The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1899-03-30
P2ESEll'L' DAY THOUGHTS }
Scr1e Observations About Lent.
WEAT Is TEE NEW LFNT?
BY C GROSVENoR DAVE.
Written for The Commonwealth.

Written for The Commonwealth.
The-New Lent.-The impression may
possibly be a mistaken one, but 1t Ger
taiAly seems to me that there is less
attention paid to Lent than formerly
The forty days, when the flesh is to hc
denied this thing OR that-w;seil the
sad inien Is the mlen Of propriety-
! when the joy OF life is to be starved
ont that the lie hereafter shall be
made more &c, tain-wLen trifing pri-
vatlons are supposed to please the Oxe
who has the interests of great uni
verse to watch o9er-that sort OF Lent
Is passing away, ! believe.
z;s:*
There is no sign of retrogression
about this j; for the underlying prlncl-
pie OF the old Lent seems to have Teen
concern about oneself. It was by no
means an imitation OF the great soul
whom it is supposed to reflect. lie
grew, if possible, more earnest as the
end drew near; but he attended this
celebration, and that, he cheered his
disciples by the way, he ate and he
drank, he went calmly to his earthly
doom. There may have been at one
time fasting of iorty days ard forty
nights i'll preparing for his life 3 WORK
On the earth, but there was no such
term OF preparation for the world
hereafter.
Let Us without 4 moments hesita-
ton rejoice that the old Lent OF sack
cloth and ashes, the old Lent OF outer
raggedness and snowy neglect Of self, the
cd Lent Of abstention from earth's
pleasures, tie return 10 them having
the greater zest after forty days Of de-
mails passing into the garret Of dis
used and Eaisusad ideas. There let It
stay, together with other vague inter
pretations OF Gods wiII--l,ke the
aughtering of heretics, compul5ion in
believing, Sabbath sourness, damnation
Of infants and all sorts OF man-made
characteristics that hide the great sim
pie, center truth that Greater must |
love his creatures.
Each generation CT men intecprets /
God anew. The Interpretation must OF
necessity be an advancing one or fail
to keep up with hrnan.ty-ilself an
ever advancing thing. We who are
still young can remember the old en-
phasis placed upon individual saliva
tion-how the important fact that each
had a soul was so lnsistedhpon that the
getting OF that soul sayed aud securing
for 1t 'seternal rest" in some remote
heaven was made to appear the only
worthy object of man, woman or child.
But now? Less OF that sort OF empha-
sis and more of beiief-a belief grow
Ing cut Of the revelations OF science
that humanity Is one and i1,d,visi.Ie,
tha5 the gain Of one is the gain Of all,
that the loss OF one is the loss Of all,
that the sanctiiied sou! living to itself
is an enemy to humanity rather than q
friend to grace, that the burden of hui
Tnaliity is not thing whose blame is
to be lazily and idly shifted off upon
the Prince of the Power OF the Air, but
one whoce demands for attention and
heip are made, and made properly upon
the weakest Of us who are ajle TO feel
Interest in others.
What, then. is the New lent? 1t is
ne.:'.of limited by clocks nor by moons.
iy clothes nor by churcil!y dserees
There are no times and seasons ior do
ing right, nor for holding self in check
The watch III your hand is not the
guide as TO when .ho time for doing
coed is near. The time is now, and
will sndere till the last conscious
breath leaves the weary body. The
New Lent ls the age We live IN, and
that age is not Judged as to its good
ness by the use OF either fish, flesh or
fowl.
L. 4