The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-02-15
FASTING IS MEET
ONLY FOR SORROW
Protestant Minister Explains
Non-0bServanCe of Lent
NOT ENJOlNED BY CHRIST
DR.. Dickinson, Pastor of the First Bap-
tist Church, Defines the Evan
gelica Religion In Very
Strong Discourse.
NOT ENJOINED BY CHRIST

of the First Baptist church, preached TO
a large congregation at the evening SER
vice yesterday, taking as his theme,
why Evangelical Christians do not
Keep Lent"
His text and sermon follow:
Text--Why do Johns disciples and the
disciples of the Pharisees fast, but thy
disciples fast not? Mark 21s.
During the winter of A. d. g. Jesus
accomplished His first preaching tour
throughout Galilee. At first He visited all
the villages and cities until the healing
of the leper, which probably occurred in
February of that year. gave Him such
notoriety as a miracle worker that He
retired into desert place to escape the
vulgar curiosity seeker and more fully
give Himself to His great work of teach
ing those who came unto Him for the
gospel.
This period of retirement probably last
ed several weeks and He returned quiet
~ in the early part of March to His home
in Capernaum But His homecoming
could not be concealed and Mark tells us
ut was noised that He was at home
Jesus Examined.
Certain Pharisees and serlbes, doctors
of the law, had come from every village
of Galilee. Judea and Jerusalem to ex-
anime into the work of this now famous
prophet. They came to Capernaum and
sought Him out in His home to observe
His teaching. While He was teaching
them occurred the incident of the les
son Of this morning concerning the heal
ing of the paralytic.
Our Lord used this incident to teach
these serlbes and Pharisees that lie as
the head of His kingdom had power on
earth to forgive sins and wrought this
miracle as evidence of that fact.
The first lesson He taught the religious
teachers was that His kingdom proposed
to free man from their sins.
AS He left His house and went to His
favorite preaching place by the sea, He
called Matthew, the publican, to be His
disciple, and he left his office under the
Roman government to accept the call of
his Lord.
The new disciple made a feast for his
Lord, and invited his old comrades. In
the midst the Pharisees are shocked that
the great Prophet should associate with
publcans and sinners. Our Lord uses this
incident to teach them the further lesson
that He who had power on earth to for
give sins was sent like Hosea of old, es-
pecially to the sinners.
Pharisees Learn Second Lesson.
So the Pharisees learned their second
lesson of the nature of His kingdom, that
1t was intended for sinners as such.
This happened during the latter part
of March, A. d. 2s. when Johns disciples,
whose Lord, to their great distress, had
now been imprisoned for six months, were
keeping fast, and the Pharisees were
also observing one of their frequent Len
ten seasons But Jesus and His disciples
went their usual course, eating and drink
ing. 1t shocked the Pharisees that the
new Prophet and His disciples should re-
fuse to keep Lent, and they sent the
inquiry of the text.
The Lord answers that fasting was in
cident to sorrow, and was caused by ad-
versity, hence a fasting could not be OBJ
served on wedding occasion, and His
kingdom bringing men into His immedi-
ate presence was of that joyful nature. So
fasting could occur only when He, the
bridegroom, was taken away from the
sons of the bride chamber There can be
no fasting in that form of Christianity
which teaches the perpetual imminence of
Christ and access to His presence, but
whenever men believe that there are
mediators such as church, sacraments and
priesthoods between the believer and his
Lord, so that the presence of the Lord
is mediate and not immediate, there we
ind much made Of fasting. and evangel-
icai religion has lost its festive nature
I'VE cannot fast when the Bridegroom Is
with us, but when He is taken away-in
that day we shall fast"
Kingdom Entirely New.
He gives these Pharisees to understand
that his kingdom Is entirely new. and
Old Testament forms and ceremonies.
even as represented in the asceticism of
John. can have no place therein This
He teaches in the beautiful couplet of
narables of the new cloth In the old gar :
ment. and the new wine in the old wine
skins: and that II we tried to combine
the old with the new we would make a
wreck of both.
The experience of the church in his
tory has shown that to the extent 1t has
adopted Old Testa.nent ceremonies 1t has
lost New Testament spirituality. Set
facts wherein the world is commanded
to sorrow, even though there be nothing
over which to mourn, is the affectation
of a spirit for the sake of formality,
whereas, spiritual religion requires forms
to be subsidiary to conditions of heart.
For this reason evangelical Christendom
refuses to observe the forty days of self
imposed sadness enjoined by the ecclesi-
astical forms of Christianity.
And yet Jesus recognizes that this is
a question largely of taste and says, mo
man having drunk Of the old wine
straightway desireth the new, for he
saith the old is pleasant" II you are get
ting religious cult to suit your taste
you will take the old or the new as
your taste may be. but IL YOU are trying
to discipline your taste to the new you
Will seek the presence OF the Lord on
which its cult Is predicated