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THE 
 
 HISTORY, OBJECT, AND PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ©olg Seaautt of Hetu: 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. WM. INGRAHAM KIP, D. D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE DOUBLE WITNESS OF THE CHURCH; "THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAT3 
 
 IN ROME:" "THE EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS IN NORTH AMERICA;" 
 
 " THE EARLY CONFLICTS OF -CHRISTIANITY ; " 
 
 &c, &c. 
 
 " The world is -waxing strong, 
 
 The day is hot, the flight is long, 
 And therefore do I fast." 
 
 Rev. F. W. Faber. 
 
 LET US PRAY IN THE CHURCH, WITH THE CHURCH, AND FOR THE CHURCH." 
 
 D. Mart. Luther i, Colloq. Mens., oh. xx 
 
 jFtftf) 3Bt»ltlOH> 
 
 ALBANY: ERASTTJS H. PEASE & CO., 82 STATE STREET. 
 
 NEW YORK: STANFORD & SWORDS. 
 
 MDCCCLni. 
 
 J 
 
160 
 
 Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1343, 
 
 BY WM. INGRAHAM KIP, 
 In the Clerk's office, of the Northern District of New York 
 
 
 
 *<* J9i* 
 
o 
 
 ^ 7 ^ 
 
 TO 
 THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 WILLIAM HEATHCOTE DELANCEY, D. D., LL.D.. 
 
 BISHOP OF WESTERN NEW YORK. 
 
 13 
 
 AS A SLIGHT TESTIMONY OF RESPECT AND 
 AFFECTIONATE REGARD, 
 
 EY 
 
O every where 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. 
 
 To the still wrestlings of the lonely heart 
 
 He doth impart 
 The virtue of his midnight agony, 
 
 When none was nigh, 
 Save God and one good angel, to assuage 
 
 The tempest's rage. 
 
 Mortal! if life smiles on thee, and thou find 
 
 All to thy mind, 
 Think, who did once from Heaven to Hell descend 
 
 Thee to befriend: 
 
 So shalt thou dare forego, at His dear call, 
 
 Thy best, thine all. 
 
 Keble. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 For some years past each return of Lent has 
 been, we believe, regarded with additional inte- 
 rest Many who were not trained up within 
 the pale of the Church, are looking to her fold 
 as a refuge more fixed and stable than any 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 appear to be turning away from the empty, 
 boastful professions of this age of novelties, and 
 to be more inclined to adopt as a settled princi- 
 
Vlll. PREFACE. 
 
 pie, that golden decision of the Council of Nice, 
 
 E<fy ap^aia xpar£i<rw, Let ANCIENT USAGES PREVAIL. 
 
 In this state of things, the writer has frequently 
 sought — but without success — for something, 
 which in a small compass might contain the 
 necessary 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 Br. Gunning (afterwards Bishop 
 of Chichester), entitled, " the Paschal or Lenten 
 Fast," which 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 
 
PREFACE. IX. 
 
 day useless to any but the theologian or the 
 scholar. The author has also confined his atten- 
 tion principally to one single point, owing to the 
 circumstances under which he wrote. The work 
 was prepared after the Restoration, when in con- 
 sequence of the rule of the Puritans for so many 
 years in England, the observance of Lent had 
 been almost entirely discontinued. The object 
 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 conclu- 
 sive by extracts from every prominent writer 
 who treats of the subject during the first seven 
 centuries of the Church. It is evident however 
 that this truth, if sustained by quotations from 
 the first three centuries, is as well established as 
 if the testimony of the 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 
 
X. PREFACE. 
 
 it is the only work with which he is acquainted 
 devoted to this subject, and because he was 
 happy to find in its numerous quotations, a full 
 confirmation 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 
 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 
 
PREFACE. XI. 
 
 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 
 this important subject in a more simple and 
 popular form. Perhaps exception 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 him- 
 self thought differently, but after frequently stu- 
 dying this difficult point with all the help he 
 could derive from the learned labors of others, 
 he was finally obliged to settle down upon this 
 interpretation, as giving the most natural expla- 
 nation fof the passage. It is the one adopted 
 by Dr. Bloomfield and other eminent Biblical 
 critics of the day. If, however, this passage 
 
Xll. PREFACE. 
 
 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 
 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 spirits, embalmed and 
 treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.^ 
 Their words, coming down through the mist and 
 haziness of fifteen centuries, appeared to be gift- 
 ed with a more touching emphasis when read in 
 
PREFACE. xiil- 
 
 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 
 his love and reverence for the Church at whose 
 altars he is permitted to minister, and whose 
 services he has here endeavored to illustrate. It 
 has taught him to realize 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 Apostolic Church, or awaken 
 within 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 
 
XIV. PREFACE. 
 
 no noise, leaves no track behind it, and is disco- 
 vered after a little space, lying idly on the 
 ground." But he hopes that 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 oi 
 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, mdcccxliii. 
 
taints. 
 
 The object of the Primitive Church, in instituting the 
 
 Holy Season of Lent, 17 
 
 The Proper Observance of Lent, . . . . 61 
 
 The Week-Day PTayers, 101 
 
 Good Friday, ........ 137 
 
 Easter Even, 165 
 
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, 
 WHO LIVEST AND REIGNEST WITH THE FATHER 
 AND THE HOLY GHOST, ONE GOD, WORLD WITH- 
 OUT END. 
 
 AMEN. 
 
 Colled for the First Sunday in Lent. 
 
§|e 6l)jd at % Jrimiiito Cjpt| in 
 Instittttmg tire fwlg &mim at f ent 
 
 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 Churchy by Herbert. 
 
I. 
 
 Object of iiie ^hlriiiibe 6Snti*ei? if) fasflfi|fii|g 
 f Sr>e ifolij Seqsori of JLeoi. 
 
 At length the changing 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 
 4C turn unto the Lord with all their hearts, and 
 w r ith fasting, and with weeping, and with mourn- 
 ing, " a — " 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 
 
 #, Passage appointed for the Epistle for Ash- 
 Wednesday. 
 
20 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 Jesus Christ, their Lord." 6 Her services now 
 give utterance to the language of sorrow and 
 abasement, as we prepare for the solemn com 
 memoration of our Lord's agony and death. It 
 is interestsng therefore to look back to the re- 
 cords of the 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 im- 
 portant purposes. 
 
 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 
 therefore be excepted, only thirty-six days are 
 left. To make up this deficiency, four days are 
 added at the beginning, commencing with Ash- 
 Wednesday, which derives its name from the 
 ashes which in the ancient Church were at this 
 time thrown upon the penitents , whose sins had 
 debarred them from a participation in her servi- 
 
 b. Collect for Ash-Wednesday. 
 
 c. It is uncertain by whom this addition was 
 made. Most writers however ascribe it to Gregory 
 the Great (see Bingham's Orig. Eccles. lib. xxi., ch. 
 1, section 5). 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 21 
 
 ces. " On the first day of Lent," says Gratian, 
 in describing this ceremony, " the penitents were 
 to present themselves before the Bishop, clothed 
 with sack-cloth, 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 sack-cloth; 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 
 officers 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 much these ceremonies 
 may have availed to keep alive the purity of 
 the Church, and to impress upon the care- 
 less multitude, the value of admission to her 
 services. 
 
 d. Wheatly on Common Prayer, p. 233, 
 
22 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 An allusion to this ancient form is still pre- 
 served in the " Commination, or denouncing of 
 God's anger and judgment against sinners, r 
 which in the service of the Church of England 
 is 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 notori- 
 ous sin were put to open penance, and punished 
 in this world, that their souls might be saved in 
 the day of the Lord; and that others, admon- 
 ished 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 pre- 
 sence of you all) should be read the general 
 sentences of God's cursing against impenitent 
 sinners, gathered out of the seven and twentieth 
 chapter of Deuteronomy and other places of 
 Scripture ; 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 
 and true repentance ; and may walk more wari- 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 23 
 
 ly in these dangerous days ; fleeing from such 
 vices, for which 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 omitted in the 
 Liturgy of the Church in America, with the 
 exception of the three concluding prayers, 
 which on Ash- Wednesday are directed " to be 
 said immediately before the general thanks- 
 giving." 
 
 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: 
 
 05 yap ri vuv ys xa-^psg dXk' asi itors 
 Xv\ ravra xovSeig oiSsv £% orou (potv7j. e 
 
 The Lenten Fast is however frequently referred 
 to by writers of primitive days as an established 
 
 e Not now, nor yesterday, but always thus 
 These have endured, their ancient source unknown. 
 
 Soph. Antigone, 462. 
 
24 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 and well known custom, which had been sanc- 
 tioned by Apostolical authority. The probability 
 is, that even from the first — from 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, ,<5/ refers to this season 
 in his description of the Christians of Alexandria, 
 who were converted by St. Mark. " This au- 
 thor," — says Eusebius, in his history composed 
 about A. D 324 — "has accurately described and 
 stated in his writings, 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 Savior's passion, which we 
 are accustomed to pass in fasting and watching, 
 and in the study of the divine word. These 
 
 /. Eusebius' Eccles. Hist., liber ii. } chap. 17, p. 66. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 25 
 
 are the same customs that are observed by us 
 alone at the present day, particularly the vigils 
 of the Great Festival" meaning by this the Pas- 
 sion week, called by the Greek Fathers the 
 Great Week. 
 
 It is also mentioned incidentally by Ireneeus, 
 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. ,Vi 
 
 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 Aposto- 
 lical Authority of this season. Having erred 
 from the faith, and embraced the heresy of the 
 Montanists, he found the voice of the Church 
 
 g. Eusebius' Eccles. Hist. lib. ii, chap. 17 p. 68. 
 
 h. Ibid, lib. v. chap. 24, p. 210. 
 3 
 
26 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 observe 
 fasts of our own, peculiar to ourselves. 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, that there 
 are certain days constituted by God They sure- 
 ly think, that in the Gospel those days are de- 
 termined for facts, in which the Bridegroom was 
 taken away, 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- 
 sions and causes, at his own judgment, not of 
 command. " (That is, as Montanus inculcated 
 the necessity of his fast, by pretended command 
 from God.) "And that thus the Apostles observed 
 the rule of fasting, imposing no other yoke of 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 27 
 
 certain or set fasts to be kept of all in common. 
 And ye prescribe against us, that the solemn 
 times for this matter, are to be believed already 
 constituted in the Scriptures, or in the tradition 
 of our Elders, and that no further observance 
 is to be superadded, for the unlawfulness of in- 
 novation. "* 
 
 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. 
 "It is fit therefore " — he says — "that we should 
 perpetuate to all future ages the celebration of 
 this rite, which we have kept from the first day of 
 eur Lord's passion even to the present times. *. 
 
 . . . . For the Savior has bequeathed ta 
 us one festal day of our liberation, that is, the: 
 day of His most holy passion; and it was His 
 
 t. Tertullian De Jejuniis, chap. 1, 2, 13, 
 
28 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 pleasure that His Church should be one ; the 
 members of which, although dispersed in many 
 and various 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 fasts " j 
 
 To give a single reference more — and they 
 might be multiplied to a great extent — this 
 season is mentioned in the Apostolic Canons, a 
 code of laws which certainly dates its authority 
 from 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 before Easter, or the Wednesdays and 
 Fridays, let him be deposed, if he be not hind- 
 ered by some bodily infirmity ; but if he be a lay- 
 man, let him be suspended from communion. "* 
 
 j. Euseb. De Vit. Constantin. lib. iii., c. 17, 18. 
 Socrates, lib. i, chapter 6. Theodoret, lib. i, ch. 10. 
 
 k. Patres Apos. CoteL vol. 1, p. 451, edit. 1724. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 29 
 
 Thus, we perceive, that this custom took not 
 its rise amidst the corruptions of the Dark Ages, 
 but began in times of light and holiness. We 
 received it not from the Romish Church, when it 
 had fallen from ancient purity, but it comes 
 down to us from Primitive days. It was sanc- 
 tioned by Apostolical authority, or certainly at 
 
 These Canons 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 observes, that the internal evi- 
 dence is against this view of their antiquity (Jad. 
 de Canon Apos., vol. 1, p. 429). Hincmar, De 
 Marca, and Beveridge give, what is the most proba- 
 ble 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 Cot el. , vol. 1, p. 
 436. See also, Lardner's Woi'ks, vol. 4, p. 354. 
 Jortin's Rem. on Eccles. Hist., vol. 1, p. 278; Cave's 
 Hist. Lit. vol. 1, p. 29. Even Mosheim acknow- 
 ledges that " they exhibit the principles of discipline 
 received in the Greek and Oriental Churches, in the 
 2d and 3d centuries" (Eccles. 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 evidence of the practice of the Church at a 
 very early age. 
 
30 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 
 children 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 length, 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. 2 The number forty seems 
 
 Z. The question as to the length of Lent, at its 
 first institution, is one which has caused much dis- 
 cussion among learned men. The Greeks called this 
 season Tstftfapaxotf^, and the Latins Quadragesima, 
 both of which 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 absti- 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 31 
 
 very anciently to have been appropriated to sea- 
 sons of repentance and fasting. " This quadra- 
 gesimal number " — says St. Ambrose, in his 36th 
 sermon — is not constituted of men, but conse- 
 crated from God." For this term of years were 
 the children of Israel disciplined in the wilderness, 
 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 exam- 
 ple was this period probably fixed, " that, " — as 
 St. Augustine says — " we might, as far as we 
 are fable, conform to Christ's practice, and suffer 
 with [Him here, that we may reign with Him 
 hereafter." 
 
