the Churches, on the necessity of 
 observing Easter upon the same day. His argu- 
 ment is, that unless this uniformity exists, some 
 will be rejoicing in that Festival, while others 
 are still mourning in the fasts which precede it. 
 
 ^ Tertullian De Jejuniis^ chap. 1, 2, 13. 
 
80 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 " It is fit therefore " — he says — " that we should 
 perpetuate to all future ages the celebration of 
 this rite, which we have heptfiwn the first day of 
 our Lord's passion even to the present times. . 
 
 For the Saviour has bequeathed to 
 
 us one festal day of our liberation, that is, the 
 day of His most holy passion ; and it was His 
 pleasure that His Church should be one ; the 
 members of which, although dispersed in many 
 and vavious places, are yet nourished by the 
 same Spirit, that is, by the will of God. Let 
 the sagacity of your holiness only consider how 
 painful and indecorous it must be, for some to be 
 experiencing the rigors of abstinence^ and others 
 to be unbending their minds in convivial enjoy- 
 ments on the same day ; and after Easter, for 
 some to be indulging in feasting and relaxation 
 while others are occupied in the observance of the 
 prescribed fastsP^^ 
 
 To give a single reference more — and they 
 might be multipied to a great extent — this' sea- 
 son is mentioned in the Apostolic Canons, a code 
 of laws which certainly dates its authority from 
 
 i^EusEB. De Vit. Constantin. lih. iii., c. 17, 18. Socea- 
 TES, lib. i.. chapter 6. Theodoret, lib. i., ch. 10. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. s\ 
 
 a very early age. " If" — says the 61st Canon^ 
 " any Bishop, Priest, Deacon, Reader, or Singer, 
 do not keep the holy fast of Lent, forty days be- 
 fore Easter, or the Wednesdays and Fridays, let 
 him be deiDosed, if he be not hindered by some 
 bodily infirmity ; but if he be a layman, let him 
 be suspended from communion."^^ 
 
 Thus, we perceive, that this custom took not 
 its rise amidst the corruj^tions of the Dark Ages, 
 but began in times of light and holiness. We 
 
 " Patres Ajyos. Cotp:l. vol. 1, p. Abl^edit. 1724. These 
 CanoDS have usually passed by the name of St. Clement. 
 Bellarmin, Baronius, and others, assert them to be the 
 genuine Canons of the Apostles. Cotelerius however ob- 
 serves, that the internal evidence is against this view of 
 their antiquity {Jud. de Cmion Apos., vol. 1, p. 429). 
 Hincraar, De Marca, and Beveridge give, what is the most 
 probable account, that they were framed by the Bishops 
 who were the disciples of the Apostles, in the end of the 
 2d and beginning of the 3d centuries. See Beveridge Jud, 
 de Can. Apos. in Cotel. vol. 1, p. 436. See also, Lard- 
 ner's Works^ vol. 4, p. 354. Jortin's Hem. on JEccles. Hist.., 
 vol. 1, p. 278; Cayb''s Jlist. Zit., vol. 1, p. 29. Even 
 Mosheim acknowledges that " they exhibit the principles 
 of discipline received in the Greek and Oriental Churches, 
 in the 2d and 3d centuries." [JEccles. Hist., vol. 1, p. 90, 
 224). We give these authorities merely to show, that in 
 the lowest view taken of these Canons, they are good evi- 
 dence of the practice of the Church at a very early age. 
 
32 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 received it not from the Komish Clinrcli, when it 
 had fallen from ancient purity, bnt it comes 
 down to ns from Primitive days. It was sanc- 
 tioned by Apostolical authority, or certainly at 
 least by those who lived before the example and 
 instruction of Apostles had been in any respect 
 forgotten. The early Christians, as we have al- 
 ready seen stated by Tertullian, considered our 
 Divine Master as referring to the observance of 
 some such season, when he said : " Can the chil- 
 dren of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the 
 bridegroom is with them? but the days will 
 come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from 
 them, and then shall they fast." At first, the time 
 of its observance varied in different Churches 
 and among different individuals, although all 
 agreed in the necessity of thus commemorating, 
 in some way, their Lord's sufferings and death. 
 At leno-th, however, its duration was fixed at 
 forty days, which has since, through all the inter- 
 vening centuries, continued to be the uniform 
 custom of the Church.^^ The number forty seems 
 
 12 The question as to the length of Lent, at its first in- 
 stitution, is one which has caused much discussion among 
 learned men. The Greeks called this season TsCtfapaxotfrii, 
 
OBJECT OF ITS DsSTITUTIOlT. 33 
 
 very anciently to have been appropriated to sea- 
 sons of repentance and fasting. ^'This quadra- 
 gesimal number" — says St. Ambrose, in liis 36tli 
 sermon — " is not constituted of men, but consecra- 
 ted from God." For this term of years were 
 the children of Israel disciplined in the wilder- 
 ness, to prepare them for the promised land. 
 For forty days did Moses fast on the Mount — 
 Elijah in the Wilderness — and the Ninevites, 
 when they would avert the judgments prophesied 
 by Jonah. It was this length of time that our 
 Lord himself was pleased to fast, during His 
 temptation in the desert, and from his example 
 was this period probably fixed, "that," — as 
 St. Augustine says — " we might, as far as we are 
 able, conform to Christ's practice, and suffer 
 
 and the Latins Quadragesima, hoih of wMch words denote 
 forty. But the inquiry has been, whether this applied to 
 days or hours ? By some, it was argued, that it always 
 had been forty days. By others, that it at first extended 
 only through forty hours, which were of entire abstinence, 
 beginning about 12 on Friday, (the time of our Saviour's 
 falling under the power of death), and contuiuing until 
 Sunday morning, the time of His resurrection, and that 
 afterwards it was extended by the Church to the same 
 number of days. The reader will find this subject discus- 
 sed in Bixgham's Orig. Ecdes., lib. xxi., chap. 1 
 
84 THE LENTJ'^N FAST. 
 
 witli Him here, tliat we may reiga with Him 
 hereafter." 
 
 And we may learn too from a single passage 
 in St. Basil's Second Homily on Fasting, how 
 universal throughout the world was the attention 
 of the early Christians to this solemn portion of 
 the Ecclesiastical year. " In this time of Lent, 
 there is no island nor continent of the earth, no 
 city, nor nation, no extreme corner of the world, 
 where the Edict of this Fast of Lent was not 
 heard. Yea, whatsoever armies, merchants, trav- 
 elers, or mariners are abroad, this fast comes 
 unto them all, and with joy they all receive it. 
 This composes every house, every city, and 
 every people, in sobriety and quiet and concord. 
 This stills the late clamors, contentions, and 
 noises of the town. Let no one, therefore, 
 exempt himself from the number of the fasters, 
 in which every degree, nation and age almost 
 of men, and all of all dignities whatsoever are 
 engaged." 
 
 How safe then are we, in yielding our ready 
 obedience to this regulation of the Church ! 
 How much better, to tread in the footsteps of 
 martyrs and confessors of former times, than to 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 3i 
 
 set at naught all tlie customs wliicli they found 
 conducive to their spiritual benefit, and to deter- 
 mine — despising the wisdom of the past, and 
 the recorded experience of eighteen centuries — 
 to " walk every one in the ways of his own 
 heart ! " It becomes therefore an inquiry of in- 
 terest to us, gleaning from those ancient writers 
 whose works have survived the ravages of bar- 
 barism and the waste of time, to investigate the 
 reasons which induced the Church in Primitive 
 days to institute this Holy Season, and then 
 through all succeeding ages, to insist so strongly 
 upon its observance. 
 
 The first reason was — that having the sub- 
 ject OF THEIR Lord's sufferings thus brought 
 
 MORE vividly BEFORE THEM, THEY MIGHT BE 
 INDUCED TO MOURN HIS LOSS WITH GREATER 
 
 EARNESTNESS. 
 
 There is a tendency in the human mind to 
 disregard a duty, to the performance of which 
 no specific time is allotted. Thus, if the whole 
 year were given us, during which we were com- 
 manded at some period to meditate seriously on 
 our Lord's death, we should probably either 
 neglect the obligation entirely, or, at least, fulfill 
 
36 THE LENTEN FAST, 
 
 it but imperfectly. It is for tliis reason tliat tlie 
 early Cliurcli set apart definite times, for con- 
 sidering in order each of the grand doctrines 
 of tlie Christian faith, as the Ecclesiastical year 
 rolls round. And in this practice we now con- 
 tinue. 
 
 " Yes, if the intensities of hope and fear 
 
 Attract us still, and passionate exercise 
 
 Of lofty thoughts, the way before us lies 
 
 Distinct with signs — through which in fixed career, 
 
 As through a zodiac, moves the ritual year 
 
 Of England's Church — stupendous mysteries ! 
 
 Which, whoso travels in her bosom, eyes 
 
 As he approaches them, with solemn cheer." i* 
 
 Beautiful indeed is that arrangement of her 
 services, which, as the months go by, brings in 
 succession before her Children, each scene in 
 their Lord's eventful life, and each cardinal truth 
 which he taught ! We celebrate with joy and 
 gratitude the Festival of His Nativity, and after- 
 wards follow Him on, step by step, through all 
 the glories and the trials of His earthly pilgrim- 
 age, until amid the solemnities of Passion Week 
 we mourn His agonies and death. Then come 
 
 ^^ Wordsworth's Ecdes. Sonnets^ XV. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTIOT. zl 
 
 in meet succession, the other Festivals — that of 
 Easter, when He triumphed over the grave — of 
 the Ascension, when He returned to " the glory 
 which He had with the Father before the world 
 was" — and of Whitsunday, when His promise 
 was fulfilled, that the Comforter should be given, 
 and His Apostles, by the visible descent of the 
 Holy Ghost, were prepared to be " lights to 
 lighten the world." Thus it is, that in a far 
 higher and nobler sense than the Poet ever 
 dreamed in his loftiest imaginings — 
 
 *' The rolling year is full of Him." 
 
 Acting then on this principle, and endeavoring 
 to render the views of her members clear and 
 distinct, how naturally did it happen, that one of 
 the first seasons of solemn remembrance insti- 
 tuted by the Primitive Church, was that which 
 commemorated her Lord's sufferings and death, 
 while her children were summoned in an especial 
 manner to lament those sins which brought Him 
 to the Cross ! " ^^ " The days had come, when the 
 
 ^* " It seemed good to the Church to fix a stated time, 
 in which men might enter on the great work of their re- 
 pentance. And what time could have been selected with 
 
38 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 Bridegroom was taken from tliem, and therefore 
 did they &st." The memory of His love and 
 kindness was still freshly imprinted on their 
 hearts. The history of all that He endured, 
 came not to them, as it too often does to us, like 
 " a thrice-told tale," to which we have listened so 
 often that it has lost its interest. The glad news 
 of the Gospel bursting upon them in an age ol 
 moral degradation and darkness, had not yet 
 ceased to thrill their hearts with joy. They had 
 either " known Christ after the flesh," when in 
 person he mingled with his fellow men, or at 
 least those Apostles who sat at his sacred feet, 
 forming His little household as He wandered 
 through Judea; and with eager ears they list- 
 ened to the recital from their lips, of all that they 
 
 greater propriety than tliis ' Lenten ' or Spring Season, 
 when universal Nature, awakening from her wintry sleep, 
 and coming out of a state of deformity, and a course Ox 
 penance, imposed for the transgression of man, her Lord 
 and Master, is about to rise from the dead ; and, putting 
 on her garments of glory and beauty, to give us a kind 
 of prelude to the renovation of all things ? So that the 
 whole creation most harmoniously accompanieth the voice 
 of the Church, as that sweetly accordeth to the call of the 
 Apostle, ' Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the 
 dead, and Christ shall give thee light.'" — Bishop Horne. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 39 
 
 had heard and witnessed. Probably too, the 
 tradition of many a deed which is now lost for- 
 ever, came down to them, and contributed to 
 heighten their estimation of that Perfect Char- 
 acter, from whom they were separated by but 
 a short interval of time.^^ How well then could 
 they meditate upon His bitter agonies endured 
 for them ! How forcibly did they feel themselves 
 called, once at least in each year, in an especial 
 manner to chasten their souls by prayer and fast- 
 ing, that they might thus be compelled to realize 
 the nature of His earthly existence, who was 
 truly. "a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
 grief ! " 
 
 But if this was necessary for them, how much 
 more so is it for us ! Educated from the earliest 
 dawn of reason, to hear the story of redeeming 
 love, and the fearful manner in which our salva- 
 tion was wrought out, these themes become to 
 us, as we before remarked, subjects too well 
 
 ^^ It is strange that the only one of these traditionary 
 sayings of our Lord, which was afterwards recorded by 
 an inspired writer, is intended to inculcate a truth, the 
 most difficult for human nature to learn. St. Paul savs — 
 " Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said ; 
 It is more blessed to give than to receive." — Acts xx. 35 
 
40 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 known to excite attention. It is inclispensaLle^ 
 therefore, tliat the mind should be directed and 
 fixed upon them. And how admirably is this 
 done by the appointed service of the Church ! 
 Week after week, we are led in her prayers and 
 lessons to contemplate these solemn mysteries, 
 until when Passion Week arrives, the recital is 
 each day repeated. We witness the bitter ago- 
 ny of the Son of God, in the garden of Gethse- 
 mane. We stand by the patient sufferer's side, 
 w^hen arraigned in the hall of Pilate. We fol- 
 low Him to Calvary, as he painfully toils along 
 amidst the scoffs and jeers of an infuriated mob. 
 We gather around the Cross, and hear that last 
 expiring cry, which shrouded the heavens in 
 darkness, and startled even the sleeping dead in 
 their tombs. Hard, indeed, must be that heart — 
 yes, utterly "past feeling" — which, amid scenes 
 like these, is not awakened to gratitude and de- 
 votion. He can be no true follower of the Lord, 
 whose spirit does not " burn within him " as he 
 thus contemplates the mighty price at which his 
 redemption was purchased, or whose resolution 
 is not strengthened, to live for that Master who 
 died a death of shame for him. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS IXSTITUTI02T. 41 
 
 Anotlier reason with the Primitive Church for 
 the institution of this season was, to aid her 
 
 MEMBERS IN PRESERVIJN^G THE HIGH STAI^DARD OF 
 CHRISTIAN CHARACTER IN ITS EARLY PURITY. 
 
 For a time, the followers of our Lord were 
 
 subjected to the most painful persecutions. The 
 
 lonely valleys of Judea furnished no place of 
 
 security to the Hebrew Christians, for even 
 
 thither penetrated their bigoted enemies, ready, 
 
 "if they found any of that way, whether they 
 
 were men or women, to bring them bound to 
 
 Jerusalem." And when the f^iitti left its earliest 
 
 dwelling-place in " Holy Asia,"^^ and went forth 
 
 1^ ^SCHYLUS' Prom. Yinct. 415, a^vajACjacr. This is 
 the happy epithet used by the first, and may we not say, 
 the loftiest of the Greek tragic poets ? On this single 
 point there is agreement between the Christian of every 
 age, and the believer m that antique and poetical mythol- 
 ogy which furnishes its inspiration to the muse of Homer, 
 and both called into being, and imparted its dark coloring 
 to the solemn and intellectual drama of the Athenian 
 stasre. Both alike look back with reverence to that re- 
 gion which was the birth-place of our race, the scene of 
 Its first revelations, and where " the Lord talked with man 
 face to face." Even to this day, there is a tradition among 
 the Arabs, that to the earliest places of human worship, 
 there clings a guardian sanctity — that there the wild bird 
 alights not and the wild beast may not wander — but the 
 eye of God rests on them as hallowed spots. 
 
42 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 to otner lands, it found a world arrayed in hos- 
 tility against it. The ancient, sensual Paganism, 
 and the proud systems of a scoffing philosophy, 
 united at once to crush that holy creed, which 
 disclaimed all fellowship with them. The endur- 
 ance of its adherents was tried by every expe- 
 dient of cruelty their enemies could devise. 
 Some died in agony at the stake. Some ascend- 
 ed to their reward from the burning flames, while 
 " their ashes flew, no marble tells us whither." 
 Some " butchered to make a Roman holiday," 
 poured out their blood on the sands of the amphi- 
 theatre, welcoming even the wild beasts, whose 
 fury released them from their sufferings. And 
 the survivors felt, that they also were each hour 
 in jeopardy of life, and might at any time be 
 called in like manner to seal their profession. 
 Yet these things only added a depth and fervor 
 to their devotion. Like their Divine Master, 
 they " were made perfect by sufterings." The 
 timid and wavering, either refrained from uniting 
 with them, or else soon apostatized from their 
 profession. The true-hearted were therefore left 
 alone, reduced indeed in numbers, yet " stead- 
 fast, unmovable," and holding themselves ready, 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 43 
 
 if needs be, to win tlieir crown by suffering the 
 pains of martyrdom. 
 
 " Every hour, 
 
 They stood prepared to die, a people doomed 
 
 To death ; old men, and youth, and simple maids." 
 
 The world looked coldly on them, even when 
 it did not openly persecute, and had therefore 
 nothing in it to enlist their affections. Life with 
 them was one long Lenten period of abstinence 
 and prayer, while they were continually chasten- 
 ing their spirits, to make ready for that parting 
 hour, which might suddenly overtake them. 
 
 But when security came, and the world began 
 * to smile upon them, then was the time of peril. 
 The faith which had been strengthening in the 
 storm of persecution, drooped and withered in 
 the sunshine of Imperial favor. The multitude 
 insensibly declined from their Apostolic devotion, 
 and thought too much of the cares and riches 
 of a world they had vowed to renounce. Their 
 affections began to cling to it, forgetting that here 
 they were only strangers and pilgrims " having 
 no continuing city." It was at this time proba- 
 bly that this fast, commenced in an earlier age, 
 
44 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 was more accurately defined and inculcatf/i^ by 
 the regulations of the Church, that her mem7 ^rs 
 might be recalled from their secular cares to Loly 
 works, and thus hj the necessity of a law, com- 
 pelled to dedicate one tenth of the year, in a 
 peculiar manner to their God.^® Therefore it is, 
 that an ancient writer declares — " Whilst men 
 are distracted about the cares of this life, their 
 religious hearts must needs be defiled with the 
 dust of this world ; and therefore it is pro^dded 
 by the great benefit of this Divine institution, 
 that the purity of our minds might be rej^aired 
 by the exercise of these forty days, in which we 
 may redeem the failings of other times, and do 
 good works, and exercise ourselves in religious 
 fasting."^^ 
 
 But has this necessity in our day ceased ? Is 
 there now so great a deadness in the world, that 
 we need not such a season, to recall us to our 
 duty ? Is not the very reverse true, and the dan- 
 ger now tenfold greater than it Avas in that early 
 dcxy ? Since all around us have made a nominal 
 
 *8 Cassian, in Bingham Orig. JEJcdes. lib. xxi. ch. 1, 
 sec. 10. 
 
 ^^ Leo, Serm. iv., de Quadrageshna^ in Bingham, lib. xxi. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 45 
 
 profession of Christianity, tlie Church has been 
 too much mingled with tke world. The barrier 
 between them has been somewhat broken down, 
 and there is comparatively but little of the out- 
 ward Cross to be borne. But the effect of this 
 is, to authenticate low views of Christian duty — • 
 to render religion earthly — to withdraw all 
 attention from self-denial — to cause us to forget 
 our Master's lesson, that though in the world we 
 are not of the world — and to induce *those about 
 us to suppose that the " strait gate " has been 
 widened, and the ''narrow way" become broad. 
 They look in vain for those exhibitions of a liv- 
 ing faith which distinguished the early Christians, 
 and are therefore tempted to believe, that the 
 days of self-discipline are over, and an easier en- 
 trance found into God's holy kingdom. 
 
 The very proofs too of Christian character — 
 the marks by which we should ascertain our 
 spiritual state — are in this age of novelties so 
 perverted and mystified, that it is often diflicult 
 for an inquirer to decide, whether or not he has 
 a right to those promises of the Gospel which 
 are made to the contrite and believing. With 
 some, every thing rests upon abstract notions of 
 
46 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 faith, as if the last Great Judgment would only 
 be a trial of tlieir orthodoxy. With others, all 
 religion is resolved into a matter of mere feeling. 
 Forgetting that the degree of excitement depends 
 upon the power of the imagination, or the pecu- 
 liar constitution of the mind, they are continually - 
 striving to elevate themselves to a greater intens- 
 ity of emotion, and thus make this, intangible as 
 it is, their test of religious character. The latter 
 form of delusion indeed we may characterize as 
 being in an especial degree, the popular one of 
 the day. This awakening of the sensibilities and 
 of the imagination, is substituted in the place ot 
 that calm, settled, decided resolution to obey the 
 will of our Master, which alone can be an effi- 
 cient rule of conduct in this evil world. These 
 unearthly paroxysms of devotion, which soon 
 pass away and leave behind them no abiding 
 holiness, are trusted to, instead of that " patient 
 continuance in well doing," which alone can lead 
 us on to ^' eternal life." 
 
 How necessary is it then, that there should be 
 times of reflection, when we may realize what 
 are the true evidences of having passed from 
 spiritual death, to the light and liberty of God's 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION". 47 
 
 own cliildren ! And it is to the standard of pure 
 religion, that the Chnrch at this time endeavors 
 to recall us. A perpetual witness for the faitn, 
 her voice is heard " through the ages all along, 
 publishing truths of which an evil world would 
 willingly lose sight, and pointing her memhers 
 to the bright examples of those who, in earlier, 
 purer days, " fought the good fight," and " inher- 
 ited the promises." From her we learn, that reli- 
 gion consists, not in talking much and eloquently 
 on the subject — not alone in striving to feel spirit- 
 ually — not even in being warm and earnest in 
 aiding the progress of the Church. An individual 
 may do all these things, and yet be only like 
 " sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." That 
 faith of the heart by which we " believe unto 
 righteousness," is no wavering impulse. It is a 
 fixed, steadfast habit of the mind, shown by our 
 renouncing the spirit of the world — subduing 
 our own evil tempers — living "soberly, righte- 
 ously, and godly" — "crucifying the flesh, with 
 the affections and lusts " — and actino^ in truth as 
 the self-denying followers of that Master of whom 
 it is recorded, that He " pleased not Himself." 
 And while the Church thus defines the evi- 
 
48 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 dences of spiritual life, and declares the Christian 
 conflict to be " an earnest, endless strife,"^^ she at 
 the same time most sternly rebukes the compro- 
 mising spirit of the day. She summons her 
 children to come out from a sinful and apostate 
 world. She bids them not live as other men do, 
 in ease and idleness, when so much is to be ac- 
 complished for their Lord. She inquires how 
 they can be " delicate on the earth," when they 
 are called by their Master to " di'ink of the cup 
 of which He drank," and to be conformed to Him 
 alike in His sufferings and His life. And it is 
 by the abstinence and self-mortification of this 
 solemn season, -"hat she strives to impress these 
 lessons. If therefore they listen to her teaching, 
 and tread this scene of mists and shadows beneath 
 their feet, each returning year will endow them 
 with added strength, while they travel onward 
 to that world of light, to which she points them 
 as their eternal home. They will learn to despise 
 
 20 " One only way to life ; 
 
 One faith delivered once for all ; 
 
 One lioly band, endowed with Heaven's high call ; 
 
 One earnest^ endless strife — 
 
 This is the Church th' Eternal framed of old." 
 
 Lyra Apostolica. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION 49 
 
 the fleeting and the perishable, and even while 
 still imprisoned in this tabernacle of clay their 
 spirits will yearn for communion wdth the Endu- 
 ring and the Infinite. 
 
 Another reason for the institution of this season 
 in Primitive times w^as — with eefeeence to 
 
 TWO CLASSES OF INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE THEN TO 
 BE RECEIVED INTO THE ClIURCH. 
 
 One class was that of the Catechumens^ who 
 had been preparing for BajDtism. As Easter was 
 the fixed and solemn time for their admission to 
 this rite,^^ the Church fasted with them as a pre- 
 paratory step to their commencing a religious 
 life. Thus Justin Martyr in the second century 
 declares — "As many as are persuaded, and do 
 ' believe that the things taught and said by us are 
 true, and promise to live accordingly, they are 
 instructed to pray, and with fasting to beg of 
 God remission of sins, w^e praying and fasting 
 
 21 The most celebrated time for Baptism iii the early- 
 Church, was Easter ; next to that, Pentecost^ or Whit- 
 suntide, and then Epiphany. The Church however still 
 allowed her members the liberty to anticipate these times, 
 if either Catechumens were great proficients, or in danger 
 of death by disease or any sudden accident. — Bingham's 
 
 Orig. Eccles., lib. xi., ch. 6, sec. V. 
 3 
 
50 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 togetlier with tliem. Then they are brought to 
 the place v^liere water is, and are regenerated 
 after the same manner of regeneration as we 
 were regenerated before them."^^ In the same 
 manner, Cyril of Jerusalem thus addresses the 
 Catechumens: "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 troubled in vain for many years, will ye not 
 bestow forty days in prayer for the salvation of 
 your souls ? " And again, he says — " there is a 
 large time given you. You have the Penance 
 before you of forty days, sufficient space and 
 opportunity to put off the old garments and put 
 on the new."^ Upon this account all candidates^ 
 for baptism w^ere obliged to give in their names, 
 forty days before the administration of the rite. 
 
 Such was the interest the early Christians took 
 in those who were to be united with them in the 
 fellowship of the Church. They were jealous for 
 the honor of their Master, and the purity of the 
 faith. They were earnest that those about to 
 
 22 Bingham, lib. xxi., ch. 1, sec. 12. 
 28 Bingham, lib. xxi., ch. 1, sec. 12. 
 
1 
 
 OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 5] 
 
 avow His name should not walk unworthy of 
 th(nr calling, and therefore through all this season, 
 they prayed and fasted with them. They felt a 
 zeal for the whole body of tlie faithful, and an 
 ardent desire that no stain should rest upon the 
 •eligion they professed. They realized, that they 
 were a little band, surrounded by a world which 
 loved them not. Beyond their own little circle 
 they could exjDect no sympathy, but lived isolated 
 and apart from those among whom they dwelt. 
 When therefore, as was always done by tlie 
 Apostles, they were addressed as '' brethren," a 
 chord was struck, which vibrated through every 
 heart. They knew that they were " heirs together 
 of the grace of life.*' 
 
 May we. not therefore take "shame and con- 
 fusion of face" to ourselves, because we are so 
 deficient in this feeling ! In this age of cold and 
 selfish worldliness, we have almost ceased to 
 regard the "communion of Saints" as a reality. 
 And yet, though we think not of it, the tie is a 
 most holy one, which unites those who are disci- 
 ples of the same faith. They are looking upward 
 to a common Master, invisible indeed to the 
 eye of sense, yet whose presence they every 
 
52 THE LENTEN EAST. 
 
 wlieie lecognize in the occurrences of daily life 
 Combatants in the same warfare, they are ex- 
 posed to equal dangers — are contending against 
 common enemies — share in the same hopes and 
 fears — aud when the hour of victory comes, ex- 
 pect to join in one triumph, and rejoice in the 
 same bright reward. It is no imaginary bond, 
 therefore, which unites in fellowship the faithful 
 in Christ Jesus. It is a community of interest in 
 all that men should count most valuable. They 
 are members of one great fraternity, which 
 gathers out its chosen ones from every genera- 
 tion, and includes the just who have already 
 passed into the promised Canaan, and those who 
 are still toiling onward in the wilderness. In the 
 beautiful words of one of our own hymns — 
 
 " Angels, and living saints, and dead, 
 
 But one communion make ; 
 All join in Christ, their vital Head, 
 
 And of His love partake." 
 
 And the reason why this great truth is now 
 so little appreciated, is obvious. It is because 
 heresy and schism have entered " the consecrated 
 host of God's elect," rending it asunder, tearing 
 in pieces " the body of Christ, which is His 
 
OBJECT OF ITS IXSTITUTIOiT. 53 
 
 Clivircli," and arraying the followers of tlie same 
 Lord against each other in hostile bands. Every 
 strange form of error which the intellect of fallen 
 man could engraft upon the Gospel, is rife around 
 us, until the pure Faith stands like Milton's per- 
 sonification of Chastity, amidst " the rout of 
 monsters" who composed the crew of Comus. 
 The Church herself is as a beleaguered city, and 
 the countless j)arties by which she is encircled, 
 " have pitched their tents all about the holy camp, 
 like the mixed multitude that followed the true 
 Israel of God from out the land of Egypt." 
 And the result is, that men become accustomed 
 to the sight of discord and the cry of disunion. 
 They even forget the " fellowship " which should 
 subsist between those who " continue steadfastly 
 in the Apostles' doctrine, and in breaking of 
 bread, and in prayers." Party names fill the 
 earth, and individuals withdraw themselves into 
 their own little circles, and send forth no sym- 
 pathy and love to the millions who are without, 
 though their faith may be the same. But how 
 different is this from the feeling w^hich prevailed 
 in ancient times ! Then, when the fold of Christ 
 was one and her prayers in every place the 
 
54 THE LENTEX FAST. 
 
 same, laer members, wherever they were in the 
 earth, felt that they were among brethren, and 
 recognized in every hneament the same Church 
 which had existed " in their father's days, and in 
 the old time before them." Then, in the remote 
 East, and in Northern Africa, as well as in West- 
 ern Europe, they were all united in " one Loi^d, 
 one faith, one baptism." 
 
