The Portland daily press., 1896-04-24
AT STATE STREET CHURCH.
The Annual Union Fast Day Service
Held Yesterday.

or Divine Element in the Public Fast
The union Fast day service was held
at the State street Congregational church
yesterday morning. Rev. DR.. Jenkins
preached.
Rev. J. B. Spiers offered the inyoca-
ton. Rev. Or. Dalton read selections
from the Scripture and Rev. W. S. Ayres
offered prayer.
Rev. L. S. Bean delivered the sermon.
Mr.. Bean read as the text of his ser.
mon from the 5Sth chapter of Isaiah the
81 verses, inclusive. The sermon itself
was an attempt to show what consti tied
the Perpetual or Divine element in the
public fast" The following is but a
very brief abstract of the sermon:
These words at first glance, seem to be
destructive. They seem aimed at the
very existence of the fast itself. But a
more careful and attentive reading will
show that they are really constructive
words, aimed at meaningless and empty
forms, and intended to reveal and restore
the essential and formative idea of the
fast. This formative idea would seem to
be INDIVIDUAL self-sacrifce, or self-denial
for the public good. Public fasts were
appointed in times of public danger and
distress. At these times the individual
was to deny himself usual and acous-
toned enJoynents, to abstain from those
things gratifying to the flesh, and to in
woke blessing and divine favor upon the
community or nation. There was a sense
in which the public fast was a more social
Institution than the public feast. In the
latter the individual became sharer in
the public plenty and blessing, whereas
in the latter he afflicted his soul that the
public might receive blessing and plenty.
All the advances of humanity have
been made through the self denial, the
toll and the sacrifice of individuals who
sou ght the welfare of society. This is the
supreme significance Of the Cross. Well,
because truly, as President Hyde said (:
Vicarious sacrifice is not an arbitrary
continuance by which Christ bought a
formal pardon of the world. 1t is a uni
versal law, of VIII ioh the cross of Christ
is the eternal symbol. 1t is the price
some one must pay for every step of
progress and every conquest over evil the
world shall ever gain" In fact, the ap-
petites of the individual are silenced, his
own personal enjoyment is subordinated,
and he forgets his own desire in the con-
seriousness Of the public need and danger.
Tho fast becomes, therefore, a type
of the atonement itself. But
man is continually forgetting the broad
and generous meaning Of fthe public fast.
own life he affiicts HIS own soul, not to
atone for others, but for himself. He at
tempts to buy the favor Of heaven by a
temporary abstent ton from the delights
of earth. He limits the application of
the law of sacrifice to one day. whereas
the day of the fast is but the symbol of
life He limits it to the deprivation of
self, whereas he should extend it to the
enrichment of others.
The text brings before ua these two con
tending concepts of the fast, which we
may call the priestly and the prophetic.
The priest is the man of forms, the prop
het of reforms. The priest can only offer
sacrifice on his temple altar, the prophet
makes the earth an altar, the bending
heavens temple, and all they who serve
at the altar ministers of the living God.
The priest cares for ritual, the prophet for
Righteousness. Every minister of the Cos
pei should possess the priestly instinct,
but he himself should be dominated by
the prophetic conscience.
The picture which the proph ct presents
in our text is very realistic and pictur-
esque one. The people are moving about
with long, sad, sancti monious counte-
names. They are clothed in sack cloth
and be sprinxled with ashes. Sure these
are very holy men. But woe unto hyp-
ocrites when a prophet appears. This out
ward show Of asoeticism is all at variance
with their daily practice. 1t Is very easy
for man to wear sack cloth one day, if
his factories are all going, and weary
men and women are weaving him broad
cloth and fine linen in abundance. God
cares nothing for self torment, what He
delights in is self sacrifice. The fast
that does not lead to feast is but de-
ception and fraud. What lifs Of self
restraint and sacrifice was that Of our
blessed Lord and Master. How He emp
tied himself of glory for our sakes, how
His impoverishment has enriched the
world. He was in all his life and service
the realization and embodiment of the
perpetual and divine element in the pub
lilo fast, that of individual sacrifice for
the sake of others. And brethren, in all
this, He was our example We are not
saved by appropriating the merit of His
life of sacrifice and making it substi-
tute for the demerit of our life of self in
diligence; but by drinking in the vigor of
His example, by being inspired by His
spirit and guided by His teaching.
The most dangerous tendency in reltgi-
Gus life is to attempt to bargain with
heaven. To compress the self sacrifice of
life into some fast day and then return