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those who had authority and experience, what was good and expedient for his soul's health. We also have been in these days becoming consistent; if we fast, we fast for ourselves; if we keep a holy day, or select a portion of the weekly service, it is because we of our own minds deem it convenient; we have become in all things the judges of the Church, instead of reverently obeying what has been recommended to us; we judge beforehand what will be useful to us, instead of ascertaining by experience whether that recommended by elder Christians be not so.
Yet I would fain hope that there will not long be this variance between our principles and our practice; but that, instead of examining what is the present practice of any portion of our Church, and enquiring how this may be amended, men would first investigate, in the Canons and the Rubrics,[1] what the real mind of the Church is, and see whether adherence to these would not remove the regretted defect.
One only objection can, I think, be raised by any earnest-minded Christian to this weekly Fast, namely, that the means employed, mere self-denial in so slight a matter as one's food, is so petty and trifling a thing, that it were degrading the doctrine of the Cross to make such an observance in any way bear upon it. One respects the feelings of such a person and his love for the Cross; but the objection probably proceeds from inexperience in the habit of Fasting. For let any one consider from his childhood upwards by what the greater part of his habits have been formed and by what they are continued: not by any great acts or great sacrifices, (as far as any thing might be relatively great,) but by a succession of petty actions, whose effect he could not at the time foresee, or thought too minute to leave any trace behind them, and which have in fact, whether for good or for evil, made him what he is. Practice will universally shew, that the motive ennobles the action, not that the action dishonours the motive. "True it is," says Bishop Taylor,[2] "that religion snatches even at little things; and as it teaches us to observe all the great commandments and signifi-
- ↑ In respect to the ordinance of Fasting, it might contribute to regularity, if Clergymen were to observe the direction of their Church as contained in the Rubric after the Nicene Creed.
- ↑ Life and Death of the Holy Jesus, Works, t. iii. p. 96. Of Fasting.
