LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
 
 — __ 
 
 Chap. __. Copyright No. 
 
 SheltJjXJb. 
 
 UiNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
A LAYMAN'S LENT. 
 
 AN ARGUMENT FOR ITS OBSERVANCE FROM 
 
 AN HISTORICAL, SCRIPTURAL, AND 
 
 PRACTICAL STANDPOINT, 
 
 by ^r 
 
 Archibald Campbell Knowles, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "The Belief and Worship of the Anglican Church," "On Wings 
 of Fancy" etc., etc. 
 
 WITH A COMMENDATORY PREFACE 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rt. Rev. Isaac Lea Nicholson, S. T. D., 
 
 BISHOP OF MILWAUKEE. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 3 r m> I 
 
 GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO., I 1 *b * 
 
 103 South 15th Street. 
 1897. 
 

 Copyright, 1897, by 
 Archibald Campbell Knowles. 
 
COMMENDATORY. 
 
 T N one of his very notable sermons on the spiritual 
 life, the great Lacordaire tells us that whatever in 
 the way of human endeavor tends to lift up the soul 
 to God, and draw the mind more intently toward 
 Him is generally to be commended ; and whatever acts 
 the contrary way, whatever draws us from Him, or 
 the thought of Him, be it occupation or pleasure or 
 book, is always to be condemned. 
 
 If this witness of so great a master be true (and 
 we think it is most true), then the tendency of this 
 little devotional book, written by our dear and per- 
 sonal friend, is to be strongly commended \ not 
 merely for its own merits, but chiefly because it is 
 his humble effort, put together in his own way, and 
 after his own experience, to draw the souls of his 
 
 3 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 fellow-men more closely to God, and more devotedly 
 attach them to the loving Person of our Lord and 
 Master, Jesus Christ. 
 
 Surely, all such books are to be particularly com- 
 mended, in this day of a widespread humanita- 
 rianism, and a so-called altruism, which is only 
 humanitarian and nothing beyond ; and which asks 
 so confidently to be accepted as a substitute for the 
 old-time Christianity of the Bible, the Prayer Book, 
 and the unbroken ages of the past. Even our clergy 
 need to realize more deeply the dangers in that wide 
 gap far too often seen between the influence of their 
 daily lives, and the Divine Person of Jesus Christ. 
 And, with all the strong helps we have, in our high 
 and holy calling of the ministry, if this daily prac- 
 tice of a warm personal piety is a difficult thing to 
 us : what pity shall we not feel for our lay brethren, 
 these busy workmen out in the world, wrecked and 
 tossed, and each day well-nigh submerged as they 
 are, amidst the greater distractions of their daily 
 
 4 
 
Commendatory. 
 
 lives, if they find it almost an impossibility, as so 
 often they plaintively tell us, to live this "life hid 
 with Christ in God;" which is indeed the only true, 
 and real, and lasting Christian life at all ? 
 
 " O for a closer walk with God, 
 A calm and heavenly frame : 
 A light to shine upon the road, 
 That leads me to the Lamb." 
 
 We confidently ask, then, a blessing from God 
 upon this aid to a layman's Lent, and commend 
 the head, the hands, and the heart of the writer, as 
 also of the reader, to His protecting grace. 
 
 f Isaac Lea Nicholson, 
 Bishop of Milwaukee. 
 Milwaukee : 
 
 Feast of the Epiphany, 1897. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 TN presenting to the public this his work on the 
 Lenten Fast, the Author would fain hope that he 
 is contributing to a real need in the spiritual life of 
 the day. While many an one has kept this solemn 
 season and has experienced the holy joy and lasting 
 good that have come from it, perhaps far more have 
 turned away, ignorant alike of the clear historical 
 warrant for its observance, and of the many benefits 
 therein to be found. 
 