 And we may learn too from a single passage 
 
 nence, beginning about 12 on Friday, (the time of 
 our Savior's falling under the power of death), and 
 continuing 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 discussed in Bingham's Orig. 
 Eccles., lib. xxi,, chap. 1. 
 
32 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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, tra- 
 velers, 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 
 set at naught all the customs which they found 
 conducive to their spiritual benefit, and to deter- 
 mine — despising the wisdom of the past, and 
 the recorded experience of eighteen centuries — 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 33 
 
 to " walk every one in the ways of his own 
 heart ! v It becomes therefore an enquiry 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 
 
 SUBJECT 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 best, fulfill 
 it but imperfectly. It is for this reason that the 
 early Church set apart definite times, for con- 
 sidering in order each of the grand doctrines 
 of the Christian faith, as the Ecclesiastical year 
 rolls round. And in this practice we now con- 
 tinue. 
 
34 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 " 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." 
 
 Beautiful indeed is that arrangement of her 
 services, which, as the months go by, brings in 
 succession befoie 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 
 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 
 
 m* Wordsworth's JSccUs. Sonnets, XV, 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 35 
 
 Holy Ghost, were prepared to be " lights to 
 lighten the world.' 1 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.' 5 
 
 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 \ n u The days had come, when the 
 
 n. " It seemed good to the Church to fix a stated 
 time, in which men might enter upon the great work 
 of their repentance. And what time could have 
 been selected with greater propriety than this ' Lent- 
 en ' or Spring Season, when universal nature, awak- 
 ening from her wintry sleep, and coming out of a 
 state of deformity, and a course of 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 giye us a kind of 
 prelude to the renovation of all things ? So ttmt the 
 
36 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 Bridegroom was taken from them, and therefore 
 did they fast." 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 of 
 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 
 had heard and witnessed. Probably too, the 
 tradition of many a deed which now is lost for- 
 ever, came down to them, and contributed to 
 heighten their estimation of that Perfect Cha- 
 racter, from whom they were separated by but 
 
 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 Home, 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 37 
 
 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 
 known to excite attention. It is indispensable, 
 therefore, that 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 
 
 o. It is strange that the only one of these tradi- 
 tionary sayings of our Lord, which was afterwards 
 recorded by an inspired writer, is intended to incul- 
 cate a truth, the most difficult for human nature to 
 learn. St. Paul says — " Remember the words of 
 the Lord Jesus, how he said: It is more blessed to 
 give than to receive." — Acts xx. 35. 
 
38 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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, 
 when 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 n'o 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. 
 
 Another reason with the Primitive Church for 
 the institution of this season was, to aid her 
 
 MEMBERS IN PRESERVING THE HIGH STANDARD 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 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 39 
 
 security to the Hebrew Christians, for even 
 thither penetrated their bigoted enemies, ready, 
 €l if they found any of that way, whether they 
 were men or women, to bring them bound to 
 Jerusalem. " And when the faith left its earliest 
 dwelling place in " Holy Asia, ,,p and went forth 
 to other lands, it found a world arrayed in hos- 
 tility against it. The ancient, sensual Paganism, 
 and the proud systems of a scoffing philosophy, 
 
 p. jEschylus' Prom. Vinct. 415, ayva.gkdnxg. 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 in that an- 
 tique and poetical mythology which furnished 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 stage. 
 Both alike look back with reverence to that region 
 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. 
 
40 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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,' 1 
 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 sufferings." 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 "steadfast, 
 immovable, " and holding themselves ready, if 
 needs be, to win their 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." 
 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 41 
 
 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, 
 was more accurately defined and inculcated by 
 the regulations of the Church, that her members 
 might be recalled from their secular cares to holy 
 works, and thus by the necessity of a law, com- 
 pelled to dedicate one tenth of the year, in a 
 peculiar manner to their God. 3 Therefore it is, 
 
 q. Cassian, [in Bingham Orig. Eccles. lib. xxi, 
 ch. 1, sec. 10. ' 
 4 
 
42 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 provided 
 by the great benefit of this Divine institution, that 
 the purity of our minds might be repaired by the 
 exercise of these forty days, in which we may re- 
 deem the failings of other times, and do good 
 works, and exercise ourselves in religious fast- 
 ing."' 
 
 But has this necessity in our day ceased? Is 
 there now so great a deadness to 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 ten-fold greater than it was in that early 
 day? Since all around us have made a nominal 
 profession of Christianity, the Church has been 
 too much mingled with the 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 
 
 r. Leo, Serm. iv., de Quadragesima, in Bingham, 
 lib. xxi. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 43 
 
 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 " straight gate " has been 
 widened, and the " narrow way'"' become broad. 
 They look in vain for those exhibitions of a living 
 faith which distinguished the early Christians, and 
 are therefore tempted to believe, that the days of 
 self-discipline are over, and an easier entrance 
 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 difficult 
 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 
 faith, as if the last Great Judgment would only 
 be a trial of their 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 
 
44 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 of 
 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 ihem 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 spi- 
 ritual death, to the light and liberty of God's own 
 children! And it is to the standard of pure reli- 
 gion, that the Church at this time endeavors to 
 recall us. A perpetual witness for the faith, her 
 voice is heard " through the ages all along," pub- 
 lishing truths of which an evil world would 
 willingly lose sight, and pointing her members to 
 the bright examples of those who, in earlier, purer 
 days, "fought the good fight," and " inherited the 
 promises*" From her we learn, that religion con- 
 sists, not in talking much and eloquently on the 
 subject — not alone in striving to feel spiritually — 
 not even in being warm and earnest in aiding the 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 45 
 
 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, shewn by our renouncing the 
 spirit of the world — subduing our own evil tem- 
 pers — living "soberly, righteously, and godly "— 
 "crucifying the flesh, with the affections and 
 lusts" — and acting 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- 
 dences of spiritual life, and declares the Christian 
 conflict to be " an earnest, endless strife," 5 she at 
 the same time most sternly rebukes the compro- 
 mising spirit of the clay. She summons her child- 
 ren 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 accomplished 
 for their Lord. She inquires, how they can be 
 
 y. " One only way to life ; 
 
 One faith delivered once for all; [call; 
 
 One holy band, endowed with Heaven's high 
 One earnest, endless strife — 
 This is the Church, th' Eternal framed of old." 
 
 Lyra Apostolica. 
 
46 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 " delicate on the earth," when they are called 
 by their Master to " drink 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, that 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 
 the fleeting and the perishable, and even while 
 still imprisoned in this tabernacle of clay their 
 spirits will yearn for communion with the Endu- 
 ring and the Infinite. 
 
 Another reason for the institution of this sea- 
 son in Primitive times was — with reference 
 
 TO TWO CLASSES OF INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE 
 THEN TO BE RECEIVED INTO THE CHURCH. 
 
 One class was that of the Catechumens, who 
 had been preparing for Baptism. As Easter was 
 the fixed and solemn time for their admission to 
 this rite/ the Church fasted with them as a pre- 
 
 t. The most celebrated time for Baptism in the 
 early Church, was Easter ; next to that, Pentecost, 
 or Whitsuntide, and then Epiphany. The Church 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 47 
 
 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, we praying and fasting 
 together with them. Then they are brought to 
 the place where water is, and are regenerated af- 
 ter the same manner of regeneration as we were 
 regenerated before them." w In the same manner, 
 Cyril of Jerusalem thus addresses the Catechu- 
 mens : " The present season is a season of con- 
 fession ; 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 
 
 oowever 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. 7. 
 
 u. Bingham, lib, xxi, ch. 1, sec. 12. 
 
48 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 forty days, sufficient space and opportunity to 
 put off the old garments, and put on the new." v 
 Upon this account all candidates for baptism 
 were 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 
 avow His name should not walk unworthy of 
 their calling, and therefore through all this season, 
 they prayed and fasted with them. They felt a 
 zeal for the whole body of the faithful, and an 
 ardent desire that no stain should rest upon the 
 religion 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 expect no sympathy, but lived isolated 
 and apart from those among whom they dwelt. 
 When therefore, as was always done by the 
 Apostles, they were addressed as " brethren " a 
 chord was struck, which vibrated through every 
 heart. They knew that they were "heirs to- 
 gether of the grace of life." 
 
 Bingham, lib. xxi, ch. 1, sec. 12. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 49 
 
 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 re- 
 gard " 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 dis- 
 ciples of the same faith. They are looking up- 
 ward to a common Master, invisible indeed to the 
 eye of sense, yet whose presence they every 
 where recognize 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 — and 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 — 
 5 
 
50 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 " 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 he- 
 resy and schism have entered " the consecrated 
 host of God's elect," rending it asunder, tear- 
 ing in pieces " the body of Christ, which is His 
 Church," and arraying the followers of the 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 parties 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 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 51 
 
 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 which prevailed 
 in ancient times ! Then, when the fold of Christ 
 was one, and her prayers in every place the 
 same, her members, wherever they were in the 
 earth, felt that they were among brethren, and 
 recognized in every lineament 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 Lord, 
 one faith, one baptism." 
 
 Touching indeed is the illustration given of this 
 truth, by the feelings 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 ! " There 
 was nothing new, or strange, or singular, about 
 the burial procession, particularly calculated to 
 excite the attention of Marco Polo. The De Pro- 
 fundis 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 
 
52 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 
 twilight and the plaining Vesper bell. But he 
 who braves every danger for himself, may feel 
 his heart sink within him when the pageant of 
 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 Christ- 
 endom. However uncouth may be the speech 
 of 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 of 
 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 ! 
 
 w. Sir Francis Palgrave's Merchant and Friar, p. 
 138. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 53 
 
 What a dejection of spirit often comes over the 
 Christian, as he is reminded of this subject in re- 
 peating the Confession — " I believe in one Ca- 
 tholic and Apostolic Church !" Is there not rea- 
 son, then, at this Holy season, when the Univer- 
 sal 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 1 
 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 one of another." Let us then peti- 
 tion our Common Father, that He will grant us 
 more of that spirit which distinguished the Chris- 
 tian host in earlier and better days, until we re- 
 alize, that He " has knit together his elect in one 
 communion and fellowship, in the mystical body 
 of his Son Christ our Lord."* 
 
 The other class of persons, who were prepar- 
 ing 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 
 Canonical time of probation, during which they 
 were excluded from her services, were generally 
 
 x. Collect for All Saints Day, 
 
54 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 absolved and readmitted at the time of the Easter 
 Festival. Some of them for flagrant sins, had 
 been kept under this penitential discipline for 
 years, until by evident humility and earnestness, 
 they had given the fullest proof of their contrition 
 and amendments It is to this that an ancient 
 Bishop refers, when he says — " The Anniversary 
 solemnity of Easter, was not only the time of 
 regenerating 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 
 
 y. 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 — to show 
 their liberality to the poor in an eminent degree — 
 and in some Churches to exercise their humility by 
 taking upon themselves the office and care of burying 
 the dead. See Bingham, lib. xviii, ch. 2, sec. 4. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 55 
 
 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 
 in the Church, when the offender was obliged 
 to make his confession and his repentance as 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 power. 
 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 power 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 
 
 z. Gregory Nyssen. (Bingham, lib. xxi, cli. 1, 
 sec. 13.) 
 
56 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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. 
 Thus, for eight months, he w T as ignominiously 
 excluded 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, pros- 
 trate on the pavement, stripped of his imperial 
 ornaments, beating his breast, and watering the 
 ground with his tears, the master of the Roman 
 Empire, and the legislator of the world, received 
 his hard wrung absolution. Thus it was that 
 the Church then stood forth, as the champion of 
 the oppressed, and extended her penalties over 
 the mightiest of the earths 
 
 But how imposing must have been this peni- 
 tential discipline, so rigorously enforced ! " The 
 Church was not then divided into separate inde- 
 
 a. Milman's History of Christianity s vol. ii, p. 230. 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 57 
 
 pendent bodies, holding no communication with 
 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 
 Roman 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 blessings and her cen- 
 sures were an outward expression, an earthly 
 type, by which men were warned of what judg- 
 ment was proceeding in Heaven upon their con- 
 duct of life, and her slowness of forgiveness, and 
 the fiery probation to which she submitted the 
 penitent, were well calculated to dispel those 
 hurtful notions which men now so generally en- 
 tertain of the ease and the speed of the process 
 of forgiveness of sins" 6 The multitude, often 
 but partially reclaimed from barbarism, who 
 could be restrained by no worldly motives, and 
 
 b. Rectory of Valehead, p. 164. 
 
58 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 over whom the civil authority of the land exerted 
 bat little power when it came into conflict with 
 their passions, were obliged to tremble 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 with 
 such convictions, we find that all the services of 
 Lent breathe an evident feeling of contrition — 
 that we every where present ourselves in the at- 
 
OBJECT OF ITS INSTITUTION. 59 
 
 titude of humility, and pray our merciful Father 
 to grant us " perfect remission and forgiveness." 
 Let us strive then to partake of the spirit of these 
 petitions : and when we look around us and re- 
 member how far, as a Church, we have wandered 
 from the path of primitive holiness, how luke- 
 warm 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 or 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 gene- 
 rations 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 examples, but also the 
 
 c. Article xx. Of the Authority of the Church — 
 "The Church hath power to decree rites or cere- 
 monies.' ' 
 
60 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 respon- 
 sibilities — enjoying the fruits of their labors — 
 and that we must commit this sacred heritage un- 
 diminished to our successors. Let us never then 
 be willing to give up these ancient services, 
 which were used by the holy dead, whose me- 
 mory we love, or to substitute in their place the 
 novelties of an age u 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 unholy world — loving with a true 
 devotion, the Church for which they died — and 
 seeking to imbibe the spirit which reigns in her 
 courts. And then, when " life's fitful fever " is 
 over, we shall be admitted with the just whom 
 we have followed on earth, to the Paradise of 
 God — to u the general assembly and Church of 
 the first-born, which are written in Heaven." 
 
ftjjt tytapx ©httrtatttt of f ^t. 
 