 Touching indeed is the illustration given of this 
 truth, by the feehngs awakened in the mind of a 
 celebrated Venetian traveler of those days, when 
 a wanderer from his home, in one of the cities of 
 distant England, he met a funeral train I " There 
 was nothing new, or strange, or singular, about 
 the burial procession, particularly calculated to 
 excite the attention of Marco Polo. The De 
 Profundis of the stoled priest spake the universal 
 language, adopted by the most sublime of human 
 compositions, the Liturgy of Western Christen- 
 dom. Yet, though no objects appeared which 
 could awaken any lively curiosity in the traveler, 
 there was much in their familiarity to excite the 
 sympathy of the wanderer in a foreign land. 
 With an altered tone he said to the friar, ' Sad- 
 dened is the spirit of the pilgrim, by the dying 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 5S 
 
 twilight and the plaining Vesper hell. But he 
 who braves every danger for himself, may feel 
 his heart sink within him when the pageant ot 
 triumphant death brings to his mind the thought, 
 that those from whom as he weened, he parted 
 for a little time only, may have been already 
 borne to the sepulchre. Yet there is also a great 
 and enduring comfort to the traveler in Christen- 
 dom. However uncouth may be the speech ot 
 the races amongst whom the pilgrim sojourns, 
 however diversified may be the customs of the 
 regions which he visits, let him enter the portal 
 of the Church, or hear, as I do now, the voice ot 
 the minister of the Gospel, and he is present with 
 his own, though Alps and oceans may sever them 
 asunder. There is one spot where the pilgrim 
 always finds his home. We are all one people 
 when we come before the Altar of the Lord.' "^ 
 
 How beautiful is this picture! and how sad 
 does it make the change which now we witness ! 
 What a dejection of spirit often comes over the 
 Christian, as he is reminded of this subject in 
 repeating the Confession — "I believe in one 
 Catholic and Apostolic Church ! " Is there not 
 
 24 Sir Francis Palgrave's Merchant and Friar ^ p. 138. 
 
56 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 reason, then, at this Holy season, when the Uni- 
 versal Church is every where at the same time 
 prostrating herself before the Lord, that we 
 should pray for a return of those golden days 
 when the faithful were one in heart and name ? 
 Yes — though oceans may roll between, and we 
 never meet face to face on earth, we have still 
 an interest in each one who is united with the 
 Church, wherever he may be, for we are all 
 " members of one another." Let us then petition 
 our Common Father, that he will grant us more 
 of that spirit which distinguished the Christian 
 host in earlier and better days, until we realize, 
 that He '' has knit together his elect in one com- 
 munion and fellowship, in the mystical body of 
 His Son Christ our Lord."^^ 
 
 The other class of persons, who were preparing 
 at this time to be received into the Church, were 
 the Penitents^ who had once been cut off for 
 their sins, but after having completed their Canon- 
 ical time of probation, during which they were 
 excluded from her services, were generally ab- 
 solved and readmitted at the time of the Easter 
 Festival. Some of them for flagrant sins had 
 
 26 Collect for All Saints' Day. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 57 
 
 been kept under tliis penitential discipline for 
 years, until by evident humility and earnestness, 
 they had given the fullest proof of their contrition 
 and amendment.^^ It is to this that an ancient 
 Bishop refers, when he says — " The Anniversary 
 solemnity of Easter, was not only the time of re- 
 generating Catechumens, but of begetting those 
 again to a lively hope, who had forfeited it by 
 their sin, but were desirous to regain it by re- 
 pentance and conversion from dead works, to 
 walk again in the paths of life."^^ Cyprian also 
 in his Epistles, speaks of Easter as the great and 
 solemn time of readmitting Penitents. 
 
 These indeed were the days of rigid discipline 
 
 26 The discipline was far from being nominal. It was 
 often such as nothing but the deepest feelings of contrition 
 could have induced them to bear. In some cases, they 
 were obliged to appear in sackcloth, with ashes on their 
 heads — the men to cut off their hair, and the women to 
 go veiled, as a token of sorrow and mourning — to abstain 
 from feasting, and even the innocent diversions of life — 
 to practice abstinence, mortification and fasting, in private, 
 as well as to observe the public fasts of the Church -r- to 
 show their liberality to the poor in an eminent degree — 
 and in some Churches to exercise their humihty by taking 
 upon themselves the office and care of burying the dead. 
 See BixGHAM, lib. xviii., ch. 2, sec. 4. 
 
 ^ Gregory Nyssen. (Bingham, lib. xxi., ch. 1, sec. 13.) 
 3* 
 
68 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 in the Church, when the ofiender was obliged 
 to make his confession and his repentance aa 
 open as his sin, that no stain might rest upon the 
 purity of the faith. And in enforcing these rules, 
 no immunity was granted to rank or powei*. 
 Look, for example, at the case of the Emperor 
 Theodosius. Having ordered a massacre by his 
 troops at Thessalonica, in which several thousand 
 lives were sacrificed, St. Ambrose, the Bishop of 
 Milan, at once charged him with his guilt, and 
 refused to hold intercourse with one thus stained 
 with innocent blood. The doors of the Church 
 were closed against the Master of the world, 
 and he was commanded to bow to that authority 
 which is above all earthly rule. The subordina- 
 tion of the civil to the ecclesiastical j^ower was 
 clearly proclaimed in that emphatic sentence — 
 " The Emperor is of the Church, and in the 
 Church, but not above the Church." Having 
 desired, even on the Festival of the Nativity, to 
 attend its services, he was met at the entrance of 
 the sanctuary by the intrepid prelate, who boldly 
 rebuked him for his want of humility, and ordered 
 him not to pollute the temple with his presence 
 until he had been absolved from his iniquity. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. ' 59 
 
 Thus, for eight months, he was ignoininiously 
 excjkided from those holy offices of the Church 
 which were freely afforded to the meanest of his 
 subjects — even to the beggar and the slave. 
 Theodosius pleaded in his defence the example 
 of David. " Since then you have imitated his 
 offence" — replied the Bishop — " imitate also his 
 penitence." At length, on his public humiliation, 
 »St. Ambrose consented to admit the Emperor, 
 not into the Church itself, but into the outer 
 porch, the place for the public penitents. There, 
 prostrate on the pavement, stripped of his impe- 
 rial ornaments, beating his breast, and watering 
 the ground with his tears, the master of the 
 Homan Empire, and the legislator of the world, 
 received his hard wrung absolution. Thus it was 
 that the Church then stood forth as the cham- 
 pion of the oppressed, and extended her penalties 
 over the mightiest of the earth .^ 
 
 But how imposing must have been this peni- 
 tential discipline, so rigorously enforced ! *' The 
 Chui'ch was not then divided into separate inde- 
 pendent bodies, holding no communication with 
 
 *s MiLMAN's History of Christianity^ vol. ii., p. 230. 
 
(50 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 each other, which might enable an offender when 
 expelled from one to attach himself to another, ^ 
 and thus maintain, in defiance of his condemners, 
 an outward union with Christ. He might as 
 well have endeavored to escape the penalties of 
 rebellion against the head of the Koman Empire 
 by removing from one province to another. So 
 spotless too was her innocence, so bright her 
 holiness, that none dared question for a moment 
 the justice of her decisions; and her sentence, 
 however rigorous it might be, was deemed to be 
 ratified in Heaven ; to be cut off from her, was 
 effectually to be cut off from Christ. Thus, both 
 her blessinscs and her censures were an outward 
 expression, an earthly type, by which men were 
 warned of what judgment was proceeding in 
 Heaven upon their conduct of life, and her slow- 
 ness of forgiveness, and the fiery 2:)robation to 
 which she submitted the penitent, were well 
 calculated to dispel those hurtful notions which 
 men now so generally entertain of the ease and 
 the speed of the process of forgiveness of sins."^' 
 The multitude, often but partially reclaimed from 
 
 29 Rectory of Vcdehead^ p. 164. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTIOK Qi 
 
 barbarism, wlio could be restrained by no worldly 
 motives, and over whom tlie civil autliority of tlie 
 land exerted but little j)ower wlien it came into 
 conflict with their passions, were obliged to trem- 
 ble as the awful denunciations of the Church fell 
 upon their ears. To them there was a fearful yet 
 salutary lesson taught, by the public shame of the 
 penitent — his deep humiliation — the bitterness 
 and intensity of his remorse. It was with these 
 individuals, then, whose probation had been so 
 severe, but who were now again to be received 
 into the body of the faithful, that the Church at 
 this season prayed and fasted, that their sins 
 might be washed away, and the comfortable 
 hope which once they had forfeited be again 
 restored. 
 
 And if the evil days on which we have fallen, 
 prevent the Church in this age from enforcing 
 with a wholesome severity, her primitive disci- 
 pline, is there not double reason why her mem- 
 bers should bewail their sins, and pray God not 
 to visit upon them the recompense of their 
 offences ? Should not their petition be — " Spare 
 thy people, good Lord, and let not thine heritage 
 be brought to confusion?" And in harmony 
 
62 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 with such convictions, we find that all the sei 
 vices of Lent breathe an evident feeling of con- 
 trition — that we every where present ourselves 
 n the attitude of humility, and pray our merciful 
 Father to grant us " perfect remission and for- 
 giveness." Let us strive then to partake of the 
 spirit of these petitions: and when we look around 
 us and remember how far, as a Church, we have 
 wandered from the path of primitive holiness, 
 how lukewarm is our devotion, and how feeble 
 our faith compared with what it should be, we 
 shall realize that there is reason for that deep 
 and searching penitence which our Master seeks 
 to kindle up within us, and the expression of 
 which is heard so often in our Liturgy. 
 
 These, then, are the reasons which induced 
 the early Church to institute this Holy Season, 
 thus exercising the power entrusted to her, " to 
 decree rites and ceremonies."^^ It is with her 
 sanction that we are summoned to its observance. 
 It is impressed upon us by the solemn voice 
 which comes down from the years of a distant 
 and dim antiquity. In these services many gen- 
 
 80 Article xx. Of the Authority of the Church—'' The 
 Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies." 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION". 63 
 
 erations have already joined, and thus gathered 
 strength for the journey which lay before them. 
 They have long since passed away, leaving to us 
 not only their bright exaroples, but also the 
 record of their experience. We stand in their 
 places. We are the honored guardians of all 
 those rites and institutions which they in their 
 day found useful in the Church, and then be- 
 queathed to such as should come after them. 
 Solemn indeed is the trust — may we never be- 
 tray it ! May we always remember that we are 
 " baptized for the dead " — inheriting their re- 
 sponsibilities — enjoying the fruits of theu' labors 
 — and that we must commit this sacred heritage 
 undiminished to our successors. Let us never 
 then be willing to give up these ancient services, 
 which were used by the holy dead, whose mem- 
 ory we love, or to substitute in their place the 
 novelties of an age '' emulous of change." Let 
 us be content to tread the path which still gleams 
 brightly with the steps of those who for Christ's 
 sake and the gospel's " counted not their lives 
 dear unto themselves." Let us strive, as they 
 did, against an unholj' world — lo^dng with a true 
 devotion, the Church for which they died — and 
 
64 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 seeking to imbibe tbe spirit wliicli reigns in lier 
 courts. And then, wlien " life's fitful fever " is 
 over, we sliall be admitted with tlie just wliom 
 we liave followed on earth, to the Paradise of 
 Q-od — to "the general assembly and Church of 
 tlie first-born, which are written in Heaven." 
 
THE PROPER OBSERYAXCE OF LENT. 
 
 Nor wonder that the widow'd Church should sound 
 Of sadness ; there are mourners Christ hath blest, 
 
 Who watch with her their annual, weekly round, 
 And in obedience fir d the promis'd rest. 
 
 The Cathedral 
 
II. 
 
 THE PKOPEE OBSEKYAKCE OF LE:N^T. 
 
 We are told, that in one of the darkest periods 
 of Jerusalem's apostacy, and when her ruin by 
 a powerful invader was just at hand, another 
 reprieve was granted, and one more summons to 
 repentance sent forth. " And in that day did the 
 Lord God of Hosts call to weeping, and to 
 mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with 
 sackcloth ; and behold, joy and gladness." Thus 
 it was, that her people scorned the prophet's 
 message, and turned as usual to their worldly 
 pleasures. But the decision of God upon their 
 conduct, is thus given by Isaiah: "And it was 
 revealed in mine ear by the Lord of Hosts, 
 Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you 
 till ve die, saith the Lord God of Hosts."^ 
 
 ^ Isaiah xxii., 12, 13, 14. 
 
gg THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 And thus, by the voice of His Church, is God 
 at this season calling us also " to weeping and 
 mourning." So comprehensive too is the sum- 
 mons, that none who bear the Christian name can 
 plead exemption. The command is — Blow the 
 trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn 
 assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congre- 
 gation, assemble the elders, gather the children, 
 and those that suck at the breasts ; let the bride- 
 groom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out 
 of her closet ; let the priests, the ministers of the 
 Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and 
 let them say. Spare thy people, O Lord, and give 
 not thy heritage to reproach.^ In this way it is, 
 we are directed, by chastenmg our spirits, to pre- 
 pare to celebrate our Lord's solemn sacrifice — 
 that mysterious passion and agony which the 
 world can never fully comprehend, and to the 
 history of which it can only listen, with an awful 
 reverence. How then shall we keep this holy 
 season ? How can we most fully enter into the 
 spirit of its services — availing ourselves of these 
 opportunities to approach our God — afflicting the 
 
 2 Scripture appointed for the Epistle for Ash-Wednes- 
 day. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. ^ 69 
 
 soul now, that hereafter it may be saved forever ? 
 In answer to these inquiries, and that we may 
 know how to carry out the design of the Church 
 for our spiritual benefit, let us look at some of 
 the methods in which we may best observe this 
 solemn period of our Ecclesiastical year. 
 
 Abstinence from avorldly Amusements, is 
 one particular which most naturally occurs to us. 
 In the early Church, not only was the attendance 
 of her members on all public games and shows 
 forbidden during the season of Lent, but the 
 prohibition was even extended to the celebration 
 of marriages, and the anniversaries of birth days, 
 because these took place with feasting, and tokens 
 of joy and pleasure, inappropriate to a season 
 which should be devoted to deep humiliation and 
 mourning.^ St. Chrj'sostom, in his Lent sermons, 
 inveighs with liis usual zeal, against any violation 
 of these salutary rules. In the midst of his sharp 
 invectives against 'those who had attended the 
 Circus at this time, he says : " When I consider, 
 how at one blast of the devil ye have forgotten 
 all my daily admonitions and continued discourses, 
 and run to that pomp of Satan, the horse-race in 
 
 2 See BixGHAM's Ori(/. Secies., lib. xxi., ch. 1, sec. 21. 
 
70 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 the Circus, with what heart can I think of preach- 
 ing 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 holy season of Lent out of your 
 souls, and thrown yourselves into the nets of the 
 devil. What profit is there in your fasting! 
 What advantage in your meeting together so 
 often in this place?"* And again, in another 
 Homily, while in a pathetic manner exhibiting 
 to them the moral influence of this conduct, his 
 language is — '' 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 scan- 
 dal 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 entertain the 
 same suspicion of us all? They will sharpen their 
 tongues against us all, and for the offences of a 
 few condemn the whole body of Christians. 
 * St. Cheys., torn, ii., p. 49, Horn. 6, iii Gen. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 71 
 
 Neither will they stop here, but rail at our Head, 
 and for the servant's fault blaspheme our com- 
 mon Lord, and think that a sufficient apology 
 and excuse for their own errors, that they have 
 something to object to the life and conversation 
 of others."* 
 
 And if worldly amusements have in this age 
 changed their form, still their nature and influ- 
 ence are the same. A ceaseless struggle for our 
 affections is going on, and the choice Ave make 
 determines our state, not only in this life, but 
 through all the wasteless ages of our immortality. 
 The tempter still arrays before the Christian, the 
 glare and gaudiness of tliis fleeting scene, that 
 his attention may be distracted, and his progress 
 towards Heaven impeded. On the other hand, 
 it is the object of our faith, to cause him to look 
 away beyond " things seen and temporal " to 
 those which are '^ unseen and eternal." We must 
 live in this lower world, as pilgrims whose ho]3es 
 and affections are not here — who beai; about with 
 them the consciousness that this is not their home, 
 but that they are only journey ers through the 
 wilderness, toiling onward to the promised land. 
 
 5 St. ChPwYs., torn, ii., p. 61, Horn. 7, in Gen. 
 
72 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 "We are to be like St. Paul, " crucified witli our 
 Lord to tlie world, and tlie world to us " — gazing 
 on its pleasures witli the same unconcern witli 
 wliicli the dying man would from the Cross — 
 putting it from us, and leaving untried no means 
 which may avail, to destroy the witchery of its 
 enchantments, and to break its power over our 
 hearts. We are even to give up its lawful com- 
 forts and its innocent enjoyments, when called to 
 this sacrifice for any worthy end ; for there may 
 come occasion to the follower of the Lord to 
 "take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in 
 necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's 
 sake." Thus, in striving to be more conformed 
 to his Master, or more entirely to be disentangled 
 from this scene of temptation, he may be obliged 
 to offer upon the altar of Christian duty, all those 
 affections which twine most closely about the 
 heart, " losins: his life for Christ's sake and the 
 Gospel's, that he may save it." 
 
 " Sweet fs the smile of home ; the mutual look 
 When hearts are of each other sure ; 
 
 Sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook, 
 The haunt of all affeetions pure ; 
 
 Yet in the world even these abide, and we 
 Above the world our calling boast ; 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 73 
 
 Once gain the mountain top, and thou art free ; 
 
 Till then, who rest, presume; who turn to look, are 
 lost." 6 
 
 It was to escape the unholy influence of this 
 worlcVs fascinations, that the followers of our 
 Lord were accustomed, in the olden time, to flee 
 from this scene of trial, and in the solitary her- 
 mitage, or the desert waste, where no man was, 
 to pass their lives in communion with their God, 
 and in making ready for their last account. But 
 no precept of Scripture authorized them to rend 
 the ties of duty, and for a selfish motive, to burst 
 the chains which bound them to home and kin- 
 dred. "It is a wretched righteousness " — says 
 Luther, in one of his letters to Spenlein — " which 
 will not bear with others, because it deems them 
 evil, and seeks the solitude of the desert, instead 
 of doing good to such, by long suflfering, by 
 prayer, and example. If thou art the lily and 
 the rose of Christ, know that thy dwelling-place 
 is among thorns." 
 
 Nor did they by this desertion attain theii* 
 object. The piety at which they aimed, was 
 tinged with dreamy reveries, and evaporated in 
 
 ^ Keble's Christian Year. First Sunday in Lent. 
 
 4 
 
74 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 contemplation of an imaginary purity. The pjis- 
 sions in their breasts which they had hoped to 
 root out, turned inward, and centered in tliem- 
 selves, and they found tliat if they could escape 
 from the world without, they must still carry 
 with them that little world within, in subduing 
 which the conflict chiefly consists. They had 
 cast from them the weapons of their warfare, and 
 fled from the strife, leaving an ungodly world to 
 roll on to destruction, unrebuked and unaided, 
 and they reaped their retribution. They deprived 
 themselves of all those* high and ennobling feel- 
 ings, which purify the heart, while they animate 
 men to exertion. Their selfishness recoiled upon 
 themselves, and the dreamy enthusiast who wished 
 to be wiser than Scripture, and to improve upon 
 the example of his Lord, found that he had not 
 added to the fortitude of his virtue. He had 
 sacrificed his happiness, and become but too often 
 only a gloomy misanthrope.^ 
 
 T These remarks will of course apply only to the solita- 
 ries. While their cells were the very nurseries of super- 
 stition, they were said, in the language of Alcujn, "to lead 
 an angelical life." Archbishop Leighton, however, much 
 more truly describes an angelical life, as " a life spent be- 
 tween ascending in prayer to fetch blessings from above, 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 75_ '^^* 
 
 The true trial of our life here is to m^etg^t^.^ 
 evil, and yet by God's grace to overcome it — 
 to be m the world, and yet so to trample it under 
 our feet as to show, that we are not of the 
 
 and descending to scatter them among men." The monas- 
 tic institutions were free from many of those difficulties of 
 which we have spoken, and ui the purer days of the Church 
 rendered essential service to the cause of religion, when 
 society around w^as m a rude and almost barbarous state. 
 The monks were often learned and industrious — the pat- 
 terns of active virtue — the liberal dispensers of charity — 
 and the zealous promoters of learning and the useful arts. 
 " It was a great benefit, that there should be places of 
 education, where the young might be trained for the ser- 
 vice of the Church or State : it was well that there should 
 be places of retirement where the aged might end their 
 days in penitence and prayer ; and places of refuge, where 
 the orphan and friendless might find support and protec- 
 tion." {QiiJjuTo^''s JEarly Eng, Chi(rch^\).\04c. See chap. 
 V, vi.) They who in the reign of Henry VIII. were grasp- 
 ing at the wealth of monasteries, eagerly united to villify 
 their occupants, and succeeding generations have quietly 
 received their report, with scarcely the trouble of a doubt. 
 But the true history of the monastic institution is yet to 
 be written, by one, Avho with a philosophical eye can read 
 its influence on the spirit of the age and the character of 
 society, and, who is ready with an unprejudiced, impartial 
 feeling to acknowledge its benefits, w^hile he points out the 
 evils to which it ultimately gave birth. 
 
 It is probably not known to many of our readers, that there 
 are in the kingdom of Hanover, eleven Protestant convents, 
 or (to give them a better name) " religious houses." They 
 
Y6 THE T.ENTEN FAST. 
 
 world — to liave its fascinations around us, and 
 yet to turn from them. Its Circean song may 
 float sweetly to our ears, but yet it must not 
 beguile us to pass over into tlie land of its en- 
 cliantments. It is in the fiery ordeal of temp- 
 tation, and amidst the din and struggle of the 
 conflict, that man learns to know himself, and to 
 estimate aright his own spiritual powers. His 
 hopes become more clear after every conquest 
 which he makes — his reliance upon things unseen 
 and eternal is strengthened — and his whole Chris- 
 tian character is matured and perfected. '' This 
 is the victory that overcometh the world, even 
 our faith." There is true wisdom indeed in the 
 eloquent words of Milton, w^hen he says — " He 
 that can apprehend and consider vice with all 
 her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, 
 and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is 
 
 are asylums, to which respectable females " when thrown 
 out upon the world by the dissolution of their families, can 
 retire, without experiencing those mortifications which are 
 BO frequently attendant upon adversity." (Dwigiit's Ger- 
 many^ p. 100.) An English lady has of late years founded 
 a similar house, at Clifton, near Bristol (Chueton's Early 
 Erig. Church, p. 382.) The inmates of none of these 
 institutions, however, are bound by those ensnaring vows 
 which produced much of the evil in the Romish Church. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERTANCE. 77 
 
 truly better, lie is tlie true wayfaring Christian. 
 I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, 
 unexercised and unbreatlied, that never sallies 
 out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the 
 race, where that immortal garland is to be run 
 for, not without dust and heat. That which puri- 
 fies us is trial, and {rial is by what is contrary. 
 Which was the reason why our sage and serious 
 poet Spencer, describing true Temperance imder 
 the person of Gruion, brings him in with his 
 Palmer through the cave of Mammon, and the 
 bower of earthly bliss, that he might see and 
 know, and yet abstain." 
 
 Yet it is evident, on the otlier hand, that a 
 temporary retirement from the bustle and tumult 
 of this busy life, is requisite to enable the spirit 
 to shake off the worldliness which has been in- 
 sensibly growing upon it, and to plume its wings 
 again for Heaven. It is necessary, that man 
 should now and then withdraw within himself, 
 think of his eternal interests, and examine with 
 peculiar care, his account with God. " We must 
 retire inward " — says St. Bernard, — ^' if we 
 would ascend upward." It is with this view, 
 therefore, that the Church from the earliest age, 
 
78 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 has yearly in the season of Lent, recalled her 
 children from the absorbing cares of time, and 
 gathered them into her own bosom, to meditate 
 and pray. 
 
 The question — how much under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, we may mingle in the gayeties and 
 amusements of the world — is one which each 
 individual must determine for himself. He knows 
 their effect upon his own heart, and the influence 
 of his example upon those around him, and must 
 act accordingly. If after having in baptism 
 solemnly renounced " the pomps and vanities of 
 this wicked world," he still thinks it right to de- 
 vote himself to them, he must be guided by his 
 own conscience in this important decision. If 
 he thinks it fit, that on Sunday his friends should 
 see him kneeling at the altar, professing to for- 
 sake the world, and then on the week day, meet 
 him in all its frivolities and gayeties, until they 
 suspect that his religion is only intended to be 
 put on in Church, his is the responsibility, and 
 his must be the retribution. To his own Master 
 he must stand or fall. But the hour is rapidly 
 coming, when from the bed of death and the bar 
 of judgment, each one will be forced to look back 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. V9 
 
 upon tliese scenes, and decide whetlier he actc^.d 
 well and wisely while life was going on.^ 
 
 Yet there are times and seasons, when there 
 can be no mistake on this subject, and when the 
 
 8 One of the most common charges against the Church 
 is, that her members are permitted to mingle in the gay- 
 eties of the world in a manner inconsistent ^Wth the Chris- 
 tian character, and particularly to frequent theatrical 
 amusements. This is no place, of course, to discuss the 
 question, whether they do so more than those who are 
 connected with the different denominations around them. 
 We can only say, that when Churchmen are found in this 
 situation — thus bringing discredit on their profession — 
 it is in utter violation of the rules of the Church, and at 
 variance with the spirit she endeavors to inculcate upon 
 them by every one of her services, from the comprehen- 
 sive Baptismal Vow, even to that last solemn prayer in 
 the Visitation of the Sick, which commends the departing 
 soul to the mercy of its God. As conclusive evidence of the 
 sense of the Church on this point, we can give the highest 
 authority — that of the House of Bishops in General Con- 
 vention. It stands thus recorded on their Journal : 
 
 " Tuesday, May 21th, 1817. Resolved, That the fol- 
 lowincT be entered on the Journal of this House and be 
 sent to the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, to be read 
 therein : 
 
 " The House of Bishops, solicitous for the preservation 
 of the purity of the Church, and the piety of its members, 
 are induced to impress upon the Clergy the important 
 duty, with a discreet but earnest zeal, of warning the 
 people of their respective cures, of the danger of an indul 
 
80 
 
 THE LENTEX FAST. 
 
 Churcli lias decided tliat lier cliildren must retire, 
 in a peculiar raanner, from tliis world, to think 
 of that which is to come. Such, for instance, is 
 the week which precedes the administration of 
 the Holy Communion. It is with reference to 
 this, that her ministers are commanded, " to give 
 
 gence in those Avorldly pleasures which may tend to with- 
 draw the affections from spiritual things. And especially 
 on the subject of gaming, of amusements involving cruelty 
 to the brute creation, and of theatrical represeyitations^ to 
 which some pecuhar circumstances have called their atten- 
 tion — they do not h(,'sitate to express their unanimous 
 opinion, tJiat these amusements^ as well from their licen- 
 tious tendency, as from the strong temptations to vice 
 which they afford, ought not to he frequented. And the 
 Bishops can not refrain from expressing their deep regret 
 at the information that in some of our large cities so little 
 respect is paid to the feelings of the members of the Church, 
 that theatrical representations are fixed for the evenings 
 of her most solemn Festivals." — Jour, of Gen. Con. 1817, 
 
 page 46. 
 
 Any one acquainted with the regular steps of degrada- 
 tion through which the theatre has passed during the last 
 twenty-five years, will acknowledge that if it had " a 
 licentious tendency "in 1817, that demoralizing influence 
 is doubly powerful in this day. Let not then occasional 
 inconsistencies of members of the Church — inconsistencies, 
 we believe, becoming each year more rare — be brought 
 forward as any illustration of the spirit of the Church. 
 These are the exceptions, and their conduct is looked upon 
 by their fellow members with sorrow and shame. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERYANCE. 81 
 
 warning for its celebration upon tlie Sunday or 
 some holy day immediately preceding." And 
 at tlie same time it is made tlieir duty to their 
 hearers, " to exhort them in the mean season, so 
 to search and examine their own consciences, 
 that they may come holy and clean to such a 
 heavenly feast, in the marriage garment required 
 by God in Holy Scripture, and be received as 
 worthy partakers of that holy table." Now 
 unless this appeal is a mere formality, and means 
 nothing, surely we are expected in the interval 
 to prepare ourselves for uniting in that solemn 
 mystery, and no one needs this preparation more 
 than the individual who loves this world so well 
 that he finds it hard to obey the injunction. But 
 is this to be done, amidst the bustle and excite- 
 ment of worldly pleasure ? Ko — it is not there 
 that God is accustomed to meet us, with the 
 influences of His grace, or the rich aids of His 
 Spirit. Let us not then endeavor, thus to mmgle 
 earth with Heaven, or to come to our Master's 
 solemn feast with thoughts distracted by frivolity 
 and amusement. Let us walk entirely as " chil- 
 dren of the light," or not attempt to worship at 
 the altars both of Christ and Belial. 
 
82 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 Such a season, again, is that of Lent. Listeii 
 to the tones of earnest repentance which the ser- 
 vices of the Church breathe forth, and then say, 
 whether after giving utterance to these, we can 
 rush at once into the embraces of a world, from 
 which we have just prayed to be delivered. But 
 are there any, who feel that six weeks is too long 
 a time to withdraw from earthly pleasures? 
 What — we would ask in reply — what must be 
 the state of that spirit — what its preparation for 
 Heaven — in which such thoughts conld be en- 
 tertained? This cleaving to the objects of our 
 earthly worship — this miserable hankering after 
 pleasures we profess to have abandoned — pro- 
 claim but too clearly a self-deceived heart, still 
 unbaptized by the Spirit from on high. Such an 
 one has reason to fear, lest the day of solemn 
 trial find him without the wedding garment. 
 When at this season then, God calls to '' weeping 
 and mourning," shall it be said of us, " behold, 
 joy and gladness ? " 
 
 Self-Examination is another obvious duty 
 which we must perform during the period of 
 Lent. This naturally follows from what has 
 been already advanced. If we withdraw from 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE 83 
 
 the world, it is not that we may spend our 
 time in listless idleness, but that we may employ 
 ourselves in girding up our loins anew, and trim- 
 ming our lamps, to be ready for our Lord's 
 appearing. It is that we may " commune with 
 our own hearts and be still." It is, that we 
 may review the past, and as we compare our 
 actions with the law of God, decide whether or 
 not we are walking in the way of His command- 
 ments. 
 
 And who that knows the deceitfulness of the 
 human heart — who that has ever read our Mas- 
 ter's repeated warnings that we should '' watch " 
 — will say that this is unnecessary ! We go 
 forth to the world, with our decision made to 
 serve the Lord, and our Christian hopes burning 
 brightly ; but as one day after another passes by, 
 insensibly we lose the simplicity of our religious 
 character, and become at last " of the earth 
 earthly," before we even suspect that we have 
 departed from the fervor of our earliest love. 
 " The gold becomes dim, and the fine gold 
 changed." Our thoughts are drawn off from 
 our Master and his cause, until the excitements 
 and allurements which are around produce their 
 
84 
 
 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 natural result, and we begin to be willing to take 
 our portion with those wliom we bad profiissed 
 to leave. We learn to persuade ourselves, to 
 yield in things which a more tender conscience 
 would have taught us to refuse, until our ser\n.ce 
 becomes partial and worldly, and we are no 
 longer heartily devoted to the Lord. 
 