 It has been the Author's aim, therefore, to show 
 the authority of history and Scripture for such ob- 
 servance, to give a logical exposition of the reasons 
 why the keeping of it becomes a bounden duty, and 
 to suggest how its many privileges may best be used 
 in order to obtain the greatest spiritual good and 
 benefit from them. 
 
 7 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 In the trust that this little work may commend 
 itself to all, but especially to those who have never 
 to the fullest extent sought the blessings of Lent, or 
 who have doubted the expediency of such observ- 
 ance, and with the hope and prayer that the writer 
 as well as the reader may benefit by whatsoever may 
 herein be found helpful, the Author submits for the 
 consideration of all this his labour of love for Christ : 
 A Layman's Lent. 
 
 " SUNNYSIDE," 
 
 Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, 
 
 Feast of the Nativity, 1896. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I.— The Mystery of Life— The Call of Lent, II 
 
 II. — Historical Warrant for the Observance of Lent, . . 22 
 
 III. — Scriptural Reasons for the Observance of Lent, . . 36 
 
 IV. — Objections to the Observance of Lent Answered, . . 50 
 
 V.— The Spiritual Life, . 68 
 
 (Prayer, Meditation, Reading, Holy Communion.) 
 
 VI. — The Life of Sacrifice, 100 
 
 VII.— The Call of the Crucified, 122 
 
 Appendix, 131 
 
THE MYSTERY OF LIFE THE CALL OF LENT. 
 
 To every thoughtful man there comes a 
 time when he is brought face to face, as 
 it were, with the strange Mystery of Life, 
 when the solemnity of it all dawns upon 
 him. About him he sees the prosperity of 
 the rich and the poverty of the poor, the 
 sorrows and trials of the one, the joys and 
 pleasures of the other. Here the good 
 and innocent are almost crushed under 
 some terrible blow, or struggle along 
 under burdens almost too heavy to bear. 
 There the wicked and careless escape un- 
 scathed, or go from pleasure to pleasure 
 with scarcely a cloud in their horizon. 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 One wretched creature with scarcely a 
 murmur tosses on the bed of fever; an- 
 other dies for the barest necessaries of 
 life ; a third in the lap of luxury, cared for 
 by loving relatives and watchful nurses, 
 complains at every pain and ache — all 
 forming the Mystery of Life, inexplicable, 
 unfathomable, unless viewed in the light of 
 Faith, in the realization that in all the 
 strange and varying vicissitudes of our ex- 
 istence is the hand of God, Who, the Cre- 
 ator and Ruler of all things, knoweth best 
 what is for our good. 
 
 Any other explanation, to a truly 
 thoughtful man, would render life a burden 
 too great to bear. If trials and troubles, 
 sickness and death come but through the 
 caprice of an arbitrary God, or through 
 certain inexorable laws of nature, sooner 
 than bear them, if such was his lot, sooner 
 
The Call of Lent. 
 
 than anticipate them if such his expecta- 
 tion, man would prefer by his own hand to 
 end his existence here and pass to noth- 
 ingness, for simple cessation of being will- 
 ingly exchanging such a life of misery. 
 
 But, thank God, owing to His Divinely 
 Appointed Church, and His Divinely In- 
 spired Scriptures, we see one great source 
 of comfort in this Mystery of Life : in the 
 realization that each one of us is placed 
 here for some special purpose or work, all 
 the varied experiences of life, whether of 
 trial or trouble, joy or pleasure being sent 
 to us as so many aids and helps to the 
 furtherance of this object, 
 
 In brief, as the Bible tells us, our life is 
 but a sojourning here, as of pilgrims in a 
 foreign land. Created primarily for the 
 glory of God, we are granted opportunities 
 and endowed with capabilities, if we will so 
 
 n 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 use them as to enable us to attain to the 
 blessed life above, each trial, each disap- 
 pointment being sent as so much school- 
 ing for the accomplishing of that end. 
 