 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 find the prormVd rest. 
 
 The Cathedral, 
 
II. 
 
 Hie 2fopti x Obgei^b^cc of JLeirf. 
 
 We are told, that in one of the darkest pe- 
 riods 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 ye die, saith the Lord God of Hosts." a 
 
 And thus, by the voice of His Church, is God 
 at this season calling us also " to weeping and 
 
 a. Isaiah xxii, 12, 13, 14. 
 
64 . THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 congregation, assemble the elders, gather the 
 children, and those that suck at the breasts ; let 
 the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the 
 bride out of her closet ; let the priests, the minis- 
 ters 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." 6 
 In this way it is, we are directed, by chastening 
 our spirits, to prepare to celebrate our Lord's 
 solemn sacrifice — that mysterious passion and 
 agony which the world can never fully compre- 
 hend, 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 our- 
 selves of these opportunities to approach our 
 God — afflicting the 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 
 
 b, Scripture appointed for the Epistle for Ash- 
 Wednesday. 
 
ITS PROPER OESERVANCE. 65 
 
 benefit, let us look at some of the methods in 
 which we may best observe this solemn period of 
 our Ecclesiastical year. 
 
 Abstinence from worldly Amusements, is 
 one particular which most naturally occurs to us. 
 In the early Church, not only was the attend- 
 ance of her members on all public games and 
 shows forbidden during the season of Lent, but 
 the prohibition w as even extended to the celebra- 
 tion 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 humilia- 
 tion and mourning. St. Chrysostom, in his Lent 
 sermons, inveighs with his usual zeal, against any 
 violation of these salutary rules. In the midst of 
 his sharp invectives against those who had at- 
 tended 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 the Circus, with what heart can 1 
 think of preaching to you again, who have so 
 soon let slip all that I said before ? This is what 
 chiefly raises my grief, yea my anger and indig- 
 nation, that together with my admonition ye have 
 
 c, See Bingham's Orig. Ecdes. lib. xxi, ch. 1, 
 sec, 21. 
 
66 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 to- 
 gether so often in this placed And again, in 
 another Homily, while in a pathetic manner ex- 
 hibiting to them the moral influence of this con- 
 duct, his language is — " Subdue, I beseech you, 
 this wicked and pernicious custom. And con- 
 sider, that they who run to the Circus, not only 
 do much harm to themselves, but are the occa- 
 sion of great scandal to others. For when the 
 Jews and Gentiles see you, who are every day 
 at Church to hear a sermon, come notwithstand- 
 ing 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. Neither will they stop here, but rail 
 at our Head, and for the servant's fault blas- 
 pheme our common Lord, and think that a suffi- 
 cient apology and excuse for their own errors, 
 that they have something to object to the life and 
 conversation of others. " e 
 
 d. St. Chrys. torn, ii, p. 49, Horn. 6, in Gen. 
 €, St. Chrys. torn, ii, p. 61 Horn. 7, in Gen. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE* 67 
 
 And if worldly amusements have in this age 
 changed their form, still their nature and in- 
 fluence are the same. A ceaseless struggle for 
 our affections is going on, and the choice we 
 make determines our state, not only in this life, 
 but through all the wasteless ages of our immor- 
 tality. The tempter still arrays before the Christ- 
 ian, the glare and gaudiness of this 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 tem- 
 poral" to those which are "unseen'and eternal." 
 We must live in this lower world, as pilgrims 
 whose hopes and affections are not here — who 
 bear 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. We are to be like St. Paul, 
 " crucified with our Lord to the world, and the 
 world to us" — gazing on its pleasures with the 
 same unconcern with which 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 comforts and its innocent enjoy- 
 
68 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 merits, when called to this sacrifice for any wor- 
 thy end ; for there may come occasion to the fol- 
 lower of the Lord to " take pleasure in infirmi- 
 ties, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, 
 in distresses for Christ's sake.'" Thus, in striving 
 to be more conformed to his Master, or more en- 
 tirely to be disentangled from this scene of tempt- 
 ation, he may be obliged to offer upon the altar 
 of Christian duty, all those affections which twine 
 most closely about the heart, " losing his life for 
 Christ's sake and the Gospel's, that he may 
 save it." 
 
 " Sweet is 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 affections pure ; 
 Yet in the world even these abide, and we 
 
 Above the world our calling boast : 
 Once gain the mountain top, and thou art free; 
 
 Till then, who rest, presume ; who turn to look, 
 are lost.'^ 
 
 It was to escape the unholy influence of this 
 world's 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- 
 
 /, Keble's Christian Year. First Sunday in Lent. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 69 
 
 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 suffering, 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 their ob- 
 ject. The piety at which they aimed, was tinged 
 with dreamy reveries, and evaporated in con- 
 templation of an imaginary purity. The pas- 
 sions in their breasts which they had hoped to 
 root out, turned inward, and centered in them- 
 selves, and they found that 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 
 
70 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 reaped their retribution. They deprived them- 
 selves of all those high and ennobling feelings, 
 which purify the heart, while they animate men 
 to exertion. Their selfishness recoiled upon 
 themselves, and the dreamy enthusiast who wish- 
 ed 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.* 7 
 
 g. These remarks will of course apply only to the 
 solitaries. While their cells were the very nurseries 
 of superstition, they were said, in the language of 
 Alcuin, "to lead an angelical life." Archbishop 
 Leighton, however, much more truly describes an 
 angelical life, as " a life spent between ascending in 
 prayer to fetch blessings from above, and descending 
 to scatter them among men." The monastic insti- 
 tutions were free from many of those difficulties of 
 which we have spoken, and in the purer days of the 
 Church rendered essential service to the cause of re- 
 ligion, when society around was in a rude and almost 
 barbarous state. The monks were often learned and 
 industrious — the patterns of active virtue — the 
 liberal dispensers of charity — and the zealous pro- 
 moters of learning and useful arts. " It was a great 
 benefit, that there should be places of education, 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 71 
 
 The true trial of our life heiie is to meet with 
 evil, and yet, by God's grace to overcome it — 
 to be in the world, and yet so to trample it under 
 our feet as to show, that we are not of the 
 
 where the young might be trained for the service 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 protection" (Churton's Early Eng. 
 Church, p. 104. See chap, v and vi). They who 
 in the reign of Henry VIII. were grasping at the 
 wealth of the monasteries, eagerly united to villify 
 their occupants, and succeeding generations have 
 quietly received their report, with scarcely the trou- 
 ble of a doubt. But the true history of the monastic 
 institution is yet to be written, by one, who 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, while 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 are asylums, to which 
 respectable females " when thrown out upon the 
 world by the dissolution of their families, can retire, 
 
72 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 world — to have its fascinations around us, and 
 yet to turn from them. Its Circean song may 
 float sweetly to our ears, but yet it must not be- 
 guile us to pass over into the land of its enchant- 
 ments. It is in the fiery ordeal of temptation' 
 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 be- 
 come more clear after every conquest which he 
 makes — his reliance upon things unseen and 
 eternal is strengthened — and his whole Christ- 
 ian 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, when 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 
 truly better, he is the true wayfaring Christian. 
 
 without experiencing those mortifications which are 
 so frequently attendant upon adversity " (Dwight's 
 Germany, p. 100). An English lady has of late 
 years founded a similar house, at Clifton near Bris- 
 tol (Churton's Early Eng. 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 OBSERVANCE. 73 
 
 I can not praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, 
 unexercised and unbreathed, 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 pu- 
 rifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary. 
 Which was the reason why our sage and serious 
 poet Spencer, describing true Temperance under 
 the person of Guion, brings him in with his Pal- 
 mer through the cave of Mammon, and the bower 
 of earthly bliss, that he might see and know, and 
 yet abstain.' 1 
 
 Yet it is evident, on the other 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, 
 has yearly in the season of Lent, recalled her 
 children from the absorbing cares of time, and 
 7 
 
74 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 
 upon these scenes, and decide whether he acted 
 well and wisely while life was going on. 71 
 
 h. One of the most common charges against the 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE 75 
 
 Yet there are times and seasons, when there 
 can be no mistake on this subject, and when the 
 Church has decided that her children must retire, 
 in a peculiar manner, from this world, to think of 
 
 Church is, that her members are permitted to mingle 
 in the gayeties of the world in a manner inconsistent 
 with Christian character, and particularly to fre- 
 quent 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 comprehensive 
 Baptismal Vow, even to that last solemn prayer in the 
 Visitation of the Sick, which commends the depart- 
 ing soul to the mercy of its God. As conclusive evi- 
 dence of the sense of the Church on this point, we 
 can give the highest authority — that of the House 
 of Bishops in General Convention. It stands thus 
 recorded on their Journal : 
 
 ''Tuesday May 21th, 1817. Resolved, That the 
 following be entered on the Journal of this House and 
 be sent to the House of Clerical and Lay deputies, to 
 be read therein : 
 
76 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 
 
 " The House of Bishops, solicitous for the preser- 
 vation 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 indulgence in those worldly plea- 
 sures which may tend to withdraw the affections from 
 spiritual things. And especially on the subject of 
 gaming, of amusements involving cruelty to the brute 
 creation, and of theatrical representations, to which 
 some peculiar circumstances have called their atten- 
 tion — they do not hesitate to express their unani- 
 mous opinion, that these amusements, as well from 
 their licentious tendency, as from the strong tempta- 
 tions to vice which they afford, ought not to he fre* 
 quented. And the Bishops can not refrain from ex- 
 pressing 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 the- 
 atrical representations are fixed for the evenings of 
 her most solemn Festivals." — Journal of Gen. Con. 
 1817, p. 46. 
 
 Any one acquainted with the regular steps of de- 
 gradation through which the theatre has passed during 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 77 
 
 warning for its celebration upon the Sunday or 
 some holy day immediately preceding." And 
 at the same time it is made their 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 un- 
 less 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 ? No — it is not there 
 that God is accustomed to meet us, with the in- 
 
 the last twenty- five years, will acknowledge that if 
 it had " a licentious tendency" in 1817, that demoral- 
 izing 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 illustra- 
 tion of the spirit of the Church. These are the ex- 
 ceptions, and their conduct is looked upon by their 
 fellow members with sorrow and shame. 
 
78 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 fluences of His grace, or the rich aids of His 
 Spirit. Let us not then endeavor, thus to mingle 
 earth with Heaven, or to come to our Master's 
 solemn feast with thoughts distracted by frivolity 
 and amusement. Let us walk entirely as " child- 
 ren of the light," or not attempt to worship at 
 the altars both of Christ and Belial. 
 
 Such a season, again, is that of Lent. Listen 
 to the tones of earnest repentance which the ser- 
 vices of the Church breathe forth, and then say, 
 whether after giving utterence 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 could 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 u weep- 
 ing and mourning," shall it be said of us, u be- 
 hold, joy and gladness ? " 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 79 
 
 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 
 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 ap- 
 pearing. 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 
 
80 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 our Master and his cause, until the excitements 
 and allurements which are around produce their 
 natural result, and we begin to be willing to take 
 our portion with those whom we had professed 
 to leave. We learn to persuade ourselves, to 
 yield in things which a more tender conscience 
 would have taught us to refuse, until our service 
 becomes partial and worldly, and we are no 
 longer heartily devoted to the Lord. 
 
 Now, how many thus 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 dis- 
 agreeable 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 so- 
 lemn caution which our Master gave, to guard 
 against this very danger. The rich man who 
 thought not of death — the servants who ate 
 and drank, but remembered not their Lord's re- 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 81 
 
 turn — and the virgins who slept when the bride- 
 groom 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 serving 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. In 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 purifed 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 Fasting. On the morning of Ash- Wed- 
 nesday, we prostrate ourselves before our God 
 and say— " Be favorable, O Lord, be favorable 
 
82 THE LEKTEN FAST. 
 
 to thy people, who turn to thee in weeping, 
 fasting and praying." And yet by how many, 
 have we not reason to fear, are these words ut- 
 tered, who shrink from the Christian duty of 
 which they speak ! It is much more easy to of- 
 fer 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 dis- 
 use. 
 
