Our Saviour's fast, like every act of His life, bears the
character of an example, and instructs us that this particular
exercise of religion, while it exposes to temptations of its own,
is yet in itself a great preliminary safeguard against sin--a
source of facility for vanquishing all temptation. That there
are demoniacal possessions which no means without this can reach
effectually, is the express assertion of our Saviour on another
occasion: and His example here, no less than His precept to His
chosen followers there, instructs us forcibly that, while
Christianity is the most mild and liberal of institutions, its
founder, no preacher in the desert like Elias, or His forerunner
the Baptist, but one who came "eating and drinking," as His
censors remarked, neither fearfully flying nor morosely
disdaining the ordinary converse and habits of mankind,--it yet
requires the highest prudence and assistances of grace
proportional, to maintain this intercourse with the world either
with safety to ourselves or benefit to others: and these
assistances are to be found where our Lord and Saviour Himself
sought them--in occasional retirements, in meditation, prayer,
and fasting.
- [Lent]
Last Revised: 2007 November 30
Copyright © 1999-2007 John C. Shepard. All Rights Reserved.
The GIGA name and logo are trademarks registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by John C. Shepard.
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