 Man then is strictly accountable to 
 Almighty God for the proper use and exer- 
 cise of his opportunities and talents. His 
 responsibility consequently is great. Not 
 only must he earnestly try to ascertain 
 " what the will of the Lord is" and his life, 
 11 what will he do with it," but he must also 
 seek every means to work out that end 
 when he finds his vocation. His desire 
 and prayer should ever be to do not that 
 which he wishes, but that which God wishes, 
 not that which he most likes, but that for 
 which he is best fitted, and it is only in 
 doing this that man gains true happiness 
 in this world, accomplishes a life work, be 
 it in ever so humble a sphere, that leaves 
 
 14 
 
The Call of Lent. 
 
 its impress on the world, and makes him 
 to some extent at least unravel the threads 
 of the Mystery of Life. 
 
 To such persons, then—and we speak 
 to all who sincerely desire to do what is 
 right — each recurring year brings at its ap- 
 pointed time the solemn season of Lent 
 Again do we stand on the threshold, to 
 answer to the question " Wilt thou keep 
 Lent?" Again on our decision may de« 
 pend the issues of spiritual life or death. 
 If it be " Yes " it will open before us wider 
 and richer opportunities for the religious 
 life, for closer companionship with Almighty 
 God, and will give us added light for our 
 journey along the pathway of our existence 
 and a glimpse into the Mystery of Life/ If 
 the answer be " No " it will mean the fall- 
 ing away from higher things, the " things 
 pertaining to God," the lapsing into worldli- 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 ness and selfishness, if not idle pleasure 
 and sin. 
 
 Truly it is the old fight between worldly 
 self-interest and spiritual self-interest, the 
 higher nature and the lower nature. Again 
 must we stand before the tribunal of our 
 conscience, and answer to the question put 
 in the days long past: "Christ or Diana." 
 
 " Watch and pray" is the battle cry of 
 Lent, and down the shadowy vistas of the 
 centuries comes the sweet, loving, beseech- 
 ing voice of the dear Redeemer: "Can ye 
 not watch with Me ? u 
 
 To one man, the question comes plainly 
 and clearly. He cannot evade it, for he 
 knows its meaning and inwardly he is 
 harried by the rival cries " This I should 
 do " (observe the prayerful season of 
 Lent), "This I desire to do" (enjoy the 
 pleasures of the world). To another man 
 
 t6 
 
The Call of Lent. 
 
 the question comes, coupled with an affir- 
 mative answer it is true, but clouded with 
 fancied doubts and difficulties, both as to 
 how much he should do, and as to how 
 much physical, moral, and spiritual strength 
 he has with which to do it While to a 
 third man, the question either comes not 
 at all, or is immediately silenced, for his 
 conscience, long since seared and scarred 
 with many wounds, has been relegated to a 
 dark corner of his being, where it can trouble 
 him no more, unless it comes occasionally to 
 haunt him like the shade of a murdered soul, 
 disturbing his self-complacency, as pointing 
 a trembling finger at the good examples of 
 Lenten self-denial about him, it forces the 
 thought to intrude itself on his darkened 
 mind " Ought not I too to do this?" 
 
 As then, generally speaking, the call of 
 Lent comes in this way to three classes of 
 
 17 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 people (for we eliminate from our argu- 
 ment all of those, who are so holy minded, 
 as to need no urging to take up their Cross 
 for Jesus), so, too, generally speaking, 
 there are but three classes of people who 
 militate against the following of this call 
 for the observance of Lent 
 
 First, we may mention, those who by 
 their strange vagaries, lack of common 
 sense, and want of consistency, bring dis- 
 honour and ridicule upon their cause and 
 themselves. Secondly, those who, though 
 good and upright, have never developed 
 the devotional side of their nature, and so, 
 never observing Lent themselves, feel it to 
 be their bounden duty to place difficulties 
 in the path of all who so desire, trying to 
 " shame " them into seeing "how foolish/' 
 " how silly " (as they are pleased to call it !) 
 such observance is. 
 
