Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

FASTING.
IN all countries, and under all religions, fasting has not only been
considered a duty, but also of extraordinary virtue to procure blessings,
and to avert evils. Hence it has often been practised with extraordinary
rigour, and abused to the most superstitious purposes.
Among the Hindoos there are twelve kinds of fasts.
Fasting is considered by the Mohammedans as an essential part of
piety. Their orthodox divines term it "the gate of religion," With them it
is of two kinds, voluntary and incumbent.
When a man fasts, suppose he do it through a religious motive, he
should give the food of that day from which he abstains to the poor and
hungry, who, in the course of Providence, are called to sustain many
involuntary fasts, beside suffering general privations. Wo to him who
saves a day's victuals by his religious fast! He should either give them or
their value in money to the poor.
CONSCIENCE.
CONSCIENCE is defined by some, "that judgment which the rational
soul passes on her own actions;" and is a faculty of the soul itself, and
consequently natural to it. Others say, "It is a ray of the divine light."
Milton calls it "God's umpire;" and Dr. Young seems to call it "a God in
man." To me it appears to be no other than a faculty of the mind, capable
of receiving light and information from the Spirit of God; and is the same
to the soul in spiritual matters, as the eye is to the body in the things
which concern vision. The eye is not light in itself, nor is it capable of
discerning any object but by the instrumentality of natural or artificial
light. But it has organs properly adapted to the reception of the rays of
light, and the various images of the objects which they exhibit. When
these are present to an eye, the structure of which is perfect, then there is
discernment or perception of those objects which are within the sphere of
vision: but when the light is absent there is no perception of the figure,