Now fasting is not pleasant: no sort of self-denial is pleasant in itself. Therefore the Christian Church, knowing the weakness of human nature, and that, without denying a duty, we are so prone to defer it from time to time, has appointed regular stated Fast Days; in order that those who are willing to fulfil this duty may have the countenance and support of the Church at large, and that those who are indifferent, careless, or forgetful, may be reminded of it. Every Friday throughout the year was appointed a Fast Day, because on it our LORD was crucified. So, on the same principle, every Sunday throughout the year is a Festival and Thanksgiving Day, because it was on that, the first day of the week, that He rose from the dead. From the very first ages of CHRIST, His followers were accustomed to set apart some time for additional prayer and self-denial in order that they might more truly and faithfully rejoice in the grand Festival of Easter; and our Church has appointed this solemn season every year, in which more particularly to examine our own conduct in life, and to strive to walk "humbly with GOD." And this period is called LENT. 1 "The Scriptures bid us fast, the Church says George Herbert. now. LENT, in the language once spoken here, means Spring. We often read in old books of Lenten herbs and fruits; that is, the herbs and fruits of the Spring season. So this great appointed Fast, which comes every year in the spring time, and always concludes at Easter, to remind us of our SAVIOUR'S sufferings which ended at His Resurrection, is now called and known as Lent. This Fast lasts for forty days. The length of the Fast is similar to the Jewish custom. For the Jews began their solemn humiliation forty days before the great day of the Expiation, and so it seemed to our early Christians a fitting preparation for the remembrance of that Divine Expiation of the sins of the whole world,-the death of CHRIST in order that, as an early Christian father writes, we might, as far as we are able, conform to CHRIST's practice, and suffer with Him here, that we may reign with Him hereafter. There is much in the Old Testament history to have guided our Church in the appointment of forty days as the duration of this fast. In forty days GOD Almighty drowned the earth for forty years the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: by the Jewish law forty stripes were to be given to malefactors and forty days were allowed to the people of Nineveh to repent. On two several occasions Moses fasted forty days: Elijah, in the wilderness, fasted for the same length of time as did, to crown the whole, our blessed SAVIOUR Himself. : So after many variations in early time, the season of Lent was appointed to consist of forty days. The first of these is called AshWednesday and if you subtract or take away the six Sundays in Lent (for I have told you that Sunday is always a festival day) you will find that there are precisely forty days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. On this day, Easter Sunday, the Church appoints that all Christians, who have been confirmed, receive the Holy Communion. During the whole of this season the ancient Christians attended additional services in Church, and gave outward testimonies of sorrow and humiliation for their sins, which I do not doubt they felt. For they knew, what we only read of, the shocking state of wickedness from which they had been called. During this season of Lent no marriages ever took place, nor any feast or gay party of any sort. can quite well remember when I was a child, some of my elderly relatives who always wore mourning during the whole time of Lent, and who, though they usually led very quiet lives, thought it their duty to live in still more quiet and seclusion during these six weeks. In the early Christian times it was usual to receive the Holy Sacrament every day; and this was never denied to any of the Faithful as all members of the Church were called. But as the consecration of this bread and wine was a joyful celebration, it was not permitted to be done except on Sunday, the Christian Festival. So, during Lent, bread and wine for this Holy Sacrament was consecrated each Sunday in sufficient quantity to last the whole week. The primitive Christians, too, while lamenting their sins, lay in sackcloth and ashes: a custom which we can hardly understand now, but which I will try to describe to you on Ash-Wednesday. 127 ASH WEDNESDAY. "SAVIOUR! when in dust to Thee I HAVE told you that the season of Lent was a period appointed for a more earnest attention to religious duties than we usually practise. It is intended that we should humble ourselves before GOD, confess our sins, deprecate His anger, beg for His mercy: that we should assemble together more frequently for public worship; practise self-denial, and give alms to the poor. And if we do really suffer ourselves to hunger a little, we shall be much more charitably disposed, for we shall have some faint idea-though I fear but a very faint one— |