 Now, how many tbus pass through life ? At 
 times, the monitor within utters its voice, and 
 they are forced to doubt, whether or not they 
 are in the faith. Yet they at once dispel these 
 disagreeable thoughts. From a natural indolence 
 of disposition, they shrink from the task of inves- 
 tigating their own hearts. They seem willing 
 to live along, trusting that it may in the end be 
 well with them. They postpone. to the last day, 
 the decision of the most solemn question this 
 world can furnish, although then it will be too 
 late to rectify an error. Is it not therefore well 
 for us, at times to stop in our worldly career, 
 and settle this point ? Many are the lessons of 
 solemn caution which our Master gave, to guard 
 against this very danger. The rich man who 
 thought not of death — the servants who ate 
 and di^ank, but remembered not their Lord's 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 85 
 
 return — and tlie virgins who slept when the 
 bridegroom was at hand, and then awoke only 
 to bitter disappointment — are all set forth for 
 our warning. And how miserable would be our 
 state, should the summons thus be heard when 
 we expect it not, and then for the first time the 
 full consciousness burst upon us, that we have 
 been deceiving our own hearts, and ser\^ng the 
 world! Let us therefore watch and examine 
 ourselves, that as time passes by, there may grow 
 no rust upon our souls, and no habitual sin darken 
 the mirror on which the pure light of Heaven 
 should be reflected. Let us not, when once we 
 have girded on our armor, lay it aside or be 
 found sleeping at our post. Li the solemn day 
 of our Master's appearing, when " all kindreds of 
 the earth wail because of Him," let us be found 
 among those chosen ones, whom the Church 
 has gathered into her fold, trained in every holy 
 work, and purified for her Lord, that they might 
 be found ready when His marriage hour should 
 come. 
 
 There is one more way, by which we should 
 peculiarly mark this season as one of penitence- 
 it is by FASTmo. On the morning of Ash-Wed- 
 
86 THE LEITTEN FAST. 
 
 nesday, we prostrate ourselves before our God 
 and say — " Be favorable, O Lord, be favorable 
 to tliy people, who turn to Thee in weeping, 
 fasting and praying." And yet by how many, 
 have we not reason to fear, are these words 
 uttered, who shrink from the Christian duty of 
 which they speak ! It is much more easy to 
 offer unto God the tribute of our lips, than to 
 chasten and discipline the body. We believe it 
 is for this reason, that in these days when men 
 seek their own comfort, this practice which has 
 prevailed through all ages of the Jewish and 
 Christian Churches, has fallen so much into 
 disuse. 
 
 Yet take up the word of God, and what duty 
 is spoken of more decidedly, or the performance 
 of which is more frequently followed by a bless- 
 ing I Joshua and the elders of Israel, when de- 
 feated by the men of Ai, kept a solemn fast, as 
 they remained all day, " until the even-tide," 
 prostrate on the earth before the ark, with dust 
 upon their heads, in humihatiori and prayer. 
 And the result was, that victory again attended 
 them. David fasted as well as prayed, when he 
 humbled himself before God after his sin against 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 8"i 
 
 [Iriali, and althongli deprived of his child, yet Ms 
 hiiquity was forgiven. The inhabitants of Nine- 
 veh, in fear of judgments obeyed the decree of 
 their King, when ho proclaimed — " Let neither 
 man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing ; 
 let them not feed nor drink water ; but let man 
 and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry 
 mightily unto God" — and their city was spared. 
 The devoted Ezra, when setting out for Jerusa- 
 lem, assembled the returning captives at the river 
 Ahava, and there '' proclaimed a fast, that they 
 miirht afflict themselves before God, and seek of 
 Him a right way for themselves and their little 
 ones, and for all their substance " — and he ob- 
 tained the blessino: he asked. And thus we 
 might go through the Old Testament, and show 
 that on every important occasion, the ancient 
 saiats under the former dispensation not only 
 prayed but fasted also. 
 
 And so it continued to be, when the Gospel 
 dawned upon the earth. *Anna was " serving 
 God with fastings and prayers, night and day,^' 
 when her petition was answered, and she saw her 
 Saviour. Our Lord himself, before he entered on 
 His public ministry, passed through a long period 
 
88 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 of preparatory fasting. The Apostles did so, 
 before every solemn act in wliich they engaged. 
 They were '' in fastings often." St. Paul fre- 
 quently refei's to the use of this means of grace. 
 He declares, that he " approves himself a minister 
 of God," as in other things, so " in fastings also ;" 
 and he writes to the Corinthians — " Give your- 
 selves to fasting and prayer." Cornelius, " the 
 devout centurion," was engaged in fasting, when 
 the angel announced to him, that his alms and 
 prayers had " come up for a memorial before 
 God." St. Peter was fasting, when that wonder- 
 ful vision revealed to him the admission of the 
 Gentiles into the Church of God, and commis- 
 sioned him to be to them, the earliest herald o:^ 
 the Gospel. The Church at Antioch was fasting, 
 when the Holy Ghost said, '' separate me Barna- 
 bas and Saul." 
 
 ISTeither can it be argued, that this was not 
 expressly commanded by our Lord. He found 
 the practice in use, and spake of it as one which 
 should be continued. He gave directions to His 
 disci]3les, how they ought to fast, and promised 
 that they should be recompensed for the right 
 performance of this duty. " But thou, when thou 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERYAXCE. 89 
 
 fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy fa<ie ; 
 that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto 
 thy Fatlier which is in secret ; and thy Father 
 which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." 
 Well therefore has Hooker remarked — " Our 
 Lord and Saviour would not teach the manner 
 of doing, much less propose a reward for doing, 
 that which were not both holy and acceptable 
 in God's sight."^ But our Master also expressly 
 declared, that after His departure His children 
 in sorrow for his absence, should thus afflict 
 themselves. " The days will come, when the 
 bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then 
 shall they fast." Does not this clearly prove the 
 truth, that He considered it as a duty ? 
 
 What again, we would ask, means that declar- 
 ation of His, with respect to the faith which 
 could remove mountains ? " Howbeit this kind 
 goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting." Do 
 not these words imply, that there are nobler 
 attainments in the Christian life to be gained by 
 those, who through severity to themselves ai*e 
 able to strive after them? And do they not 
 Doint out, " the unseen strength " of fasting as 
 
 ^ Ecdes. Polity^ b. v., sec. 72. 
 
90 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 that T^'iSicli is to enable tlie Christian warrior to 
 win the brightest crown? Yes, this is tl^at 
 " more excellent way " which is opened to th'^se 
 " who will receive it." 
 
 And this was the light in which the early 
 Clmrch re^nrded this duty. In those days, when 
 th^y stood near to their Lord, and walked in 
 Hi^ hallowed footsteps, how often is this practice 
 mentioned as one, whose value the Church fully 
 appreciated ! Thus St. Chrysostom says : — 
 ^' Tlioo.'^h at other times when we preachers cry 
 up and preach the duty of fasting never so mnch 
 all the j?ear, scarce any one hearkens to what we 
 say, yet when the season of forty days is come, 
 though none exhort or advise them, the most 
 negligent set themselves to it, taking admonition 
 and advice from the very season .^^ And again 
 he adds — " If a Jew or a Heathen ask you, why 
 do you fast? Do not tell him, it is for our 
 Saviour's Passion on the cross ; for so you will 
 give him an handle to accuse }ou. For we do 
 not fast for the Passion or the Cross, but for our 
 sins, because we are come to the Holy Mysteries. 
 The Passion is not the occasion of fasting or 
 
 10 St. Cheys., torn, v., Horn. 52, p. 709. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 91 
 
 mourning, but of joy and exultation. We mourn 
 not for that, but for our sins, and therefore we 
 fast.". 
 
 The manner too of their fasting in those ancient 
 days, shows how thoroughly they desired to 
 fulfill this duty. Instead of considering a change 
 of food only as being sufficient, they entirely 
 abstained from all sustenance through the whole 
 day until the evening. Thus we find St. Am- 
 brose, in one of his exhortations to his hearers 
 to observe the Lent Fast, bidding them — " defer 
 eating a little, because the end of the day is not 
 far off."^^ St. Chrysostom in his Lent sermons 
 frequently alludes to the same- circumstance. 
 " Let us " — he says — " set a guard upon our 
 ears, our tongues, and minds, and not think that 
 bare fasting till the evening is sufficient for our 
 salvation."^^ And again in another passage, 
 which we cannot forbear quoting entire, on 
 account of the admirable view which it gives 
 of this whole duty. 
 
 " The true fast is abstinence from vices. For 
 abstinence from meat was aj)pointed upon this 
 
 ^1 BiNG. Orig. Eccles.^ lib. xxi., chap. 1, sec. 16. 
 12 St. Ct»UYS., torn ii., Horn. 4, in Gen., p. 37. 
 
92 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 occasion, that we should curb the tone of our 
 flesh, and make the horse obedient to his rider. 
 He that fasts, ought above all things to bridle 
 his anger, and learn meekness and clemency, to 
 have a contrite heart, to banish the thoughts of 
 all inordinate desii*es, to set the watchful eye of 
 God before his eyes, and his uncorrupted judg- 
 ment ; 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 dili- 
 gently exercise ourselves in things of a spiritual 
 nature.""^* 
 
 Yet we must not forget, in considering their 
 manner of fasting, that an Asiatic climate ren- 
 dered comparatively easy what to us would ap- 
 pear to be an excessive severity. The lassitude 
 of constitution, and languor of the whole system, 
 
 1^ St. Chrys., Horn. 8, in Gen., p. 19. 
 
ITS PKOPER OBSERVANCE. 93 
 
 wliich were produced by that genial temperature, 
 enabled tliem to carry it to an extent, wliicli in 
 this latitude, or among the nations of Northern 
 Europe, would be oppressive, and totally defeat 
 the object for which it was undertaken. 
 
 Even in that day, however, this duty was per- 
 formed with great allowance to human infirmi- 
 ties ; thus showing plainly, that instead of being 
 made a superstitious form, it was used with refer- 
 ence to its spiritual benefits. " Let no one " — ■ 
 says St. Chrysostom — " place his confidence in 
 fasting only, if he continue in his sins without 
 reforming. For it may be, one that 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. Thou hast not 
 fasted by reason of the weakness . of thy body ; 
 but why art thou not reconciled to thy enemies ? 
 Canst thou pretend bodily infirmity here? If 
 thou retainest hatred and envy, what apology 
 canst thou make ? In such crimes as these thou 
 canst not fly to the refuge of bodily weakness."^^ 
 And again, in another Homily, he dwells upon 
 this subject still more fully. " If thou canst not 
 
 14 St. Chkys., Horn. 22, de Ira, torn, i., p. 277. 
 
94 
 
 THE LENTEN. FAST, 
 
 pass all tlie clay fasting, by reason of bodily 
 weakness, no wise man can condemn thee for 
 tbis. For we bave a kind and merciful Lord, 
 wbo requires notbing of us above our strength. 
 He neither requires abstinence from meat, nor 
 fasting simply of us, nor that for this end we 
 should continue without eating only; but that 
 withdrawing ourselves from worldly affairs, we 
 should pass 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 fosting. 
 But because human nature is negligent, and 
 gives itself rather ease and pleasure, therefore 
 our kind Lord, as a compassionate Father, hath 
 found out this medicine of fasting for us, that we 
 should abridge ourselves in our pleasures, and 
 transfer our care of secular things to works of a 
 spiritual nature. If therefore there be any here 
 present who are hindered by bodily infirmity, 
 and cannot continue all day fasting, I exhort 
 them to have regard to the weakness of their 
 bodies, and not upon that account deprive them 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERYAJJCE. 95 
 
 selves of spiritual instruction, but for that very 
 reason to pay more diligent attendance on it. 
 For there are many ways besides abstinence 
 from meat, which will open to us the door of con- 
 fidence towards God. He therefore that eats, 
 and cannot fast, let him give the more plentiful 
 alms, let him be more fervent in his 23rayere, let 
 him show the greater alacrity and readiness in 
 hearing the divine oracles. For the weakness 
 of the body is no impediment in such oflices as 
 these. Let him be reconciled to his enemies, and 
 forget injuries, and cast all thoughts of revenge 
 out of his mind. HJe that does these things, will 
 show forth the true fasting, which the Lord 
 chiefly requires. Therefore I exhort you who 
 are able to fast, to go on with all possible alacrity 
 in this good and laudable work, for by how much 
 more our outward man perishes, so much more 
 our inward man is renewed."^^ 
 
 And the same rule of moderation continues to 
 be that of the Church in our day. Caring for 
 the bodily as well as the sj^iritual health of her 
 members, she prescribes only such a degree of 
 fasting, as may keep our lower nature in subjec- 
 
 *5 St. Chrys., Horn. 10, in Gen., torn, ii., p. 91. 
 
90 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 tion to that wliicli is spiritual. Thus we are 
 taught to pray on the first Sunday in Lent — 
 " O Lord, who for our sake didst fast forty days 
 and forty nights; give us grace to use such 
 abstinence, that our flesh being subdued to the 
 Spirit, we may ever obey Thy godly motions in 
 righteousness and true holiness, to Thy honor 
 and glory." 
 
 We would also observe, that united with this 
 fast, or rather flowing: from it, were more abun- 
 dant deeds of charity. What they saved by their 
 abstinence they expended on the poor. Thus, 
 we find an Apostolic Father saying : — "A true 
 fast is not merely to keep under the body, but 
 to give to the widow or the poor, the amount 
 of that which thou wouldst have expended upon 
 thyself; that so he who receives it may pray 
 to God for thee."^^ Origen says — " He found it 
 in some book as a noted saying of the Apostles, 
 " Blessed is he who fasts for this end, that he 
 may feed the poor ; this man's fast is acceptable 
 unto God."^^ St. Chrysostom, in the extracts 
 already given, alludes to this duty, and at a later 
 
 ^* Hennas Pastor^ in Cotel., torn, i., p. 106. 
 1^ BiXG. Orig. Eccles.^ lib. xxi., ch. ], see. 18. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 97 
 
 period, we find St. Augustine writing — '' Fasting 
 without almsgiving, is a lamp without oil." 
 
 Such then is the argument for this practice, 
 drawn from Sci'ipture, and also the manner of 
 its performance in tlie early Church. It may be 
 thought by some, that too great a space has been 
 devoted to this discussion ; but we must remem- 
 ber, that in the present day, there is probably no 
 duty so little understood, and so lightly evaded. 
 " We will practice mortification and self-denial 
 for learning's sake, but not for Christ's. We will 
 abstain from joys, and pleasures, and company, 
 and numberless indulgences, and put restraint 
 even on our loves, when ambition calls, but not 
 at the bidding of the Cliurch. We will neglect 
 our health and rest, and become worn and pale, 
 and weary and weak, to gain earthly wisdom, 
 and power of intellect, and shorten our lives to 
 leave our names among posterity lifted some very 
 little, it may be, above the obscurity of the un- 
 numbered dead. But to smooth down the sever- 
 ity of discipline, to have an easy Lent, or go 
 softly through a fast, we are ready to talk of our 
 health and habits, and way of living, and the 
 
 hardness of our duty, and the weakness of our 
 5 
 
98 
 
 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 flesli, and in a light way of the mercy of our 
 God. We are strong to do all things for our- 
 selves, onr own ambition strengthening us. We 
 are weak for Christ, even though He be ready 
 to give us strength."^^ And it is, we believe, 
 because this duty is so little practised as a regu 
 lar habit, that its benefits are so undervalued. 
 It is often eagerly commenced in a fit of transieni 
 zeal, but the natural inclinations raise their 
 remonstrance — it is found wearisome and painful 
 — and after one or two attempts entirely laid 
 aside. But is it not true, that this is scarcely 
 giving it a trial? To be appreciated, and its 
 benefits felt, it must be a habit — be practised 
 often — and become, as it were, a portion of our 
 regular religious service. Thus, that which at 
 first was performed with difficulty, is rendered 
 easy;^* and we learn at last, that the ancient 
 
 18 Fabee's tracts on the Offices of the Church. 
 
 19 Goethe somewhere makes a remark, which may be 
 applied to the whole circle of our religious duties : " Nei- 
 ther in moral or religious, more than in physical and civil 
 matters, do people willingly do any thing suddenly or 
 upon the instant ; they need a succession of the like actions, 
 whereby a habit may be formed ; the things which they are 
 to love, or to perform, they cannot conceive as insulated 
 and detached ; whatever we are to repeat loith satisfaction^ 
 must not have become foreign to us:'' 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVAXCE. 99 
 
 saints in Primitive days, knew liuman nature 
 better than we do, and wlien tliey urged those 
 wlio sliould come after them, to " crucify the 
 flesh " as a source of spiritual benefits, were only 
 giving the result of their own experience. 
 
 This then is that discipline, by whose severity 
 we are to weaken the force of passion, and of 
 those appetites which else assert the mastery 
 over the soul, and bind it down to earth. " I 
 keep under my body" — says St. Paul — '* and 
 bring it into subjection : lest that by any means 
 when I have preached to others, I myself should 
 be a cast away." And St. Chrysostom declares 
 — " Fasting restrains the body, and checks and 
 bridles its inordinate sallies, but makes the soul 
 much lighter, and gives it wings to mount up 
 and soar on high."^^ It teaches too, the habit of 
 self-denial — leadins: ^^s at intervals to remember 
 that our object in this life is not to please our- 
 selves, but rather to overcome temptation — to 
 restrain and mortify the cravings of appetite. 
 Thus we conquer that self-indulgence, which if 
 permitted unfits us for sj)iritual duties.^^ And 
 
 ^^ St. Chrys. Horn. 10, m Gen., torn, ii, p. 91. 
 
 *^ " It is a most miserable state for a man to have every 
 
]00 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 how forcibly also does it cause us to realize 
 things unseen and eternal ! It is an act so con- 
 trary to the spirit of this world, that it brings at 
 once before us the truth, that here is not our 
 home. All religious feelings therefore are kin- 
 dled up, and our habits of prayer and devotion 
 are quickened into exercise. And in this activ*^, 
 busy age, when outward excitement has taken 
 the pLace of earnest, holy contemplation, how 
 necessary becomes any discij3line, which can tbus 
 withdraw us from the things of time and sense ! 
 By its means we gather strength for the conflict 
 yet before us, in which " we wrestle not against 
 flesh and blood," but our enemies are those 
 mighty spirits who once bore a nobler nature 
 than our own — " powers which erst in Heaven 
 sat on thrones" — and who still, in their dark 
 apostacy, retain for the accomplishment of evil, 
 the same radiant intellects, with which they were 
 gifted for the service of God. We come forth 
 from our retirement, more subdued and chastened 
 
 thing according to his desire, and quietly to enjoy the 
 pleasures of life. There needs no more to expose him to 
 eternal misery." — Bishop Wilson, Sacra Privaia. Wed- 
 nesday. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERYANCB. iqi 
 
 in S])irit — with a calm and abiding consciousness, 
 that we must be the true followers of " the man 
 of sorrows." Then, like His servants of old, to 
 whom revelations came in the hours of holy ab- 
 stinence, we are better prepared to listen to the 
 voice of God — our own prayers go up more 
 eai'nestly to His throne — and our affections are 
 crucified to a world which is fast fleeting away. 
 Therefore it was, that when the Church was 
 reformed from the corruptions of Rome, fasting 
 was still prescribed " to discipline the flesh, to free 
 the spirit, and render it more earnest and fervent 
 to prayer, and as a testimony and witness wilji 
 us before God of our humble submission to His 
 High Majesty, when we confess our sins unto 
 Him, and are inwardly touched with sorrowful- 
 ness of heart, bewailing the same in the affliction 
 of our bodies."^ There is therefore, as much 
 truth as poetry in the exhortation — 
 
 " Deem not such penance hard — thence from the soul 
 The chords of flesh are loos'd, and earthly woes 
 
 Lose half their power to harm ; while self-control 
 Learns that blest freedom, which she only knows."® 
 
 22 First part of the Homily on Fasting. 
 28 The Cathedral. 
 
102 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 Thus it is then that we may keep this Holy 
 Season — by withdrawing from the world — by 
 self-examination — by prayer and fasting — so that 
 when it has passed, we shall find that we have 
 gained new strength for our onward course. 
 And how strong the argument to do so, as one 
 year after another goes silently by, and we press 
 forward to the grave ! Now indeed is our re- 
 ward nearer than when first we believed. Now 
 is the bridegroom with some of us, almost at 
 hand. Soon we shall hear that warning cry, 
 which will startle even the slumbering from their 
 dreams, and then His train will sweep along, and 
 the glorious band of the Elect who are with Him, 
 go in to the marriage. But does each season, as 
 it thus bears us nearer to the tomb, carry us also 
 nearer to Heaven ? Are we ready for that sum- 
 mons, with our account made up, and so living in 
 watchfulness that the coming of the Son of Man 
 can not surprise us ? Are we numbered with 
 those " little ones " whose " angels do always 
 behold the face of our Heavenly Father," and 
 whom the Church, by the quiet influence of her 
 rites and services, is diligently training up for 
 immortality? When this decaying life is over, 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERYANCB. 103 
 
 and we are waitino: in silence that stroke wliicb 
 dismisses the spirit to its Judge, shall we be able 
 to feel, as we review our days, that we have 
 availed ourselves of all the opportunities our 
 Master afforded, of preparing for that solemn 
 crisis? Life with each one of us must be em- 
 ployed, in becoming meet for the recompense at 
 the just, and in gathering spoils for Eternity. 
 This is the only true use of existence here, and 
 thus only can it be something more tnan an 
 empty dream. It must be a life, spent in looking 
 forward to its close, and in preparing diligently 
 for that solemn change which is to pass upon all 
 men — 
 
 " T^ife tliat si) all send 
 
 i\ challenge to its end, 
 
 And when it conies, say ' Welcome, friend.' " 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRATERS IN LENT, 
 
 Could ye not watch one hour ! 
 Be ready ! or the bridal train 
 
 And bridegroom, with His dower 
 
 May sweep along in vain. 
 
 Miserere mei ! 
 
 Coxe's " Christum tutUada.^ 
 
III. 
 
 THE WEEK-DAY PKAYEES m LENT. 
 
 " "What ! could ye not watch witli me one 
 liour?" was on a certain occasion the appeal 
 made to some of the disciples of our Master. 
 And how solemnly must it have sounded in the 
 ears of those to whom it was addressed! The 
 Person from whom it came — the time — the place 
 in which it was uttered — all united to invest it 
 with emphasis. The Person was the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. The time was when His career on earth 
 was just closing, and the morrow was to behold 
 Him stretched upon the Cross. The place was 
 the garden of Gethsemane, the very name of 
 which awakens in our minds, the remembrance 
 of those fearful sorrows even unto death, of our 
 Buffering Lord. 
 
 We are told, that on that last night, after H^ 
 
108 THE LENTEN EAST. 
 
 had instituted the sacred rite which was through 
 all ages, both to keep alive in the minds of His 
 people, the '' perpetual memory of His precious 
 deatli and sacrifice until His coming again," and 
 also to be their " spiritual food and sustenance," 
 He delivered His final instructions to the disci- 
 ples, and then once more solemnly commended 
 them to the care of His Father who is in Heaven. 
 This was the concluding scene of His ministry, 
 and He therefore prepared Himself for the death 
 which was at hand. Taking Peter, and James, and 
 John, He went forth to the Garden, and " began 
 to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith He 
 unto them. My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even 
 unto death ; tarry ye here, and watch with me. 
 And He went a little further, and fell on His 
 face, and prayed." And, oh ! how fearful was the 
 conflict of spirit which He then endured, when 
 the terrors of the death He was about to suffer, 
 were arrayed before His mind, and His human 
 nature was forced to shrink back from the view I 
 Listen to the earnest words of His petition, aa 
 amid the darkness of the night. He prostrated 
 Himself upon the ground : " Father, all things 
 are possible unto Thee ; take away this cup from 
 
THE WEP]K-DAY PRAYERS. 109 
 
 me : nevertlieless, not what I will, but what thou 
 wilt." And then, " being in an agony, He prayed 
 more earnestly; and His sweat was as it were 
 great drops of blood falling down to the ground." 
 It was when this prayer was ended — when he 
 had poured out His soul to God, and been 
 strengtheiied by an angel for His approaching 
 trial, that returning to His disciples. He found 
 them asleep, and awoke them with the mournful 
 appeal — " What ! could ye not watch with me 
 one hour ? " 
 
 And we think that our Lord might address 
 this same touching inquiry to many among us, 
 who in this day profess His name. There is too, 
 in some respects, a degree of analogy between 
 our situation, and that of the disciples who first 
 listened to these words. We also are looking 
 forward to that sacrifice on the Cross, the cele- 
 bration of which will soon arrive. At this solemn 
 season, we are — or ought to be — endeavoring by 
 prayer, and weeping, and fasting, to prepare our 
 hearts for uniting in its commemoration. And 
 to aid us in this work, the Church has appointed 
 peculiar services, well adapted to lead our 
 thoughts away from the things of this world, to 
 
11 9 THE LENTEN FxVST. 
 
 CO it<5mplate the mysteries of redemption. During 
 ea(.h week in the season of Lent, in accordance 
 wi^h her reguhitions, the House of God is open, 
 that his children may meet, and turn unto Him 
 wi1 h that appropriate petition — " Create and 
 make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, 
 worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging 
 our wretchedness, may obtain of Thee, the God 
 of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness, 
 throi^gh Jesus Christ our Lord."^ 
 
 Th's then, is the most solemn period of our 
 Eccle iastical year, whether we look at the nature 
 of thr. services in which we are invited to join, 
 or th'"it mysterious event to which we are con- 
 stantly pointed forward. And yet, how seldom 
 do ex en those who '' profess and call themselves 
 Christians," embrace as fully as they ought, these 
 opportimities of communing with God in His 
 holy temple ! How frequently, when the sanc- 
 tuary each week opens its doors, and invites them 
 to break off for a brief period from the bustle 
 and engrossing cares of the world, do they permit 
 the most trivial excuse to prevent them from 
 answering to the call ! May not our Lord then 
 
 ^ Collect for Ash-Wednesday. 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRATERS. lU 
 
 say to many among us, as He did to His disciples 
 of old, in a tone of mingled sorrow and reproach 
 r^ '' What ! could ye not watch with me one 
 hour ! '' 
 
 Let us then briefly look at some of the motives 
 which should induce every Christian to avail 
 himself of the week day services of the Church 
 during this period. 
 
 The season itself presents its earnest appeal. 
 "When God delivered the law upon Sinai, the 
 people of Israel were commanded for three days 
 before, to sanctify themselves, that they might 
 be prepared to behold, even from a distance, the 
 glory of Jehovah, as the mountain was wreathed 
 with clouds, and " quaked greatly, because the 
 Lord descended upon it in fire." When there- 
 fore we are called upon to approach that more 
 wonderful mountain, on which, by the tears and 
 blood of the Incarnate Son of God, was wrought 
 out the sublime mystery of man's redemption, 
 should we not be earnest to put away from us 
 our earthliness of feeling, and to purify our hearts 
 in anticipation of that solemn scene ? Yes, as the 
 time draws near, when we are to be led to the 
 Cross — to contemplate the Passion and bitter 
 
112 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 agonies of our Lord — and to behold Him dying 
 for our salvation, it seems but proper, tliat we 
 should undergo some additional preparation of 
 heart. "We should not rush at once from the 
 tumult of this noisy world, to the foot of Calvary. 
 "When still far distant, we should veil our heads, 
 and put our shoes from off our feet, realizing 
 that we are on holy ground. As we slowly ap- 
 proach that spot; to which even angels would 
 look with intense emotion, a holy fear should fall 
 upon us, and in the depth of our souls we should 
 meditate upon the solemn scene which is to be 
 unfolded to our view. 
 
 Is it then asking too much, if during the brief 
 period of these forty days we are invited to as- 
 semble in the house of God more frequently, for a 
 short time to think of our dying Saviour, and to 
 bewail the sins which brought Him to the Cross ? 
 Is there not an evident proj^riety in that regula- 
 tion, commenced even in Primitive times, by which 
 Wednesday, (the day on which the Jews took 
 counsel to betray our Lord,) and Friday, (the 
 day of his death,) are peculiarly devoted to afEec- 
 tionate remembrance of Him, and humiliation 
 
THE WEEK-DAT PRATERS. 113 
 
 for ourselves V" Did He suffer in agony for our 
 transgressions, and yet, shall we think so lightly 
 of there, that we will not " rend our hearts," and 
 pray God to blot out our guilt \ Can we, while 
 pursuing this course, realize as we should, the 
 exceeding depth of our degradation? Can we 
 truly estimate, from how fearful a woe we have 
 been delivered, when we will not look to our 
 Lord on the Cross, or remember how terrible 
 were the suffer in 2fs which then crushed His human 
 
 o 
 
 nature ? 
 
 This indeed is a subject which appeals most 
 plainly to our reason. Is there not every thing 
 in the services, and the hallowed recollections of 
 this period, to induce us to humble ourselves in 
 the dust of abasement before God — to seek 
 pardon for the past, and strength for the future ? 
 Should not every principle of gratitude to our 
 Lord cause us to go gladly to the temple with 
 
 ^ St. Austin says — " This reason may be given, why the 
 Church fasts chiefly on the fourth and sixth days of the 
 week, because it appears upon considermg the Gospel, that 
 on the fourth day, which we commonly call Feria Quarta^ 
 the Jews took counsel to kill our Lord, and on the sixth 
 day our Lord stiffered. For which reason the sixth Say 
 is rightly appointed a fast." — Bing. Orig. Ecdes.^ lib. xxi., 
 chap. 3, sec. 2. 
 