The Call of Lent. 
 
 Thirdly, there are those who, embittered 
 against faith and religion in general and 
 self-sacrifice and holy living in particular, 
 which shames them in their own lives, do 
 not hesitate to bring all the scorn and ridi- 
 cule of the world to bear upon those try- 
 ing to keep Lent, openly laughing at these, 
 and speaking of their acts of devotion or 
 penitence as " nonsense/' With most 
 specious arguments they ask such ques- 
 tions as "What do you gain ?", " What is 
 the use?", "God cares nothing for such 
 things !", " Lent never makes A any bet- 
 ter !", thus in their own spiritual blindness 
 not only daring to value the aspiration of 
 the Soul after God, but even presuming to 
 voice God's opinion of such sacrifices and 
 to condemn their brother-man ! 
 
 Perhaps some think this does not seem 
 very strong opposition. Many, however, 
 
 *9 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 who have borne the brunt of the battle can 
 well testify to the strength and power of 
 the forces of " the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil," veiled, as they may be, in specious 
 argument and polite phraseology, yet 
 nevertheless a power and a strength that 
 has sore wounded many a godly one who 
 has struggled on, though maimed and dis- 
 heartened, while, alas ! it has driven from 
 the field many another who, relying on 
 himself instead of God, has been worsted 
 in the conflict 
 
 Lent then is upon us. The answer has to 
 be made. It may be the crucial moment of 
 our lives. Let us then consider the question 
 and answer it as before God, in- Whose 
 Presence all that we do in this world is 
 done, remembering that in our decision we 
 must stand or fall before our Maker. 
 
 Then, as we answer " Yes.,, by God's 
 
The Call of Lent. 
 
 help we will keep Lent "— - and this is the 
 only answer a sincere Christian and a de- 
 vout lover of Christ can make— let us pre- 
 pare for the battle with the armies of 
 worldliness on every side. Let us equip 
 ourselves in the knowledge of the reasons 
 why we should keep Lent. Let us be 
 ready to answer the Devil's objections, 
 telling us why we should not keep it. 
 
 Then with undaunted courage, deter- 
 mination, and earnestness let us try so to 
 observe this solemn season that we may 
 be like those mentioned by the Psalmist : 
 "Blessed is the man whose strength is in 
 Thee ; in whose heart are Thy ways. Who 
 going through this vale of misery use it for 
 a well ; and the pools are filled with ivater. 
 They will go from strength to strength : 
 and unto the God of gods appear eth every 
 one of them in Sion. u 
 
II. 
 
 HISTORICAL WARRANT FOR THE OBSERVANCE 
 OF LENT. 
 
 The history of the observance of Lent 
 can be traced back to the beginning of the 
 Christian Era, when we find it mentioned 
 in the writings of the Fathers, Irenaeus 
 and Tertullian. In those early days, while 
 there seems to have been some slight dif- 
 ference in the various Church centres as to 
 the length of the Fast, the solemn season, 
 whatever its duration, was rigidly and 
 universally kept. 
 
 Then, as now, this Fast was observed 
 as a retreat from the world, preparatory 
 to the joyful festival of Easter. As this 
 
Historical Authority. 
 
 feast was celebrated with a pomp and 
 splendour far exceeding anything to be 
 witnessed in the present age, the natural 
 inference is that the fast of Lent was cor- 
 respondingly observed with every show of 
 penitence, of sorrow for sin, and of prepa- 
 ration for a better life. 
 
