Article December 17, 1904 Issue

Fasting and Feasting

WILLARD S. MATTOX.

The religious instinct of our Puritan ancestors is preserved in more or less of its original form on those occasions when by state proclamation we abstain from labor and give ourselves over to fasting or feasting and prayer. Much of the austerity of the primitive customs of our fore-fathers is lacking in our modern observances, and this is very evidently a development along the lines of broadening concepts, a preface, as it were, to a larger advance, when we shall recognize that because "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation" (Science and Health, p. 468), man has no need to afflict himself in order to prove to God that he loves Him and is obedient to Him.

The true sense of fasting must be learned before we can righteously expect that the act itself will bring any reward. If the real purpose and meaning of fasting have been perverted, then we must needs find the original intent before the blessings attendant upon it can be made available. Apparently mortal mind has not omitted to lie about the act of fasting and to deceive the whole world regarding this function of man. We know what Jesus called evil, or an evil mind. He said it was a lie and the father of lies, and in Revelation this same mortal mind or liar is described as "that old serpent, ... which deceiveth the whole world." If, then, we have been deceived as to what constitutes fasting, where may we discover the truth about it? The Bible contains the truth about God and man, and it needs only to be spiritually understood. The Christian Science text-book, Science and Health, throws upon the sacred pages the clear white light of Spirit, and makes plain what mortal mind would becloud and bedim.

The primitive notion that literal fasting, that is to say, an abstaining from material food, is a means of grace or an aid to spirituality, should have been outgrown by this time. It should have been given up for a more spiritual sense or more metaphysical interpretation. Isaiah, 58, gives excellent instruction on this point, and David said, "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering." The sacrifices of God are a subdued (material) sense; "a broken and a contrite heart. O God, thou wilt not despise." Jesus told his disciples that when they fasted it was not necessary to assume a sadness and dejection which were purely external, insincere, and hypocritical. He advised them to fast joyously, to anoint themselves with oil, and to be happy. To Jesus, it made very little difference whether men fasted or feasted, whether they ate much or ate little, if the thoughts were sinful or material. Merely to refrain from food for a day or period of days, is no evidence of piety. Add to that a long countenance or the most approved unction, and still you have not the proof which our Master required. Add to that daily attendance at religious services, and altogether, these signs do not weigh one jot with Him who knows all the thoughts of men, and judges their motives. "Thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly," whenever thought is meek, loving, sincere, honest, and true. John came fasting and he was said to have a devil. Jesus lived a normal, natural, simple life, he ate and drank, and the same critics who denounced John for fasting, reviled Jesus for eating. Mortal mind is inconsistent and unreasonable, and no matter what we do, we cannot please it. Then let us do as Jesus did, detect, uncover, and rebuke error and live in the calm consciousness of an ever-present God, caring nothing for the praise or condemnation of mortal mind.

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