114 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 those that keep holyday? Should oar louLlic 
 worship be confined to the Sunday ; or should we 
 not endeavor, by practice as well as by woixls, 
 to show our concurrence in that sentence of the 
 Te Deum which we so often repeat — " Day by 
 day we magnify Thee ! " When therefore all 
 these appeals call forth no response from the 
 hearts of our Lord's professed followers, may He 
 not say to them — " ' What ! could ye not watch 
 with me one hour ? ' with me^ who for your sake 
 became ' a man of sorrows, and acquainted with 
 grief — with one^ who was 'brought as a lamb 
 to the slaughter,' that you might live ? Must T 
 disrobe myself of my Heavenly glory, and come 
 to this earth of suffering and woe, and pass a 
 weary jiilgrimage of thirty years, and yet, my 
 children not be able to watch one single hour, to 
 prepare their hearts to think uj)on my sacrifice ? 
 Did 1 endure the crown of thorns — the scoffs of 
 men — the malefactor's shame — and the agony 
 of the Cross — and yet, are not those who. reap 
 the benefit of my sufterings able to endure a 
 single hour of communion with me — one single 
 hour of watchfulness and prayer ? " 
 
 Again — by attendance on the wet^k-day 
 
THE WEEK-DAT PRAYERS. 115 
 
 prayers, we are in some degree following the 
 
 EXAMPLE SET US BY THE PkBIITIVE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 lu the ancient Cliurch, there were religious 
 assemblies for prayer and preaching every day 
 through the whole season of Lent. '^ I can not 
 affirm " — says Bingham — " that it was so in 
 every Parochial Church and country village, but 
 that it was so in the greater or Cathedral Churches, 
 is evident from undeniable proofs and matter of 
 fact."« 
 
 The Homilies of St. Chrysostom upon Genesis, 
 from which we have already so often quoted, 
 were sermons preached in this manner, day after 
 day, as is evident from many allusions they con- 
 tain. Take, for example, a single passage in one 
 of them — " This is not the only thing that is 
 required, that we should meet here every day, 
 and hear sermons continually, and fast the whole 
 Lent. For if we gain nothing by these continual 
 meetings and exhoi tations and seasons of fasting 
 to the advantage of our souls, they will not only 
 do us no good, but be the occasion of a severer 
 condemnation. If after so much care and pains 
 bestowed upon us, we continue the same ; if the 
 
 8 Orig. Eccles.. lib. xxi, chap. 1, sec. 20. 
 
213 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 angry man does not become meek, and the pas- 
 sionate mild and gentle ; if the envious does not 
 reduce himself to a friendly temper ; nor the cov- 
 etous man depart from his madness and fury in 
 the pursuit of riches, and give himself to alms- 
 deeds and feeding the poor; if the intemperate 
 man does not become chaste and sober, and the 
 vainglorious learn to despise false honor, and 
 seek for that which is true ; if he that is negli- 
 gent of charity to his neighbor, does not stir np 
 himself, and endeavor not only not to come be- 
 hind the Publicans, (who love those that love 
 them,) but also to look friendly upon his enemies, 
 and exercise all acts of charity towards them; 
 if we do not conquer these affections, and all 
 others that spring up from our natural corrup- 
 tion; though we assemble here every day, and 
 enjoy continual preaching a-nd teaching, and 
 have the assistance of fasting ; what pardon can 
 we expect, what apology shall we make for our- 
 selves ?"* 
 
 Thus it was the custom of the Church, in her 
 primitive and holier days, by constantly recurring 
 periods of devotion, gradually to build up her 
 
 4 St. Chrys. Horn. 11, in Gen., torn, ii., p. 107. 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRATERS. H*} 
 
 children in tlie faitli, and in a ripeness of 
 Cliristian character. Then, she so often called 
 them to pra^^er, that the world had no opportu- 
 nity of enlisting their affections, or leading them 
 from the truth. They were forced to walk, " as 
 seeing Him who is invisible." They devoted to 
 intercourse with Heaven, and to communing with 
 their own hearts before God, times which in this 
 worldly age men could not bear to have snatched 
 from secular employments. They were not 
 contented with coming to their Lord's temple on 
 the first day of each week alone, but they sanc- 
 tified the hours of every day with devotion. 
 Look, for instance, at what were called in the 
 early Church, " the Canonical hours of Prayer,"^ 
 
 5 The subject of the daily services in the early Church 
 deserves a brief notice, because in this day reference is 
 often made to " the seven Canonical hours of public prayer 
 in the Primitive Church," when in fact, no such seasons 
 were known at that time. The appointed periods for daily 
 prayer were probably three in number. One of the writers 
 of the Oxford " Tracts for the Times," (who certainly 
 would not be inclined to diminish these services of the 
 early Church,) says " the Jewish observance of the third, 
 sixth, and ninth hours for prayer, was continued by the 
 inspired founders of the Christian Church. {N'o. 75, 07i 
 the Breviary.) This also was Wheatley's view, {O71 
 Common Prayer^ p. 84.) As late as the time of St. Chry. 
 
t]8 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 by which without interfering with the business 
 of this world, she reguLarly called her members to 
 remember the solemn realities of the world which 
 is to come, and trained them up systematically 
 
 sostom, there is no mention in any writer of more than 
 these three periods. Thus in one place this Father repre- 
 sents an individual as complaining, " How is it possible for 
 me, who am a secular man, and confined to the courts oi 
 law, to run to Church, and pray at the three hours of the 
 day?^'' To which St. Chrysostom answers, "that if he 
 could not come to Church, because he was so fettered to 
 the Court, yet he might pray even as he stood there." 
 {Horn. 4, de Anna, torn. ii.,p. 995.) Tertulhan also inci- 
 dentally alludes to " tertia hora, et sexta, et nona," as the 
 usual ones of public prayer (de Jejun., cap. 10.) 
 
 The multiplication of these services began in the Eastern 
 Monasteries, among those who were cut off from secular 
 life, and whose time was entirely given up to devotion. 
 In this way, these appointed seasons were gradually ex- 
 panded into what were called " the Seven Canonical Hours 
 of Prayer." Yet even in the fourth century, Avriters who 
 refer to the Six or Seven hours of prayer, speak of the 
 observance of the Monks only, and not of the whole body 
 of the Church. Such is the case frequently in St. Jerome's 
 works. From this beginning, these services were m latter 
 ages easily introduced into the jDrincipal Churches. We 
 believe therefore, that our ovra Church, with the arrange- 
 ment for daily morning and evening prayers, is much 
 Dearer the model of Primitive times, than those who 
 mcreased those services to Seven (See Bingham, Kb. xiii., 
 ch. 9, sec. 8.) 
 
 We refer here to the jmblic services, for with regard to 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS 119 
 
 for Heaven. " Unwavering, unflagging, not 
 urged by fits and starts, not heralding forth their 
 feelings, bnit resolutely, sim23ly, j)erseveringly, 
 day after day, Sunday and week-day, fast day 
 and festival, week by week, season by season, 
 year by year, in youth and in age, through a life, 
 thirty years, forty years, fifty years, in prelude 
 of the everlasting chant before the Throne — so 
 they went on, ^ continuing instant in prayer, 
 after the pattern of Psalmists and Apostles, in 
 the day with David, in the night with Paul and 
 Silas, winter and summer, in heat and in cold, in 
 peace and in danger, in a prison or in a cathe- 
 dral, in the dark, in the day-break, at sun-rising, 
 in the forenoon, at noon, in the afternoon, at even- 
 tide, and on going to rest, still they had Christ 
 before them ; His thought in their minds. His 
 emblems in their eye. His name in their mouths, 
 His service in their postures, magnifying Him 
 and calling on all that lives to magnify Him, 
 joining with Angels in Heaven and Saints in 
 
 the private devotions of the members of the Church we 
 have reason to believe that the vivid picture given by Mr. 
 Newman in the extract quoted above, is but a faithful 
 view of their ordinary customs. 
 
J 20 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 Paradise to bless and praise Him forever and 
 ever.* It was tliis noble system whicli raised the 
 early Cburcli to that height of holiness, and en- 
 abled her to present her followers, as visibly 
 crucified to the world. 
 
 But how different at this day is the spirit 
 which prevails ! The services of the sanctuary 
 are looked upon too often, as being merely ad- 
 dressed to the intellect. We come to it, too 
 much to listen to the preaching, and too little to 
 commune with our God. We forget, that there 
 it is man holds audience with the Deity. The 
 consequence is, that while our Churches can be 
 filled to listen merely to a hmnoan teacher, on 
 prayer days there are but few scattered here and 
 there, who feel the wish to abase themselves 
 before God.^ And the reason of this is evident. 
 It is easy for individuals, to sit in their seats, and 
 
 
 * Newman's Lectures on Justification^ p. 38* 
 '7 An old writer quaintly says — " To imagine that 
 prayers at home will be as acceptable to God, as those 
 made in the Church with our brethren, is as if one should 
 have fancied, that the incense of the Temple (which was a 
 compound of several precious gums,) made no other per- 
 fume than the spices would have done had they been burnt 
 one by one."— (i?/s^o;j» Patrick on Prayer, p. 217.) 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 121 
 
 listen to the voice of the preacher. He is " unto 
 them as a very lovely song of one that hath a 
 pleasant voice, and can play well on an mstru- 
 ment." His sentences fall upon the ear, and it 
 LS a pleasant excitement, to have the intellect 
 aroused, and the imagination addressed, but it is 
 not easy to pray. It requires effort to command 
 the wanderinsr thous^hts — to shut out an intru- 
 sive world — to keep the mind intently fixed on 
 God — and to kneel before him with a calm, col- 
 lected, and awakened soul. To have the con- 
 tinual spirit of prayer, is not show^n by now and 
 then sending up glowiug petitions to Heaven, 
 when the mind is for a time excited. It is some- 
 thing far different from these paroxysms of devo- 
 tion. It is to come daily before God, in a solemn, 
 serious frame, realizing that He " readeth our 
 thoughts, and trieth our hearts," and that " His 
 saints and angels,"^ even " a great cloud of wit- 
 
 ® The Apostle Paul, when declaring (1 Cor. xi. 10,) 
 that a woman should cover her head ui time of Prayer, 
 " because of the Angels," certainly seems to intimate, that 
 at such times these heavenly visitants are about us. So 
 at least this passage was looked upon by the ancient 
 Christians, and it gave them great encouragement to attend 
 upon the public Prayers. The same idea is curiously 
 
 a 
 
122 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 nesses compass us about." This therefore is the 
 very disci2:)line we need, and by which the Church 
 endeavors to have wrought into our souls, the 
 spirit of holiness. 
 
 There is indeed a subduing influence in Prayer, 
 which a careless world seems never to know. 
 The very sound of " the Church-going bell," 
 speaks to the heart, and recalls us from our 
 earthly feelings. As its solemn tones fall upon 
 the * ear, they seem like a voice from eternity, 
 telling us of realities, while we wander in a world 
 of shadows. Beautiful therefore was that super- 
 stition of the Middle Ages, which ascribed to 
 them the power of driving far off the Evil Spirits 
 which gather about the path of man, to tempt 
 him to sin. As the deep sound of the evening 
 bell was heard upon the breeze, and the sweet 
 tones of the Vesper Hymn floated indistinctly to 
 
 stated by Origen in his comments on those words of the 
 Psalmist — " the Angel of the Lord encampeth romid about 
 them that fear Him." " It is probable " — says he — " that 
 when many are assembled together sincerely to the glory 
 of Christ, the angel of every one of them there pitcheth 
 his tent, together with him who is committed to his charge 
 and custody; so as to make a double Churchy where the 
 saints are gathered together; one Church of men, and 
 another Church of angels." 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 123 
 
 the traveler's ear, his heart was strengthened 
 within him, and he felt, that here at least, where 
 that holy sound came, spiritual enemies had no 
 power. Yet not entirely was this a superstition. 
 The wild legends which embody it teach also a 
 deep moral to the thoughtful mind, and one 
 which a Poet of our own hath set forth, arrayed 
 in all that beauty with which genius can invest 
 the truth. 
 
 I have read in the marvelous heart of man, 
 
 That strange and mystic scroll, 
 That an army of phantoms, vast and wan, 
 
 Beleaguer the human soul. 
 
 Encamped beside Life's rushing stream, 
 
 In Fancy's misty light. 
 Gigantic shapes and shadows gleam 
 
 Portentous through the night. 
 
 But when the solemn and deep Church bell. 
 
 Entreats the soul to pray, 
 The midnight phantoms feel the spell, 
 
 The shadows sweep away. 
 
 Down the broad Yale of Tears afar, 
 
 The spectral camp is fled ; 
 Faith shineth as a morning star. 
 
 Our ghastly fears are dead.* 
 
 How wise then is tliat provision of the Churcli, 
 ® Longfellow's Beleaguered City, 
 
124 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 by wliicli slie calls us to these oft-recurring 
 prayers ! She wishes thus, to render us " meet 
 to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints 
 in light." It is for this reason too, that she so 
 frequently in her Calendar commemorates the. 
 holy dead, who have already entered into their 
 rest. Contracted indeed is the view of this sub- 
 ject which so many take, when they inquire, 
 Why should we pay this reverence to '' men of 
 like passions with ourselves ? " And yet do not 
 these compose that '' noble army," which gathers 
 around the Christian pilgrim as he travels on- 
 ward, and whom he may well remember as his 
 bright examples? Is it not right therefore, as 
 the year rolls round, that one by one they should 
 meet him in the services of the Church, that he 
 may thus be enabled to think of their self-deny- 
 ing labors, their holy lives, and their patient 
 sufferings? The Church in this is but following 
 the example of St. Paul, when in the eleventh 
 chapter of his epistle to the Hebrews, he sum- 
 mons up, as with a trumpet's voice, name after 
 name of those departed worthies who had long 
 gone to their reward. And since his day, how 
 gloriously has the list been extended, as the 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 125 
 
 Gospel dispensation presents its lioly array of 
 apostles, and saints, and just men made perfect, 
 until the long and bright procession passes before 
 us, stirring our hearts up to a holy emulation. 
 
 But their example is not all. It is thus that 
 we are reminded also of the dignity of our war- 
 fare. The Christian is too apt, in times of de- 
 pression, to feel himself a solitary, and it may be^ 
 a derided traveler. He looks upon himself as 
 standing isolated in a hostile world. These ser- 
 vices then are like a chain, which connects him 
 with the holy dead who have gone before. He 
 finds, that he has inherited his privileges from 
 martyrs and confessors — from kings of the earth, 
 its princes, and its judges, who in their generation 
 " fought the good fight," and then were gathered 
 into the Paradise of God. His feelings of lone- 
 liness pass away. He realizes, that he is one of 
 a great company, which embraces in its ranks all 
 that is pure and dignified in the universe, and 
 his heart rejoices in '' the communion of saints."^^ 
 
 ^^ " The thought of the dead makes us gentle and child- 
 like, and leads us to forget ourselves, as well it may. For 
 know that according to St. Paul's teaching the spirits of 
 just men made Derfect are not far fi'om us. We are come 
 
126 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 " Tliiis, though oft depressed and lonely, 
 All his fears are laid aside, 
 
 If he but remembers only- 
 Such as these have lived and died." 
 
 And here, we can not forbear quoting from one 
 of the most admirable works of this generation — 
 the only one we know giving the portraiture of 
 a Christian family — a passage showing the man- 
 ner in which these Festivals can be profitably 
 observed. " Fot* example, I take up the charac- 
 ter of St. Peter for my especial meditation, which 
 most probably, but for this notice of it by the 
 Church, I never should have done ; at least, I 
 should have rested content with the vague, tran- 
 sitory, and unpractical notions suggested in the 
 course of turning over, amid a multitude of others 
 
 to them, and they are come to us. They can touch us, 
 and we can touch them ; they are gliding by every hour. 
 The spirit has but ceased to act upon and through the 
 body, and so we do not see them in their places. They 
 keep threading in and out among us, going up and down, 
 and moving round about us ; especially, so Ave believe from 
 St. John, in holy Churches where their bodies rest in hope. 
 (Rev. vi.) They are the first ranks of the Church, who 
 have gone before us in the Lord, so far as to be out oi 
 sight. They are beyond our view. They may see us ; we 
 can not see them." — Faber's Tracts on the Offices of the 
 Church. 
 
• THE WEEK-DAY PRATERS. 127 
 
 in Scripture, tlie passages wliicli relate to him. 
 But now I turn it in every possible light, refer to 
 the minutest incident, analyzing and composing, 
 till I frame to myself an ade(^uate conception of 
 his character. I then examine myself by it, and 
 review his ardent and courageous spirit till I im- 
 bibe some portion of it myself, and discuss his 
 temporary fall till I arrive at a wholesome fear 
 of my own weakness ; and on coming to his 
 restoration, so completely do I feel identified 
 wdth him, I rejoice and glorify his blessed Master, 
 and my ow^n, as if I had been restored together 
 with him. And, last of all, I look intently upon 
 that death, which according to his Master's pre- 
 diction he underwent, and prepare myself also 
 to take up the .Cross of my Loi'd, and fear Him, 
 and not man. All these thoughts may have 
 passed through my mind often before ; but it was 
 in a floating, undirected, unpractical mass, and 
 not arranged as now, in clusters, under suitable 
 heads, tending to one definite end, and by the 
 point given to them, leaving their impression dis- 
 tinct and deep, both on memory and feelings. 
 Besides, by thus steadily following one train, I 
 am led at last, to ideas on the subject, and com 
 
128 THE LENTEN FAST. . 
 
 binations of ideas wliicli had never before pre- 
 sented themselves; and I experience Avith the 
 increase of my spiritual knowledge an accession 
 also of mental wealth. At a dne interval arrives 
 another fesiival, the centre of attraction to an- 
 other class of thoughts, which had else been too 
 loose and vague to produce any impression ; these 
 too I fix in permanence. In this manner I am 
 carried round the year ; my views grow clearer, 
 my resolutions more iii'm ; such days are to me 
 indeed holy days ; in them I find a secure repose 
 for my thoughts from the vulgar turmoil of the 
 world aronnd, to which I return at least refreshed, 
 and I hope I may add, improved."^^ 
 
 The Church, it is true, in these services offers 
 us no excitement. She never teaches that glowing 
 devotion, (or what is miscalled devotion,) which 
 on Sunday lifts its possessor up to the very gates 
 of Heaven, yet during the week is never visible 
 in his conduct. Her aim is to instruct ns in a 
 sober, constant, and Scriptural piety. She em- 
 ploys no spiritual whii'lwind now and then to 
 sweep over her, which wdien it has subsided, 
 leaves her children during the remf.inder of the 
 
 ^^ Rectory of Valehead^ p. 54. 
 
THE WEEK-DAT PRAYERS. 129 
 
 year, to sink back again to a death-like coklness, 
 but ske goes on tke even tenor of ker way, 
 steadily building tkem up in a knowledge of tke 
 faith. Neitker indeed does ske present us witk 
 any novelties, for tke prayers and praises in wkich 
 we unite, kave been keard in ker services a long 
 time, some of tkem for more tkan fourteen cen- 
 turies.^^ Tkey are a precious legacy, bequeatked 
 to us by ages wkick kave gone. Tkey are " tke 
 form of sound words" wkick our fatkers used, 
 and witk wkick tke dead in Christ were accus- 
 tomed to worship a thousand years ago. Thus 
 it is, that her voice is lifted up through all the 
 changing year, and we are but prolonging that 
 anthem of praise, which has always been heard 
 in her courts. The very words we utter, carry 
 us back to days when the faith of the Church 
 was purified by suffering. They connect us in 
 
 ^2 For instance, the prayer of St. Chrysostom, at the 
 close of the service. Also, the Doxologies, the Trisagion 
 or cherubical hymn. Holy, Holy, Holy, &c., and the Mag- 
 nificat. The Te Deum has been generally ascribed to St. 
 Ambrose, although some learned men have disputed this. 
 For a particular account of the most noted hymns in use 
 in the service of the ancient Church, see Bingham's Orig 
 Eccles.^ lib., xiv., chap. 2. 
 
130 THE LENTP]N FAST. 
 
 thoiiglit and Spirit with those of whom the world 
 was not worthy, who have long smce passed 
 away to their reward. 
 
 Again — another reason why every Christian 
 should avail himself of these services is, that he 
 
 MAY DEAW DOWN A BLESSING UPON HIS ChURCH. 
 
 We meet at such times, to humble ourselves not 
 merely as individuals, but also as a Church. In 
 this respect, we have surely much to bewail for 
 the time that is gone. Like Israel of old, we too 
 may " remember our ways, and be ashamed." 
 Compared with the opportunities placed in our 
 hand, how little have we done as a Church, to 
 advance the cause of pure and undeiiled religion! 
 "With thousands in our own land straying into 
 heresy and schism, and millions on the wastes of 
 heathenism " perishing for lack of knowledge," 
 how little through us has the glad news of our 
 Redeemer's sacrifice been published through the 
 earth, or the sweet incense of His name been 
 borne to the hearts of the dying ! Have we not 
 sins then as a Church to confess? And when 
 can we more appropriately remember these our 
 deficiencies, than when we are preparing to cele- 
 brate that sacrifice, around which are gathered 
 
THE WEEK-DAT PRAYERS. 131 
 
 our own hopes of eternal life, and w^hicli was in- 
 tended to bring salvation to all who will avail 
 themselves of its benefits ! 
 
 If we wish then, that the ultimate triumph of 
 the Gospel should not be held back through any 
 fault of ours, is it not well that we should call 
 upon God for strength to enable us to fulfill our 
 recorded vows, and to realize the interest which 
 we have in the spiritual welfare of our race? 
 There is indeed no better instrument than prayer, 
 to aid the progress of our Master's cause. When 
 we look over the world, and see how iniquity 
 abounds, and the love of many waxes cold, we 
 feel at times tempted to despond and to let the 
 conflict go on. But Scripture teaches us a differ- 
 ent lesson with regard to the power of prayer. 
 St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians — " Brethren ! 
 pray for us, that the word of God may have free 
 course and be glorified." And in accordance with 
 this, the Church directs us to offer up petitions 
 " for all sorts and conditions of men." She 
 even instructs us to pray for spiritual blessings 
 upon ourselves, only that they may be imparted 
 to others also. The language of her Evening 
 Anthem is — " God be merciful unto us, and bless 
 
132 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 US, and sliow us the lio-lit of His countenance 
 and be merciful unto us." And why ? ^^ That 
 Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving 
 health among all nations." We find then, that 
 Ave also as a Church have, in this respect a duty 
 to perform with regard to the advancement of 
 our faith. 
 
 And here we would remark more particularly 
 on the duty of j)resenting our petitions to God, 
 for those who attend with us in the same sanctu- 
 ary. When we remember how often the Gospel 
 is proclaimed in our Churches, and that it is 
 God's own appointed means for publishing the 
 truth, we can not but ask. Why is it that so few 
 receive it ? Why do the majority of those who 
 listen, still refuse to be reconciled to our Lord, 
 or be numbered with his followers ? , Must there 
 not be guilt resting on those who " profess and 
 call themselves Christians," that they do not 
 petition Him to pour out upon our Churches 
 •' the healthful spirit of His grace ? " If the voice 
 of prayer were not restrained, we should witness 
 no spiritual desolation, but '' God. even our God, 
 would give us His blessing." Let those then who 
 believe that they are " children of the light and 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. I33 
 
 of the day," tliink how miicli they owe to the 
 love of Him who hath called them to His service. 
 Who made them to differ from the thousands 
 around, who are still seeking to draw comfort 
 from this vain world, and wasting their strength 
 in pursuit of its fleeting shadows ? Who opened 
 their eyes to see the solemn realities of eternity, 
 and put a new song in their mouth, filling them 
 with the rich comforts of His grace? Let us 
 think too of the state of those, who are still with- 
 out the ark of safety — How blindly they are 
 rushing on to an inheritance of woe — how they 
 are standing in jeopardy every hour, reckless of 
 the storm which is gathei'ing against them — and 
 our sympathies will be awakened in their behalf. 
 Then, we shall need no other inducement to 
 " watch for one hour " with the people of God, 
 where prayer is offered up, that we also may 
 present that appropriate petition — " Eeturn, we 
 beseech Thee, O God of hosts : look down from 
 Heaven, and behold, and visit this vine, and the 
 vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted, 
 and the branch that Thou madest strong for 
 Thyself." 
 
 There is one other motive which pleads wifcli 
 
134 
 
 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 US, to avail ourselves of tlie solemnities of tliia 
 Season. It is tlie truth, that we may not live 
 
 TO SEE AGAIN" THE EETUKN OF THIS PERIOD OF OUR 
 
 ECC],ESiASTicAL YEAR. Tliis maybe our last Lent 
 on earth, to herald in either an eternal Festival ' 
 in Heaven, or to be but the prelude to that 
 " lamentation and mourning and woe," in which 
 the desolate spirit can look forward to no joyful 
 Easter. But the reflection, that life is passing 
 rapidly away, and that its continuance is uncer- 
 tain, although often brought before us, is still one 
 which to most, is any thing but familiar. The 
 remembrance of it, as a fact, exerts but little 
 practical influence over our thoughts and our 
 conduct. We acknowledge it as a general truth, 
 and yet silently make an exception in our own 
 favor. Let us endeavor then, to bring it home 
 to our own hearts and consciences, as a reality 
 m which we have a deep and fearful interest. 
 And how solemn — how awakening should be 
 the ejffect of the thought, that we may be passing 
 through this period of improvement for the last 
 time — that when the next year the people of the 
 Lord are thus summoned to come up, and make 
 ready for the celebration of His Passion, we may 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 135 
 
 not hear the call ! Then, our prol)atioii may 
 have ended — our account be sealed up against 
 the Great Day of moral retribution — and our 
 graves in the quiet Churchyard, be growing 
 green amidst the graves of our kindred. And 
 yet, this is possible with all who witness the ser- 
 vices of this season, and certain with regard to 
 some. It would be strange indeed, if even 
 among those who may read these pages, some 
 should not be borne to their last resting-place 
 before twelve months have rolled round. Think 
 of those who at this time last year sat in the 
 same seats with us in the temple of God, but 
 who have now departed forever. Can not mem- 
 ory recall the images of some who have since 
 then passed from our own httle circle to the 
 silence of the tomb, and whose familiar forms and 
 faces we shall see no more, until that mighty 
 word goes forth, which heard on sea and land 
 shall call up the dust of the sepulchre to new 
 life, and mould it again into its ancient shapes ? 
 Yes, the Destroyer has been among us, since last 
 with joy we sang together our Easter anthem. 
 In many a household there have been bitter 
 lamentations for the dead ; and a vacant seat by 
 
136 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 the hearth, and an added tombstone in the 
 Churchyard are the sole earthly memorials of 
 some, who. in the weeks of the last year's Lent 
 were often found in the house of God. The loved 
 ones are not all here. Smiles of affection which 
 once were ready to greet us, and tones which fell 
 like music on our ears, have faded away from the 
 earth. The dust has claimed its own, and our 
 hearts even now turn in sorrow to the place of 
 graves, where the dead so silently await our 
 coming. 
 
 And of whom shall this history next be writ- 
 ten ? Do we all shrink from the question, and 
 feel we can not bear to realize that this may be 
 the case with us ? Do we close our ears, as the 
 solemn tones of life's curfew bell are heard, 
 warning us of the gathering night ? Oh, let us 
 remember, that we have no exemption from this 
 common lot, and that the Master may come in 
 an hour when we look not for Him. With the 
 flush of health upon the cheek, and the vigor of 
 manhood in the limbs, we may be unconsciously 
 treading the edge of the crumbling precipice, 
 about to be launched into Eternity. 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 137 
 
 Time is fleeting, 
 
 And our hearts, though stout and brave, 
 Still like muftled drums are beatino: 
 Funeral marches to the grave.^^ 
 
 Let the determination then be streno-thened 
 within us, that while Hfe hists, we will neglect 
 no opportunity of making ready for our solemn 
 change — that if it should be decreed in the 
 councils of Heaven, that we shall never again on 
 earth witness this interesting season in the Church, 
 this at least shall not be neglected, but we will 
 repair to the House of God, there to pour out 
 our souls in the pi'ayer of penitence and fLiith. 
 
 Are not these then motives enough to induce 
 us to take our part in these week-day services ? 
 Methinks our Lord is thus age after age, even 
 from the garden of Gethsemane, lifting up to His 
 faithful followers the voice alike of entreaty and 
 of agony, saying unto them — "What! could ye^ 
 not watch with me one hour ! " And is it not 
 our business here, to train ourselves for the cease- 
 less worship of Heaven ? Are we then gaining 
 this spirit of prayer which will render us " meet 
 to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints 
 
 ^3 Longfellow's Psalm of Life. 
 
138 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 in light?" Let us examine our ov^n hearts, and 
 scrutinize our affections, lest we may be deceived, 
 and the spirituality and holiness of the Christian 
 be still wanting in our breasts. Neither is it all 
 that is necessary, merely to be bodily present in 
 the House of God, for we may at the same time 
 " be absent in spirit," and thus in our best ser- 
 vices be accumulating guilt. He whom we mock 
 with the offering of the lips while the heart is 
 far from Him, will say to us, as He did to His 
 ancient people — " The calling of assemblies I can 
 not away with : it is iniquity, even the solemn 
 meeting." The world therefore must be shut 
 out — the spirit of devotion must be with us — or 
 we are not truly watching with our Lord. 
 • And should there chance to rest upon these 
 pages, the eye of any one who does not profess 
 to be a disciple of our once suffering but now 
 •glorified Master, and who therefore may feel dis- 
 posed to pass by this appeal as being in his case 
 inapplicable, we would address to him also a 
 single inquiry. Have you no need of prayer — 
 no necessity for that atonement on the Cross, to 
 which these services point us forward ? If such 
 are your feelings, the disclosures of a coming day 
 
THE WEP:K-DAY prayers. 139 
 
 will show, that you have been the victim of a 
 fatal delusion. We look beyond the few remain- 
 ing days of this fleeting life — Ave stand with our 
 fellow men before the bar of God — we behold 
 " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world " — but what is the condition of those, 
 who have no interest in his Redemption ? For 
 them there is no song of triumph — no victor's 
 crown. They are arrayed before their Judge in 
 speechless despair. The neglected opportunities 
 of earth are rising in their memories, and they 
 feel that they would give the universe, were it 
 possible, for " one hour " of that probation which 
 once they trifled away. The future oflers to them 
 no gleam of hope, but shrinking from " the Great 
 White Throne, and the face of Him that sitteth 
 thereon," they commence the desolate travel of 
 Eternity — lost — undone forever. 
 
 We would entreat you then, O restless and 
 disappointed chikl of immortality ! to avail your- 
 self of this solemn season, when all things invite 
 you to thouglitfulness and prayer. Turn away 
 from this decaying, perishing world, whose en- 
 chantments only mock your sight, and whose 
 promised blessings fade and disappear while you 
 
140 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 seek to grasp them, and gain in their place, "the 
 peace which passeth understanding" — the calm 
 and solid happiness which our faith only can be- 
 stow. It is to be found — not in feverish and vain 
 desires — not in the aspirings of wild ambition — • 
 not amid the rush and hurry of this busy life — 
 but in the whispers of an approving conscience, 
 and in silent communion with your God. Come 
 then, and in a S23irit of earnest supplication, pray 
 Him to blot out the dark /ecord of the past, and 
 to sti'engthen you for his service during the year3 
 which may yet remain to you on earth. Come, 
 before life is departing, and the terror-stricken 
 soul seeks in vain for a single hour in which to 
 make its peace with Him. Come, before the 
 darkness of the grave gathers around, and the 
 despairing cry is heard — '' Woe unto us ! for the 
 day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening 
 are stretched out." 
 
HOLY WEEK. 
 
 Thus everywhere we find our suffering God, 
 
 And where He trod 
 May set our steps; the Cross on Calvary 
 
 Uplifted high 
 Beams on the martyr host, a beacon light 
 
 In open fight. 
 
