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44. "Then shall they also answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45. "Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."

We may be certain, then, that the Son of man, when He comes in His glory, will pronounce sentence according to the spirit of these words. Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me.

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Had ye truly believed in me, ye would not have left the naked without clothing, or the hungry without food, or the sick, and the prisoner, without relief in their affliction. Had ye believed in me, ye must have pitied and assisted those wants, which both by precept and example I warned you to consider. Depart from me, I never knew you." Because the absence of brotherly kindness and charity is proof of the absence or the inefficacy of that on which all depends is evidence discernible by men, of the absence of that inward principle which men cannot discern, but which He discerns who knows what is in men: absence of that genuine faith, which, wherever it exists, must produce active love towards all our fellowcreatures. So that one way in which we are taught to "know that we have passed from death unto life," is "because we love the

brethren." "He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death.""

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Be it remembered, then, that in the descrip-. tion here given us of the judgment day, the one class is accepted, not because they had works independently of faith, but because their faith in the Redeemer "wrought with their works, and by works was their faith made perfect." While the other class is rejected, not because they had no works to justify and save them: (for what would be the hope of any man, if he trusted to be saved or justified by anything he had done or can do?) but because their conduct had shown, that they had no real faith in Him whom they had been used to call by the name of Lord and Saviour. "For as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.""

LECTURE XXIII.

THE DISCIPLES EXCUSED FROM FASTING.

MARK ii. 18-22.

18. "And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast and they come and say unto Him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Thy disciples fast not ?"

THE law of Moses gave no regulations upon the subject of fasting. "A day of atonement"

1 John iii. 14.

See James ii. 22. 7 Ib. ii. 26.

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was ordained of which it was said, "It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls for whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people." To abstain from their usual food, or from any thing approaching to superfluity and self-indulgence, would be part of that affliction of soul here prescribed. As feasting is a sign of joy, so fasting would belong to sorrow. We find it in Scripture connected with grief and mourning. David, when his child was at the point of death, "fasted, and lay all night upon the earth."2 Strong feelings overpower the natural desire of food. And that abstinence which was in David the effect of deep emotion, came to be practised when no such emotion existed, as being decent and suitable to the occasion. Therefore we read that after Saul's death, "the people fasted, and mourned for Saul."

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So in regard to religious feelings. Let any one be struck as David was struck, when Nathan set his guilt before him, and showed him, "Thou art the man!" Would he have an appetite for food? Or if the body required that support which is essential, would he be careful as to the sort of food? Would he be anxious to fare sumptuously?

Thus fasting and mourning, abstinence and repentance or humiliation, came to be joined

'Lev. xxiii. 32-39.

2 2 Sam. xii. 16. 8 Ib. i. 12. Ib. xii. 1-7.

together. The Pharisees, 'professing extraordinary sanctity, fasted oft. John's disciples also fasted, as we here learn: it was part of that austerity which belonged to his character and his commission; which caused him to feel like Jeremiah, "O that my head were water, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people." To fast and mourn, and "afflict the soul" was the natural result of feelings like these.

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Jesus, however, and His disciples, had no settled rules concerning this exercise. They did not, like the Pharisees, make it a regular ordinance to "fast twice in the week:" neither had He insisted upon it in His discourses. John's disciples were surprised at this, and inquired why he, a teacher of righteousness, dispensed with a custom which had always been reckoned a part of righteousness, a religious duty. Why do Thy disciples fast not?

For this there were three reasons.

19. "And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

20. "But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days."

To fast, was to mourn. would be according to the

5 Jer. ix. 1.

To fast at a funeral course of nature: to

Luke xviii. 12.

fast at a marriage would be contrary both to nature and to custom. The present time was to the disciples like a marriage feast :—in this respect, at least, that the bridegroom was with them: he in whom they rejoiced was with them, whose name was associated with gladness: and was this a time when they could be bidden to mourn? But the days would come when the bridegroom should be taken from them, and then shall they fast in those days: they should "weep and lament;" be sorrowful, and act like those

in sorrow.

The second reason meets the objection which accused Him of differing from John the Baptist and the Pharisees. Ye ask, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but my disciples fast not?

21. "No man seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse."

My doctrine is new, not taken from those who have gone before: certainly not to be confounded with that of the Pharisees, who have "made the commandments of God of none effect through their traditions." My doctrine teaches that holiness does not consist in outward ceremonies, and stated observances, and days of fasting, to be followed perhaps by days of feasting and though holy men will use all the means in their power that the flesh may be

7 John xvi. 20.

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