 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 ! 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 humiliation and prayer. 
 And the result was, that victory again attended 
 them. Datid fasted as well as prayed, when he 
 humbled himself before God after his sin against 
 Uriah, and although deprived of his child, yet his 
 iniquity was forgiven. The inhabitants of Nin- 
 eveh, in fear of judgments obeyed the decree of 
 their King, when he proclaimed--- 4 ' Let neither 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 83 
 
 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 
 might 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 blessing he asked. And thus we 
 might go through the Old Testament, and show 
 that on every important occasion, the ancient 
 saints 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 Savior. Our Lord himself, before he en- 
 tered on His public ministry, passed through a 
 long period of preparatory fasting. The Apostles 
 did so, before every solemn act in which they en- 
 gaged. They were "in fastings often." St. 
 Paul frequently refers to the use of this means 
 of grace. He declares, that he " approves him- 
 self a minister of God," as in other things, so 
 
84 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 " in fastings also ;" and he writes to the Corinth- 
 ians — " Give yourselves to fasting and prayer." 
 Cornelius, " the devout centurion, 11 was engaged 
 in fasting, when the angel announced to him, 
 that his alms and prayers had " come up for a 
 memorial before God. 11 St. Peter was fasting, 
 when that wonderful vision revealed to him the 
 admission of the Gentiles into the Church of 
 God, and commissioned him to be to them, the 
 earliest herald of the Gospel. The Church at 
 Antioch was fasting, when the Holy Ghost said, 
 " separate me Barnabas and Saul. 11 
 
 Neither 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 
 disciples, how they ought to fast, and promised 
 that they should be recompensed for the right 
 performance of this duty. " But thou, when thou 
 fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face ; 
 that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto 
 thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father 
 which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 11 
 Well therefore has Hooker remarked — " Our 
 Lord and Savior would not teach the manner of 
 doing, much less propose a reward for doing, that 
 which were not both holy and acceptable in 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 85 
 
 God's sight."* But our Master also expressly 
 declared, that after His departure His children in 
 sorrow for his absence, should thus afflict them- 
 selves. " The days will come, when the bride- 
 groom 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 attain- 
 ments in the Christian life to be gained by those, 
 who through severity to themselves are able to 
 strive after them ? And do they not point out, 
 " the unseen strength " of fasting as that which 
 is to enable the Christian warrior to .win the 
 brightest crown? Yes, this is that " moreen* 
 cellent way n which is opened to those u who 
 will receive it." 
 
 And this was the light in which the early 
 Church regarded this duty. In those days, when 
 they stood near to their Lord, and walked in His 
 hallowed footsteps, how often is this practice 
 mentioned as one, whose value the Church fully 
 
 i. Eccles. Polity, b. v, sec. 72, 
 8 
 
86 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 appreciated ! Thus, St. Chrysostom says — 
 " Though at other times when we preachers cry 
 up and preach the duty of fasting never so much 
 all the year, 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. ,1j ' And again 
 he adds — " If a Jew or a Heathen ask you, why 
 do you fast? Do not tell him, it is for our 
 Savior's Passion on the cross ; for so you will 
 give him an handle to accuse you. For we do 
 not fast for the Passion or the Cross, but for our 
 sins, because we are come to the Holy Myste- 
 ries. The Passion is not the occasion of fasting 
 or mourning, but of joy and exultation. We 
 mourn not for that, but for our sins, and there- 
 fore 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 ab- 
 stained 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 
 
 j. St. Chrys. torn, v, Horn. 52, p. 709. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE, 87 
 
 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 — "seta 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 can not forbear quoting entire, on ac- 
 count of the admirable view which it gives of 
 this whole duty. We have [indeed been fre- 
 quently induced to transfer to these pages more 
 of the writings of the old Fathers of the Church, 
 than many persons may think desirable. But 
 when at the present day, " ancient Christianity" m 
 
 k. Bing. Orig. Eccles. lib. xxi, chap. 1, see. 16. 
 
 I. St. Chrys. torn, ii, Horn. 4, in Gen., p. 37. 
 
 m. It might seem scarcely worth while to notice 
 the work published a couple of years since under 
 the imposing title of " Ancient Christianity," were it 
 not for the fact, that it continues to be an arsenal 
 from which the enemies of the Primitive Church 
 draw their weapons. The Rev. Fred. W. Faber, in 
 his tract on " The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church," 
 gives this admirable abstract of its argument, and 
 the beautiful practical result to which Mr. Taylor 
 leads his readers. " His view, so far as we can 
 
88 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 is held up to scorn, and mutilated passages are 
 produced to fasten the charge of ignorance or 
 licentiousness upon those, " whose witness is in 
 Heaven and whose record is on high," we think 
 it well to prove, whenever it may be in our 
 power, that men whom the Church has been 
 accustomed to reverence, really "held fast the 
 profession of their faith without wavering. " The 
 extract to which we refer is this — "The true 
 fast is abstinence from vices. For abstinence 
 
 gather it, from the confused arrangement and ambig- 
 uous oracular style of his book, may be stated thus : 
 — That Christianity was never less Christian than 
 when it was ancient (p. 99) ; that Nicene Christian- 
 ity was the Apostacy predicted by St. Paul, (p. 
 299); that Romanism is an improvement upon it, 
 and has done the best it could with it (pp. 78, 79) ; 
 that, however, the Church did not cast off the 
 slough of Gnosticism and apostacy till the Reforma- 
 tion, (passim) ; that up to that time oriental Christ- 
 ianity was mainly SooiFeeism and occidental Christ- 
 ianity mainly Brahminism (p. 147, et al,) ; that the 
 Reformers themselves were too much addicted to 
 "demonology; 99 that the English Church is "unto- 
 wardly" Nicene in her formularies; finally, that we 
 must emancipate ourselves forthwith, the means of 
 doing which the author has not yet published." 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 89 
 
 from meat was appointed upon this 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, 
 to learn meekness and clemency, to have a con- 
 trite heart, to banish the thoughts of all inordi- 
 nate desires, to set the watchful eye of God before 
 his eyes, and his uncorrupted judgment ; to set 
 himself above riches, and exercise great liberal- 
 ity 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 absti- 
 nence from meat, we should abstain from those 
 things that hurt the soul, and diligently 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, 
 which were produced by that genial temperature, 
 enabled them to carry it to an extent, which in 
 
 n. St. Chrys. Horn. 8, in Gen., p. 79. 
 
90 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 re- 
 ference 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 
 pass all the day fasting, by reason of bodily 
 weakness, no wise man can condemn thee for 
 this. For we have a kind and merciful Lord, 
 who requires nothing of us above our strength. 
 
 o. St. Chrys. Horn. 22. de Ira, torn, i, p. 277. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 91 
 
 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 
 w r orks, we should not need the help of fasting. 
 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 can not continue all day fasting, I exhort 
 them to have regard to the weakness of their 
 bodies, and not upon that account deprive them- 
 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 can not fast let him give the more plentiful 
 
92 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 alms, let hirn be more fervent in his prayers, let 
 him show the greater alacrity and readiness in 
 hearing the divine oracles. For the weakness 
 of the body is no impediment in such offices as 
 these. Let him be reconciled to his enemies, 
 and forget injuries, and cast all thoughts of re- 
 venge out of his mind. He 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 pos- 
 sible 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 spiritual health of her 
 members, she prescribes only such a degree of 
 fasting, as may keep our lower nature in subjec- 
 tion to that which 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 ab- 
 stinence, 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." 
 
 p. St, Chrys. Horn. 10, in Gen., torn, ii, p. 91. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 93 
 
 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." a 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." r St. Chrysostom, in the extracts al- 
 ready given, alludes to this duty, and at a later 
 period, we find St. Augustine writing — "Fast- 
 ing without almsgiving, is a lamp without oil." 
 
 Such then is the argument for this practice, 
 drawn from Scripture, and also the manner of its 
 performance in the 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* 
 
 q. Hernias Pastor, in Cotel., torn, i, p. 106. 
 r. Bing. Orig. Eccles,, lib, xxi, cb. 1, sec, 18. 
 
94 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 " We will practice mortification and self denial 
 for learning's sake, but not for Christ's. We 
 will abstain from joys, and pleasures, and com- 
 pany, and numberless indulgences, and put re- 
 straint even on our loves, when ambition calls, 
 but not at the bidding of the Church. 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 unnumbered dead. But to smooth down 
 the severity 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 duly, and the weakness of our 
 flesh, and in a light way of the mercy of our 
 God. We are strong to do all things for our 
 selves, our own ambition strengthening us. We 
 are weak for Christ, even though He be ready 
 to give us strength. ,1s 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 transient 
 zeal, but the natural inclinations raise their re- 
 
 s. Faber's tracts on the Offices of the Church. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 95 
 
 monstrance — 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 
 saints in Primitive days, knew human nature 
 better than we do, and when they urged those 
 who should 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 
 
 t. Goethe somewhere makes a remark, which may 
 be applied to the whole circle of our religious duties : 
 64 Neither 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 
 can not conceive as insulated and detached ; whatever 
 we are to repeat with satisfaction, must not have be- 
 come foreign to us. 9 * 
 
96 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 over the soul, and bind it down to earth. " I 
 keep under my body " — says St. Paul — u 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. ,,w It teaches too, the habit of 
 self-denial— leading us 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 spiritual duties. 17 And 
 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 
 
 u. St. Chrys. Horn. 10, in Gen., torn, ii, p. 91. 
 
 v. " It is a most miserable state for a man to hare 
 every 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 Privata. Wednesday. 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE. 97 
 
 are quickened into exercise. And in this active, 
 busy age, when outward excitement has taken 
 the place of earnest, holy contemplation, how 
 necessary becomes any discipline, which can thus 
 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 
 in spirit — 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 absti* 
 nence, we are better prepared to listen to the 
 voice of God — our own prayers go up more 
 earnestly to his throne — and our affections are 
 crucified to a world which is fast fleeting away. 
 Therefore it was, that when the Church was re- 
 formed from the corruptions of Rome, fasting was 
 still prescribed " to discipline the flesh, to free 
 the spirit, and render it more earnest and fervent 
 9 
 
95 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 to prayer, and as a testimony and witness with us 
 before God of our humble submission to His High 
 Majesty, when we confess our sins unto Him, 
 and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness 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 cords 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/'* 
 
 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, 
 
 w. First Part of the Homily on fasting. 
 x. The Cathedral, 
 
ITS PROPER OBSERVANCE 99 
 
 go in to the marriage. But does each sea- 
 son, as it thus bears us nearer to the tomb, carry 
 us also nearer to Heaven ? Are we ready for 
 that summons, with our account made up, and 
 so living in watchfulness that the coming of the 
 Son of Man can not surprise us ? Are we num- 
 bered 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, and we are waiting in silence that stroke 
 which 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 of 
 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 than an 
 empty dream. It must be a life, spent in look- 
 ing forward to its close, and in preparing dili- 
 gently for that solemn change which is to pass 
 upon all men — 
 
 11 Life that shall send 
 A challenge to its end, 
 And when it comes, say ' Welcome, friend.' " 
 
%\t 3M-i»2 gtiqen in f*«t. 
 
 Could ye not watch one hour ! 
 Be ready ! on the bridal train 
 
 And bridegroom, with His dower, 
 May sweep along in vain. 
 Miserere mei! 
 
 Coxe's " Christian Ballads" 
 
 9* 
 
III. 
 
 " What ! could ye not watch with me one 
 hour ?" 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 Je- 
 sus 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 re- 
 membrance of those fearful sorrows even unto 
 death, of our suffering Lord. 
 
 We are told, that on that last night, after He 
 had instituted the sacred rite which was through 
 all ages, both to keep alive in the minds of His 
 
104 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 people, the " perpetual memory of His precious 
 death 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 Hea- 
 ven. This was the concluding scene of His min- 
 istry, 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 ! Listen to the earn- 
 est words of His petition, as amid the darkness 
 of the night, He prostrated Himself upon the 
 ground: "Father, all things are possible unto 
 Thee ; take away this cup from me : neverthe- 
 less, not what I will, but what thou wilt." And 
 then, " being in an agony, He prayed more earn- 
 estly ; and His sweat was as it were great drops 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 105 
 
 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 strengthened 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 list- 
 ened to these words. We also are looking for- 
 ward to that sacrifice on the Cross, the celebra- 
 tion 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 
 contemplate the mysteries of redemption. During 
 each week in the season of Lent, in accordance 
 with her regulations, the House of God is open, 
 that his children may meet, and turn unto Him 
 with that appropriate petition — " Create and 
 make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, 
 
106 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging 
 our wretchedness, may obtain of Thee, the God 
 of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. , ' a 
 
 This then, is the most solemn period of our 
 Ecclesiastical year, whether we look at the na- 
 ture of the services in which we are invited to 
 join, or that mysterious event to which we are 
 constantly pointed forward. And yet, how sel- 
 dom do even those who " profess and call them- 
 selves Christians, embrace as fully as they ought, 
 these opportunities of communing with God in 
 His holy temple ! How frequently, when the 
 sanctuary 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 say to many among us, as He did to His 
 disciples of old, in a tone of mingled sorrow and 
 reproach — " What ! could ye not watch with me 
 one hour !" 
 
 Let us then briefly look at some of the mo- 
 tives, which should induce every Christian, to 
 avail himself of the week-day services of the 
 Church during this period. 
 
 a. Collect for Ash- Wednesday. 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 107 
 
 The season itself, presents its earnest appeal. 
 When God delivered the law upon Sinai, the 
 people of Israel were commanded for three da) r s 
 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 
 agonies of our Lord — and to behold Him dying 
 for our salvation, it seems but proper, that we 
 should undergo some additional preparation of 
 heart. We should not rush at once from the tu- 
 mult 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 
 
108 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 twice in each week, 
 for a short time to think of our dying Savior, and 
 to bewail the sins which brought him to the 
 Cross ? Is there not an evident propriety in that 
 regulation, commenced even in Primitive times, 
 by which Wednesday (the day on which the 
 Jews took counsel to betray our Lord,) and Fri- 
 day, (the day of his death,) are devoted to affec- 
 tionate remembrance of Him, and humiliation for 
 ourselves l b Did He suffer in agony for our 
 transgressions, and yet, shall we think so lightly 
 of them, that we will not " rend our hearts," and 
 pray God to blot out our- guilt ? Can we, while 
 
 b. 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 consid- 
 ering the Gospel, that on the fourth day, which we 
 commonly call Feria Quarfa, the Jews took counsel 
 to kill our Lord, and on the sixth day our Lord suf- 
 fered. For which reason the sixth day is rightly ap- 
 pointed a fast.' ' — Bing. Orig. Ecchs. lib. xxi, chap. 
 3, sec. 2. 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 109 
 
 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 sufferings which then crushed His hu- 
 man 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 par- 
 don 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 
 those that keep holyday? Should our public 
 worship be confined to the Sunday ; or should we 
 not endeavor, by practice as well as by words,, 
 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 8 a man of sorrows, and ac- 
 quainted with grief' — with me, who was 'brought 
 
 10 
 
HO THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 as a lamb to the slaughter,' that you might live ? 
 Must I disrobe myself of my Heavenly glory, 
 and come to this earth of suffering and woe, and 
 pass a weary pilgrimage of thirty years, and yet, 
 my children not be able to watch one single hour, 
 to prepare their hearts to think upon my sacri- 
 fice ? Did I 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 sufferings able to en- 
 dure a single hour of communion with me — one 
 single hour of watchfulness and prayer?" 
 