 Keble. 
 
lY. 
 
 HOLY WEEK. 
 
 Jerusalem was crowded with thronging 
 thousands, for the Great Festival of the year 
 was at hand. From every part of Jiidea they 
 had come up to the Holy City, that face to face 
 the distant tribes might greet each other and 
 brio-hten that chain of brotherhood which 
 linked them tos^ether as one nation. The 
 Passover drew uig^h and this was the time of 
 preparation. Yet — although they knew it not 
 — never was there a Passover like unto that. 
 It even exceeded in solemnity the first celebra- 
 tion of that rite, when they ate the Lamb in 
 Egypt as they were about to go forth from ser- 
 vitude, with the Ano^el of Death hoverins: over 
 their houses, while the wail of the stricken 
 Egyptians came mournfully to their ears, 
 
144 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 because "there was not a house where there 
 was not one dead." From that time they had 
 kept the feast — in the wanderings of the desert 
 and in the enjoyments of their own land — when 
 captives by the rivers of Babylon and amid the 
 glories of their own Holy City. For centuries 
 the Paschal Lamb had died, pre-figuring that 
 Lamb of God who was to take away the sins 
 of the world. But now, "the fulness of time" 
 had come. The reality of all these symbols — 
 the accomplishment of all these types — the ful- 
 filment of all ancient prophecies, was at hand. 
 The. Great Antitype walked among His people, 
 though they looked on Him only as a peasant 
 of Galilee. The true Paschal Lamb was ready 
 to be offered, and the hour drew nigh when the 
 Sacrifice should be consummated. 
 
 Eighteen centuries have gone by since that 
 Festival of the Jews. The Holy City has 
 become the prey of the fierce idolator, the 
 tribes of Israel have been scattered, and no 
 more is the Passover celebrated as of old. Yet 
 it has only changed its form, because with us it 
 is no longer the anticipation of some coming 
 sacrifice, but the commemoration of one that is 
 
HOLY WEEK. 145 
 
 passed. Tiie Church, therefore, still continues 
 it from age to age, and as Holy Week comes 
 round, she prepares for the solemn service of 
 Good Friday, that thus she may celebrate the 
 crucifixion of her Lord. 
 
 But do we truly keep the preparation for 
 this Christian Passover? The Jew devoted 
 days beforehand to making ready for its com- 
 ing. All the rites of his ceremonial law were 
 most scrupulously observed, for he who failed 
 in the least point was rendered unclean and 
 prevented from participating in the feast. 
 But are we as earnest to be spiritually pure as 
 were the Jews that they should be ceremo- 
 nially clean ? Do we — in the Apostle's words 
 — " Keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither 
 with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but 
 with the unleavened bread of sincerity and 
 truth " ? Do we put oif our worldliness, so 
 that when we approach the Cross, it is with 
 hearts chastened with godly fear ; or, do we 
 rush with all our earthly hopes and wishes, 
 from the tumult of this passing life to the very 
 presence of our Lord ? Is it not true, that as 
 years have rolled on and time has borne us 
 
146 THE LEXTEN FAST. 
 
 farther from the event which took place on 
 that Passover, we have ceased to regard it 
 with that awe which once inspired our Lord's 
 followers ? Holy Week coroes and we do not 
 realize that it is the very crowning season of 
 the Christian year, that around it should be 
 gathered and clustered all our hopes. And 
 now that we have once more reached it, let us 
 look to the former days and see how in earlier 
 and purer times this Holy Season was kept, 
 that thus from the contrast we may learn our 
 own deficiencies. 
 
 In Primitive times, the very titles they gave 
 to this season showed their reverence. It was 
 called the Passion Week, because then we 
 celebrate the blessed Passion of our Lord, by 
 which redemption was wrought out for the 
 world. It was called the Holy Week, be- 
 cause then was the very crisis of the world's 
 spiritual history — the very agony of that con- 
 test for its rule which was fou2:ht between the 
 powers of light and darkness, — and all of holi- 
 ness this earth shall ever have is owing to the 
 solemn sacrifice which at that time was offered 
 up. • " It was called the Great Week," says 
 
HOLY WEEK. I47 
 
 St. Chrysostom, "not because it consists of 
 longer days, or more in number than other 
 weeks, but because at this time great things 
 were wrought out 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 ^vas 
 abolished, the curse was destroyed, Paradise 
 was opened, Heaven became accessible, men 
 and angels were joined together, the middle 
 wall of partition was broken down, the barriers 
 were taken out of the way, tlie God of peace 
 made peace between things in Heaven and 
 things on earth; therefore it is called the 
 Great Week." ' 
 
 The first feature then which we notice in the 
 observance of this Week in primitive times was 
 
 THE ENTIRE SUSPENSION OF ALL WORLDLY 
 
 OCCUPATIONS. This was to them the Great Sab- 
 bath of the Year — that period around which 
 they had gathered all their hopes — and there- 
 fore, like the first day of the week, they care- 
 fully set it apart for religious observances. The 
 public games of the cii'cus and amphitheatre, 
 ' Horn, in Psal. 145. 
 
148 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 wliich formed the great amusements of the peo- 
 ple and to which, at other times, they were 
 accustomed daily to resort, was then denied 
 them, as beins^ inconsistent with that season 
 when our Lord was going through His bitter 
 agony. And for the same reasons all legal pro- 
 ceedings were prohibited, except in the case of 
 the manumission of slaves, which being an act 
 of charity was allowed at all seasons.^ There 
 was indeed at this time a solemn pause in all 
 the ordinary business of life, and every heart 
 was occupied with that approaching day when 
 in sorrow they celebrated the Passion of their 
 Lord. That Avas their preparation for this 
 crowning season of the Christian year. 
 
 And now, look at our case. The centuries 
 which have rolled by have not made the Sacri- 
 fice of our Lord less precious — nay, if any com- 
 parison might be drawn with regard to so 
 solemn a theme — they have increased its power, 
 for now its efficacy is each year applied to 
 greater numbers, as the Church is gathering new 
 millions into her fold. But yet we seem to lose 
 our regard for the solemn season when all this 
 
 * Bingham^ iv., 125, 
 
HOLY WEEK 149 
 
 was wrought out. We can keep an earthly 
 Festival — the day of a nation's freedom — with 
 every mark of honor ; but that day when we 
 were freed from the dominion of sin and Satan 
 — when the way was opened for us to become 
 the children of the light — is little regarded. 
 We cannot rescue it from the world. We 
 cannot withdraw this Holy Week from our 
 secular pursuits. We cannot make it differ- 
 ent from the ordinary weeks of life, but one 
 "goeth to his farm and another to his mer- 
 chandise," and all would hold themselves ex- 
 cused from surrendering up so much time to 
 their Lord. 
 
 But look, on the other hand, how beautiful 
 and at the same time how reasonable is the 
 theory of the Church. She wishes to impress 
 upon you the wonderful acts of our Lord's 
 grace — to familiarize your minds with all the 
 solemn scenes through which He passed — that 
 thus your deepest interest may be excited, as 
 you follow Him on to the Cross at Calvary. 
 When therefore the closino; scenes are at hand 
 and you stand on the threshold of the very week 
 thus made memorable through all time, she calls 
 
150 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 you to a deeper devotion — to a more perfect 
 withdrawal from tlie world. 
 
 And can you, in any other way, walk with 
 your Lord ? Can you not imagine that, as the 
 preparation for this Passover drew nigh. He 
 experienced a deeper intensity of feeling when 
 He looked forward to His approaching sacri- 
 fice? When He turned His face toward Jeru- 
 salem and went up to the Festival, it was not 
 like St. Paul, when he said " he knew not the 
 things that should befall him there." Our Lord, 
 on the contrary, realized perfectly that the Holy 
 City was to be to Him the theatre of His suffer- 
 ings and death. And the depth of His amo- 
 tions — the added sorrow which weighed down 
 His spirit — we can behold in the final scenes of 
 His pilgrimage. As we read the narrative of 
 His life, we evidently see that the clouds gath- 
 ered more darkly about Him as His sun was 
 setting. What unequalled tenderness was 
 breathed forth in His last prayer with His dis- 
 ciples ! What a solemnity marked His partici- 
 pation in the Passover, when He changed the 
 object of that rite and made it to His people 
 henceforth significant of His death ! What un- 
 
HOLY WEEK. 151 
 
 speakable anguish racked Him in the scenes of 
 the Garden ! And this constituted His prepara- 
 tion for the shame of the Judgment Hall and 
 the agony of the Cross. 
 
 And now we are entering on the time marked 
 by these very scenes. Each day of Holy Week 
 should bring to our minds the remembrance 
 of somethins: connected ^v^ith these sufferinscs. 
 They pass before us like a Mighty Drama, but 
 one in which every human being has a deep 
 personal interest. We see the catastrophe from 
 the beginning — for prophets in the elder days 
 had marked it out — and we feel its influence at 
 every step, as we advance along the solemn ave- 
 nue which closes at Calvary. The sorrows of 
 the Son of God seem so mighty as almost to ex- 
 clude all earthly feeling. His end is fixed on 
 high, and He passes in sublime composure to 
 fulfil His destiny. His agony is awful — His 
 death a sacrifice for the good of the universe. 
 Every step, therefore, is marked by a lofty con- 
 secration. Every thing is invested with a sanc- 
 tity which makes even bodily pain sublime.^ 
 And shall we look on these things, and then 
 
 ^ Hetros. Meview. 
 
152 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 turn away at once to our worldly cares ? Alas, 
 how much have we wandered from the devotion 
 of early days, when this solemn season meets 
 with so little notice, and Holy Week to us is 
 like the wrecks of this ordinary life ! 
 
 Again — another way in which this week was 
 kej)t by the Primitive Church was — by multi- 
 plied RELIGIOUS SEPwViCES. They met every day, 
 not only for prayer, but for preaching and re- 
 ceiving the Holy Communion.^ Thus, St. Chry- 
 sostom says, " For seven days together we hold 
 religious assemblies, and prepare a spiritual ta- 
 ble for you, making you partakers of the Divine 
 Oracles, and every day anointing you with the 
 Spiritual unction of instruction, arming you 
 against the Devil. Seven days together ye have 
 preaching, that ye may learn perfectly to wres- 
 tle with your enemy." ^ And he calls the whole 
 solemnity a Spiritual Marriage, which, after 
 the manner of other marriage solemnities, lasted 
 seven days. 
 
 And so far was this carried, that an early 
 Council decreed — " On those six most Holy Days 
 
 * Bingham, ^^c., 123. 
 
 * Chrys. de Resur. Christi. 
 
HOLY WEEK. 153 
 
 let no one presume to do any servile labor, but 
 let all with one consent attend the Service of 
 the Paschal Festival, and persevere in offering 
 up their Daily Sacrifices, praising Him who 
 created and redeemed us, both Evening and 
 Morning and at Noon-Day." ^ 
 
 In this respect, too, we perceive that the 
 Church endeavors to follow Primitive practice, 
 and therefore, through every day of this week, 
 she invites us to come to her courts and join in 
 her solemn services, providing an Epistle and 
 Gospel for each Morning Service. Would that 
 her members were equally anxious to imbibe the 
 spirit of ancient times ! " The early Christians 
 really worshipped. They went out of their own 
 minds into the Infinite Temple which was around 
 them. They saw Christ in the Gospels, in the 
 Creed, in the Sacraments, and other rites ; in 
 the visible structure and ornaments of His house, 
 in the Altar, and in the Cross ; and not content 
 with giving the service of their eyes, they gave 
 Him their voices, their bodies, and their time — 
 gave up their rest by nighfc, and their leisure by 
 day, all that could evidence the offering of their 
 
 " Bingham^ ix., 124. 
 7* 
 
154 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 hearts to Him. Theirs was not a service once 
 a week, or some one day now and then pain- 
 fully given, but every day and every portion of 
 the day was begun and sanctified with devo- 
 tion." ' 
 
 We perceive, then, how widely different this 
 w^as from the custom of our day, w^hen men 
 come fitfully to the house of God, but as soon 
 as they have left it, gather up their energies 
 once more for their worldly pursuits and rush 
 on in the same path as before. The hour of 
 prayer seems scarcely to produce a break in 
 the current of their worldly feelings. These 
 services, therefore, fail in their object, nor will 
 a careless occasional attendance in any way 
 produce the influence they are intended to 
 eifect. Their object is, to promote the growth 
 of a feeling of devotion, to create, as it were, a 
 new element in our fallen and apostate nature, 
 gradually detaching it from this earth and 
 forming new associations which lead it forward 
 to Heaven. 
 
 And how can we apply this truth better 
 than in urging the observance of this Holy 
 
 ' Newman, 
 
HOLY WEEK. 155 
 
 Week? If in the weeks tkat have gone by 
 you have been regular in your attendance on 
 the services of the Church, with the right spirit 
 coming up to its Holy Courts, then you have 
 prepared yourself for the more frequent devo- . 
 tions to which you are now invited. Then, if 
 true to yourself, you have made ready to meet 
 your Master, and as, day by day, the lesson of 
 His trial and suffering is read before you, it 
 will not fall on ears that are deaf or hearts 
 which this world hath trampled into hardness. 
 Your sympathies will flow forth, will gather 
 around the Cross. To you, it will be a living, 
 life-giving sign, and when this Holy Season is 
 gone, you will look at the hours spent in the 
 Temple, and as you go on your way with added 
 strength, realize that for you it was good to 
 have been there. 
 
 One more way, we would mention, in which 
 the members of the Early Church marked this 
 season was, by more abut^dajs-t good works. 
 They were earnest, at this time, to show their ^ 
 liberality to the poor, nothing being thought 
 more suitable to the occasion, than for men to 
 make the hearts of the poor rejoice, at the time 
 
156 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 when they remembered the Common Fountain 
 of their mercies. "In this week," says St. 
 Chrysostom, " many increase their labors ; some 
 adclins: to their fastino;s, others to their watch- 
 ings ; others give more liberal alms, testifying 
 the greatness of the Divine Goodness by their 
 care of good works and more intense piety of 
 holy living." ^ 
 
 This (as we mentioned before) was the season 
 chosen too, to manumit their slaves, that they 
 might be not only free men in Christ Jesus, but 
 free men also from their worldly servitude.^ 
 
 The Emperors also at this time were accus- 
 tomed to grant a general release to all prison- 
 ers, except such as it would be a scandal to 
 pardon, because their actions would be a re- 
 proach to the purity of this Holy Season. 
 "For who," says the Emperor Valentinian, 
 in his Decree, when making this exception, 
 " would grant an Indulgence to one guilty of 
 sacrilege, at a Holy Season? Who would 
 pardon an iuipure person at a time which calls 
 for perfect chastity? Let, too, the poisoner 
 
 ^ Chrys. Horn, in Psal. 145. 
 * Bingham^ *cc., 121. 
 
HOLY WEEK. 157 
 
 and the Sorcerer still suffer, and let the mur- 
 derer expect the same that he has done to 
 others." But except these criminals, all others 
 had the benefit of the public pardon at this 
 solemn season. And St. Chrysostom, in one of 
 his Lent Sermons, thus gives the reason of 
 this custom. " The Imperial Letters 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 poAver, imi- 
 tating the kindness of their Lord, loose men 
 from their corporeal bonds, when they have no 
 power to relax the spiritual." 
 
 Those, indeed, were days when a Christian's 
 faith was measured by his good works, not by 
 his own estimate of his passing feelings. Chris- 
 tianity was marked by heroic virtues and lofty 
 impulses, which made her charity go forth in 
 manifold channels of mercy. Her children then 
 were proved by being the bearers of spiritual 
 and temporal aid to the poor and ignorant. 
 Holy employments and works of benevolence 
 seemed something in harmony with the faith. 
 
158 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 Those days are gone, the times are dark, and a 
 curtain of gloom hangs over the future. Shall 
 those ages'of faith ever return? If they do it 
 will be because the Church turns from the world- 
 liness of these present days to the loftier con- 
 duct of early times. Let us begin, then, at 
 this season, to look to a higher standard of 
 Christian action. Acts of self-denial can always 
 be done. The poor we have always with us, 
 claiming relief. The Church of God, crippled 
 in every movement, asks our aid. Let us put 
 forth our hands then to this holy labor, and ver- 
 ily I say unto you, w^e shall not have finished 
 the work set before us before the Son of Man 
 come. 
 
 Thus it was that the Early Church kept this 
 Holy Week. ^' As the Jews," says St. Chrysos- 
 tom, in the Homily from which we have already 
 quoted, "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, AVatchings, and all kinds of piety, 
 which they ofEer to Christ, their Lord." How 
 
HOLY WEEK. 159 
 
 beautiful, then, this picture whicli has come 
 down to us through so many centuries — the in- 
 habitants of all Christendom, with one heart 
 and one voice, going forth to meet their Lord, 
 as He comes to them in the scenes of His Pas- 
 sion, His garments wet with blood like him that 
 treadeth the wine-press ! How forcibly does it 
 reveal to us alike the unity of the Church, and 
 the devotion of its members ! 
 
 And do we not as Christians feel the necessi- 
 ty of these solemn services to aid us in shutting 
 out the world more and more from our affec- 
 tions, since soon there must come a time when 
 we are to leave this shifting scene forever? 
 Should we not prize every o232iortunity of pre- 
 paring for this last and solemn change ? And 
 should we not give the benefit of our example 
 to those around who as yet take but little inter- 
 est in those themes which soon to them will be 
 everything ? H they find us too much immersed 
 in the world, too busy with life's earthly cares, 
 to withdraw from them for a few hours during 
 this Holy Week, what is the lesson conveyed 
 to them ? Give them not occasion, O servant of 
 the Lord, because you are recreant to your duty, 
 
160 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 to drown the voice of conscience or shun the 
 path in which they should walk. Permit them 
 not, at the last day, to rise up and point to you, 
 as one whose prevailing worldliness caused them 
 to disregard the means of grace and fail in ob- 
 taining an inheritance with the saints; but 
 rather show, by your regularity in God's House, 
 that you prize the ordinances of this Holy Week, 
 and that to you it shall be, indeed, the prepara- 
 tion for the Christian Passover. 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 Low bow'd Thy liead convulsed, and droop'd in deatb, 
 
 Thy voice sent fortli a sad and wailing cry ; 
 Slow struggled fi'om Thy breast the parting breath, 
 And every limb was wrung with agony. 
 That head whose veil-less blaze 
 Filled angels witli amaze, 
 W hen at that voice sprang forth the rolling suns on high, 
 
 Milman's " Hymn to the Saviour^ 
 
V. 
 
 GOOD FEIDAr. 
 
 "And they ciTicified Him." Simple yet soleitin 
 words ! telling in this little expression of the most 
 fearful event which has ever taken place upon 
 this globe, since at the hour of its first creation 
 " the morning stars sang together, and all the 
 sons of God shouted for joy," as they joined in 
 that glorious jubilee. And how vividly does 
 this short sentence bring befoi'e us that terrible 
 scene — fit conclusion to the long years of self- 
 denial and sorrow — when the Son of God bowed 
 Himself upon the Cross, and with an agony of 
 which no man can conceive, passed the gates of 
 Death ! The imagination calls up the mighty 
 crowd which had gathered to that spectacle — 
 the jibe and scorn of the Jewish priests, as they 
 inflamed the bigoted and urged on the shrink- 
 
164 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 ij2g — the whirl and roar of scoffing thousands^ 
 as that living flood poured out from the Holy 
 City, and rolled around the sacred Mount. And 
 far above them, '' lifted up to be seen of all men," 
 on the only throne which His rebellious subjects 
 gave, was the promised Messiah, hearing even in 
 death their mad ingratitude and cruel tauntings. 
 Yet on that patient sufferer's l^row, where the 
 inspiration of the Divinity and the agonies of 
 Humanity straggled together, we may believe, 
 there beamed an expression of the loftiest tri- 
 umph. He felt, that even in dissolution He was 
 winning the noblest victory, and gaining immor- 
 tality for the countless tribes of His fellow men. 
 As the hours passed on, popular passion was 
 stirred up to its wildest excess. The rude uproar 
 and furious execration of myriads filled the air, 
 and mingled with the low, deep tones of our ex- 
 piring Master, Avhile He prayed for His enemies, 
 or commended His soul to God. At length, 
 there rano^ without the walls of Jerusalem that 
 last, loud cry, which proclaimed to a wondering 
 universe, that all was finished — the mighty offer- 
 ing made — and that " through death our Lord 
 had destroyed him that had the poAver of death." 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 165 
 
 Then it was, that even inanimate nature seemed 
 to sympathise in his struggle. The sun veiled 
 its face, and darkness covered the land. The 
 earth reeled to and fro, beneath the earthquake's 
 shock. And not on the living only did this 
 day of strange revelations produce its influence. 
 Even the last restiDg-places of the dead were 
 rent asunder, that on the morning of the first 
 dary they too might come forth with their risen 
 Lord. Then, even the bodies of the slumber- 
 ing saints started from their graves, and glided 
 through the city where once they dwelt. Dim 
 and livid forms, still wearing the cerements of 
 the tomb — bearing yet its fearful impress — in 
 this breathing world, yet not of it — they "ap- 
 peared to many," as it were, claiming again bro- 
 therhood with the li\nng, and teaching them by 
 their own ghastly presence, the earliest proofs 
 of a resurrection. Such were the terrors of the 
 first Good Friday. 
 
 Is it strange then, that the members of the 
 early Church, with awed and chastened spirits, 
 kept tliis holy day, and felt that deep indeed 
 should be their self-abasement at this season of 
 their Lord's mysterious agonies ? They consid- 
 
156 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 ered it as invested with a peculiar solemnity, 
 and even those who might have been negligent 
 during the rest of Lent, rehgiously observed this 
 day, as the one on which the Bridegroom was 
 taken from them.^ And in the same spirit should 
 we act now. " On this day " — says Bishop Ho- 
 bart — '' all the pursuits of business should be 
 suspended ; the service of the Church devoutly 
 attended.; and the intervals of public worship 
 devoted to holy meditation on the sufferings of 
 Christ, and to other pious exercises. By absti- 
 nence, self-denial, and humiliation, we should seek 
 to testify our sympathy in the sufferings of our 
 Lord, and our lively sorrow for our sins which 
 occasioned His sufferings. There can be no 
 greater evidence of insensibility and ingratitude, 
 than to spend the day sacred to the sufferings 
 of Christ, in the usual pursuits of business or 
 pleasure." 
 
 Is he then keeping it as he should, who per- 
 haps only escapes from his usual occupation in 
 the court room or the counting house, for a 
 single hour to attend the services of the Church ? 
 Are his thoughts in a proper state for commc- 
 
 1 See Bingham's Orig, Eccles,, lib. xxi., ch. 1, sec. 1. 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 167 
 
 morating. his Lord's passion, wlien lie passes at 
 once to the sanctuary from the noise and turmoil 
 of business, with all its restless and disquieting 
 cares about him ? And has he profited as he 
 should by these holy services, when he hurries 
 back at once to the anxieties of this working 
 world ? No — let the merchant desert for the 
 day, the mart of business — let the professional 
 man close his office — and the world will begin 
 to believe, that this is a season holy to the Lord. 
 Then the words of our Liturgy will come home 
 to them with power, and sink into their hearts, 
 and they will realize more deeply tlie mighty 
 debt they owe to Him who died for them. 
 
 And how beautifully appropriate are all the 
 services which the Church has prescribed for this 
 solemn season ! The Psalms for the day, com- 
 posed by David in times of sorrow aud distress, 
 have always been considered as having a still 
 higher reference to the sufferings and death of 
 Christ. The Jirst lesson for the morning (Gen. 
 xxii,) by narrating the intended sacrifice of Isaac 
 on Mount Moriah, points with the voice of pro- 
 phecy to the coming agonies of the Son of God, 
 which ages after were to be endured upon the 
 
J6g THE LEXTEN FAST. 
 
 same spot ; wliile the second lesson ( Jolin xviii.,) 
 brings a portion of our Lord's sufferings before 
 lis, in tlie simple yet touching record of the be- 
 loved disciple who was himself a witness. The 
 first lesson for the evening (Isaiah lii., ver. 13, 
 and chaj^. liii.,) contains the most minute and 
 stiiking prophecy of the passion of our Lord, 
 which is to be found in the whole range of the 
 predictions in the Old Testament, while the 
 second lesson (Phil, ii.,) contrasts the humiliation 
 of Christ with His j^re-existent dignity, and from 
 this example inculcates the virtues of unity and 
 humbleness of mind. Such are the truths which 
 are now brought before us, and remembering the 
 inestimable benefits which we have obtained bv 
 this one great sacrifice of our Lord, we can not 
 but feel that this fast is approjDriately named 
 Good Friday. The recollections which gather 
 around it may be those of sorrow, yet mingled 
 with them is the loftiest triumjjb, for at this 
 period it was that man's great redemj)tion was 
 wrought out. 
 
 The ordinary themes connected with the sacri- 
 fice of our Lord are familiar to all who " profess 
 and call themselves Christians," and need not be 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 109 
 
 discussed in a work of tliis kind. Thev form the 
 very foundation of all religious teaching. We 
 will therefore endeavor to bring forward one 
 point which is generally less understood — the 
 
 WITIIDKAWAL OF THE DIVINE PEESENCE FROM THE 
 SUFFERER IN THE HOUR OF HIS GREATEST NEED. 
 
 And we have selected this from the belief, that 
 it furnishes the most strange feature in all the 
 array of His agony. Overwhelming as were the 
 sorrows which gathered around the Son of Man 
 in the time of His deepest degradation and shame, 
 there were none that can be compared with this. 
 When His death cry — " My God, my God, why 
 hast thou forsaken me V — rang in the ears of the 
 astonished spectators, it proclaimed that a new 
 and most bitter ingredient had been added to 
 His cup of misery. 
 
 And here we would observe, that we can 
 never fully conceive of the amount of our Lord's 
 ' sufferings. W e have no capacity for compre- 
 hending their reality and boundless extent. Our 
 narrow conceptions can never picture to us the 
 unutterable sorrows of an infinite mind. Although 
 of course His Divine nature suffei*ed not, yet its 
 very presence and union with his human nature, 
 
170 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 endowed the latter with capabilities of agony 
 w^nich no mere mortal could ever possess. Even 
 His boundless knowledge — enabling Him to look 
 forward with certainty to all that was at hand — 
 placed Him in a condition for enduring uns])eak- 
 able anguish of soul. The wide interval then 
 which separates us from our Lord, necessarily 
 I'enders our view of all that concerns Him partial 
 and defective. " We see but in part," and of 
 course, " we know but in part." It is one of 
 those subjects of a spiritual nature which we can 
 not grasp. As we are unable to attain to an 
 understanding of the inconceivable bliss which 
 our Lord now inherits, so we can as little explain 
 the depth of agony to which once he sank. 
 Much must be left to humble faith. We must 
 look upon it as a mystery which perhaps in 
 another state of being, with enlarged faculties, 
 may be clear to ns. 
 
 It is for this reason that we are naturally ac- 
 customed to dwell most upon the mere physical 
 and bodily sufferings of our Lord. These we can 
 in some measure imagine. We see the Cross 
 erected before us — the torn and agonized body— 
 the parching thirst — the crown of thorns pressed 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 17 1 
 
 on the bleeding brow — and tbe spoar thrust into 
 the side. All these things a mere mortal might 
 endure, and they come therefore within the 
 range of our comprehension. But beyond this 
 there is a deeper gulf, into which we seldom send 
 our thoughts forward. The soul also had its 
 sufferings, which we believe no words can ade- 
 quately describe. We gather this from the 
 simple narrative of Scripture. When it speaks 
 of His mental anguish, the writers seem to be 
 aware that all human language is utterly insuffi- 
 cient. How strong therefore are the expressions 
 they select, and what a depth of meaning are 
 they evidently endeavoring to express! Their 
 words signify the greatest possible extremity of 
 sorrow, and anxiety, and distress. " His soul 
 was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." A 
 dark cloud gathered over Him. His earnest 
 prayer was — " Father, save me from this hour." 
 He seems even deprived of those consolations 
 which good men usually enjoy in the hour of their 
 final struggle, and which enable them to triumph 
 in the prospect of approaching dissolution. But 
 to what can we ascribe this state of despondency 
 to which He was reduced except to the with* 
 
172 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 drawal of the Divine Presance, by wliicli God 
 lias promised to uphold His faithful children in 
 tribulation, and from the enjoyment of which 
 His own Son was cut oflP, when " the sorrows of 
 death compassed Him, and the pains of Hell gab 
 hold upon Him." 
 
 In attempting then to enlarge our knowledge 
 of this mysterious subject, as far as it has been 
 revealed by the word of God, we would remark, 
 tliat hy the withdrawal of the Divine Presence is 
 not meant^ that the intimate union hetween the 
 Divine and human natures was dissolved. When 
 on His coming into the world, the Divinity as- 
 sumed a mortal body, a union was formed which 
 was indissoluble. It subsisted through all His 
 toilsome wanderings through Judea, in His want, 
 and deprivation, and sorrow, and even on the 
 Cross it did not desert Him. It remained, to 
 give dignity to His sufferings. It rendered the 
 victim worthy to be " a propitiation for the sins 
 of the whole world."^ But it was the comfort- 
 
 2 Hooker in one place in a single passage puts tliis point 
 in a clear light, when referring to some of the ancient 
 controversies with respect to it. "Theodoret disputeth, 
 with great earnestness, that 'God' can not be said to 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. I73 
 
 able assurance of its presence which was with- 
 drawn in that fearful hour when most it was 
 needed. 
 
 Tf however you ask the way in which this was 
 done, we answer, we can not tell. God has not 
 revealed to us the manner in which it was effect- 
 ed. He only informs us, that His crucified Son 
 was for a time dej^rived of the bright beams 
 of that Divinity which had taken np its abode 
 within Him — that while He still continued to 
 be God as well as man, there was no present 
 consciousness or feeling of his own perfections. 
 It seems as if feeble humanity was left for a time 
 to bear alone, the almost insupportable load 
 which was crushing it down. Beyond this we 
 know nothing. We can not explain the way in 
 which the union of the two natures was at first 
 
 suffer. But he thereby meaneth Christ's Divine Nature 
 against Appollinarius, which held even Deity itself pass- 
 ible. Cyril on the other side against ISTestorius as much 
 contendeth, that whosoever T\dll deny ' very God ' to have 
 suffered death, doth forsake the faith, which, notwith- 
 standing to hold, were Heresy, if the name of God in this 
 assertion did not import, as it doth, the Person of Christy 
 who being verily God, suffered death, but in the flesh, and 
 not in that substance for which the name of God is given 
 Hmi." — Eccles. Polity^ lib. v., sec. 53. 
 
