Friday next, the 10th day of March, is the day appointed for Fasting, Humiliation and prayer.
The Congress of the Confederate States call upon the people, on that day, to humble themselves before Almighty God, and to beseech him, through our
Lord Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins, and for deliverance from our enemies.
The President, in his Proclamation, has invoked the people everywhere to observe that day, and the Press and the Pulpit have sustained, with unanimity and fervor, the official recommendations.
the Richmond
Whig says:
‘
in view of the fact that our position as a people is critical, it is respectfully suggested that all persons in the
Confederacy observe Friday, the 10th day of March, appointed a day of Fasting and prayer, with more earnestness and solemnity than has yet been manifested, and to that end it is proposed--
’
- 1.
That all churches shall have at least three public services.
The first early in the morning; the second at 11 o'clock, and the third in the afternoon or at night.
- 2. That such churches as can, will keep their doors open and the services in operation, without intermission, during the whole day, the ministers relieving one another, and the people going and coming, as they may need.
- 3. That country churches protract their services through four or five hours.
- 4.
That the people really humble themselves, and, as a means thereto, eat no more food than may be necessary to keep up their strength.
- 5. That all light conversation and unbecoming amusements be discarded, and the day be truly observed as a day of humiliation.
If there be any virtue in a day of fasting and prayer, it should be observed as the
Bible directs.
Heretofore many have kept it as a mere holiday.
This cannot be expected to elicit God's blessing.--Our condition is now such that trifling is madness.
If we give all our time and hearts to it for
that one day, we may look for a great blessing.
We find in the "Holy Living and Dying" of
Jeremy Taylor certain "Rules for Christian Fasting," the following extracts from which may be of service at this time:
"Fasting, in order to prayer, is to be measured by the proportions of the times of prayer; that is, it ought to be a total fast from all things, during the solemnity, unless a probable necessity intervene.
Thus, the Jews ate nothing upon the Sabbath days till their great offices were performed; that is, about the sixth hour: and
St. Peter used it as an argument that the apostles in Petticoat were not drunk, because it was but the third hour of the day; of such a day, in which it was not lawful to eat or drink till the sixth hour; and the Jews were offended at the disciples for plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath, early in the morning, because it was before the time in which, by their customs, they esteemed it lawful to break their fast.
And further, upon days of humiliation, which are designed to be spent wholly in devotion, and for the averting of God's judgment, (if they were imminent,) fasting is commanded, together with prayer: commanded (I say) by the church to this end: that the spirit might be clearer and more angelical, when it is quitted, in some proportions, from the loads of flesh.
Fasting, as it is instrumental to prayer, must be attended with other aids of the like virtue and efficacy; such as are removing, for the time, all worldly cares and secular business: and, therefore, our blessed Saviour enfolds these parts within the same caution: 'Take heed, lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this world, and that day overtake you unawares.' To which add alms; for upon the wings of fasting and alms holy prayer infallibly mounts up to heaven.
"Fasting, designed for repentance, must be ever joined with an extreme care that we fast from sin; for there is no greater folly or indecency in the world than to commit that for which I am now judging and condemning myself.
This is the best fast, and the other may serve to promote the interest of this by increasing the disaffection to it and multiplying arguments against it. He that fasts for repentance must, during that solemnity, abstain from all bodily delights and the sensuality of all his senses and his appetites; for a man must not, when he mourns in his fast, be merry in his sport; weep at dinner and laugh all day after; have a silence in his kitchen and music in his chamber; judge the stomach and feast the other senses.
"Let not intemperance be the prologue or the epilogue to your fast, lest the fast be so far from taking off anything of the sin that it be an occasion to increase it; and, therefore, when the fast is done, be careful that no supervening act of gluttony or excessive drinking unhallow the religion of the past day; but eat temperately, according to the proportion of other meals, lest gluttony keep either of the gates to abstinence."
Much might be added from the same and other authorities showing that fasting is but an instrument to an end, and that it is the individual repentance of every man seeking pardon through our
Lord Jesus Christ for his own sins, to which the people are called.
And, surely, never was there an hour in the history of man, or in the life of any man now living in this country, when there was more need to invoke the forgiveness and the favor of Almighty God.