 Again — by attendance on the week-day 
 prayers, we are in some degree following the 
 
 EXAMPLE SET US BY THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 In the ancient Church, there were religious as- 
 semblies 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." c 
 
 The Homilies of St. Chrysostom upon Genesis, 
 from which we have already so often quoted, 
 were sermons preached in this manner, day after 
 
 c, Orig* Eccles. lib. xxi, chap. 1, sec. 20. 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. Ill 
 
 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 exhortations 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 
 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 co- 
 vetous 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 up 
 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- 
 
 10 
 
112 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 tion ; though we assemble here every day, and 
 enjoy continual preaching and 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 
 children in the faith, and in a ripeness of 
 Christian character. Then, she so often called 
 them to prayer, 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," 6 
 
 d. St. Chrys. Horn. 11, in Gen., torn, ii, p. 107. 
 
 e. The subject of the daily services in the early 
 Church deserves a brief notice, because in this day 
 
THE WEEK DAY PRAYERS. 113 
 
 by which without interfering with the business of 
 this world, she regularly called her members to 
 remember the solemn realities of the world which 
 
 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, w r as con- 
 tinued by the inspired founders of the Christian 
 Church." (No. 75, On the Breviary.) This also 
 was Wheatley's view. (On Common prayer, p. 84.) 
 As late as the time of St. Chrysostom, there is no 
 mention in any writer of more than these three pe- 
 riods. Thus in one place this Father represents an 
 individual as complaining, " How is it possible for 
 me, who am a secular man, and confined to the courts 
 of 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). Tertullian also incidentally alludes to " tertia 
 hora, et sexta, et nona," as the usual ones of public 
 prayer (de Jejun. cap. 10). 
 10* 
 
114 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 is to come, and trained them up systematically 
 for Heaven. s; Unwavering, unflagging, not 
 urged by fits and starts, not heralding forth their 
 feelings, but resolutely, simply, perseveringly, 
 
 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 expanded into what were called " the 
 Seven Canonical Hours of Prayer." Yet even in 
 the fourth century, writers 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 in 
 latter ages easily introduced into the principal 
 Churches. We believe therefore, that our own 
 Church, with the arrangment for daily morning and 
 evening prayers, is much nearer the model of 
 Primitive times, than those who increased these 
 services to Seven (See Bingham, lib. xiii, ch. 9, 
 sec. 8). 
 
 We refer here to the public services, for with regard 
 to 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. 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 115 
 
 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 
 Paradise to bless and praise him forever and 
 ever" f It was this noble system which raised the 
 early church to that height of holiness, and ena- 
 bled 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 
 
 /. Newman's Lectures on Justification, p. 387. 
 
116 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 human teacher, on 
 prayer days there are but few scattered here and 
 there, who feel the wish to abase themselves be- 
 fore God/ And the reason of this is evident. 
 It is easy for individuals, to sit in their seats, and 
 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 instru- 
 ment." His sentences fall upon the ear, and it 
 is 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 wandering thoughts — 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 shown by now and 
 then sending up glowing petitions to Heaven, 
 
 g. 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 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 117 
 
 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 so- 
 lemn, serious frame, realizing that He " readeth 
 our thoughts, and trieth our hearts," and that 
 His saints and angels," 7 * even " a great cloud oi 
 
 one should have fancied, that the incense of the 
 Temple (which was a compound of several precious 
 gums), made no other perfume than the spices would 
 have done, had they been burnt one by one." — Thorn- 
 dike. {Bishop Patrick on Prayer, p. 217.) 
 
 h. The Apostle Paul, when declaring (1 Cor. xi, 
 10) that a woman should cover her head in 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 stated by Ori- 
 gen in his comments on those words of the Psalmist 
 
 — "the Angel of the Lord encampeth round about 
 them that fear Him." " It is probable" — says he 
 
 — "that when many are assembled together sin- 
 cerely 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 Church, where the saints are 
 
118 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 witnesses compass us about." This therefore is 
 the very discipline 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 
 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 has set forth, arrayed 
 
 gathered together ; one Church of men, and another 
 Church of angels." 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 119 
 
 in all that beauty with which genius can invest 
 the truth. 
 
 " I have read in the marvellous 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 Vale of Tears afar, 
 
 The spectral camp is fled ; 
 Faith shineth as a morning star, 
 
 Our ghastly fears are dead."* 
 
 How wise then is that provision of the Church, 
 by which she calls us to these oft-recurring 
 prayers ! She wishes thus, to render us " meet 
 to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
 lig , ht. ,,) It is for this reason too, that she so fre- 
 quently in her Calendar commemorates the holy 
 
 i. Longfellow's Beleaguered City. 
 
120 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 dead, who have already entered into their rest. 
 Contracted indeed is the view of this subject 
 which so many take, when they enquire, 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 suf- 
 ferings? 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 Gos- 
 pel dispensation presents its holy array of apos- 
 tles, 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- 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 121 
 
 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."' 7 
 
 (i Thus, 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 thought of the dead makes us gentle and 
 child-like, and leads us to forget ourselves, as well it 
 may. For we know that according to St. Paul's 
 teaching the spirits of just men made perfect are not 
 far from us. We are come to them, and they are- 
 11 
 
122 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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. " For 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 
 in Scripture, the passages which 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 adequate conception of 
 his character. 1 then examine myself by it, and 
 
 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 we 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 of 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 PRAYERS. 123 
 
 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 
 with him, 1 rejoice and glorify his blessed Mas- 
 ter, and my own, as if 1 had been restored to- 
 gether with him. And, last of all, I look intently 
 upon that death, which according to his Master's 
 prediction he underwent, and prepare myself also 
 to take up the Cross of my Lord, 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- 
 binations of ideas which had never before pre. 
 sented themselves ; and I experience with the 
 increase of my spiritual knowledge an accession 
 also of mental wealth. At a due interval ar- 
 rives another festival, the centre of attraction to 
 another class of thoughts, which had else been 
 too loose and vague to produce any impression ; 
 
124 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 these too I fix in permanence. In this manner 1 
 am carried round the year; my views grow 
 clearer, my resolutions more firm ; 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 around, to which I return at least 
 refreshed, and I hope 1 may add, improved."* 1 
 
 The Church, it is true, in these services offers 
 us no excitement. She never teaches that glow- 
 ing 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 us 
 in a sober, constant, and Scriptural piety. She 
 employs no spiritual whirlwind now and then to 
 sweep over her, which when it has subsided, 
 leaves her children during the remainder of the 
 year, to sink back again to a death-like coldness, 
 but she goes on the even tenor of her way, 
 steadily building them up in a knowledge of the 
 faith. Neither indeed does she present us with 
 any novelties, for the prayers and praises in which 
 we unite, have been heard in her services a long 
 time, some of them for more than fourteen cen- 
 turies. 2 They are a precious legacy, bequeathed 
 
 k. Rectory of Valehead, p. 54. 
 
 I. For instance, the prayer of St, Chrysostom, at 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 125 
 
 to us by ages which have gone. They are u the 
 form of sound words " which our fathers used, 
 and with which the 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 
 thought and Spirit with those of whom the world 
 was not worthy, who have long since passed 
 away to their reward. 
 
 Again — another reason why every Christian 
 should avail himself of these services is, that he 
 
 MAY DRAW 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 close of the service. Also, the Doxologies, the 
 Trisagion or cherubical hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy, &c, 
 and the Magnificat, The Te Deum has been gener- 
 ally 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. 
 
 11* 
 
126 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 undefiled religion ! 
 With thousands in our own land straying into 
 heresy and schism, and millions on the wastes of 
 heathenism tC 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 
 our own hopes of eternal life, and which 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 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 127 
 
 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 dif- 
 ferent lesson with regard to the power of prayer. 
 St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians — " Breth- 
 ren ! pray for us, that the word of God may 
 have free course and be glorified. " And in ac- 
 cordance 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 bles- 
 sings 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 us, and show us the light of His coun- 
 tenance, 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 we also as a Church have, in this res- 
 pect a duty to perform with regard to the ad- 
 vancement of our faith. 
 
 And here we would remark more particularly 
 on the duty of presenting our petitions to God, 
 for those who attend with us in the same sanc- 
 tuary. When we remember how often the Gos- 
 pel is proclaimed in our Churches, and that it is 
 God's own appointed means for publishing the 
 
128 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 pe- 
 tition 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 u God, even our God, 
 would give us his blessing." Let those then who 
 believe that they are " children of the light and 
 of the day," think how much 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 
 without the ark of safety — How blindly they 
 are rushing on to an inheritance of woe — how 
 they are standing in jeopardy every hour, reck- 
 less of the storm which is gathering against 
 them — and our sympathies will be awakened in 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 129 
 
 their behalf. Then, we shall need no other in- 
 ducement to " watch for one hour v with the 
 people of God, where prayer is offered up, that 
 w r e also may present that appropriate petition — 
 " Return, 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 with 
 us, to avail ourselves of the solemnities of this 
 Season. It is the truth, that we may not live to 
 
 SEE AGAIN THE RETURN OF THIS PERIOD OF OUR ECCLE- 
 SIASTICAL year. This may be our last Lent on 
 earth, to herald in either an eternal Festival in 
 Heaven, or to be but the prelude to that " lament- 
 ation 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 
 
130 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 to our own hearts and consciences, as a reality 
 in which we have a deep and fearful interest. 
 And how solemn — how awakening should be 
 the effect 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 not hear the call ! Then, our probation 
 may have ended — our account be sealed up 
 against the Great Day of moral retribution — 
 and our graves in the quiet Churchyard, be grow- 
 ing 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 little circle to the si- 
 lence 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 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 131 
 
 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 la- 
 mentations for the dead ; and a vacant seat by 
 the hearth, and an added tombstone in the Church- 
 yard 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 1 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 
 
132 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 manhood in the limbs, we may be unconsciously 
 treading the edge of the crumbling precipice, 
 about to be launched into Eternity. 
 
 " Time is fleeting, 
 
 And our hearts, though stout and brave, 
 Still like muffled drums are beating 
 Funeral marches to the grave. " w 
 
 Let the determination then be strengthened 
 within us, that while life lasts, 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 prayer of penitence and faith. 
 
 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 P 1 And is it not 
 our business here, to train ourselves for the cease- 
 less worship of Heaven ? Are we then gaining 
 
 tn. Longfellow's Psalm of Life. 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 133 
 
 this spirit of prayer which will render us " meet 
 to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints 
 in light ?" Let us examine our own 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 
 u 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 an- 
 cient 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 
 
 12 
 
134 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 will show, that you have been the victim of a 
 fatal delusion. We look beyond the few remain- 
 ing days of this fleeting life — we 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 offers to 
 them no gleam of hope, but shrinking from " the 
 Great White Throne, and the face of Him that 
 sitteth thereon, 11 they commence the desolate 
 travel of Eternity — lost — undone forever. 
 
 We would entreat you then, O restless and 
 disappointed child of immortal^ ! to avail your- 
 self of this solemn season, when all things invite 
 you to thoughtfulness 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 
 seek to grasp them, and gain in their place, u the 
 peace which passe th understanding 11 — the calm 
 
THE WEEK-DAY PRAYERS. 135 
 
 and solid happiness which our faith only can be- 
 stow. It is to be found — not in feverish and vain 
 desires — not in ihe 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 spirit of earnest supplication, pray Him 
 to blot out the dark record of the past, and to 
 strengthen you for His service during the years 
 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." 
 
@jwr& fritag. 
 
 Low bow'd Thy head convulsed, and droopM in death, 
 
 Thy voice sent forth a sad and wailing cry 5 
 Slow struggled from Thy breast the parting breath, 
 And every limb was wrung with agony. 
 That head whose veiHess blaze 
 Filled angels with amaze, 
 When at that voice sprang forth the rolling suns on high. 
 Milman's " Hymn to the Savior,' 11 
 
 12* 
 
IV. 
 