174 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 formed, nor can we fully compreliend tlie mannei 
 in wliicli tlie suspension of the Divine Presence 
 took place. "We see only its effects, in the mental 
 agony which its departure produced. 
 
 The next inquiry then which arises is, with 
 regard to the reason of this withdrawal. It was 
 evidently, we think, to place our Lord in a situ- 
 ation which qualified Him for deeper suffering. 
 While the insjDirations of the Divinity were burn- 
 ing brightly within Him, He could not drink to 
 its dregs that bitter cup which was put to His 
 lips. There was a consolation and an ineffable 
 bliss of which He must be deprived, that He 
 might be enabled to reach the very extremity 
 of woe. 
 
 This is a truth which scarcely needs to be en- 
 forced. We know that God is the fountain of 
 all joy and consolation, and the more nearly we 
 are united to Him, the greater is our happiness. 
 ^' In His presence is fullness of joy, and at His 
 right hand are pleasures for evermore." It is the 
 enjoyment of this bright vision, which imparts 
 such extasy to the saints in glory, and should, 
 even for a single moment, a dark veil be drawn, 
 cutting them off from its contemplation, they 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 175 
 
 would at once droop in sorrow. To onr Lord, 
 therefore, mere bodily sufferings, grievous as tliey 
 were, could have been comparatively but of little 
 moment, had He been animated and upheld by 
 the presence of the Divinity within. But this 
 was not allowed Him, for the grief He was to 
 endure was the accumulation of every sorrow 
 which could be heaped upon Him — so fearful 
 was the ransom to be paid for us. Goft there- 
 fore forsook Him, and He was left in the depth 
 of despondency. Such we believe to be the rea- 
 son of this mysterious event. It was to qualify 
 our Surety, to bear the whole burden which was 
 to be laid upon Him, and to say, in the words of 
 the ancient prophet — ^' Behold and see, if there 
 be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is 
 done unto me, wherewith the Lord has afflicted 
 me, in the day of His fierce anger." 
 
 Again — let us look at this deprivation to our 
 Lord in another respect — its 'Strangeness. It 
 was the withdrawal of that which He had ever 
 before possessed. Before the world was, even 
 through the countless ages of the past eternity. 
 His had ever been '' the fullness of the Godhead." 
 He had ever shared in all that inexjDressible de- 
 
176 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 light wliicli must be the attendant of Divinity. 
 And even when on earth, we have no reason to 
 suppose, that hitherto its beams had been ob- 
 scured, or the sensible evidence of its presence 
 taken away. The Spirit, we are told, was poured 
 out upon Him " without measure," and we read 
 in every action which He performed, and in every 
 word which He spake, the proof that it was done 
 through the promptings of His Higher nature. 
 As therefore the manner of His existence during 
 this time is incomprehensible, so also does the 
 bliss which it afforded Him, transcend our utmost 
 thousrhts. But now, for a season this v/as taken 
 away, and the very height of happiness to which 
 it had always before raised Him, now deepened 
 the woe, to which by its loss He was reduced. 
 His feelings could only find utterance in that 
 plaintive exclamation which was wrung from 
 Him — " Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani, that is to 
 say. My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken 
 me ! " Yet in this you perceive the strangeness 
 of the deprivation. He who had been God from 
 all eternity, now for the first time felt Himself 
 deserted by the present influence of the Deity. 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 He felt, that in suffering at least, H 
 but a man. 
 
 But let us illustrate this point by something 
 more within the sphere of our comprehension. 
 Take an angel, who from the moment of his 
 creation, has always rejoiced in the presence 
 of God, and let the light of his Maker's coun- 
 tenance be withdrawn from him. Indescribable 
 would be the wretchedness which in such a case 
 would overwhelm that bright Intelligence, when 
 the beatific vision was removed. Yet we think, 
 that the darkest feature in his sufferings — that 
 which would force him to feel them with the 
 greatest intenseness — would be, the very strange- 
 ness of his situation — the fact that it was some- 
 thing which he had never before experienced. 
 Now such, only in an infinitely greater degree, 
 was the case with our Lord. For a brief time, 
 He was left to suffer alone. It was the very 
 climax of His misery — the hour of His deepest 
 humiliation, which was soon however to give 
 place to joy and triumph. 
 
 But when he now looks back upon it from His 
 throne of glory, think you, that any thing like 
 regret is felt, for the pain He endured — the fiery 
 
J 78 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 trial throngli which He passed ? No — we kno\^ 
 there cannot be. As the number of the Elect 
 gather into the Paradise of God, and he* beholds 
 in these ransomed spirits the prize for which He 
 contended, widely different emotions must fill His 
 breast. He sees in them " the travail of His soul, 
 and is satisfied." He feels no sorrow that He 
 trod the wine-press of God's wrath. He judges 
 it worth all His trials and suffering, that He 
 should lead up many sons and daughters to glory, 
 and therefore He is contented to have borne all 
 that He did. He finds an ample recompense in 
 the sight of the happiness of the redeemed, and 
 in the glad rejoicings of the unnumbered millions, 
 who but for Plis sorrows would have been the 
 heirs of eternal woe. 
 
 Again — we would look at -this withdrawal of 
 the Divine Presence in one other point of view — 
 the greatness of the sorrow it occasioned. We find 
 no record of any alleviation afforded our Master 
 in this hour of intense bitterness.. An angel 
 was indeed sent down, but we are told, it was to 
 " strengthen Him." Not a word is said about 
 conferring comfort. It was to endow Him with 
 the ability to suffer. Now the truth is an obvious 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. I79 
 
 one, tliat just in proportion to tlie degree of holi- 
 ness we have, will be our delight in the presence 
 of God, and of course, the depth also of distress 
 we shall feel, when it i? withdrawn from us. 
 The kingly Poet of Israel would exclaim — " My 
 soul thirst eth for Thee, O God ; my flesh longeth 
 for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no 
 water is." The individual, whose heart has been 
 sanctified by the Holy Ghost, will feel that the 
 very existence of his spiritual life depends upon 
 the continuance of this comfort, and will mourn 
 its absence in bitterness. How deep then must 
 have been the sorrow of our Lord, who was 
 without sin, when this evil befell Him, and He 
 was no longer cheered by the Divine presence ! 
 We, in the midst of our imi^erfections and blind- 
 ness, can never realize the emotions of a Being 
 of perfect holiness, at such a change. It was the 
 removal of the sun from the system. It was 
 condemning Him to darkness and despair. 
 
 But there was more than the mere withdrawal 
 of God's presence. There was also poured out. 
 upon Him, that just retribution of the Almighty, 
 which was merited by the race whose nature He 
 had assumed. " He bore our griefs and carried 
 
l80 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 our sorrows. He was bruised for our iniquities ; 
 tlie chastisement of our peace was ujion Him ; 
 and witli His stripes we are healed. All we like 
 sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every 
 one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid 
 upon Him the iniquity of us all." He had 
 placed Himself to endure the punishment of 
 transgressions, which otherwise would have de- 
 scended upon us, and therefore He was weighed 
 down by the load of divine justice against sin. 
 He stood up to be a Surety, to pay the penalty 
 due from fallen man — to bear the curse and 
 shame — and He suffered them to tlie uttermost. 
 The very consciousness then of this, must have 
 immeasurably aggravated His anguish, when He 
 felt its most fearful effect — the Almighty, as it 
 were, retiring from Him, and abandoning Him 
 to darkness. 
 
 Another necessary consequence of this with- 
 drawal was, that it left Him exposed to the 
 efforts and temptations of the fallen spirits. We 
 find, that when Satan first assaulted Him in the 
 wilderness, he was easily repulsed, for then our 
 Lord was animated with a consciousness of the 
 presence of Divinity, and His communion with 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 181 
 
 God was uninterrnpted. But when this change 
 passed over His soul, and He was forsaken by 
 the Father, then He was left open and exposed 
 to all the arts of the Evil One. The malice and 
 subtlety of that fallen spirit — still powerful even 
 in his apostacy — were exerted to the utmost, 
 and thus literally, " His soul became an offering 
 for sin." It was this which He himself inti- 
 mated, when He said to His enemies among the 
 Jews — '' When I was daily Avith you in the tem- 
 ple, ye stretched forth no hands against me, but 
 this is your hour, and the power of darkness." 
 As if he had told them — " During the former 
 part of my ministry, I was shielded by divine 
 power. You could effect nothing against me. 
 But now, that aid is withdrawn, and you and the 
 powers of darkness have your hour to temj^t and 
 try me. You can wreak your vengeance on my 
 body, and my spiritual enemies on my soul." 
 We can not indeed tell the extent of influence 
 which these apostate spirits are able to exei-t, but 
 we know that it must be great. And we may 
 well believe that all the strength of our Great 
 Adversary was put forth in his last, decisive 
 struggle with the Son of God. Once he had 
 
182 
 
 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 been foiled, but now the contest was renewed^ 
 in the ver}^ crisis of this w^orkVs fate, when its 
 salvation was on the eve of completion, and all 
 the dearest interests of the countless tribes of 
 man were at stake. We may be sure then, that 
 no weaj^on which the Great Enemy of our race 
 could wield, was left unemployed. Alone our 
 Redeemer passed through the fiery furnace, " and 
 of the people there was none with Him." Alone 
 He baffled his foes, and wrought out that triumph 
 in which through all ages His followers are to 
 
 share. 
 
 Such then we believe is the reason, why this 
 also was added as the most bitter ingredient in 
 the cup of our Master's sorrows — the strange- 
 ness of the change to Him — and the greatness 
 of the suffering which it caused. Can not we 
 perceive therefore in this particular, how widely 
 the agonies of our Lord are separated from those 
 which could be endured by any mere mortal ? 
 With the early martyrs, the pain was confined to 
 the body. The mind was at peace — nay, more 
 than this — was cheered and elevated by the 
 sensible comforts of the Spirit, so as to be able, 
 even with exultation, to encounter death in its 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 183 
 
 most fearful forms. It was tlie mortal frame 
 convulsed with agony, but the spirit departing 
 in hope. Yet our Lord was left, desolate and 
 forsaken, and in no other way can we account 
 for the exceeding sorrow which weighed Him 
 down, than by referring it to His agony of mind 
 under that additional affliction of which we have 
 endeavored to speak. We see then, how utterly 
 impossible it is for us to measure the length and 
 breadth of His sufferings, w^hen we compare 
 them with human feelings and affections. There 
 is an unftithomable depth in His mysterious sor- 
 row, which places it far beyond our comprehen- 
 sion. We can no more understand it, than we 
 can the Divine nature. And it was this view of 
 the subject which probably induced the ancient 
 Greek Church to insert among the prayei's of 
 its Liturgy, the appropriate petition — " By thine 
 unknown sufferings, O Lord, have mercy upon 
 us."» 
 
 But yet this consideration should only awaken 
 us to greater gratitude. If His sorrows were 
 infinite, how great the wonder and amazeme:ji; 
 which should fill our minds, when we remember, 
 
184 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 that tliey were for us ! They were the speaking 
 and powerful evidences of that " love of Christ, 
 which passeth knowledge." Let us endeavor 
 then at present, when the services of the Church 
 especially calls us to this duty, to meditate upon 
 these things, until our holiest affections are kin- 
 dled into exercise, and the voice of praise breaks 
 forth from our lips. This will be the subject of 
 our contemplations in that commg world of bliss 
 to which we trust we are hastening forward. 
 There, where the treasures of Divine love are 
 unfolded before us, we shall find in the sufferings 
 of the Son of God, a theme to which the heart 
 will ever return with deepened interest as the 
 ages of eternity roll by. Let us begin then now, 
 to anticipate the employments of the heavenly 
 world. "We can (to use the beautiful imagery 
 of Bunyan,) ascend the Delectable Mountains, 
 and from afar, by the strong eye of faith catch a 
 glimpse of the portals of the Celestial City, and 
 as the anthem of its shining inhabitants floats 
 Boftly to our ear, strive even now to add our 
 voices to their glorious melody. We know tho 
 burden of that " new song," and while still in 
 our earthly state, may familiarize our minds with 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 185 
 
 it. As tlie years of our pilgrimage pass away, 
 and the time of our final retribution draws 
 nigh, we can learn to meditate with delight upon 
 that sacrifice, through the unspeakable agonies oi 
 which, we have attained all our hopes of pardon 
 here and of glory hereafter. 
 
 Here then is our trust. Our Lord hath met 
 the King of Terrors — hath died — hath passed 
 the portals of the tomb. " Through death He 
 destroyed him that had the power of death." It 
 was breaking his sceptre, and depriving him ot 
 all claim to the countless millions who else 
 would have been his prey. Why then should 
 human nature shrink back in dread from the 
 path, over which the Master hath trodden ? 
 Why should we so often stand '' shivering on the 
 brink, afraid to launch away ? " Why should 
 we array the Last Messenger who releases us 
 from our warfare, with every attribute of terror, 
 till the heart quails at his approach ? Even from 
 the twilight knowledge of an ancient and heathen 
 philosophy, we may learn a better lesson. There 
 he was represented as but the twin brother of 
 Sleep, as if he only called us to a slumber deeper 
 and longer than that which each night overtakes 
 
136 THE LEXTEX FAST. 
 
 US. There, in tlie lands in which this mythology 
 prevailed, on many a mouldering tomb is still 
 found the sculptured image of the Angel of 
 Death, and we behold him in the form of a youth 
 his wings folded in repose, and his torch inverted. 
 All is serene, peaceful and beautiful. 
 
 Surely then the Christian, to whom all is cer- 
 tainty, may well say, " Death is swallowed up in 
 victory." Trusting in no dim speculations, he 
 "knows in whom he has believed, and that He 
 is able to keep that which he has committed to 
 Him against that day." Standing by the Cross 
 on Calvary, the darkness rolls away from the 
 landscape which stretches out before him, and he 
 sees his path plainly marked. It passes indeed 
 through the wilderness, and down into the dark 
 valley of the Shadow of Death, and over the 
 troubled waters of Jordan, yet he traces it up to 
 the gates of the New Jerusalem — the Eternal 
 City of his God. This then is his hope, which 
 should enable him to greet the Monarch of the 
 Tomb with a calmness which no earthly philoso- 
 phy could ever give. He realizes that " through 
 the grave and gate of death he shall pass to his 
 glorious resurrection, for His merits, who died, 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 187 
 
 and was buried, and rose again for us, Jesus 
 Christ our Lord."* 
 
 But yet, all our thoughts are not those of joy 
 and triumph when we dwell on the great Sacri- 
 fice. Sorrowful emotions also mingle w^ith them. 
 If every promise of eternal life is bound up in the 
 crucifixion of our Lord, then what must we think 
 of those, who seek no interest in His Kedemp- 
 tion ? In vain for them were the sufferings — the 
 scourge — the nails — and the Cross — for they 
 have rejected the precious inheritance which thus 
 was purchased for the fallen sons of men. " In 
 vain " did we say ? It was more than this. These 
 thrilling scenes will add a deeper horror to their 
 condemnation, for in this manner the means of 
 safety were placed within their reach, but they 
 rejected it, and trampled the blood of the cove- 
 nant beneath their feet. As they contemplate 
 then the sorrows of our Lord, let them think 
 whether that misery can light, to redeem from 
 which He consented to suffer so fearfully. Let 
 them remember the intensity of His agony, when 
 He uttered the plaintive exclamation — " My 
 God ! my God ! why hast Thou forsaken me ! " — 
 
 * Collect for Easter-Even. 
 
188 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 and the view may awaken them from then* death- 
 like apathy. 
 
 In a different spirit indeed, this same cry has 
 often been nttered since, by thousands in their 
 dying hour. This bitter kmentation has quivered 
 on the lips of many a sinner, as the shadows of 
 the grave gathered around him. It was not, as 
 with our Lord, the temporary withdrsTU'al of 
 God's favor, but his everhisting departure. He 
 forsook the infatuated mortal who had sinned 
 away his day of grace, that he might reap the 
 retribution his own deeds had worked out. With 
 him, this agonizing cry was the wail of a lost 
 spirit, as its ceaseless woe was commencing. It 
 was quenching the last ray which brightened his 
 path, leaving the desolate immortal to begin the 
 travel of Eternity in darkness and despair. 
 
 Thus it is, that from every side of us there 
 comes a voice of entreaty and of warning. Not 
 from the word of God alone — not from the Cross 
 of His Son — are the only incitements to Christ- 
 ians' earnestness to be drawn. The wakeful, 
 spiritual eye may read their solemn appeals in 
 many a scene which meets us as we journey on 
 our daily path. From the parting agonies of 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 189 
 
 eacli careless wanderer from his Lord, as lie 
 enters eternity " not knowing the things which 
 shall befall him there," is heard the startling 
 warning — " Be watchful, O pilgrim through an 
 evil world — gird up thy loins and hasten on- 
 ward — be earnest, be diligent — for the work to 
 be accomplished is great, while the day is passing 
 away, and the shadows of the evening are stretch- 
 ing forward." 
 
EASTER EVEN. 
 
 At length the worst is o'er, and Thou art laid 
 
 Deep in thy darksome bed ; 
 All still and cold beneath yon dreary stone 
 
 Thy sacred form is gone ; 
 Around those lips where power and mercy hung, 
 
 The dews of death have clung ; 
 The dull earth o'er Thee, and thy foes around, 
 Thou sleep'st a silent corse, m funeral fetters wound. 
 
 Keblb's " Easter Em.^ 
 
vr 
 
 EASTEE EYEN. 
 
 VYe liave now readied the last of those appro- 
 priate services in whicli the Church calls us to 
 unite during this solemn Season. When for 
 weeks we had chastened our souls by fasting and 
 prayer, that we might be prepared to contem- 
 plate the fearful agonies of the Son of God, we 
 were led by the services of Passion Week to the 
 Hill of Calvary, and there beheld our Lord ex- 
 piring on the Cross. But to-day a new scene in 
 this fearful Tragedy is unfolded before ns. The 
 crucifixion is over — the Son of Man has passed 
 the gates of Death — His body been pierced by 
 the soldier's spear, to render it certain that no 
 life remained — and then the inanimate remains 
 given by Pilate to Joseph of Arimathea, to be 
 buried as he would. They have been deposited 
 
194 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 in his own new tomb in tlie garden — tlie stone 
 sealed — and tlie Roman guard placed around it, 
 " lest His disciples come by night, and steal Him 
 away." There they arc resting, while many are 
 looking anxiously for the things that should come 
 after. 
 
 Strange indeed must have been " the seai^ch- 
 ings of heart," which took place among those 
 who thus awaited in trembling expectation, the 
 further developments of this mystery. With 
 the disciples it was indeed a day of trouble and 
 suspense, when conflicting emotions filled their 
 minds. They scarcely could have known what 
 to think or believe. Confiding in the Messiah- 
 ship of their Lord, as they witnessed His oft 
 repeated miracles, they had " trusted that this 
 Jesus was He who should have redeemed Israel." 
 Yet now their lofty hopes, both for themselves 
 and for their nation, seemed to be interred in His 
 sepulchre. " Slow of heart," they could not yet 
 reconcile the facts of His sufiferini^s and His tri- 
 umph, or learn that the Kedeemer was to pass 
 on to his kingly throne through the furnace of 
 afiiiction. 
 
 And on Mount Moriah, and even within the 
 
EASTER EVEN". I95 
 
 precincts of the Temple, tliere must also have 
 been anxious and excited hearts. The rites of 
 that Jewish Sabbath were kept as usual — clouds 
 of incense filled the Sanctuary — the smoke of 
 the morning and evening sacrifice rose in the air 
 above the Holy City — and countless thousands 
 of worshippers as heretofore thronged the courts. 
 Yet among those crowds must there not have 
 been many who thought with fear on the deeds 
 of the previous day, and now shuddered at the 
 remembrance of that terrible prayer their own 
 lips had uttered — " His blood be on us and on 
 our children ! " Even the priests and rulers must 
 have trembled at the recollection of their own 
 successful violence. They could not forbear to 
 connect His death with the unusual sio:ns which 
 had convulsed all nature. In the very recesses 
 of the Temple, the veil was rent by no mortal 
 hands, and the sacred mysteries of the Holiest 
 exposed to view — a fearful evidence that the 
 Divinity was forsaking His accustomed abode. 
 Did they behold these things without dismay? 
 Did they minister as usual with untroubled minds ? 
 Did the former infatuation continue, and the tri- 
 umph of having removed a rival who led away 
 
196 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 the people from tliem, sustain their courage amidst 
 all these mysterious occurrences? We can nc»t 
 believe it. " That Sabbath day was an high day," 
 yet it was no time of festive joy with the rulers 
 of the Jewish nation. 
 
 And could we have looked into the spiritual 
 woi'ld, and beheld those ranks of fallen angels 
 who carry on a ceaseless warfare against Him, 
 whose praises once they sang with harp and 
 anthem, we believe that there also dismay would 
 have been seen. The long years of temptation 
 and conflict with the Messiah were over, and 
 these His mightiest enemies — to work whose 
 will the Priests and Sadducees were but instru- 
 ments — had apparently triumphed when they 
 silenced His voice for ever. Yet in this, the 
 moment of seeming victory, must not the Arch- 
 Adversary have felt a consciousness of defeat, as 
 the exclamation, "It is finished," proclaimed to 
 him not only that the sufferings of the Son of 
 God were over, bnt also that his own sceptre 
 was broken, and the fancied sovereignty forever 
 wrested from his grasp? May not the ti'uth 
 have then first dawned upon a waiting universe, 
 that Christ having " died for our sins," was 
 
EASTER EVEiJ". I97 
 
 about to be '^ raised up again for our justifica- 
 tion ? " We cannot speak of these things with 
 certainty; yet when we remember the intense 
 interest with which all orders of spiritual beings 
 marked the unfolding of this mighty scheme of 
 redemption, we may well believe that its con- 
 summation must have fidlen with a crushinir 
 weight upon those aj)ostate angels who had been 
 striving to defeat it, and at the same time awak- 
 ened to its loftiest exercise, the joy and adora- 
 tion of the myriads who still gathered about the 
 throne. 
 
 It is this interval of suspense — this time of 
 doubt and fear among men — when the body of 
 our Lord was still in the tomb, and His soul had 
 gone to ''the place of departed spirits" — that 
 is known as Easter Even, It is the Saturday, 
 between the day of the crucifixion, and the morn- 
 ing of Easter Sunday. In the early Church it 
 was kept as a solemn fast, being the only Satur- 
 day throughout the year which was thus ob- 
 served, for even in Lent this day was a festival 
 together with the Lord's day which followed. 
 Thus we find it ordered in the Apostolic Consti- 
 tutions, as being in accordance with the estab- 
 
198 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 lislied custom of the Church in that age — " Let 
 as many as are able, fast on the Friday and Sal> 
 batli." (that is Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath,) 
 " tliroughout, eating nothing till the cock-crow- 
 ing in the morning. But if any can not join both 
 days together in one continued fct, let him how- 
 ever keep the Sabbath a fast, for the Lord speak- 
 ing of Himself said, ' when the Bridegroom shall 
 be taken away from them, in those days shall 
 they fast; "^ 
 
 The night of this day, (as we learn from the 
 next chapter of the Apostolic Constitutions,) was 
 spent as a solemn Vigil, when they assembled 
 together for the performance of divine service, 
 reading the Scripture, prayer, and preaching. 
 There they continued until midnight, and many 
 even remained until the cock-crowing. " It was 
 a tradition among the Jews " — says St. Jerome — 
 " that Christ would come at midnight, as He did 
 upon the Egyptians at the time of the Passover. 
 Thence, I think, the Apostolical Custom came, 
 not to dismiss the people on the Paschal Vigil 
 before midnight, expecting the coming of Christ ; 
 after which time presuming on security, they keep 
 
 ^ P aires Apos.^ Cotel vol. i., p. 325. 
 
- EASTER EVEN. 199 
 
 the day a festivMl."^ At a later period, ^vlien tlie 
 Clmrcli had vanquished the j)ower of ancient 
 Paganism, and begun to put on her robes of 
 power, this Vigil was kept with great pomp. 
 Constantine — as Eusebius tells us, in his life of 
 that emperor — " set up lofty pillars of wax to 
 burn as torches all over the city, and lamps burn- 
 ing in all places, so that the night seemed to out- 
 shine the sun at noon-day." 
 
 The Church has therefore still continued to 
 command the observance of this day, although 
 the state of society and the forms of life in this 
 age requii'e that the manner in which it is done 
 should be modified.^ The services which have 
 been provided, are marked by the same wisdom 
 which can be discerned in all the arrangements 
 
 2 Bingham's Orig. Eccles.^ lib. xxi., chap. 1, sec. 32. 
 
 ^ The writer has been accustomed for several years, to 
 hold the last Lent service on Easter Even, at 5 p. m., and 
 believes that not one among the Treek-day services of the 
 Church is better calculated to arrest the attention. That 
 Vesper hour of quiet, when the cares of the busy week 
 are over, in the Avaning twilight, as the day is softly fliding 
 into darkness, seems naturally to harmonize with our feel- 
 ings of devotion. Then, in solemn meditation we can look 
 back at the services which are gone, and forward to the 
 gr(;at Festival of the morrow. 
 
200 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 of our venerable Clinrcli. In the beautiful Col- 
 lect for the day, we offer up our humble petitions, 
 " that as we are baptised into the death of our 
 blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continual 
 mortifying our corrupt affections, we may be 
 buried with him ; and that through the grave and 
 gate of death we may pass to our joyful resurrec- 
 tion, for His merits, who died and was buried, 
 and rose again for us, Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 The Epistle, from St. Peter, containing that mys- 
 terious passage concerning our Lord's " preach- 
 ing unto the spirits in prison," seems evidently 
 selected by the Church as referring to the con- 
 dition of His soul during this period ; while the 
 Gospel clearly describes His burial, and the care 
 that was taken to " make the sepulchre sure, 
 sealing the stone, and setting a watch." 
 
 With the future history of our Lord's body, 
 we are all well ac(\aainted. We know how on 
 the next morning He burst the bands of death, 
 and came forth from the tomb, and then after 
 mingling with His disciples for forty days as- 
 cended up visibly into Heaven. But the ques- 
 tion, W^here was the human soul of our Master 
 during this period ? is one which most of His fol- 
 
EASTER EVEN. 201 
 
 lowers are not so well prepared to answer. We 
 reply therefore, it was in the esttermediate si ate, 
 and to a discussion of this subject we intend to 
 devote the remainder of these pages. We have 
 selected it, because although one most important 
 to us, there is probably no truth asserted in the 
 Creed, which is so little understood. 
 
 The faith of the Church then with respect to 
 the doctrine is briefly this — that while the hour 
 of death decides irreversibly the condition of the 
 spirit, so that " they which are holy will be holy 
 still," and for the wicked there will remain no 
 more sacrifice for sin, neither can it be purged 
 away by offering for ever, yet the just do not at 
 once enter into Heaven, nor do the lost descend 
 immediately to their eternal prison. They go to 
 an intermediate state, where they await the last 
 judgment. There indeed the righteous are in 
 happiness, and the wicked in misery, through all 
 the ages which intervene ; yet the one can not 
 have " the fullness of joy," nor the other suffer 
 the extremity of their destined misery, until their 
 souls are once more united to their bodies. This 
 takes place at the second coming of our Lord. 
 A.t that time, the spiritual and earthly parts of 
 
202 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 our nature will be again brouglit into union, and 
 the miglity army of the dead gather before the 
 Great White Throne. Then, the Books will be 
 opened — the final sentence be pronounced — the 
 gates of Heaven, and the dreary prison house of 
 the lost, unclose to receive their appointed occu- 
 pants — and the spirits of all who have ever lived, 
 commence the travel of Eternity. 
 
 In eudeavoring to state the proofs on which 
 we rest our belief in this doctrine, we naturally 
 turn first to tlie inspired tvord of God. For, as 
 Lord Bacon has well remarked — '' A knowledge 
 of the soul must in the end be bounded by reli- 
 gion, or else it will be subject to deceit and delu- 
 sion: for as the substance of the soul in the 
 creation was not extracted out of the mass ot 
 Heaven and earth by the benediction of a ' pro- 
 ducat,' but was immediately inspired by God, so 
 it is not possible that it should be othei'wise than 
 by accident, subject to the laws of Heaven and 
 earth, which are the subject of philosophy; and 
 therefore the true knowledge of the nature and 
 state of the soul, must come by the same insj)i- 
 ration that gave the substance."* 
 
 * Advancement of Learning. Bacon's Works, vol. ii., 
 p. 170, Montague's edit. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 203 
 
 "We learn then most plainly from Scripture, 
 tliat tlie souls of tlie just do not (as some in all 
 ages have vainly imagined,) sleep with their 
 bodies in utter insensibility, until the morning oi 
 the resurrection. Every intimation there given 
 us with regard to our spiritual nature, confirms 
 the truth which reason teaches, that " conscious- 
 ness must be a necessary attribute of a spirit in 
 a disembodied state." Samuel was summoned 
 up from his place of repose, evidently returning 
 reluctantly to the cares of this world, and his 
 inquiry was — *' Why hast thou disquieted me, to 
 bring me up ! " Every circumstance of the nar- 
 rative too shows, that the spirit of Samuel was 
 truly evoked. Saul evidently believed it, and 
 the sacred j)enman records it, as if stating an 
 actual occurrence. " And Saul " — says he — 
 " perceived that it was Samuel," and " Samuel 
 said," etc. The son of Sirach also, who is thought 
 to have written two centuries before the Christian 
 era, expresses himself on this topic with the same 
 unhesitating confidence. After giving a briei 
 account of Samuel's life and character, he adds — 
 " And after his death he prophesied and showed 
 the King his end, and lift up his voice from the 
 
204 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 earth in prophecy, to blot out the wickedness of 
 the people."^ Josephus too in relating the story, 
 does not betray the slightest suspicion that it 
 was not in truth the soul of Samuel conversing 
 with Saul.^ "We are warranted therefore from 
 this circumstance, not only in drawing an infer- 
 ence that the souls of the departed are in a state 
 of consciousness, but also that this was an article 
 in the popular creed of the Jewish nation. In the 
 same way Moses and Elias appeared on the Mount 
 of Transfiguration, and " talked with our Lord," 
 •as being spirits evidently endowed with all those 
 powers which reason teaches us must belong to 
 them. 
 
