(on the occasion of a public fast):--A fast may be defined to be a voluntary abstinence from food, as a token of our humiliation before God. Objections--
1. There may be this outward mark of repentance without any real sorrow for sin. Answer--The outward expression then becomes a mockery.
2. A public fast has the appearance of ostentation. Answer--If you alone were to keep the fast, it might aver the appearance of ostentation, but in the case of public fasting, it becomes a duty not only really to fast, but to show openly your compliance with a prescribed service, and gladly to embrace the opportunity of humbling yourselves before God.
3. If we feel repentance in our hearts, God, who sees our hearts, does not require to be informed of it by any external expression. Answer--The same may be said of prayer and also of all the means of grace which God has appointed.
4. Why should fasting in particular be selected as an external mark of humiliation. Answer--
(1) Fasting has always been the public token of humility, and this in heathen nations as well as amongst Jews and Christians.
(2) It was enjoined of God upon the Jews.
(3) It was practised by our Saviour and His disciples; and recommended by them to the world.
(4) It has all the qualities that might reasonably be expected in an external act of humiliation.
(a) It is a duty easily practised.
(b) Requiring no apparatus.
(c) Connected with no expense.
(d) Simple in its own nature.
(e) Equally adapted to all ranks, climates, and places.
(f) It involves an act of self-denial.
(g) It is an act connected with the mortification of those very appetites whence many of the sins for which we thus humble ourselves proceed.
5. Fasting may disorder a person of weak health, and thus indispose him even for the service of the day. Answer--The spirit of the Christian system, insists only on the principle, and leaves the application of it to the case and conscience of the worshipper.
6. A public command to fast is a species of compulsion, and therefore inconsistent with the notion of a voluntary act of humiliation. Answer--All that is done by the command of the Government is, to render that convenient which might otherwise be very inconvenient, and that practicable whichmight be otherwise impracticable.
7. It is unreasonable to expect thepoor to give up a day’s labour, and to abridge their diet who scarcely ever enjoy a full meal. Answer--It is a voluntary sacrifice: God enjoins no man to make it who is unwilling. No man will really be a loser by serving God. (J. Venn, M. A.)
