New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-02-26
THE OBSERVANCE OF LENT.

Frolics OF Lent in the World of Fashion
No Fear of Ennui During the Forty Days Fast
-Penitential Season 70 Be Very Gay-Sack-
cloth and Ashes Exploded Fiction" Such was
the caption over recent article in one Of our
contemporaries. Although some allowance
must be made for the lively fancy of the head
line artist it must be admitted that, although
the season Of penitence has become more popu-
lar in sense, il is coming to be only indiffer-
entity observed. The great majority even OF
those who believe in the principle of the fast
ind themselves unable 10 observe it in the old
traditional way. To do so would require OF
them a radical change in their habits and &c
tivities that they do not feel themselves able
TO make No business man. and certainly no
laboring man. attend special weekday
Lenten services especially those held during
the day. AS to fasting. the thing is easy enough
in the Orient, where less food is required to sus
tain life; but in this colder climate. with the
enormously developed activity and strain Of
modern life, it would be unwise for most peo-
pie TO practise any rigid fast When abstinence
Is really desirable, the physician is a safer
counsellor than the priest In a word, such an
observance Of Lent as is prescribed in the man
uals the subject would make necessary a
complete withdrawal from the world and IT'S
activities, which, if it became general would.
while it lasted bring civilization to a stand
still.
OF course If the Observance of Lent were 4
moral obligation divinely imposed on mankind
these considerations ought to have no force;
but admittedly such is not the case The
Churches which prescribe Lent 20 no further
than to say that it is venerable practice con-
secrated by tradition and helpful to those who
rightly observe it. 1t has indeed, been admit
nv 'briS +bo+
was borrowed from pagan sources but even if
that is not so the historic DEVELOPMENT of the
season can be easily traced. The primitive
Christians kept single fast day before Easter.
and for a long time there was great diversity
OF practice as 10 its length and the mode of its
observance. Even to-day the Roman Church
dispenses many persons from a rigid observance
Of the season, thus recognizing the fact that if
is matter of ecclesiastical regulation It is
conceivable therefore. that the Church might
some day do away with the season altogether
should it find either that its general Observance
has become impracticable or that it does not
make for edifcation
The objections which many good peOple urge
against Lent are very well stated in a recent
article by Colonel Archibald Hopkins of Wash
ingtOn. who, as the son Of President Mark Hon
kins may be taken as representing the old time
w-England attitude toward this peculiarly
church institution. Accepting the view of
some scholars that the season was derived from
a Babylonian sexual fast. and that similar fasts
were observed by all the ancient races he de-
clares that ecclesiastical tradition came finally
to derive it from the forty days fast of Jesus
in the wilderness. story which he takes to be
allegorica and legendary, like an earlier legend
of Buddha. who tasted forty seven DAYS or the
story of the miraculous conception, virgin birth
and temptation of Zoroaster Waving that
point however, 1t is held that if the things
commanded in Lent are really helpful and nm
lifting they ought to be obligatory all the time
and not merely for forty days IT. on the other
hand they are. to speak works of supereroga-
ton, they imply that God is angry with His
children, but is willing be propitiated if they
will scourge and mortify their bodies If that
principle be admitted, then the fanatical sect
of hagellants deserved most the favor of Cod
for they literally scourged themselves until In
some cases they died. Moreover, Colonel Hon
kins questions whether, on the whole, the Chris