 As in the case of most feasts and fasts, 
 the title of this solemn period has also 
 varied, but for many centuries past it has 
 been called Lent by English-speaking na- 
 tions, this name coming directly from the 
 countries of Northwestern Europe, where 
 we find the Anglo-Saxons designating the 
 holy season as Lencten, the Germans Lenz, 
 and the Dutch Lente, words meaning the 
 spring fast, 
 
 While the early records show a lack of 
 uniformity as to the length of the Fast, the 
 differences, as we have said, were slight, 
 
 23 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 the periods observed generally only vary- 
 ing between six and seven weeks. There 
 are, however, a few instances of a shorter 
 observance of only a few days, and in one 
 case of but one day, this probably being 
 Holy Cross Day or Good Friday as we 
 know it. This variation is no more re- 
 markable, however, than that of the Kalen- 
 dar, time being computed then as now in 
 a different way by different nations, for the 
 organization of the Church in the days of 
 persecution and in the times immediately 
 succeeding" them could not have been as 
 perfect, nor her observances and customs 
 as uniform as in that period when the 
 Church spread over the whole of Europe 
 and impressed with her majesty and power 
 even the secular world. 
 
 In the time of Gregory the Great, the 
 Bishop of Rome (from 590 to 604 A. D.) 
 
 24 
 
Historical Authority, 
 
 conformity to a certain fixed period had 
 been brought about Then we find both 
 the Western and Eastern Churches ob- 
 serving a season of six weeks, less of course 
 the six Sundays (invariably celebrated as 
 festivals,) thus leaving thirty-six days for 
 the Fast. ^ 
 
 To whom is due the next great change, 
 definitely settling the time to forty days — 
 exclusive of Sundays— and so placing the 
 beginning of the Fast at the day we call 
 Ash Wednesday, is not positively known. 
 By some, this has been attributed to Greg- 
 ory the Great, but there is no reliable 
 authority for thinking that he was the 
 originator of the change. 
 
 Many think the addition of these four 
 days* making the actual time of fasting 
 forty days, was made in the tenth century, 
 as it was not until the end of the eleventh 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 century that the addition was recognized 
 by the Church of Scotland. 
 
 The selection of this even number of 
 forty days for the length of the Fast finds 
 its authority in the examples given us (i) 
 in the Old Testament record of the forty 
 days' fasts of Moses and Elijah ; (2) in 
 the New Testament record of the forty 
 days' sojourn in the wilderness of our 
 Blessed Lord, 
 
 This has always been considered by the 
 Church not only as sufficient warrant for 
 appointing such a fast, but also as making 
 it incumbent upon all to observe its com- 
 mands. 
 
 In the earliest days the penitent was 
 wont to clothe himself in sackcloth, being 
 crossed with the sacred ashes, symbolical 
 of the death of earthly joy s and remaining 
 in seclusion until Maundy Thursday. At 
 
Historical Authority. 
 
 that time he was again reconciled to the 
 Church and granted absolution for his sin. 
 We believe this custom is now obsolete. 
 
 Among those of the Anglican and 
 Roman Churches of to-day Lent is ob- 
 served in much the same manner, with 
 frequent services and special devotions. 
 In the latter body, however, there are still 
 in vogue a number of ancient customs 
 long since abandoned by the Anglican 
 Communion, either for lack of sufficient 
 authority to commend them, or because 
 they savoured somewhat of superstition. 
 
 Ash Wednesday, since its appointment 
 as the beginning of the solemn season, has 
 been observed with every mark of mourn- 
 ing for sin. 
 
 It is a strict fast, and is supposed to be 
 rigidly kept by all who are able to do so. 
 The Roman Church still blesses with ashes 
 
 $1 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 on this day, and reminds each one that he 
 is but dust. 
 
 In the Greek Church the three Sundays 
 of Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, and Sep- 
 tuagesima, which we reckon as before 
 Lent, are called the Sundays of the Pro- 
 digal, from the Gospel for the day. The 
 Greek Church, unlike Western Christen- 
 dom, begins Lent with the day after Quin- 
 quagesima. 
 