 The same truth is taught by the Apostle Paul, 
 when he asserts — " We are confident, I say, and 
 willing rather to be absent from the body, and 
 to be present," (or conversant) " with the Lord." 
 And again he declares — " For I am in a strait 
 betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to 
 be with Christ ; which is far better." He thus 
 plainly shows us, that the righteous when " absent 
 from the body," are not in a state of insensibility, 
 
 ^ JEccles. xlvi. 20. 
 
 * Antiq. lib. vi., ch. 15. 
 
EASTER EYE^N". 205 
 
 but conversant with their Lord — in a situation 
 where they enjoy a degree of communion with 
 Him which they can not have while still in this 
 state of probation. The Apostle did not indeed 
 mean, that at death his spirit should at once pass 
 into that Heaven to which his Lord had ascended, 
 for in another place he speaks of " the crown of 
 righteousness " being " laid up for him," not to be 
 bestowed until that Great Day when his Master 
 should sit as " the righteous Judge," and he should 
 receive it in company with " all them also that 
 love His appearing." " The word ev(57],ar)tfa» should 
 be rendered " — says Dr. Bloomfield — " not to he 
 present witli^ but (agreeably to the metaphor,) 
 to he at home tvitli^ implying communion with 
 Him." Even while St. Paul was alive, he was 
 with Christ, and Christ was with him, but the 
 felicity for which he hoped at death was a nearer 
 access to Him, and a greater communication of 
 His favor. He should behold His glory, though 
 not in that full brightness wherein it shall be 
 seen at the day of His final appearing. 
 
 This brings us then to the question we would 
 investigate. If the soul is to be in a state of 
 consciousness when it has left the body, whither 
 
206 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 does it go ? Wliere is its place of abode ? Tliia 
 inquiry is best answered by considering the cir- 
 cmnstances connected with our Lord's death, 
 since we are to follow in the same path in which 
 He trod. Whither then did His soul depart 'i 
 Can we believe (as Calvin asserted,) that He 
 went down to the place of torment, and there 
 endured the pains of a reprobate soul in punish- 
 ment.^ The mind shrinks back with horror at 
 the thought, unsujDported as the notion is by any 
 intimation in Scripture, and directly refuted by 
 our Lord's own declaration to his penitent com- 
 panion in suffering. Did His sjoirit ascend at 
 once to Heaven, and remain there during the 
 
 '' " It was necessary for him to contend with the powers 
 
 of hell and the horror of eternal death 
 
 Therefore it is no wonder, if he be said to have descended 
 into hell, since he suifered that death which the wrath of 
 
 God inflicts on transgressors The relation 
 
 of those sufferings of Christ, which were visible to men, 
 is very properly followed by that invisible and incompre- 
 hensible vengeance which he suffered fi'om the hand of 
 God ; in order to assure us that not only the body of Christ 
 was given as the price of our redemption, but that there 
 was another greater and more excellent ransom, since he 
 suffered in his soul the dreadful torments of a person con- 
 demned and irretrievably lost." — Institutes, Book ii., chap, 
 xvi., sec. 10. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 207 
 
 three days wliich intervened before His resurrec* 
 tion ? This eonld not be, for He afterwards said 
 explicitly to Mary Magdalene — " Touch me not, 
 for I am not yet ascended to my Father." He 
 remained forty days with His disciples upon the 
 earth, before He departed visibly into Heaven. 
 The necessary conclusion therefore to which we 
 must come, is that He went to some place en- 
 tirely distinct either from the Heaven of rest, or 
 the prison of final torment. That place was 
 Paradise, as He declared to the penitent thief — 
 " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." 
 
 What then did the Jews understand by Para- 
 dise ? We reply — with them it primarily refer- 
 red to the Garden of Eden, where Adam dwelt 
 in his state of innocence. But as this was a 
 type of all that was pleasant and delightful, they 
 used the same word also symbolically to repre- 
 sent that place of happiness in which the just 
 await their resurrection. " Paradise " — says 
 Parkhurst — " is in the ISTew Testament, apphed 
 to the state of faithful souls between death and 
 the resurrection." Hence it was the solemn 
 good wish of the Jews, (as we learn from the 
 Talmudists,) concerning a departed friend, " Let 
 
208 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 his soul be in the Garden of Eel en," or " Let his 
 soul be gathered into the Garden of Eden." 
 And in their prayers for a dying person, they 
 were accustomed to say, " Let him have his por- 
 tion in Paradise, and also in the world to come." 
 In this form " Paradise " and " the world to 
 come," are plainly referred to, as being two 
 separate places and states of existence.® The 
 same distinction is also made by St. Paul, when 
 in speaking of different visions and revelations 
 he had received, he mentions one in " the third 
 Heaven," and another in " Paradise."* Dr. 
 Doddridge, the celebrated Presbyterian divine, 
 in his Family Expositor, thus paraj)hrases this 
 passage — " Such an one, I say, I did most inti- 
 mately know, who was snatched u]) into the 
 third Heaven, the seat of divine glory and the 
 place where Christ dwelleth at the Father's right 
 hand, having all the celestial principalities and 
 powers in humble subjection to him. ..... And 
 
 1 know that having been entertained with these 
 visions of the third Heaven, on which good men 
 ire to enter after the resiirrection, lest he should 
 
 8 Bishop Bull's Works, vol. i., p. 98. 
 » 2 Cor. xii., 4, 6. 
 
EASTER EVEK 2C9 
 
 be impatient under the delay of his part of the 
 glory there, he was also caught up into Paradise, 
 that garden of God, which is the seat of liappij 
 spirits in the intermediate state^ and during their 
 separation from the hodyP To this place then it 
 was that our Lord's spirit went, and there He 
 promised that His suffering companion on the 
 Cross should be also. 
 
 " Where'er thou roam'st, one happy soul, we know, 
 
 Seen at thy side m woe, 
 Waits on Thy triumph — even as all the blest 
 
 With him and Thee shall rest. 
 Each on his cross, by Thee we hang awhile, 
 
 Watching Thy patient smile. 
 Till we have learn'd to say, "T is justly done. 
 Only m glory, Lord, Thy sinful servant own.' "i<* 
 
 In the same way, while Paradise denotes that 
 portion of the intermediate state which was allot- 
 ted to the just, there was also a part in whicl> 
 the condemned awaited in misery the coming ot 
 the day of doom. This was knoAvn by the name 
 of Tartarus. The general term for both these 
 places was the Hebrew word Sheol^ or as it is in 
 the Greek, Hades^ while the word Gehenna was 
 used to signify the place of eternal torments 
 
 ^^ Keble's Easter Eve, 
 
210 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 aft(n' tlie iTriuTection.^^ By translating Had&s 
 therefore by tlie English word Hell in oni* Bibles, 
 we often entirely obscure the meaning.^^ Such is 
 the case with that passage in the sixteenth Psahn 
 which refers prophetically to onr Lord — " For 
 thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell," (that is in 
 Hades^ or the intermediate state,) " neither wilt 
 thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption." 
 This text indeed shows so plainly, that while 
 our Lord's body was in the grave. His soul was 
 in some place called Hades, " that none but an 
 infidel " — saith St. Augustin — " can deny it." 
 It is in Hades that Isaiah has placed that strange 
 
 ^1 As the object of the writer is to give, if possible, a 
 simple and popular view of this subject, which is so little 
 understood, a critical investigation of the meaning of these 
 words would be out of place in these j^ages. The reader 
 will find this examination carried out in Bishop Hobart's 
 '^ork on the State of the Departed. 
 
 ^2 " It is a great pity," — says Wall, {Hist. Inf. Sap.., 
 part II., chap, viii.,) — " that the English translators of the 
 Creed and of the Bible, did not keep the word Hades in 
 the translation, as they have done some original words 
 which had no English words answering to them. By 
 translating it Hell., and the English having no other word 
 for Gehenna (which is the place prepared for the devil 
 and the damned,) than the same word Hell likewise, it 
 has created a confusion in the understanding of English 
 readers." 
 
EASTER EVEN. 211 
 
 dramatic scene, which is found in the fourteenth 
 chapter of his prophecies. As Homer in the 
 Odyssey (lib. xxiv.) sends the souls of the suitors 
 to Hades, where they meet the spirits of Achilles, 
 Agamemnon, and the other Grecian heroes they 
 had known in life, the Hebrew prophet with the 
 higher inspiration of truth, has given a descrip- 
 tion which for its inimitable grandeur nothing in 
 the pages of classical antiquity can equal. He 
 shows the proud King of Babylon, after he had 
 been brought to the grave, entering Slieol^ while 
 the monarchs of the earth who had preceded him 
 to the land of spirits, are poetically represented 
 as rising from their seats at his appi'oach, greet- 
 ing him with bitter scorn — 
 
 *' Hades (Sheol) from beneath is moved because of thee, 
 
 to meet thee at thy coming : 
 He roused up for thee the mighty dead, all the great chiefs 
 
 of the Earth : 
 He maketh to rise up from theii* thrones, all the kings of 
 
 the nations. 
 All of them shall accost thee, and shall say unto thee : 
 Art thou, even thou too, become weak as we ? Art thou 
 
 made like unto us ? 
 Is then thy pride brought down to the grave ; the sound 
 
 of thy sprightly instruments ? 
 Is the vermin become thy couch, and the earthworm thy 
 
 covering ? 
 
212 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of tLe 
 
 mornins:? 
 Art cut down to earth, thou that didst subdue the 
 
 nations ?"^^ 
 
 It is in Tartarus that the fallen angels also 
 await their sentence. St. Peter tells iis — " God 
 spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them 
 down to Hell (^lltrtarus^) and delivered them 
 into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judg- 
 ment." And St. Jude says — " The angels which 
 kept not their first estate, but left their own 
 habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains 
 under darkness unto the judgment of the great 
 day." In Tartarus too was the rich man, while 
 Lazarus was in Paradise. Dr. Campbell, another 
 learned Presbyterian divine, and formerly Prin- 
 cipal of Marischal College, Aberdeen, says — 
 " There is no inconsistency in maintaining that 
 the rich man, though in torment, was not in 
 Gehenna^ but in that part of Hades called Tar- 
 tarus^ where we have seen already that spirits 
 reserved for judgment are detained in darkness. 
 
 According to this explication, the rich 
 
 man and Lazarus were both in Hades ^ though in 
 
 ^3 Bishop Lowth's translation. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 213 
 
 very different situations, the latter in the man- 
 sions of the happy, and the former in those of the 
 wretched."^* 
 
 1* Prelim. Dis. vi., part 2. As the charge is often made 
 against the Church, that she retains this Popish doctrme, 
 we quote occasionally from distinguished Presbyterian 
 writers, showing that they also have been forced to 
 acknowledge its truth. On this point, no one is more 
 explicit than President Dwight of Yale College. In his 
 system of Theology, [Sermon clxiv.) he says — " There can^ 
 J apprehend^ he no reasonable doiibt concerning an inter- 
 mediate state. St. Peter says of the angels that sinned, 
 that ' God cast them down to Hell, and delivered them 
 into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.' 
 St. Jude also declares them ' to be reserved,' in like man- 
 ner, ' unto the judgment of the great day.' From these 
 declarations it is manifest, that fallen angels have not yet 
 received their final judgment, nor, of course, their final 
 reward. This, indeed, seems evident from the phraseology 
 used by St. Peter, as well as by the declarations of both 
 him and St. Jude. The word which is rendered from St. 
 Peter, ' cast them down to Hell,' is in the Greek TapTapwtfaj ; 
 literally rendered, ' cast them down to Tartarus.' While 
 this phraseology plainly declares a place of punishment, it 
 indicates directly a different state from that, which is 
 taught by the word /sswa, [Gehenna^ the appropriate 
 name of Hell in the Scriptures. After the rich man died 
 and was buried, it is said by our Saviour, ' he lifted up his 
 eyes in Hell, being in torments ; in the Greek, sv rw a^^yj, 
 
 in Hades The state, in which Lazarus Avas placed, 
 
 is denoted elsewhere by the word Paradise. ' To-day,' 
 said pur Saviour to the thief on the cross, ' thou shalt be 
 
214 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 The manner in wMcli the general judgment is 
 always mentioned, may well confirm our belief 
 in the doctrine of an intermediate state. When 
 is there to be " rendered to every man according 
 to his works ? " When, in other words, is each 
 one to reap his full retribution ? Is it the mo- 
 ment he has passed the gates of death and put off 
 this mortal body ? This would be by no means 
 in accordance with the declarations of Holy Writ. 
 If we examine its promises, we shall meet with 
 no offer of perfect blessedness which is to be ful- 
 filled before our Lord's second coming. He him- 
 self on one occasion declared — ^' Thou shalt be 
 recompensed " — when ? " at the resurrection of 
 the just." The final reward of the righteous is 
 
 with me in Paradise.' But Ave know from our Saviour's 
 own declaration, that when he gave up the ghost on the 
 cross, his spirit went not to Hell, but to Hades or Sheol. 
 
 The thief therefore went to the state which is 
 
 denoted by this word, and not to that which is denoted by 
 Heaven^ unless this Avorld is supposed to include Heaven." 
 We might also bring forward the opinions of distin- 
 guished divines of other denominations. For example, 
 John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Society, avows 
 the doctrine clearly in his Notes on the New Testament, 
 See on Luke xxiii., 43. 2 Cor. xii., 4. Rev. i., 18. Rev. 
 XX., 15. So also one of his followers, Dr. Adam Clark, 
 See in his Commentary on Heb. xi., 4(i. Rev. xv., 13. 14. 
 
EASTER EYEK 21£ 
 
 always referred to the last day, at " the glorious 
 ajDpearing of the great God, and our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ " — " when Christ who is our life 
 shall appear " — " when the Son of Man shall 
 come in the glory of His Father, Avith His holy 
 angels." Then it is that He shall recognize His 
 faithful followers before an assembled universe, 
 and receive them to reign with Himself in glory. 
 It is not indeed until the solemn scenes of the 
 judgment are over, that His own chosen Apostles 
 will be admitted to that place, where they shall 
 enjoy in its fullness, the presence of Him in whose 
 footsteps they followed on earth. His declaration 
 was — " I go to prepare a place for you. And if 
 I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
 again, and receive you unto myself, that where I 
 am there you may be also." But the time of His 
 promised return has not yet arrived. His follow- 
 ers have not yet entered into their final rest, nor 
 will they, until He " comes again to receive them 
 unto Himself" 
 
 Still stronger is the inference to be drawn 
 from that declaration of St. Paul — " For this we 
 say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we 
 which are alive and remain unto the coming of 
 
216 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 the Lord shall not prevent them which ai'e asleep. 
 For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven 
 with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, 
 and with the trump of God ; and the dead in 
 Christ shall lise first. Then we, which ai'e alive 
 and remain, shall be caught up together with 
 them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : 
 and so shall we ever be with the Lord."^^ Here 
 is an explicit account of the order in which each 
 event shall take place at the last judgment. We 
 learn from it then, that none have as yet entered 
 into Heaven. If it were not so, but the just, as 
 each individual soul jjassed from the earth, had 
 gone at once to that place of glory, what mean- 
 ing would there be in the Apostle's declaration, 
 that " they which are alive and remain unto the 
 coming of the Lord shall not prevent," that is, 
 anticipate, or go into Heaven before, " them that 
 are asleep," that is, the dead ! This assurance 
 certainly would be useless, if the departed at the 
 hour of death, had each entered into his final rest. 
 But the Lord must first descend from Heaven — 
 then, the dead in Christ shall be raised — then, 
 those who are at that time living on the earth, 
 
 16 1 Thess. iv., 15, 16, 17. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 217 
 
 shall be caught up to meet their Judge — and 
 then the army of the ransomed shall together go 
 in to their reward. " And so," that is, after all 
 these things have taken place, " shall be ever 
 with the Lord." What can be more clear than 
 the order in which these events are here laid 
 down. 
 
 In the Apocalyptic Vision, St. John represents 
 the ancient martyrs as resting in the Paradise of 
 God, awaiting' their reward until their brethren 
 from the earth have joined them, that together 
 they may enter the celestial city.- " I saw under 
 the altar, the souls of them that were slain for 
 the Avord of God, and for the testimony which 
 they held : and they cried with a loud voice, 
 saying. How long, O Lord, holy and true, doSt 
 thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell 
 on the earth ? And white robes were given unto 
 every one of them ; and it was said unto them, 
 that they should rest yet for a little season, until 
 their fellow servants also and their brethren, that 
 should be killed as .they were, should be ful- 
 filled."^^ Their happiness was incomplete. They 
 are " under the altar " — not in the full presence 
 
 i«i?ev. vi., 9, 10, 11. 
 
218 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 of God, but in a safe and holy place. Their por- 
 tion is not yet that of perfect bliss, but only ot 
 tranquility and peace. They are not serving God 
 actively, as do the angels, but are at rest, await- 
 ing their call to judgment and to Heaven. Anx- 
 iously do they look forward to the day which is 
 to introduce them into the joy of their Lord, and 
 therefore their inquiry is, " How long, O Lord, 
 holy and true ?" But they are told, that they 
 must " rest yet for a little season," until the circle 
 of the martyrs is completed, and the number of 
 the elect gathered in ; that thus, in the harvest 
 time of the earth, all who had suffered in the 
 great cause of man's redemption — the sowers 
 and the reapers in the world's wide field — might 
 all rejoice together. Yet in the meanwhile, to 
 comfort them in this state of expectation, and as 
 some little earnest of the promise, " white robes 
 were given unto every one of them."^^ 
 
 It is singular, that exactly the same idea is 
 given in the Apocryphal Book of Esdras, where 
 after the writer had mada inquiry of the angel 
 with regard to the mysteries of the world to 
 ?ome, he receives this reply — '^ Did not the souls 
 
 ^'^ See Newman's Sermon on this passage, vol. iii., p. 399, 
 
EASTER EVEK 219 
 
 also of the rigliteous ask question of these things 
 in their chambers, saying, How long shall I hope 
 on this fashion ? When cometh the fruit of the 
 floor of our reward? And unto these thinsfs 
 Uriel the archangel gave them answer, and said, 
 Even when the number of seeds is filled in you " 
 — that is, when the number of the elect is accom- 
 plished.^^ 
 
 13 Esdras^ iv., 35, 36. Dr. Macknight, another cele- 
 brated Presbyterian divine, supports the same views. 
 For instance, in his commentary on Heb. xi., ;>9, 40, he 
 says — " The Apostle's doctrine, that believers are all to he 
 reicarded together aiid at the same thne, is agreeable to 
 Christ's declaration, who told His disciples that they were 
 not to come to the place He was going away to prepare 
 for them, till He returned from Heaven to carry them to 
 it (John xiv., 3.) Further, that the righteous are not to 
 be rewarded till the end of the world, is evident from 
 Christ's words (Matt, xiii., 40, 43.) In like manner St, 
 Peter hath told us, that the righteous are to be made glad 
 with their reward at the revelation of Christ (1 Pet. iv., 
 13.) John also tells us, that when He shall appear, we 
 shall be made like Him, for we shall see Him as He is 
 (1 John iii., 2.) This determination, not to reicard the 
 ancie?its loithout us, is highly/ proper, because the power 
 and veracity of God will be more illustriously displayed in 
 the view of angels and men, by raising the whole of Abra- 
 ham's seed from the dead at once, and by introducing 
 them i'^to the heavenly country in a body, after the public 
 acquittal at the judgment ; than if each were made perfect 
 separately at their deaths 
 
220 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 Another strong proof from Scripture is fonnd 
 in that mysterious dedaration of St. Peter, with 
 regard to our Lord — " Being put to death in the 
 flesh, but quickened by the Spirit ; by which also. 
 He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, 
 which sometime were disobedient, when once 
 the long suffering of God waited in the days of 
 Noah." Many attempts have been made to ex- 
 plain away this text, yet when carefully analyzed, 
 its natural rendering seems to present a full con- 
 firmation of the doctrine of an intermediate state. 
 The most masterly discussion of it is given by 
 Bishop Horsley,^* where he proves conclusively, 
 that in its interpretation by the ancient Church, 
 it was always referred to the descent of our Lord 
 into the place of departed spirits. Let us then 
 as briefly as possible follow his train of reasoning 
 in the explanation of this verse. 
 
 The meaning of the whole passage turns upon 
 the interpretation we give to the words " spirits 
 in prison." " The invisible mansion of departed 
 spirits " — says Bishop Horsley — " though cer- 
 tainly not a place of penal confinement to the 
 good, is nevertheless in some respects a prison, 
 
 ^ HoRSLEY's Sermons, vol. ii., p. 86, Serm. xx. 
 
EASTER EYEN. 22] 
 
 It is a place of seclusion from the external world^ 
 a place of unfinislierl happiness, consisting in rest, 
 security, and hope, rather than enjoyment. It 
 is a place which the souls of men never would 
 have entered, had not sin intr.oduced death, and 
 from which there is no exit by any natural means 
 for those who have once entered. The deliver- 
 ance of the saints from it is to be effected by our 
 Lord's power. As a place of confinement, there- 
 fore, though not of punishment, it may well be 
 called a prison. The original word however in 
 this text imports not of necessity so much as this 
 but merely a place of safe keeping : for so this 
 passage might be rendered wdth great exactness. 
 He went and preaclied to the spirits in safe Iceep- 
 ing. And the invisible mansion of departed 
 spirits is to the righteous a place of safe keeping, 
 where they are preserved under the shadow of 
 God's right hand, as their condition sometimes is 
 described in Scripture, till the season shall arrive 
 for their advancement to future glory; as the 
 souls of the wicked, on the other hand, are 
 reserved in the other division of the same place, 
 unto the judgment of the great day. Now if 
 Christ went and preached to souls of men thus 
 
222 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 in prison, or in safe keeping, surely He went to 
 tlie prison of those souls, or to the'j^lace of their 
 custody ; and what place that should be but the 
 Hell of the Apostles' Creed, to which our Loi'd 
 descended, I have not met with the critic that 
 could explain. The souls in custody, or in prison, 
 to whom our Saviour went in His disembodied 
 soul and preached, were those which formerly 
 were disobedient. The ex])YQ^^\on formerly were, 
 or one while had been disobedient, implies, that 
 they were recovered from that disobedience, and, 
 before their death, had been brought to repent- 
 ance and faith in the Redeemer to come. To 
 such souls He went and preached." 
 
 The meaning of the sentence, " being put to 
 death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit," 
 must also claim our attention. The word " Spirit," 
 is here used in antithesis to the one translated 
 " flesh." If therefore the latter refers, as it ne- 
 cessarily does, to that part of our Lord's nature 
 on which alone death could take effect, that is, 
 his body ; the former must refer to that part over 
 which the Destroyer had no power, that is, his 
 Boul. And as the word " quickened " is often 
 used to signify, not merely a restoration of life 
 
EASTER EYEK ' 223 
 
 i^hich has been extinguishecl, but the preserva- 
 tion of life wliicli then subsists, the Apostle's 
 words may be well rendered — " Being put to 
 death in the flesh, but quick in the Spirit," that 
 is, surviving in His soul the stroke of death which 
 His body had sustained, " by which," or rather 
 " in which," that is, in which surviving soul, " he 
 went and preached to the souls of men in safe 
 keeping." Such is the rendering given by Mr. 
 Polwbele in his Essay on the State of the Soul 
 after Death. '' The original words " — he says 
 — " are very strong and decisive. Literally sig- 
 nifying, ' dead in His body ' — ' lighted up with 
 new life in His soul.' Escaped from the burden 
 of His mortal body, His soul was animated with 
 a more ardent vivacity — was rendered capable 
 of more powerful energies, and with a life thus 
 kindled into a brighter flame, He went and 
 preached to the spirits whose bodies had perished 
 in the deluge." 
 
 Another jDoint with reference to this text re- 
 mains to be inquired into — why are the ante- 
 diluvians especially mentioned as being those to 
 whom this preaching was addressed ? Were not 
 the souls of all who since their day had died in 
 
224 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 penitence, equally interested in our Lord's mea- 
 sage ? " To tliis I can only answer " — saya 
 Bishop Horsley — " that I think I have observed, 
 in some jDarts of Scripture, an anxiety, if the ex- 
 pression may be allowed, of the sacred writers 
 to convey distinct intimations that the antedilu- 
 vian race is not uninterested in the redemption 
 
 and the final retribution It may be 
 
 conceived, that the souls of those who died in the 
 dreadful visitation of the deluo^e mio:ht from that 
 circumstance have peculiar apprehensions of them- 
 selves, as the marked victims of divine vengeance, 
 and might peculiarly need the consolation which 
 tbe preaching of our Lord in the subterranean 
 regions afforded to these prisoners of hope." 
 
 Did He then publish those lofty doctrines of 
 the Gospel, which now form the themes of His 
 earthly ministers — the obligation of repentance 
 and faith, by which the children of tins world 
 are summoned to their Lord ? AVe answer, no — • 
 for He was not offering a new period of proba- 
 tion to the generation which died " in the days 
 of Noah." Their condition for Eternity was set- 
 tled, when the rushing flood overwhelmed them 
 and they perished amid the ruins of the Elder 
 
EASTER EVEN. 225 
 
 world. Yet miglit He not liave proclaimed to 
 those, wlio having died in penitence, had been 
 thus waiting and watching for ages, that at length 
 the mighty sacrifice was offered up — that He 
 had finished the work of redemption — and was 
 now going to plead as their Intercessor before 
 His Father's throne ? Might He not thus give 
 assurance to the hope, to which for so long a 
 time they had been cleaving ? We see nothing 
 improbable in the idea. 
 
 Such then is the analysis and rendering of this 
 passage, in which the most celebrated divines 
 agree. If they have interpreted it aright, it 
 proves most conclusively the fact of the descent 
 into Hades. And through many ages of the 
 Church, this text was relied upon as a principal 
 foundation of this Catholic doctrine. St. Austin 
 is stated to have been the first writer who ven- 
 tured to doubt that this was the literal sense of 
 St. Peter's declaration. In the Articles of Keli- 
 gion adopted at the Convention held in 1552, 
 the sixth year of Edward VI., and published by 
 the King's authority in the following year, the 
 third article is in these words — " As Christ died 
 and was buried for us, so also it is to be believed 
 
228 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 that He went clown into Hell ; for the body lay 
 in the sejDulchre until the resurrection, but His 
 ghost departing from Him, was with the ghosts 
 that were in prison, or in Hell, as the place of St. 
 Peter doth testify." When however, ten years 
 later, in the fifth year of Queen Elizabeth, the 
 Thirty-nine Articles were adopted in their present 
 form, while Christ's descent into Hell was still 
 asserted, the proof of it from this text of St. Peter 
 was omitted.^^ We think however, that the 
 Church by setting forth this passage in the Epis- 
 tle for Easter Even, seems to imply that it should 
 be rendered as referring to our Lord's soul, par- 
 ticularly as it is follow^ed by the Gos]3el, which 
 describes so clearly the condition of the other 
 part of His nature. 
 
 We will present one more passage from Scrip- 
 ture. In Pev. XX., 13, 14, we find this description 
 given of the conclusion of all things earthly — 
 the final triumph of the human race over death — • 
 and the abandonment forever of the intermediate 
 state. " And Death and Hell {Hades) delivered 
 ap the dead which were in them ; and they were 
 judged every man according to their works. 
 
 ^ Bishop HoKSELEY, vol. ii., p. 99 
 
EASTER EVEN. • 227 
 
 And Deatli and Hell {Hade-s) were cast into the 
 lake of fire. This is the second death." By this 
 sublime personification it is clearly stated, that 
 Death shall deliver up the bodies, and Hades 
 the spirits which were subject to their dominion, 
 and that then the latter shall be destroyed. Di 
 Thos. Scott in his Commentary, thus paraphrased 
 this passage — " The grave, and separate state, 
 will give up the bodies and souls contained in 
 them, so that the whole multitude, which shall 
 
 have lived upon earth shall experience a 
 
 reunion of their souls with their bodies. Then 
 Death and Hell, the grave and the separate state 
 (represented as two persons,) will ' be cast into 
 the lake of fire ;' that is, they shall subsist no 
 longer, to receive the bodies and souls of men ; 
 there shall be no death in Heaven ; and all the 
 wicked will be cast into the place of torment, in 
 which death and the separate state will be swal- 
 lowed up : for ' this is the second death,' the final 
 separation of sinners from God, without hopes of 
 being restored to His favor, or dehvered froni 
 His wrath." Dr. Campbell (the same Presbyte- 
 rian divine from whom we have already quoted,) 
 thus renders it — " The death which consists in 
 
228 . THE LEXTEN FAST. 
 
 the separation of the soul- from the body, and 
 the state of souls intervening between death and 
 judgment shall be no more. To the wicked, these 
 shall be succeeded by a more terrible death, the 
 second death, the damnation of Gehenna, Hell 
 properly so called. Indeed, in this sacred book, 
 the commencement, as well as the destruction of 
 this intermediate state, are so clearly marked, as 
 to render it impossible to mistake them. In 
 chap, vi., 8, we learn that Hades follows close at 
 the heels of death. ' And I looked, and behold, 
 a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was 
 Death, and Hell {Hades) followed with him.' 
 From this passage, in chap, xx., we learn also, that 
 both are involved in one common ruin at the uni- 
 versal judgment." 
 
 Such is a brief statement of the Scripture argu- 
 ment for this doctrine. We now pass on to the 
 consideration, tliat it lias always^ even from Pri- 
 mitive Times^ been an Article of Faith in tJie 
 Catholic Cliurch, The learned Bingham expli- 
 citly declares it to have been the belief of the 
 early Church, that " the soul is but in an imper- 
 fect state of happiness till the Eesurrection, 
 when the whole man shall obtain a complete 
 
EASTER EVEK 229 
 
 victory over deatli, and by the last judgment be 
 establislied in an endless state of consummate 
 happiness and glory."^^ 
 
 St. Clement, of whom the Apostle Paul speaks 
 as his " fellow laborer, whose name is in the 
 Book of Life," thus writes in -his Epistle to the 
 Corinthians — " All the ^fenerations from Adam 
 to this day are past and gone, but they that 
 have finished their course in charity, according 
 to the grace of Christ, j)ossess the region of the 
 godly, who shall be manifested in the visitation 
 of the kingdom of Christ. For it is written, 
 * Enter into thy chambers, for a very little while, 
 till my wrath and fury be passed over, and I will 
 remember the good day, and will raise you again 
 out of your graves.' "^^ 
 
 Justin Martyr, who lived about the middle of 
 the second century, in his dialogue with Trypho, 
 among the Catholic doctrines taught him when 
 he first became a Christian, delivers this for 
 one — "That the souls of the godly, (after death 
 till the resurrection,) remain in a certain better 
 region, and unrighteous and wicked souls in an 
 
 2^ Orig. Ecdes.^ lib. xv., chap. 3, sec. 16. 
 ^ Patres Apos. Cotel^ vol. i., p. 276. 
 