 "And they crucified Him." Simple yet so- 
 lemn 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 vivid- 
 ly does this short sentence bring before 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 
 
140 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 on the shrinking — 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 Mes- 
 siah, hearing even in death their mad ingratitude 
 and cruel tauntings. Yet on that patient suffer- 
 er's brow, where the inspiration of the Divinity 
 and the agonies of Humanity struggled together, 
 we may believe, there beamed an expression of 
 the loftiest triumph. He felt, that even in disso- 
 lution He was winning the noblest victory, and 
 gaining immortality 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 execrations of myriads filled the 
 air, and mingled with the low, deep tones of our 
 expiring Master, while He prayed for His ene- 
 mies, or commended His soul to God. At length, 
 there rang without the walls of Jerusalem that 
 last, loud cry, which proclaimed to a wondering 
 universe, that all was finished — the mighty 
 offering made — and that "through death our 
 Lord had destroyed him that had the power of 
 death." Then it was, that even inanimate nature 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 141 
 
 seemed to sympathise in his struggle. The sun 
 veiled its face, and darkness covered the land. 
 The earth reeled to and fro, beneath the earth- 
 quake's shock. And not on the living only did 
 this day of strange revelations produce its influ- 
 ence. Even the last resting places of the dead 
 were rent asunder, that on the morning of the 
 first day they too might come forth with their 
 risen Lord. Then, even the bodies of the slum- 
 bering 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 
 brotherhood with the living, 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 this holy day, and felt that deep indeed 
 should be their self-abasement at this season of 
 their Lord's mysterious agonies? They consi- 
 dered it as invested with a peculiar solemnity, 
 and even those who might have been negligent 
 during the rest of Lent, religiously observed this 
 
142 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 day, as the one on which the Bridegroom was 
 taken from them. a 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 ingrati- 
 tude, than to spend the day sacred to the suffer- 
 ings 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 sin- 
 gle hour to attend the services of the Church ? 
 Are his thoughts in a proper state for comme- 
 morating his Lord's passion, when he 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 
 
 a. See Bingham's Orig. Eccles., lib. xxi, ch. 1, 
 sec. 1. 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 143 
 
 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 the 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 and distress, 
 have always been considered as having a still 
 higher reference to the sufferings and death of 
 Christ. The first 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 
 same spot ; while the second lesson (John xviii), 
 brings a portion of our Lord's sufferings before 
 us, in the 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 chap, liii), contains the most minute and 
 
144 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 striking 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 pre-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 by 
 this one great sacrifice of our Lord, we can not 
 but feel that this fast is appropriately named 
 Good Friday. The recollections which gather 
 around it may be those of sorrow, yet mingled 
 with them is the loftiest triumph, for at this pe- 
 riod it was that man^s great redemption was 
 wrought out. 
 
 The ordinary themes connected with the sa- 
 crifice of our Lord are familiar to all who " pro- 
 fess and call themselves Christians," and need 
 not be discussed in a work of this kind. They 
 form the very foundation of all religious teach- 
 ing. We will therefore endeavor to bring for- 
 ward one point which is generally less under- 
 stood— the WITHDRAWAL OF THE DIVINE PRE- 
 SENCE FROM THE SUFFERER IN THE HOUR OF HIS 
 
 greatest need. And we have selected this 
 from the belief, that it furnishes the most strange 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 145 
 
 feature in all the array of His agony. Over- 
 whelming as were the sorrows which gathered 
 around the Son of Man in the time of His deep- 
 est degradation and shame, there were none that 
 can be compared with this. When His death 
 cry — "My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
 saken me ?" — 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. We have not capacity for compre- 
 hending their reality and boundless extent. Our 
 narrow conceptions can never picture to us the 
 unutterable sorrows of an infinite mind. Al- 
 though of course His Divine nature suffered not, 
 yet its 'very presence and union with his human 
 nature, endowed the latter with capabilities of 
 agony which 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 
 unspeakable anguish of soul. The wide interval 
 then which separates us from our Lord, necessa- 
 rily renders our views of all that concerns Him, 
 partial and defective. "We see but in part," 
 13 
 
146 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 us. 
 
 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 on the bleeding brow — and the spear 
 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 adequately 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 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 147 
 
 insufficient. How strong therefore are the ex- 
 pressions they select, and what a depth of mean- 
 ing are they evidently endeavoring to express ! 
 Their words signify the greatest possible ex- 
 tremity 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 withdrawal of the Divine Presence 
 by which God has promised to uphold His faith- 
 ful children in tribulation, and from the enjoy- 
 ment of which His own Son was cut off, when 
 " the sorrows of death compassed Him, and the 
 pains of Hell gat 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 , 
 that by the withdrawal of the Divine Presence is 
 not \meant, that the intimate union between the 
 Divine and human natures was dissolved. When 
 on his coming into the world, the Divinity as- 
 
148 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 sumed a mortal body, a union was formed which 
 was indissoluble. It subsisted during 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." 6 But it was the comfort- 
 able assurance of its presence which was with- 
 drawn, in that fearful hour when most it was 
 needed. 
 
 If however you ask the way in which this was 
 
 h. Hooker in one place in a single passage puts this 
 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 suffer. But he thereby meaneth Christ's 
 Divine Nature against Appollinarius, which held 
 even Deity itself passible. Cyril on the other side 
 against Nestorius as much contendeth, that whosoever 
 will deny ' very God ' to have suffered death, doth 
 forsake the faith, which, notwithstanding to hold, 
 were Heresy, if the name of God in this assertion 
 did not import, as it doth, the Person of' Christ, who 
 being verily God, suffered death, but in the flesh, and 
 not in that substance for which the name of God is 
 given Him." — Eccles. Polity, lib. v, sec. 53. 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 149 
 
 done, we answer, we can not tell. God has not 
 revealed to us the manner in which it was ef- 
 fected. He only informs us, that His crucified 
 Son was for a time deprived of the bright beams 
 of that Divinity which had taken up 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 
 formed, nor can we fully comprehend the man- 
 ner in which the suspension of the Divine Pre- 
 sence 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 inspirations 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 
 13* 
 
150 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 im- 
 parts such extacy to the saints in glory, and 
 should, even for a single moment, a dark veil be 
 drawn, cutting them off from its contemplation, 
 they would at once droop in sorrow. To our 
 Lord therefore, mere bodily sufferings, grievous 
 as they were, could have been comparatively but 
 of little moment, had He been animated and up- 
 held 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. God 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 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 151 
 
 the ancient prophet— -" Behold and see, if there 
 be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is 
 done unto me, wherewith the Lord hatfcf 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 inexpressible de- 
 light which 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 
 thoughts. But now, for a season this was 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, 
 
152 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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. 
 He felt, that in suffering at least, He was nothing 
 but a man. 
 
 Bat 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 counte- 
 nance 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 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 153 
 
 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 trial through which He passed ? No — we 
 know there can not he. 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 sor- 
 row that he trod the wine-press of God's wrath. 
 He judges it worth all His trials and sufferings, 
 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 re- 
 compense in the sight of the happiness of the re- 
 deemed, and in the glad rejoicings of the unnum- 
 bered millions, who but for His 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 
 
154 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 one, that just in proportion to the degree 
 of holiness we have, will be our delight in the 
 presence of God, and of course, the depth also of 
 distress we shall feel, when it is withdrawn from 
 us. The kingty Poet of Israel could exclaim — 
 " My soul thirsteth 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 befel Him, and He 
 was no longer cheered by the Divine presence ! 
 We, in the midst of our imperfections 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, 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 155 
 
 which was merited by the race whose nature He 
 had assumed. " He bore our griefs and carried 
 our sorrows. He was bruised for our iniquities ; 
 the chastisement of our peace was upon Him ; 
 and with 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 the 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 ef- 
 forts 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 
 
156 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 God was uninterrupted. 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 intimat- 
 ed, when He said to His enemies among the 
 Jews — " When I was daily with 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, 1 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 tempt 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 exert, 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 
 been foiled, but now the contest was renewed, 
 in the very crisis of this world's fate, when its 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 157 
 
 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 weapon 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 
 most fearful forms. It was, the 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 
 14 
 
158 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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, when we compare 
 them with human feelings and affections. There 
 is an unfathomable 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 prayers of 
 its Liturgy, the appropriate petition — "By 
 thine unknown sufferings, O Lord, have mercy 
 upon us. ,?c 
 
 But yet this consideration should only awaken 
 us to greater gratitude. If his sorrows were in- 
 finite, how great the wonder and amazement 
 which should fill our minds, when we remember, 
 that they 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 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 159 
 
 especially call 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 coming 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 hea- 
 venly 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 Celes- 
 tial City, and as the anthem of its shining inhabit- 
 ants floats softly to our ear, strive even now, to 
 add our voices to their glorious melody. We 
 know the burden of that " new song," and while 
 still in our earthly state, may familiarize our 
 minds with it. As the 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 ago- 
 nies of which, we have attained all our hopes of 
 pardon here and of glory hereafter. 
 
160 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 of 
 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? JEven 
 from the twilight knowledge of an ancient and 
 heathen philosophy, we may learn a better les- 
 son. 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 us. There, in the 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- 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 161 
 
 tainty, may well say, "Death is swallowed u p 
 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 thie 
 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, 
 and was buried, and rose again for us, Jesus 
 Christ our Lord." d 
 
 But yet, all our thoughts are not those of joy 
 and triumph when we dwell on this great Sacri- 
 fice. Sorrowful emotions also mingle with 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 Redemp- 
 
 d. Collect for Easter-Even. 
 14* 
 
162 THE LENTEN PAST. 
 
 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 I why hast Thou forsaken me^ — 
 and the view may awaken them from their 
 deathlike apathy. 
 
 In a different spirit indeed, this same cry has 
 often been uttered since, by thousands in their 
 dying hour. This bitter lamentation 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 withdrawal of God's 
 favor, but his everlasting departure. He forsook 
 the infatuated mortal who had sinned away his 
 day of grace, that he might reap the retribution 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 163 
 
 which 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 
 each careless wanderer from his Lord, as he 
 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 
 stretching forward." 
 
€uttx tite 
 
 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, in funeral fetters wound. 
 
 Keble's Eatttr Eve, 
 
V. 
 
 We have now reached the last of those appro- 
 priate services in which 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 us. 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 
 
168 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 in his own new tomb in the garden — the stone 
 sealed — and the Roman guard placed around it, 
 u lest His disciples come by night, and steal Him 
 away." There they are resting, while many are 
 looking anxiously for the things that should come 
 after. 
 
 Strange indeed must have been " the search- 
 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 re- 
 peated miracles, they had " trusted that this Je- 
 sus 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 sufferings and His tri- 
 umph, or learn that the Redeemer was to pass 
 on to His kingly throne through the furnace of 
 affliction. 
 
 And on Mount Moriah, and even within the 
 precincts of the temple, there must also have 
 been anxious and excited hearts. The rites of 
 
EASTER EVEN. 169 
 
 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 worshipers 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 signs 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 
 the people from them, sustain their courage 
 amidst all these mysterious occurrences ? We 
 san] not believe it. " That Sabbath day was an 
 15 
 
 € 
 
170 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 
 world, and beheld those ranks of fallen angels 
 who carry on a ceaseless warfare against Him, 
 whose praises once they sang with harp and an- 
 them, 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 forever. Yet in this, the mo- 
 ment of seeming victory, must not the Arch- Ad- 
 versary 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, but also that his own sceptre 
 was broken, and the fancied sovereignty forever 
 wrested from his grasp ? May not the truth 
 have then first dawned upon a waiting universe, 
 that Christ having " died for our sins," was 
 about to be " raised up again for our justifica- 
 tion ?" We can not 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 
 
EASTER EVEN. 171 
 
 redemption, we may well believe that its con- 
 summation must have fallen with a crushing 
 weight upon those apostate angels who had been 
 striving to defeat it, and at the same time awa- 
 kened 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 Constitu- 
 tions, as being in accordance with the established 
 custom of the Church in that age — " Let as 
 many as are able, fast the Friday and the Sab- 
 bath," (that is Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath) 
 " throughout, eating nothing till the cock-crow- 
 ing in the morning. But if any can not join both 
 days together in one continued fast, let him how- 
 ever keep the Sabbath a fast, for the Lord speak- 
 
172 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 ing of Himself said, 4 when the Bridegroom shall 
 be taken away from them, in those days shall 
 they fast/ " a 
 
 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 be- 
 fore midnight, expecting the coming of Christ ; 
 after which time presuming on security, they keep 
 the day a festival." 6 At a later period, when the 
 Church had vanquished the power of ancient 
 Paganism, and begun to put on her robes of 
 power, this Virgil was kept with great pomp. 
 Constantine — as Eusebius tells us, in his life of 
 that emperor — " set up lofty pillars of wax to 
 tmrn as torches all over the city, and lamps burn- 
 
 a. Patres. Apos. Cot el vol. i, p. 325. 
 
 b. Bingham's Orig. EccUs, lib. xxi, chap. 1, sec. 32. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 173 
 
 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 require that the manner in which it is done 
 should be modified. c The services which have 
 been provided, are marked by the same wisdom 
 which can be discerned in all the arrangements 
 of our venerable Church. 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 Savior 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 resur- 
 
 c. 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 week- 
 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 
 waning twilight, as the day is softly fading 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 for- 
 ward to the great Festival of the morrow. 
 
