ments, does not fulfil the pattern of Daniel. Your fast must honestly afflict nature. Your food must Daniel "chastened himself" by "He eat no pleasant bread, and

be plain and spare. his change of diet. drank no wine."

But what do the Scriptures teach about the motive of fasting?

Your fast must be free and voluntary. That which is of necessity is not a fast. S. Augustine says, "Fasting is an act of the will, but hunger is of necessity." And of voluntary fasts, they may be either worldly and profane, or holy and religious. Worldly, such as the fast of Saul and his army,t for vengeance over his enemies; or, when men abstain for mere health's sake; or a fast, as may happen, out of parsimony, and love of money; or, as is not uncommon among epicures, for ver luxury, "ne ventrem vilia præoccupent, et non possint intrare pretiosa," lést plainer food should spoil the enjoyment of delicacies; and such have no place among religious exercises.

But holy and religious fasts have only this motive-the glory of God, and the health of the soul. "When ye fasted and mourned,” said God to His people, "in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And, when ye did eat, and when * S. Augustine in Ps. xlii. +1 Sam. xiv. 24.

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ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?" God rejected the fasts which were undertaken by His people, not for His service, but for their own necessities.

Now, here arises a question upon which guidance becomes necessary. May I not so fast, each earnest soul will ask, as to tame the pride of my flesh, and humble my heart for sin; and yet, at the same time, both save my substance, and further my health, and prevent sickness to my body?

To resolve this question, I beg you first of all to examine your intention after a very solemn and earnest, and prayerful sort. The end which is intended, not the accidents which arise, gives the fast its entire character. If your aim be, simply, a spiritual aim, formed and matured in the love of Christ, whatever other results grow out of it, your fast is a religious fast. But if it have only a wordly or a selfish purpose, whatever spiritual uses come of it, your fast is a worldly and profane fast. And, therefore, your fast is only so far forth to be called acceptable and holy, as a holy use is intended in your heart; and so far forth worldly, as your end is worldly.

The intentions of a man's mind cannot entirely and perfectly be directed to two contrary objects, at one and the same time. So much, therefore, of tention as you reserve to yourself, so much away from God.

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you take

I intreat you to be honest and real. It is the only clear way through the difficulties of this subject. We are all apt to flatter ourselves, and to think better of our religious exercises than they deserve. If our exercises seem to make both for God's honour and our own will; we are ready to conclude that we do all for God, when the greater part is for ourselves.

You must examine yourselves with watchful regard to such an infirmity. In regard of gain, the risk is much less than in regard of health; there are few persons who fast in order that their domestic expenses may be less, compared with those who reconcile themselves to fasting because it is wholesome to the body; or who will not reconcile themselves to fasting because they think it injurious to the body; or who fast with no bodily regard at all. I mean, there are more persons needing guidance, because of misdirected intention on grounds of health, than on any other.

The ground of expense comes properly under the head of charity, to which I will postpone it.

On the score of health, I advise you, under God's grace, to consider what follows.

1. If fasting be necessary for your health, be careful to disjoin the use of it, for that end, from the simply religious use of it. Use it so long and so much as your bodily necessity may require; and then, at other times, undertake your religious fasts.

Thus, you may preserve, the rather, a spiritual intention; for, of course, it will be found that, in no exercise, do nature and grace so interchange profitable results; that, at one and the same time, the memory will be strengthened, the understanding illuminated, the affections bridled, the flesh mortified, chastity preserved, sickness prevented, and health prolonged. And so, it will be impossible to separate all the mixed issues which flow in upon both the body and the soul. But, for the sake of purity of intention, it will be well for you to learn never to mingle a worldly or a selfish aim, together with a religious or a spiritual aim, in one and the same fast.

2. If you consider fasting dangerous to your health, it is necessary to take watchful care lest such a notion should have no better ground than an indolent and self-indulgent imagination. This is, by far, your most likely danger. It is needful, therefore, to set down what seems to be the true and safe view of the subject. S. Chrysostom* has warned us, "that while the Ninevites fasted, and obtained mercy, the Jews fasted and gained no profit, but reproof; that, therefore, it becomes us to learn the laws of fasting, lest we fall into error."

There are two main things to be remembered: I. That, apart from all other respects whatever, the necessary action of fasting, in every conceivable * S. Chrysostom, Hom. iii, ad Pop. Antioch. p. 49.

measure in which men and women are capable of it, is to afflict. To accomplish this end, the degree of abstinence will be less in some, and greater in others, according to the circumstances in which Providence has placed you; but it must be real in all. Whether you be weak or strong, whether the instrument you employ be small or great, you must be afflicted. Lent is a time of mortification; therefore your duty, whoever you are, is to be mortified. You must deaden the flesh and its desires; you must abridge it of its enjoyment; you must take it down; you must not only deny it the fulness of its wishes, but its wishes. What you have to consider for the flesh, is rather how to preserve it, than how to satisfy it; and, in such measure as the spirit shall direct, rather than as the body shall demand. And this is not, as I shall tell you by-and-by, a matter of eating and drinking only. You must afflict the flesh, and cross it in "all the lusts thereof." You must take away, not only from the tongue and taste, but from the eye, the ear; nay, even the smell and touch.

There is no true fast of Lent to any of you who, whatever change you may make in your diet, make none in your social habits of life, and the measure of your amusements in the world. In the seventh month, said God, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls by a statute for ever; and whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted that day, he