230 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 evil one." And in the very same book lie con- 
 demns as an error in the Gnostics, their holding 
 the belief — " That as soon as they die, their souls 
 are received up into Heaven."^ 
 
 Similar to this is the testimony of Irenseus, 
 who lived also in the second century. In argu- 
 ing against some ancient heretics, who held, 
 that when they died their souls went at once to 
 Heaven, he urges against them the example of 
 * our Saviour, " who," says he, " observed in Him- 
 self the law of dead persons, and did not pre- 
 sently after His death go to Heaven, but stayed 
 
 three days in the place of the dead 
 
 Whereas then our Lord went into the midst of 
 the shadow of death, where the souls of deceased 
 persons abode, and then afterwards rose again in 
 the body, and was after his resurrection taken 
 up to Heaven, it is plain that the souls of His 
 disciples, for whose sake the Lord did these things, 
 shall go likewise to that invisible place appointed 
 to them by God, and there abide till the resurrec- 
 tion, waiting for the time thereof; and afterward 
 receiving their bodies, and rising again perfectly, 
 i. 6. in their bodies as our Lord did, shall so 
 «8 Bishop Bull, vol. i., p. 110. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 231 
 
 come to the sight of God.''^^ Again, in his fifth 
 Book, he expressly distinguishes Paradise trom 
 the Kingdom of Heaven, and reckons it a lower 
 degree of happiness ^' to enjoy the delights of 
 Paradise," than " to be counted worthy to dwell 
 in Heaven." But yet he acknowledges that the 
 Saviour shall be seen in both, '' according as they 
 shall be worthy or meet who see Him." And he 
 concludes the chapter with the declaration, " that 
 those that are saved shall proceed by degrees to 
 their perfect beatitude." That is, that they shall, 
 as St. Ambrose says, " through the refreshments 
 of Paradise, arrive at the full glories of the Hea- 
 venly kingdom."^^ 
 
 Tertullian, who lived at the close of the second 
 century, calls Paradise, " a place of divine plea- 
 santness, appointed to receive the spirits of the 
 saints."^^ He says also, " Heaven is not yet open 
 to any, the earth, or Hell, being yet shut, but 
 that at the end of the world, the Kingdom of 
 Heaven shall be unlocked." Again — " All souls 
 are in Hell (Hades,) that there are both punish- 
 
 24 Wall on Inf. Bap.^ part ii., chap. 8. 
 
 25 Bishop Bull, pp. Ill, 112. 
 
 26 Ibid. p. 112. 
 
232 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 ments and rewards, tliat botli Dives and Lazarus 
 are there, tliat tlie soul is botli punished and 
 comforted in Hell {Hades^ in expectation of the 
 future judgment."^"^ And even after he had fallen 
 into the heresy of the Montanists, he was obliged 
 to admit this to be a Catholic doctrine, " that 
 the good souls in that subterranean region, do 
 enjoy a happiness not to be despised, that they 
 do in the bosom of Abraham receive the comfort 
 of the Resurrection to come, that is, that they 
 are at present in a state of rest and happiness, 
 and live in a sure and certain hope of a greater 
 happiness at the resurrection."^^ 
 
 In the same way, the author of Questions and 
 Answers to the Orthodox, (who is supposed to 
 have lived in the fourth century,) in his reply to 
 the seventy-fifth question, having said that in this 
 life there is no difference as to worldly concerns, 
 between the righteous and the wicked, imme- 
 diately adds — '' But after death, presently the 
 righteous are separated from the unrighteous. 
 For they are carried by angels into their meet 
 places. And the souls of the righteous are con- 
 
 27 Lord King's Hist, of Apos. Creed, p. 114. 
 
 28 Bishop Bull, p. 113. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 233 
 
 veyecl into Paradise, where tliey enjoy the con- 
 versation and sight of Angels and Archangels, 
 and of oar Saviour Christ also by way of vision: 
 according to what is said, when we are absent 
 from the body, we are present with the Lord. 
 Bat the souls of the uni'ighteous are carried to 
 the infernal regions, &c. And they, (that is, 
 both sorts of souls,) are kept in their meet places 
 till the day of the Resurrection and recom- 
 pense.''^^ 
 
 Novatian, in the tliird century, says — " Those 
 places Avhich lie under the earth, are not empty 
 of distinguished and ordered powers ; for that is 
 the place whither the souls both of the godly 
 and ungodly are led, receiving the forejudgment 
 of their future doom." Lactantius, of the same 
 century, says — "None should think, that soulg 
 were immediately judged after death; for they 
 are all detained in one common custody, till the 
 time shall come when the greatest Judge shall 
 examine their respective merits." Hilary, in the 
 middle of the fourth century, says — " It is the 
 necessary law of nature, that bodies should be 
 buried, and that souls should descend into hell^ 
 
 29 Bishop Bull, p. 123. 
 
234 THE LKXTKN FAST. 
 
 where they are reserved for an entrance into the 
 Heavenly kingdom by the custody of the Lord, 
 to wit, in the bosom of Abraham, unto which a 
 great gulf hinders the wicked from approach- 
 ing."^^ Such indeed is the uniform testimony of 
 the Fathers of the early Church. They believed 
 not that the departed had already entered into 
 the perfect bliss of Heaven, but, (in the words of 
 St. Chrysostom,) " that they will not be crowned 
 before us, God having appointed one time of cor- 
 onation for all." 
 
 On this doctrine also were founded those 
 Commendatory Prayers for the dead, which were 
 used in the ancient Liturgies. These, known by 
 the names of St. Peter's, St. James's, St. Mark's, 
 (or St. Cyril's,) and St. John's Liturgy, w^ere 
 used in the Oriental Churches, and, as has been 
 shown by Mr. Palmer, in his Antiquities of the 
 English Ritual, are undoubtedly the four original 
 forms from which all the Liturgies in the world 
 have been taken. '' They resemble one another 
 too much to have grow^n up independently, and 
 too little to have been copied from one another." 
 
 ^ Quoted in Lord King's Jlisti of Ajws. Creed^ p. 2]4- 
 215-216. 
 
EASTER EVEN. ' 235 
 
 One point of correspondence is, that eaeli of thero 
 has a prayer in the Communion Service, " for the 
 peace of all those who have departed this life in 
 God's faith and fear," concluding with a petition 
 for communion with them. A portion of this 
 prayer was in these words — " We commend unto 
 Thy mercy, O Lord, all other Thy servants, 
 which are departed hence from us with the sign 
 of faith, and now do rest in the sleep of peace : 
 grant unto them, we beseech Thee, Tliy mercy 
 and everlasting peace ; and that at the day of the 
 general resurrection, we, and all they which be 
 of the mystical body of Thy Son, may altogether 
 be set at His right hand, and hear that His most 
 joyful voice, ' Come unto me, O ye that be blessed 
 of My Father, and possess the kingdom which 
 is prepared for you from the beginning of the 
 world.' Grant this, O Father, for Jesus Christ's 
 sake, our only Mediator and Advocate." This 
 prayer was retained in the Liturgy in " Edward 
 VI.'s 1st Book," but altered in the 2d, at the 
 instigations of Bucer and Calvin. This was pro- 
 bably done, as Mr. Palmer conjectures, because 
 these prayers were so connected in the minds of 
 the common people with the idea of purgatory, 
 
236 THE LENTEIlT FAST. 
 
 that tlieir continuance would have invoh^ed the 
 risk of propagating this pernicious error. As 
 remodeled, the prayer in our service now stands 
 thus — " And we also bless Thy holy name for all 
 Thy servants de])arted this life in Thy faith and 
 fear, beseeching Thee to give us grace to follow 
 their good examples, that with them we may be 
 partakers of Thy heavenly kingdom. 
 
 We do not pretend to discuss the proj)riety of 
 these prayers ; we only mention their existence 
 in the ancient Liturgies, as furnishing a proof of 
 the belief of the Church in the state of Paradise 
 after death. '^ This custom" — said the learned 
 Bishop Collier — " seems to have gone on the 
 principle that supreme happiness is not to be 
 expected till the resurrection ; and that the inter- 
 val between death and the end of the world, is a 
 state of imperfect bliss."^^ 
 
 Thus it is then that the Church has inherited 
 this truth, and so she has retained it. Her third 
 Article is — ^''As Christ died for us, and was 
 buried, so also it is to be believed, that He went 
 down into Hell ; " while in her creed she teaches 
 
 81 Eccles. Hist, of Great Britain^ Part II., Book IV., 
 o 257. 
 
EASTER EYEN. 237 
 
 her cliilclren ever to confess — " He descended 
 into Hell ; " inserting in the margin by way of 
 explanation, " He went into the place of departed 
 spirits." In the same way she recognizes the 
 doctrine of the intermediate state in all her pubhc 
 
 • 
 
 offices. She never speaks of the fullness of joy 
 as something to be attained by the ^Christian 
 immediately after death, but looks forward to it 
 with hope, as a consummation to follow the 
 second coming of our Lord, the resurrection of 
 the dead, and the judgment of the last day. 
 Thus in the collect for the first Sunday in Advent, 
 we pray, that '' when Christ shall come again in 
 His glorious majesty to judge both the quick and 
 dead, we may rise to the life immortal." 
 
 In the Burial Service, as we might naturally 
 expect, we find a plain distinction made between 
 the rest we are to inherit at death, and that 
 which is to be our portion at the last day. For 
 instance, in one of the concluding prayers, we 
 entreat the Father, " that when we shall depa]-t 
 this life, we may rest in Him ; and that at the 
 general resurrection in the last day, we may be 
 found acceptable in His sight, and receive that 
 blessing which His well beloved Son shall then 
 
238 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 pronounce to those who love and fear Hnn, say- 
 ing, Come, ye blessed children of my Father, 
 receive the kingdom prepared for you from the 
 beginning of the world." Here, two sepai*ate 
 times and two distinct rewards are mentioned.. 
 In the same way, in one of the otlier prayers, 
 after speaking of " those who have finished their 
 course in faith," as " now resting from their 
 labors," we are taught to look forward to a still 
 higher stage of felicity to which they may reach, 
 and therefore pray — " And we beseech Thee, 
 that we, with all those who are departed in the 
 true faith of Thy holy name, may have our per- 
 fect consummation and bliss, both in body and 
 soul, in Thy eternal and evei'lasting glory."^* 
 
 Again — another argument in support of this 
 doctrine is derived from its heing so evidently in 
 accordance with reason. A belief indeed in the 
 immediate entrance of the soul into its full reward 
 
 32 This prayer in the service of the Church of England 
 is even more explicit, where the petition is oiFered to God, 
 " of His gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the num- 
 ber of His elect, and to hasten His kingdom : that we, with 
 all those that are departed in the true faith of His holy 
 name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss both 
 in body and soul." 
 
EASTER EVEN. • 239 
 
 or punisliment is one wliicli necessarily leads us 
 into inextricable difficulties. 
 
 Each individual passes tlirougli his probation 
 here, a compound being, the earthly and the 
 spiritual united by a chain, the links of .which we 
 can not discover, though we daily and hourly 
 feel the influence of one part of our nature upon 
 the other. The material and the immaterial sin 
 and suffer together. Tempting and being tempt- 
 ed, they go through life — the spirit by its imag- 
 inings urging on its sluggish partner to action, 
 while the body by the outv\^ard sense trammels 
 down the soul, to become " of the earth, earthly." 
 Participating in the same acts, and deserving of 
 the same recompense, should they not be united 
 before they fully enter on that state of bliss or 
 woe which is to be unchanged through eternity ? 
 Can we indeed conceive of any retribution which 
 will fitly reward man for all his doings here, if it 
 does not act upon both parts of his nature ? Can 
 he fully rejoice or suffer, while existing as a purely 
 spiritual being, in this state of separation ? Can 
 we believe therefore that he will receive his final 
 sentence — or that there will be any use in pro- 
 nouncing it — until he stands before the throne, 
 
240 
 
 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 tlie same he was in every resj^ect, wliile living a 
 probationer here ? "Why then shonlcl he enter 
 into his final state before that hour arrives ? 
 
 ^gain — supposing that he does pass at once 
 into Heaven or Hell, judgment in that case must 
 be pronounced upon him as soon as his spirit 
 leaves the body. Must not then the process of 
 finally acquitting or condemning the disembodied 
 souls which each hour are winging their flight to 
 the eternal world, be ceaselessly going on ? This 
 would indeed entirely set aside the general judg- 
 ment of the last day, unless we can suppose the 
 absurdity, that now the spirit is judged, but then 
 the body alone will stand up for retribution. 
 For what could it be but an empty show, to 
 recall from Heaven the countless tribes of the 
 just after they have been glorified there for ages, 
 and then once more to return them to that abode, 
 with the sentence, " Enter ye into the joy of your 
 Lord ! " Bishop Sherlock, in his '' Practical Dis- 
 course concerning a Future Judgment," sums up 
 this argument in a single sentence — '' And the 
 truth is, if all men have a final sentence passed 
 on them as soon as they go into the other world, 
 it is very unaccountable, why Christ at the last 
 
EASTER EVEN. 241 
 
 day sliall come with sucli a terrible pomp and 
 solemnity to judge and condemn those, who are 
 judged, and condemned, and executed already 
 as much as they can ever be." But the plain 
 teaching of Scripture is, that there should be a 
 day at the end of the world, when not only the 
 unnumbered multitudes of the human race, but 
 also the apostate angels who are " reserved in 
 chains " against that solemn hour, sliall together 
 receive the sentence Avhich all eternity can not 
 reverse.. Our Lord is now represented, standing 
 as Mediator before the throne of His Father, 
 and not until the mighty drama of this world is 
 entirely concluded, will He ascend the tribunal 
 of judgment. 
 
 l^either, on the other hand, can it be argued, 
 that this admission to a state of rest merely and 
 imperfect bliss, would in any way forestall the 
 judgment of the last day, or that the solemnities 
 of Christ's tribunal would be rendered vain by 
 that previous knowledge of our destiny, which 
 must be gained from our intermediate state. 
 " The condition of one who dies in his sins, and 
 awakes to a sense of the retribution that awaits 
 him, may, not inaptly, be compared to that of a 
 
242 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 criminal wlio is cominitted to a gaol for trial j 
 witliout the slightest hope of escaping conviction. 
 It could hardly be said of such a person, that his 
 fear and anguish there would forestall the solem- 
 nities of justice, and render nugatory the subse- 
 quent administration and execution of the law. 
 The forms and proceedings of earthly justice do 
 not indeed, provide a precisely similar illustration 
 to the case of those who have persevered in well 
 doing; but nevertheless, we are unable to com- 
 prehend, why the analogy should not likewise be 
 extended to them. What is there unreasonable 
 in the surmise, that a righteous man may awaken 
 from death to that full assurance of acquittal and 
 acceptance which some have affirmed to be at- 
 tainable even in the present life ? Why may he 
 not be placed in a state of which the enjoyment 
 shall consist in the knowledge that his trials and 
 agitations are at an end, that the forgiveness of 
 his sins is finally sealed, and that a reward will 
 at some period be assigned him, proportioned to 
 his faithfulness, by the infallible wisdom and 
 goodness of his Judge f'^ 
 
 How natural then seems the order of events, 
 
 ® British Critic^ No. 17. 
 
EASTER EVEN". 243 
 
 when we adopt the belief of an intermediate 
 state ! New light is thus poured upon many a 
 passage of Scripture, while every difficulty which 
 was suggested by the reason, at once passes away. 
 There we behold the departed, resting in their 
 separate mansions, through all the ages which 
 intervene between the hour of death and the 
 final consummation of all things. In peace the 
 just repose, for the cares and sorrows of tliis 
 lower world have passed away for ever, and in 
 the full assurance of hope they look forward to 
 tliat hour, when their ^' Lord shall be revealed 
 from Heaven," and they be admitted to the full- 
 ness of joy, in the " place which he hath prepared 
 for them." There also, yet separated by " a gulf 
 which they can not pass,"^* are the wicked. 
 The I'ecord of a wasted life is ever before them, 
 for already conscience has commenced her work, 
 and they feel the gnawings of that worm which 
 dieth not for ever. In trembling and fear there- 
 fore, they await the revolution of that cycle of 
 ao:es, and the comino; of that day of decision, 
 when they shall be forced to descend to a deeper, 
 more awful state of torment. Thus it is, that the 
 ®* Zuke, xvi., 26. 
 
244 THE LENTEN >\iST. 
 
 general judgment becomes, as Scripture repre 
 sents it, the winding up of tliis world's hLstory 
 There, the descendants of Adam, of " every kin 
 dred, and tongue, and people, and nation," meet 
 for the last time — they are "judged for their 
 works " — the final separation is made — and they 
 pass away, to begin their endless retribution.^^ 
 A single question more remains to be answered. 
 
 ^^ It will be at once perceived, that this doctrine is 
 widely different from the belief of the Romanists in Pur- 
 gatory. Their doctrine is, (as given in their own words) 
 — " Some there are, though I fear but few, that have 
 before their death so fully cleared all accounts with the 
 Divine Majesty, and washed away all their stains in the 
 blood of the Lamb, as to go straight to Heaven after 
 death; and such as those stand not in need of our prayers! 
 Others there are, and their numbers are very great, who 
 die in the guilt of deadly sin, and such as these go straight 
 to Hell, like the rich glutton in the Gospel, St. Luke, xvi., 
 and therefore cannot be bettered by our prayers. But 
 besides these two kinds, there are many Christians, who, 
 when they die, are neither so perfectly pure and clean, as 
 to exempt them from the least spot or stain, nor yet so 
 unhappy as to die under the guilt of unrepented deadly 
 sin. Now such as these the Church believes to be, for a 
 time, in a middle state, which we call Purgatory; and 
 these are they who are capable of receiving benefit by our 
 prayers." — The Catholic Christian Instructed. By the 
 Most JRev^ Dr. Challoner. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 246 
 
 It is the inquiry, What vja-s the object of our Lord's 
 descent into the place of departed Spirits f ' 
 
 One end answered by it was, that in this respect 
 also He conformed Himself to the lot oftliose ivhose 
 nature He had assumed. When He left " the 
 glory which He had with the Father before the 
 world was," it seems to have been His purpose 
 to become " like unto us in all things, sin only ex- 
 cepted." He passed through every trial to which 
 frail humanity is subjected. His were the feeble- 
 ness and pains of wailing infancy — the cares which 
 gather around the years of manhood — the shrink- 
 ins: of nature at the sicrht of death — and the last 
 convulsive struggle which bursts the prison-house 
 of clay. And even when He entered the gates 
 of the grave. He continued to tread the same 
 path in which each one of us — His brethren after 
 the flesh — must one day walk. His body was 
 c(mimitted to the tomb, after a time to be awak- 
 ened again as an incorruptible and spiritual body, 
 freed from all human infirmities, and then to pass 
 into the Heavens. And for the same reason must 
 His soul also abide in the resting place of those 
 He came to redeem, until the hour in which it 
 was to be once more united with His body. Thus 
 
246 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 it was. tnat the humiliation of the Son of God was 
 not confined to this world. It did not end with 
 the agonies of the Crucifixion. It continued even 
 after he had passed the veil which separates the 
 living from the dead. As a disembodied spirit, 
 He found that He must still acknowledge brother- 
 hood with mortals from the earth. 
 
 Again — our Lord thus proved to us the cer- 
 tainty of our victory over Hades. We point to 
 the resurrection, and say, " Thus it is that we 
 know we also shall triumph over the grave. He 
 hath burst the band of death asunder, and with 
 the like power shall His people also be gifted." 
 This it is, which sheds a glory around the tomb, 
 and lights up its gloomy caverns with a celestial 
 radiance. 
 
 But would not the work have been incomplete, 
 if no pledge had been given us of the Spirit's 
 victory in the invisible Avorld — if our Master had 
 neglected to point out the path it also was to 
 tread, in the interval between " death and the re- 
 surrection ? " But " He hath done all things well." 
 Nothing was left unaccomplished. His grace was 
 displayed even in the mansions of the departed, 
 and to us therefore they are divested of all ter- 
 
EASTER EVEN. 241 
 
 ror. " His soul was not left in Hades," neither 
 shall His children be forever detained there. He 
 now " has the keys of Hell {Hades) and of Death," 
 and shall release them when the appointed hour 
 comes, that they too may ascend as He did, to 
 tlie " fullness of joy." 
 
 And may we not add also, that another object 
 of His descent was, tliat He might there proclaim 
 the news of His redemjJtion to the spirits which 
 ivere in safe Iceejying f We have already alluded 
 to this, when discussing that difficult passage in 
 St. Peter, and stated what must have been the 
 manner of His preaching. There, the righteous 
 had rested for ages, in anticipation of that future 
 atonement which was to be wrought out by the 
 Son of God. Is there any thing strange then in 
 the idea, that when that ransom had been paid, 
 which secured their salvation, and the power of 
 their great Enemy was forever broken, He should 
 descend and unfold these glorious tidings to the 
 countless myriads of the redeemed ? While on 
 earth, they had looked forward with the anticipa- 
 tion of hope, and "rejoiced to see that day" 
 even through the mist of intervening centuiies ; 
 
248 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 but now, these visions were realized and tlie 
 Messiah Himself proclaims, that " it is finished." 
 "The passage in St. Peter, which speaks of 
 Christ as having ' preached to the spirits,' gives, 
 we think" — says an eloquent living writer — 
 ''something of foundation to the opinion, that 
 whilst His body was in in the sepulchre, Christ 
 preached to sj^irits in the separate state, opening 
 up to them, probably, those mysteries of redemp- 
 tion into which even angels, before-time, had 
 vainly striven to look. The kings, and the pro- 
 phets, and the righteous men, who had desired 
 to see the things which appostles saw, and had 
 not seen them, and hear the things which they 
 heard, and had^ not heard them — unto these, it 
 may be, Christ brought a glorious roll of intelli- 
 gence ; and we can imagine Him standing in the 
 midst of a multitude which no man can number, 
 who had all gone down to the chambers of death 
 with but indistinct and far-off glimpses of the 
 promised Messiah, and explained to the eager 
 assembly the beauty, and the stability of that 
 deliverance which He had just wrought out 
 through obedience and blood-shedding. And, oh, 
 there must then have gone forth a tide of the 
 
EASTER EVEK 2i9 
 
 very loftiest gladness tlirougli the listening crowds 
 of the separate state ; and then, perhaps, for the 
 first time, admiration and extacy summoning out 
 the music, was heard that anthem, whose rich 
 peal rolls down the coming eternity, 'Worthy, 
 worthy, worthy is the Lamb.' Then, it may be, 
 for the first time, did Adam embrace all tli-e mag- 
 nificence of the promise, that ' the seed of the 
 woman should bruise the serpent's head ;' and 
 x\braliam understand how the well-being of the 
 human population depended on one that should 
 spring from his own loins ; and David ascertain 
 all the meaning of mysterious strains, which, as 
 prefiguring Messiah, he had swept from the harp- 
 strings. Then too, the long train of Aaron's 
 line, who had stood at the altar, and slain the 
 victims, and burnt the incense, almost weighed 
 down by a ritual, the import of whose ceremo- 
 nies was but indistinctly made known — then, it 
 may be, they were suddenly and sublimely taught 
 the power of every figure, and the ex]3ression of 
 every rite ; whilst the noble company of prophets, 
 holy men who ' spake as they were moved by the 
 Holy Ghost,' but who, rapt into the future, uttei'ed 
 much wbicli only the future could deve]o23 — these, 
 
250 THE LEXTEN FAST. 
 
 as tliougli starting from the sleep of ages, sprang 
 into the centre of that gorgeons panorama of 
 truth which they had been commissioned to ont^ 
 line, but over whose spreadings there had rested 
 the cloud and the mist ; and Isaiah thrilled at 
 the glories of his own saying, ' unto us a child is 
 born, unto us a son is given ;' and Hosea grasped 
 all the mightiness of the declaration, which he 
 had poured forth whilst denouncing tlie a2:)osta- 
 cies of Samaria, ' O Death, I will be thy plagues ; 
 O Grave, I will be thy destruction.' 
 
 " AYe know not why it may not thus be consid- 
 ered that the day of Christ's entrance into the 
 separate state w^as, like the Pentecostal day to 
 the Church upon earth, a day of the rolling off 
 of obscurity from the plan of redemption, and 
 of showing how ' glory, honor and immortality,' 
 were made accessible to the remotest of the world's 
 families ; a day on which a thousand types gave 
 place to realities and a thousand predictions leaj^ed 
 into fulfillment ; a day therefore, on which there 
 circulated through the enormous gatherings of 
 Adam and his elect posterity, already ushered 
 into rest, a gladness which had never yet been 
 reached in all the depth of their beatifical repose. 
 
EASTER EVEK 251 
 
 And neitlier, then, can we discover cause why 
 Christ may not be thought to have filled the office 
 of preacher to the buried tribes of the righteous, 
 and thus to have assumed that character which 
 he has never since laid aside, that of ' a ministcir 
 of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which 
 the Lord pitched, and not man.' ''^^ 
 
 This then is the doctrine of the Intermediate 
 state. Comfortable indeed to man in his feeble- 
 ness is the thought, that even in this respect his 
 Lord hath prepared the way for him ! The j^ath 
 which connects this world of toil and sorrow 
 with one of songs and gladness, has been clearly 
 pointed out. It is still radiant with his Master's 
 footsteps, and His followers may tread it with- 
 out fear. And if, when all things are bright 
 before him, he realizes this but feebly, yet to him 
 also there must come " a time to suffer and be 
 silent," when spiritual promises alone will be 
 able to satisfy the intense longings of his soul. 
 As man journeys onward through an evil world, 
 the glory of this lower life fades away — its hues 
 of beauty disappear — and are lost at last as the 
 clouds gather around his setting sun. Beautifully 
 
 ^ Melyill's Sermons^ vol. i., p. 49. 
 
252 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 indeed does one of England's Christian poeta 
 portray this change which passes over all things, 
 thus weaning the Spirit away from this earth, 
 and disposing it to look to Heaven. 
 
 " Heaven lies about us iu our iftfaucy ! 
 Shades of the prison-house begin to close 
 
 Upon the growing Boy, j 
 
 But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, 
 
 He sees it in his joy; 
 The Youth, who daily farther fi'om the east 
 
 Must travel still, is Nature's Priest, 
 
 And by the vision splendid 
 
 Is on his way attended ; 
 At length the man perceives it die away. 
 And fade into the light of common day."^"^ 
 
 Such is truly the sorrowful process of man's 
 life. One by one the objects in which he had 
 garnered up his affections pass away, until often 
 in the gray twilight of his days he is left alone 
 and desolate. Then indeed if he look around 
 for sympathy, from the busy, earnest world about 
 him there comes forth no response. Orestes-like 
 he seeks for peace with a deeper yearning than 
 that suppliant in the ancient Grecian Drama,*^ 
 
 ^"^ Wordsworth's Ode — " Intimations of Immortality 
 from Recollections of Early Childhood." 
 ^s -^SCHYL. Eumen. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 253 
 
 yet he seeks in vain. The flowers of his earthly 
 Paradise are faded, and its cisterns broken. 
 Memory lifts up her voice within him, like the 
 archangel's trump, summoning from their forgot- 
 ten graves, thoughts and scenes which long since 
 had passed away. Their images rise up mourn- 
 fully, as it were to mock him, for he knows that 
 the reality can never return. For him is reserved 
 only the lonely night, which stealing insensibly 
 on, is ever deepening its shadows about his path. 
 When therefore this world thus vanishes away 
 and life by its own vicissitudes has taught him 
 the lesson of his vanity — when nothing but evils 
 seem to " choke Time's groaning tide " — how 
 cheering is the thought, that the future yet re- 
 mains to be his certain heritage ! He raises his 
 eyes above the gathering darkness and the clouds 
 which surround him, and beholds beyond them, 
 that land which is always radiant with a celestial 
 glory. The past, with its sorrowful memories, 
 is forgotten, and he lives only in the anticipations 
 of the future. He is not driven forward to the 
 coming world without " knowing the things that 
 shall befall him there." He is sustained by the 
 " hope which maketh not ashamed." And thug 
 
254 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 he passes along througli the remaining days of 
 his pilgrimage, sharing in that spirit which the 
 old artists attempted to embody in their delinea- 
 tions of Faith when they represented her tread- 
 ing a rugged and thorny road, yet clasping the 
 Cross to her heart, and her eyes intently fixed 
 upon the calm, clear Heavens above. He feels 
 that Death shall only come like the Angel to 
 the Apostles, bursting the bars of his prison- 
 house, and leading him forth to the light and to 
 the day. His spirit pines within him for the 
 sweet waters of the River of Life. The voices 
 of the dead too, who have gone before, come 
 solemnly to his ears, as they urge him to press 
 onward to the promised land. There, his wan- 
 derings shall end, and the pilgrim staif be forever 
 cast aside. There he shall be at peace in the 
 mansions of rest, with the mighty army of patri- 
 archs and apostles, and confessors and martyrs, 
 who have already slept in the faith. Cheered 
 by a brighter manifestation of his Master's pre- 
 sence than can be his lot in this world, he shall 
 await his full reward, and the crown which shall 
 be given him at the last day. With what un- 
 
EASTER EVEN. 255 
 
 wavering confidence may he tlien look up and 
 say— f > . 
 
 '• Soon wilt Thou take us to Thy tranquil bower 
 
 To rest one little hour, 
 Till Thine elect are number'd, and the grave 
 
 Call Thee to come and save : 
 Then on thy bosom borne shall we descend, 
 
 Again with earth to blend, 
 Earth all refin'd with bright supernal fires, 
 Tinctur'd with holy blood, and wing'd mth pure desires. 
 
 Meanwhile, with every son and saint of Thine 
 
 Along the glorious line. 
 Sitting by turns beneath Thy sacred feet 
 
 We '11 hold communion sweet. 
 Know them by look and voice, and thank them all 
 
 For helping us in thrall. 
 For words of hope, and bright examples given 
 To show through moonless skies that there is light in 
 Heaven."^^ 
 
 Thus ages shall glide by, until the history of 
 this world is completed, and the namber of the 
 elect made np. Then our long expected Lord 
 shall descend with a shout — the dust of each one 
 of the saints be collected from the four winds, 
 united again to its former partner, as the spirit 
 comes forth from its resting-place, and all shall 
 
 ^ Keble's Easter Eve. 
 
2 56 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 gather around the throne of Him whom they 
 followed while on earth, ready to receive the sen- 
 tence — "Well done, good and faithful servants, 
 enter ye into the joy of your Lord." This shall 
 be the Great Easter of the Earth. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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