 15* 
 
174 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 rection, 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 condi- 
 tion 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 acquainted. 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 question, 
 Where was the human soul of our Master during 
 this period ? is one which most of His followers 
 are not so well prepared to answer. We reply 
 therefore, it was in the intermediate state, and 
 to a discussion of this subject we intend to de- 
 vote the remainder of these pages. We have 
 selected it, because although one mosf 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 
 
EASTER EVEN. 175 
 
 of death decides irreversibly the condition of the 
 spirit, so that Ct 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, 1 v 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. 
 At that time, the spiritual and earthly parts of 
 our nature will be again brought into union, and 
 the mighty 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 endeavoring to state the proofs on which 
 we rest our believe in this doctrine, we naturally 
 turn first to the inspired word of God. For, as 
 
176 THE LENTEN PAST. 
 
 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 cre- 
 ation was not extracted out of the mass of hea- 
 ven and earth by the benediction of a 'producat,' 
 but was immediately inspired by God, so it is not 
 possible that it should be otherwise than by acci- 
 dent, subject to the laws of Heaven and earth, 
 which are the subject of philosophy ; and there- 
 fore the true knowledge of the nature and state 
 of the soul, must come by the same inspiration 
 that gave the substance." ^ 
 
 We learn then most plainly from Scripture, 
 that the souls of the just do not, (as some in all 
 ages have vainly imagined,) sleep with their bo- 
 dies in utter insensibility, until the morning of 
 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 
 
 d. Advancement of Learning. Bacon's Works, 
 vol. ii, p. 170, Montague's edit. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 177 
 
 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 penman 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 brief account of Samuel's life and cha- 
 racter, he adds — "And after his death he pro- 
 phesied and showed the King his end, and lift 
 up his voice from the earth in prophecy, to blot 
 out the wickedness of the people." 6 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 inference 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 Transfigura- 
 
 e. Eccles. xlvi, 20. 
 
 /. Antiq. lib. yi, ch. 15. 
 
178 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 tion, and " talked with our Lord, 1 ' 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 " ab- 
 sent from the body," are not in a state of insen- 
 sibility, but conversant with their Lord — in a 
 situation where they enjoy a degree of communion 
 with Him which they can no! have while still in 
 this state of probation. The Apostle did not in- 
 deed 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 righte- 
 ous Judge," and he should receive it in company 
 with "all them also that love His appearing." 
 " The word svS^tfai should be rendered" — says 
 Dr. Bloomfield — " not to he present with, but 
 (agreeably to the metaphor), to be at "home with, 
 
EASTER EVEN. ' 179 
 
 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 
 does it go ? Where is its place of abode ? This 
 inquiry is best answered by considering the cir- 
 cumstances 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? 
 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 X 9 The mind shrinks back with horror at 
 
 g. " 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 suffered 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 
 
180 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 the thought, unsupported as the notion is by any 
 intimation in Scripture, and directfy refuted by 
 our Lord's own declaration to his penitent com- 
 panion in suffering. Did his spirit ascend at 
 once to Heaven, and remain there during the 
 three days which intervened before His resurrec- 
 tion ? This could 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. 11 
 
 What then did the Jews understand by Para- 
 dise ? We reply — with them it primarly refer- 
 
 followed by that invisible and incomprehensible ven- 
 geance which he suffered from 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 condemned and irretrievably lost." Insti* 
 lutes, Book ii, chap xvi, sec. 10. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 181 
 
 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 New Testament, applied 
 to the state of faithful souls between death and 
 the resurrection.' 1 Hence it was the solemn 
 good wish of the Jews, (as we learn from the 
 Talmudists), concerning a departed friend, " Let 
 his soul be in the Garden of Eden," 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 p 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* 
 
 h. Bishop Bull's Works, vol.i, p. 98. 
 i. 2. Cor. xii, 4, 6. 
 16 
 
182 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 in his Family Expositor, thus parphrases this 
 passage — " Such an one, I say, I did most inti- 
 mately know, who was snatched up 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 I know that, having been entertained with 
 these visions of the third Heaven, on which good 
 men are to enter after the resurrection, lest he 
 should 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 happy spirits in the intermediate state, and du- 
 ring their separation from the hody" To this 
 place then it was that our Lord's spirit went, 
 and there He promised that His suffering com- 
 panion on the Cross should be also. 
 
 " Where'er Thou roam'st, one happy soul, we know, 
 
 Seen at thy side in 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, ' >Tis justly done, 
 Only in glory, Lord, Thy sinful servant own/ ,v 
 
 j. Keble's Easter Eve. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 183 
 
 In the same way, while Paradise denotes that 
 portion of the intermediate state which was al- 
 lotted to the just, there was also a part in which 
 the condemned awaited in misery the coming of 
 the day of doom. This was known 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 
 after the resurrection.* By translating Hades 
 therefore by the English word Hell in our Bibles, 
 we often entirely obscure the meaning.* Such is 
 
 k. As the object of the writer is to give, if possi- 
 ble, 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 pages. The reader will find this examination 
 carried out in Bishop Hobart's w r ork on the state of 
 the Departed. 
 
 Z. " It is a great pity," — says Wall, (Hist. Inf. 
 Bap. part n. chap, viii,) — " that the English trans- 
 lators 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 an- 
 swering 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), 
 
184 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 the case with that passage in the sixteenth Psalm 
 which refers prophetically to our Lord — " For 
 thou will 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 — u can deny it." 
 It is in Hades that Isaiah has placed that strange 
 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 Sheol, 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 approach, greet- 
 ing him with bitter scorn — 
 
 than the same word Hell likewise, it has created a 
 conftision in the understanding of English readers." 
 
EASTER EVEN. 185 
 
 " 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 their 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 ? 
 How art thou fallen from Heaven, Lucifer, son of 
 
 the morning ? 
 Art cut down to the earth, thou that didst subdue 
 
 the nations ?" 
 
 Bishop Lowth's translation. 
 
 It is in Tartarus that the fallen angels also 
 await their sentence. St. Peter tells us « — " God 
 spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them 
 down to Hell (Tartarus), 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 
 
 16* 
 
188 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 — 
 u 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 dark- 
 ness According to this explication, the 
 
 rich man and Lazarus were both in Hades, 
 though in very different situations, the latter in the 
 mansions of the happy, and the former in those of 
 the wretched." m 
 
 m. Prelim. Dis. vi, part 2. As the charge is often 
 made against the Church, that she retains this Popish 
 doctrine, 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, I apprehend, be no rea- 
 sonable doubt concerning an intermediate 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 manner, 
 
EASTER EVEN. 187 
 
 The manner in which 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 
 
 1 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 de- 
 clarations of both him and St. Jude. The word which 
 is rendered from St. Peter, ' cast them down to Hell,' 
 is in the Greek, raprapwtfas ; 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 ysswa, (Gehenna,) the appropriate name 
 of Hell in the Scriptures. After the rich man died 
 and was buried, it is said by our Savior, 'he lifted up 
 his eyes in Hell, being in torments; in the Greek, 
 sv tw *a($y], in Hades The state, in which La- 
 zarus was placed, is denoted elsewhere by the word 
 
188 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 meet with no offer of perfect blessedness which 
 is to be fulfilled before our Lord's second coming. 
 He himself on one occasion declared — " Thou 
 shalt be recompensed " — when ? " at the resur- 
 rection of the just." The final reward of the 
 righteous is always referred to the last day, at 
 " the glorious appearing of the great God and 
 our Savior, Jesus Christ " — " when Christ who 
 is our life shall appear " — " when the Son of 
 Man shall come in the glory of His Father, 
 
 Paradise. ' To-day,' said our Savior to the thief on 
 the cross, i thou shalt be with me in Paradise.' But 
 we know from our Savior'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 world is supposed to include 
 Heaven." 
 
 We might also bring forward the opinions of dis- 
 tinguished divines of other denominations. For ex- 
 ample, 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, 40, Rev. xv, 13, 14. 
 
EASTER EVEN, 189 
 
 with 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 pre- 
 pare 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 followers therefore 
 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 — u For this 
 we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that 
 we which are alive and remain unto the coming 
 of the Lord shall not prevent them which are 
 asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from 
 Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch- 
 angel, and with the trump of God ; and the dead 
 in Christ shall rise first. Then we, which are alive 
 and remain? shall be caught up together with 
 
190 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : 
 and so shall we ever be with the Lord." n 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 passed 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 cer- 
 tainly 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, 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 
 we ever be 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 
 
 n. 1 Thess. iv, 15, 16, 17. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 191 
 
 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 word 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 un- 
 to 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 is incomplete. They 
 are " under the altar' 1 — not in the full presence 
 of God, but in a safe and holy place. Their por- 
 tion is not yet that of perfect bliss, but only of 
 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 
 
 o. Rev. vi, 9, 10, 11. 
 
192 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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, u white robes 
 were given unto every one of them." p 
 
 It is singular, that exactly the same idea is 
 given in the Apocraphal Book of Esdras, where 
 after the writer had made inquiry of the angel 
 with regard to the mysteries of the world to 
 come, he receives this repfy — u Did not the souls 
 also of the righteous 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 things 
 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 ac- 
 complished. a 
 
 p. See Newman's Sermon on this passage, vol. iii, 
 p, 399. 
 
 q. 2 Esdras, iv, 35, 36, Dr. Macknight, another 
 
EASTER EVEN. 193 
 
 Another strong proof from Scripture is found 
 in that mysterious declaration of St. Peter, 
 with regard to our Lord — "Being put to death 
 
 celebrated Presbyterian divine, supports the same 
 views. For instance, in his commentary on Heb. xi, 
 39, 40, he says — " The Apostle's doctrine, that be- 
 lievers are all to be rewarded together and at the same 
 time, 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 re- 
 turned from Heaven to carry them to it (John xiv, 
 3). Further, that the righteous are not to be re- 
 warded till the end of the world, is evident from 
 Christ's words (Matt, xiii, 40, 43). In like man- 
 ner 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 determin- 
 ation, not to reward the ancients without 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 Abraham's seed 
 from the dead at once, and by introducing them into 
 the heavenly country in a body, after the public ac- 
 quittal at the judgment; than if each were made per- 
 fect separately at their death." 
 
 17 
 
194 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit ; by 
 which also He went and preached unto the spi- 
 rits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, 
 when once the long suffering of God waited in 
 the days of Noah.'' 1 Many attempts have been 
 made to explain away this text, yet when care- 
 fully analyzed, its natural rendering seems to 
 present a full confirmation of the doctrine of an 
 intermediate state. The most masterly discus- 
 sion of it is given by Bishop Horsley, r 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 depart- 
 ed spirits. Let us then as briefly as possible fol- 
 low 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. 
 It is a place of seclusion from the external world, 
 a place of unfinished happiness, consisting in 
 rest, security, and hope, rather than enjoyment. 
 It is a place which the souls of men never would 
 
 r. Horsley's Sermons, vol. ii, p. 86, serm. xx. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 195 
 
 have entered, had not sin introduced 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 with great exactness. 
 He went and preached to the spirits in safe keep- 
 ing. And the invisible mansion of departed spi- 
 rits 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 
 in prison, or in safe keeping, surely He went to 
 the prison of those souls, or to the place of their 
 custody ; and what place that should be but 
 the Hell of the Apostles' creed, to which our 
 Lord descended, I have not met with the critic 
 that could explain. The souls in custody, or in 
 
196 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 prison to whom our Savior went in His disem- 
 bodied soul and preached, were those which for- 
 merly were disobedient. The expression formerly 
 were, or one while had been disobedient, implies, 
 that they were recovered from that disobedience, 
 and, before their death, had been brought to 
 repentance 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 " Spi- 
 rit " 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 
 soul. And as the word " quickened " is often 
 used to signify, not merely a restoration of life 
 which has been extinguished, but the preserva- 
 tion of life which 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 
 
EASTER EVEiY. 197 
 
 keeping/' Such is the rendering given by Mr. 
 Polwhele 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 ' — 6 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 per- 
 ished in the deluge.' ' 
 
 Another point 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 penitence, equally interested in our Lord's 
 message ? " To this I can only answer " — says 
 Bishop Horsley — " that I think I have observed, 
 in some parts 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 deluge might from that 
 17* 
 
198 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 circumstance have peculiar apprehensions of 
 themselves, as the marked victims of divine ven- 
 geance, and might peculiarly need the consola- 
 tion which the preaching of our Lord in the Sub- 
 terranean 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 this world are 
 summoned to their Lord? We 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 
 world. Yet might He not have proclaimed to 
 those, who 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 
 
 
EASTER EVEN. 199 
 
 this passage, in which the most celebrated di- 
 vines 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 Reli- 
 gion adopted at the Convocation 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 
 that He went down into Hell ; for the body lay 
 in the sepulchre 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 
 in St. Peter was omitted. s We think however, 
 that the Church by setting forth this passage in 
 the Epistle for Easter Even, seems to imply that 
 s. Bishop Horseley, vol. ii, p. 99 
 
200 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 it should be rendered as referring to our Lord's 
 soul, particularly as it is followed by the Gospel, 
 which describes so clearly the condition of the 
 other part of His nature. 
 
