repentance." [493:1]

When a man is overwhelmed with grief, the state of his mind will often
be revealed by the loss of his appetite. He will think little of his
dress and personal accommodation; and though he may give no utterance to
his feelings, his general appearance will betray to the eye of an
observer the depths of his affliction. The mourner not unfrequently
takes a melancholy satisfaction in surrounding himself with the symbols
of sorrow; and we read, accordingly, in Scripture how, in ancient times
and in Eastern countries, he clothed himself in sackcloth and sat in
ashes. [493:2] There is a wonderful sympathy between the body and the
mind; and as grief affects the appetite, so occasional abstinence from
food may foster a serious and contrite spirit. Hence fasting has been so
commonly associated with penitential exercises.

Fasting is not to be regarded as one of the ordinary duties of a
disciple of Christ,[494:1] but rather as a kind of discipline in which
he may feel called on to engage under special circumstances.[494:2] When
oppressed with a consciousness of guilt, or when anxious for divine
direction on a critical occasion, or when trembling under the
apprehension of impending judgments, he may thus seek to "afflict his
soul," that he may draw near with deeper humility and reverence into the
presence of the Divine Majesty. But, in such a case, every one should
act according to the dictates of his own enlightened convictions. As the
duty is extraordinary, the self-denial to be practised must be regulated
by various contingencies; and no one can well prescribe to another its
amount or duration.

According to the Mosaic law, only one day in the year--the great day of
atonement--was required to be kept as a national fast.[494:3] There is
now no divine warrant for so observing any corresponding day, and for
upwards of a hundred years after the death of our Lord, there is no
evidence that any fixed portion of time was thus appropriated under the
sanction of ecclesiastical authority. But towards the close of the
second century the termination of the Paschal week was often so
employed--the interval, between the hour on Friday when our Lord expired
and the morning of the first day of the week, being spent in total
abstinence.[494:4] About the same time some partially abstained from
food on what were called stationary days, or the Wednesday and Friday of
each week.[494:5] At this period some began also to observe