The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1874-03-14
Lent.
ma.soN OF FASTING AND PPAYER--oRIGIs OF
| fHE CUSTOM AND THE MANNER OF
| OBSERVING 1T.

fast before Easter has been observed from
the earliest Christian times, but the period OF
its duration was not decreed until the seventh
century. The variations of the time ofits con-
tinuance are thus spoken of by Ireneus, dis
ciple of st. Polycarp, first Bishop of Smyrna,
who sat at the feet of the Apostle st. John and
heard the Gospel from his lips:
"For the difference of opinion is not about
the day alone, but the manner of fasting: for
some think they are to fast one day, some two,
some more; some measure their day as forty
hours of the day and night"
Origen, who fourished as the head of the
Catechetical School of Alexandria, toward the
middle of the third century of our era, speaks
of forty days being consecrated to fasting be-
fore Easter.
This period of forty days was very probably
selected to synchromize with the fasting and
temptation Of our Lord in the wilderness.
No doubt the ancients also considered the
forty days fast of Moses and Elijah.
At present there are still forty days of absti-
uenee, not including the Sundays in tervening,
which have always been considered festivals
or fast days, in honor of the glory Of 'Christ's
resurrection
The peculiar custom of consecrating ashes of
the burnt palm branches-and with those sign
ing the cross upon the heads of the people
sgnifyng that man is but dust and ashes-has
given the name for the first day of the season
,saA'.shc "o.1 Lent itself is Saxon term, mean
ing in that language Spring" as this is the
season of the Lenten Fast.
The primary object of the institution of this
last before Easter was that Of perpetuating in
the minds of Christians that sorrow md humil-
iation which the Apostles experienced when
tie bridegroom was taken away from them.
This seems to have been the chief object, but
sorrow for the death of CHRIsr was necessarily
followed by sorrow for the occasion OF His death
that is sin-and hence Lent became season
OF discipline-when men fflcted themselves,
that the sins of the flesh mi 5ht be effectually
crucifed
Lent seems to have been a season of humili-
alton, abstinence from eaaure-of fasting
prayer, penitence and general sorrow for sin,
and was marked on every side with sombre
tokens of mourning.
This continued as an universal custom down
to that period called the "Reformation," of all
the Reformed Communions. The "Church of
England with her branches has, we believe,
alone retained this primitive custom.
The churches of the Roman, Greek and An
glican communions, comprising in all, about
two hundred and fifty millions (250, ,000,O00) Of
Christians are now observing this season.
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SHAD AND BASS IN THE PoroNAC.-The States
of Maryland and Virginia should not be deter
red from restocking the Potomac and its chief
tributaries with shad because Of the numerous
Alack bass in those waters. Doubtless it the
bass are on short allowance of cay fish aud other
food, they will raid upon the young shad, but
the latter occupy so different place in the
river as to render them comparatively safe
from their voracous neighbors. The bass feed
near the shore and near the larger rocks in
sharp running water. while the young fry Of
the shad feed on the top of the smoothest wa
ter. l recommend stocking of the head waters
of aha N which q
bottoms with black bass All your Maryland
streams with which | am acquainted present
these conditions.
The commercial fisheries Of Mary land and
Virginia Il mean the fisheries of shad and her.
ring) might, under proper management, be-
come of immense value, and when restored to
their traditional fecundity the waters of those
States would rival the lands which they drain
IN productiveness. A single fact will illustrate
this. In the year 1927 Thos. Stump took 80
many shad and herring at one haul of isseine,
near Havre de-Grace, that it required three
days, labor of ten men to empty the net. Mr..
Willis, of Battle Creek Mich, my informant,
who was present, bought three hundred of the
largest of the shad for So. Doubtless, similar
miraculous draughts were common on the Pa
tuxent and the Potomac ia the ancient days
when it was usual in drawing up the inden-
lures of an apprentice, or a bond for negro hire,
to stipulate that the parties should not be COM
PEELED to eat shad and wild ducks more than 30
lpar davs in the week. What your ahoo.ir &
men may do to restore the great flights of wild
fowl which once frequented the Chesapeake, 1
will not venture to predict, but l will assert
most positively that well-deviscd system OF
fish protection and fish culture will within a
short time, restore the waters of both Maryland
and Virginia their original fecundi,y i,y.-SErH
GREEN in the Turf, Field and Farm.