 We will present one more passage from Scrip- 
 ture. In Rev. 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 in- 
 termediate state. " And Death and Hell {Hades) 
 delivered up the dead which were in them ; and 
 they were judged every man according to their 
 works. And death and Hell {Hades) were cast 
 into the lake of fire. This is the second death." 
 By this sublime personification it is clearly stat- 
 ed, that Death shall deliver up the bodies, and 
 Hades the spirits which were subject to their do- 
 minion, and that then the latter shall be destroy- 
 ed. Dr. Thos. Scott in his Commentary, has 
 thus paraphrased this passage — "The grave, 
 and separate state, will give up the bodies and 
 souls contained in them, so that the whole multi- 
 tude, 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 per- 
 sons), will ' be cast into the lake of fire ; ' that 
 
EASTER EVEN. 201 
 
 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 swallowed up : for c this is 
 the second death,' the final separation of sinners 
 from God, without hopes of being restored to His 
 favor, or delivered from His wrath." Dr. Camp- 
 bell (the same Presbyterian divine from whom 
 we have already quoted), thus renders it — u The 
 death which consists in the separation of the 
 soul from the body, and the state of souls inter- 
 vening 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 im- 
 possible to mistake them. In chap, vi, 8, we 
 learn that Hades follows close at the heels of 
 death. 6 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 universal 
 judgment.' * 
 
202 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 Such is a brief statement of the Scripture argu- 
 ment for this doctrine. We now pass on to the 
 consideration, that it has always, even from Pri- 
 mitive times, been an Article of Faith in the 
 Catholic Church. 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 Resurrection, 
 when the whole man shall obtain a complete 
 victory over death, and by the last judgment be 
 established 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 generations from Adam 
 to this day, are past and gone, but they that 
 have finished their course in charity, according 
 to the grace of Christ, possess the region of the 
 godly, who shall be manifested in the visitation 
 of the kingdom of Christ. For it is written, 
 6 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.' " M 
 
 t. Orig. Eccles. lib. xv, chap. 3, sec. 16. 
 u, Patres Apos. Cotel., vol, i, p. 276, 
 
EASTER EVEN. 203 
 
 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 
 evil one." And in the very same book he 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." v 
 
 Similar to this is the testimony of Irenaeus, 
 who lived also in the second century. In ar- 
 guing 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 Savior, " 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 dis- 
 ciples, for whose sake the Lord did these things, 
 
 v. Bishop Bull, vol. i, p. 110. 
 
204 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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. e. in their bodies as our Lord did, shall so 
 come to the sight of God." w Again, in his fifth 
 Book, he expressly distinguishes Paradise from 
 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 
 Savior 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 de- 
 grees to their perfect beatitude." That is, that 
 they shall, as St. Ambrose says, "through the re- 
 freshments of Paradise, arrive to the full glories 
 of the Heavenly 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." y He says also, " Heaven is not yet 
 
 w. Wall on Inf. Bap. part ii, chap. 8. 
 x. Bishop Bull, pp. Ill, 112. 
 y. Ibid. p. 112. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 205 
 
 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- 
 ments and rewards, that both Dives and Lazarus 
 are there, that the soul is both 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 subterraneous 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." a 
 
 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 
 
 z. Lord King's Hist, of Apos. Creed, p. 114. 
 
 a. Bishop Bull, p. 113. 
 18 
 
206 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 righteous are separated from the unrighteous. 
 For they are carried by angels into their meet 
 places. And the souls of the righteous are con- 
 veyed into Paradise, where they enjoy the con- 
 versation and sight of Angels and Archangels, 
 and of our Savior Christ also by way of vision : 
 according to what is said, when we are absent 
 from the bod)^ we are present with the Lord. 
 But the souls of the unrighteous 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.'' 1 h 
 
 Novatian, in the third century, says — "Those 
 places which 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.' 1 Lactantius, of the same 
 century, says — u None should think, that souls 
 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 
 
 b. Bishop Bull, p. 123. 
 
EASTER EVEN. 207 
 
 buried, and that souls should descend into hell, 
 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. ,,c 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 crown- 
 ed before us, God having appointed one time of 
 coronation 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, 
 were 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. u They resemble 
 one another too much to have grown up in- 
 dependently, and too little to have been copied 
 from one another." One point of correspond- 
 
 c. Quoted in Lord King's Hist, of Apos. Creed, p. 
 214-15-16. 
 
208 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 ence is, that each of them 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 de- 
 parted hence from us with the sign of faith, and 
 now do rest in the sleep of peace : grant unto 
 them, we beseech Thee, Thy mercy and ever- 
 lasting 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 
 VPs 1st Book," but altered in the 2d, at the in- 
 stigation 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, 
 that their continuance would have involved the 
 risk of propagating this pernicious error. As 
 
EASTER EVEN. 209 
 
 remodeled, the prayer in our service now stands 
 thus — " And we also bless Thy holy name for all 
 Thy servants departed 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 propriety 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 in- 
 terval between death and the end of the world, 
 is a state of imperfect bliss. ,,rf 
 
 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 ;" w r hile in her creed she teaches 
 her children ever to confess — "He descended 
 into Hell ;" inserting in the margin, by way of 
 explanation, " He went into the place of depart- 
 ed spirits.' n In the same way she recognizes the 
 
 d. Eccles. Hist, of Great Britain, Part II, Book 
 iv, p. 257. 
 
 18* 
 
210 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 doctrine of the intermediate state in all her pub- 
 lic 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 depart 
 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 
 pronounce to those who love and fear Him, say- 
 ing, Come, ye blessed children of my Father, 
 receive the kingdom prepared for you from the 
 beginning of the world." Here, two separate 
 times and two distinct rewards are mentioned. 
 In the same way, in one of the other prayers, 
 
EASTER EVEN. 211 
 
 after speaking of " those who have finished their 
 course in faith," as "now resting from their la- 
 bors," 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 everlasting glory." e 
 
 Again — another argument in support of this 
 doctrine is derived from its being so evidently in 
 accordance with reason. A belief indeed in the 
 immediate entrance of the soul into its full re- 
 ward or punishment is one which necessarily 
 leads us into inextricable difficulties. 
 
 Each individual passes through his probation 
 here, a compound being, the earthly and the spi- 
 ritual united by a chain, the links of which we 
 can not discover, though we daily and hourly 
 
 e. This prayer in the service of the Church of 
 England is even more explicit, where the petition is 
 offered to God, " of His gracious goodness shortly to 
 accomplish the number of His elect, and to hasten 
 His kingdom : that we, with all those that are de- 
 parted in the true faith of His holy name, may have 
 our perfect consummation and bliss both in body and 
 soul." 
 
212 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 ima- 
 ginings urging on its sluggish partner to action, 
 while the body by the outward senses 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 
 pronouncing it — until he stands before the 
 throne, the same he was in every respect, while 
 living a probationer here ? Why then should 
 he enter into his final state before that hour ar- 
 rives ? 
 
 Again — 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 
 
EASTER EVEN. 213 
 
 souls which each hour are winging their flight 
 to the eternal world, be ceaselessly going on ? 
 This would indeed entirely set aside the general 
 judgment 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 retribu- 
 tion. 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 
 discourse 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 day shall come with such a terrible pomp 
 and solemnity to judge and condemn those, who 
 are judged, and condemned, and executed al- 
 ready as much as they can ever be." But the 
 plain teaching of scripture is, that there shall 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, shall together 
 receive the sentence which all eternity can not 
 
214 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 en- 
 tirely concluded, will He ascend the tribunal of 
 judgment. 
 
 Neither, 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 criminal who is committed to a gaol for trial, 
 without 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 fcTcom- 
 prehend, why the analogy should not likewise 
 be extended to them. What is there unreason- 
 
EASTER EVEN. 215 
 
 able in the surmise, that a righteous man may 
 awaken from death to that full assurance of ac- 
 quital and acceptance which some have affirmed 
 to be attainable even in the present life ? Why 
 may he not be placed in a state of which the en- 
 joyment shall consist in the knowledge that his 
 trials and agitations are at an end, that the for- 
 giveness 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 V" f 
 
 How natural then seems the order of events, 
 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 this 
 lower world have passed away forever, and in 
 the full assurance of hope they look forward to 
 that hour, when their " Lord shall be revealed 
 from Heaven,' 1 and they be admitted to the ful- 
 ness of joy, in the " place which he hath pre-? 
 
 /. British Critic, No. 17. 
 
216 THE LENTEN PAST. 
 
 pared for them." There also, yet separated by 
 " a gulf which they can not pass,"* 7 are the wick- 
 ed. The record 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 forever. In trembling and fear 
 therefore, they await the revolution of that cycle 
 of ages, and the coming 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 general judgment becomes, as Scripture re- 
 presents it, the winding up of this world's history. 
 There, the descendants of Adam, of " every 
 kindred, 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 retri- 
 bution. 7 * 
 
 g. Luke, xvi, 26. 
 
 h. It will be at once perceived, that this doctrine 
 is widely different from the belief of the Eomanists 
 in Purgatory. 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 
 
EASTER EVEN. 217 
 
 A single question more "remains to be"answered. 
 It is the inquiry, What was the object of our 
 Lord's descent into the place of departed Spirits ? 
 
 One end answered by it was, that in this re- 
 spect also He conformed Himself to the lot of 
 those whose 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 excepted.'" He passed through every 
 trial to which frail humanity is subjected. His 
 were, the feebleness and pains of wailing in- 
 
 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 can not be bettered by our prayers. 
 But besides these two kinds, there are many Christ- 
 ians, 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 Rev. 
 Dr. Challoner. 
 
 19 
 
218 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 fancy — the cares which gather around the years 
 of manhood — the shrinking of nature at the 
 sight 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 committed 
 to the tomb, after a time to be awakened 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 it 
 was, that 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 
 brotherhood 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 
 
EASTER EVEN. . 219 
 
 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 incom- 
 plete, if no pledge had been given us of the Spi- 
 it's victory in the invisible world — if our Master 
 had neglected to point out the path which it 
 also was to tread, in the interval between death 
 and the resurrection ?" 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 terror. "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 the "fullness of joy." 
 
 And may we not add also, that another object 
 of His descent was, that He might there proclaim 
 the news of His redemption to the spirits which 
 were in safe keeping ? 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 
 
220 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 1 
 While on earth, they had looked forward with 
 the anticipation of hope, and " rejoiced to see 
 that day " even through the mist of intervening 
 centuries ; but now, these visions were realized 
 and the 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 the sepulchre, Christ 
 preached to spirits 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 apostles saw, and had 
 not seen them, and to hear the things which they 
 heard, and had not heard them — unto these, it 
 may be, Christ brought a glorious roll of intelli- 
 
EASTER EVEN. 221 
 
 gence ; and we can imagine Him standing in 
 the midst of a multitude which no man can num- 
 ber, who had all gone down to the chambers of 
 death with but indistinct and far-off glimpses 
 of the promised Messiah, and explaining 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 
 very loftiest gladness through 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, 6 Worthy, 
 worthy, worthy is the Lamb.'' Then, it may be, 
 for the first time, did Adam embrace all the mag- 
 nificence of the promise, that ; the seed of the 
 woman should bruise the serpent's head ;' and 
 Abraham 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- 
 
 17* 
 
222 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 nies was but indistinctly made known — then, it 
 may be, they were suddenly and sublimely 
 taught the power of every figure, and the ex- 
 pression of every rite ; whilst the noble company 
 of prophets, holy men who 6 spake as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost,'' but who, rapt into 
 the future, uttered much which only the future 
 could develop — these, as though starting from 
 the sleep of ages, sprang into the centre of that 
 gorgeous panorama of truth which they had been 
 commissioned to outline, but over whose spread- 
 ings 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 de- 
 claration, which he had poured forth whilst de- 
 nouncing the apostasies of Samaria, " O Death, 
 I will be thy plagues ; O Grave, I will be thy de- 
 struction." 
 
 We know not why it may not thus be consi- 
 dered that the day of Christ's entrance into the 
 separate state was, 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 
 
EASTER EVEN. 223 
 
 types gave place to realities and a thousand pre- 
 dictions leaped into fulfillment ; a day therefore, 
 on which there circulated through the enormous 
 gatherings of Adam and his elect posterity, al- 
 ready ushered into rest, a gladness which had 
 never yet been reached in all the depth of their 
 beatifical repose. And neither, then, can we dis- 
 cover cause why Christ may not be thought to 
 rhave 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 minister 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 path 
 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 
 
 i. Melvill's Sermons, vol. i, p. 49, 
 
224 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 gether around his setting sun. Beautifully 
 indeed does one of England's Christian poets 
 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 in our infancy! 
 Shades of the prison-house begin to close 
 
 Upon the growing Boy, 
 But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, 
 
 He sees it in his joy ; 
 The Youth, who daily farther from 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 da,y."j 
 
 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 
 
 j. Wordsworth's Ode — " Intimations of Immor- 
 tality from recollections of early childhood." 
 
EASTER EVEN. 225 
 
 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, k 
 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 
 
 k. jEschyl. Eumen. 
 
226 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 u hope which maketh not ashamed." 
 And thus he passes along through the remain- 
 ing days of his pilgrimage, sharing in that 
 spirit which the old artists attempted to embody 
 in their delineations of Faith when they repre- 
 sented her treading 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 be- 
 fore, come solemnly to his ears, as they urge him 
 to press onward to the promised land. There, 
 his wanderings shall end, and the pilgrim staff* 
 be forever cast aside. There he shall be at peace 
 in the mansions of rest, with the mighty army of 
 patriarchs and apostles, and confessors and mar- 
 tyrs, who have already slept in the faith. Cheer- 
 ed by a brighter manifestation of his Master's 
 presence than can be his lot in this world, he 
 shall await his full reward, and the crown which 
 
EASTER EVEN. 227 
 
 shall be given him at the last day. With what 
 unwavering confidence may he then look up and 
 say — 
 
 " 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 with pure 
 desires. 
 
 Meanwhile, with every son and saint of Thine 
 
 Along the glorious line, 
 Sitting by turns beneath Thy sacred feet 
 
 We'll 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 number of the 
 elect made up. Then, our long expected Lord 
 shall descend with a shout — the dust of each one 
 
 I. Keble's Easter Ev$. 
 
228 THE LENTEN FAST. 
 
 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 
 gather around the throne of Him whom they fol- 
 lowed while on earth, ready to receive the sen- 
 tence — " Well done, good and faithful servants, 
 enter ye into the joy of your Lord. 1 ' This shall 
 be the Great Easter of the Earth. 
 
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