 As we draw near the close of Lent, the 
 solemnity of the season increases. The 
 second Sunday before Easter is called 
 Passion Sunday, and is observed with much 
 ceremony, the Cross, Crucifix, Candlesticks, 
 and Altar Ornaments being veiled in purple 
 silk. Passion week following this, brings us 
 to the first Sunday before Easter, called 
 Palm Sunday, when processions with palms 
 are made about the Church, commemorate 
 
 38 
 
Historical Authority, 
 
 ing Christ's entrance into Jerusalem, amid 
 the shouts of " Hosanna " and the strewing 
 of palm branches. This " Feast of Palms " 
 as it is also called, was celebrated as early 
 as the fifth century, though the custom 
 of processions with palms seems to have 
 been of later date. Now such processions 
 are very general, being followed in many 
 portions of the Church by a distribution 
 of the blessed palm. The week following 
 is called Holy Week, In it comes the 
 solemn days of Maundy Thursday and 
 Good Friday. 
 
 /Maundy Thursday is truly a great day 
 of Lent, and carries with it, not only the 
 one central thought of the institution 
 of the Blessed Sacrament, but also many 
 customs and associations of ancient times, 
 It has borne many names, the one we 
 now retain coming from the Latin words, 
 
 2 9 
 
A Layman *s Lent, 
 
 "'Dies mandati" (the day of the Great 
 Commandment). Among other ancient 
 titles was that of " the Day of Foot- 
 washing," in honour of Christ's cleans- 
 ing of the Apostles' feet, an example even 
 now followed by the Bishop of Rome, who 
 with an elaborate ceremonial, far different 
 from the simplicity shown by our Blessed 
 Lord, washes on this day the feet of twelve 
 beggars. 
 
 In ancient times there were four promi- 
 nent features of Maundy Thursday, though 
 they were customs only to be found in 
 some parts of the Church: (i) the cate- 
 chizing of the Catechumens, or those de- 
 siring Baptism ; (2) the reconciliation of 
 Penitents, who, assembling on the outside 
 of the church, listened to a sermon from 
 the Bishop, and upon entering the sacred 
 building and hearing the Mass for the 
 
 30 
 
Historical Authority 
 
 Reconciliation of Penitents were pub- 
 licly absolved from their sins ; (3) the 
 Consecration of the Chrism, or the sacred 
 oil long used— and still used in the Greek 
 Church— for the anointing of the con- 
 firmed, the sick and the newly baptized ; 
 (4) the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, 
 on this day regarded as especially solemn 
 as being offered on the day commemorat- 
 ing its institution. 
 
 Some other curious customs were: the 
 enforced silence of all church bells, the 
 stripping of the Altars after Vespers, and 
 the cessation of chanting. 
 
 Another great day of Lent is Good Fri- 
 day ; indeed it is undoubtedly the most 
 solemn time of the whole Church Year, 
 It has been strictly observed since the 
 earliest times, and in some cases, for those 
 who could endure it, the fast was enjoined 
 
A Layman s Lent, 
 
 until midnight of Easter Even, the day 
 following. At one time not only food, but 
 bathing was forbidden. Soon the day 
 came to be observed with the solemnity 
 and ritual now in vogue among almost 
 all branches of the Catholic Church. 
 
 Among other old customs was the ex- 
 tinguishing of the candles on the Altar, 
 these being with great solemnity put out 
 one by one. Sometimes a Cross was 
 erected before the Choir, but this was 
 abandoned, as it probably led to such 
 superstitious practices as " Creeping to the 
 Cross/' and u Adoration of the Cross." 
 The Crosses on the Altar and on the Rood 
 Screen were considered sufficient to re- 
 mind one— if any reminder was necessary 
 — of the great Sacrifice of the Day, the 
 Crucifixion on Calvary. The Holy Com- 
 munion, being the greatest act of joyful 
 
Historical Authority. 
 
 worship of the Christian Church, was not 
 celebrated, but in some branches of the 
 Church, as in the Roman Communion to- 
 day, the desire to partake of the Blessed 
 Sacrament was so great that it was per- 
 mitted to be reserved on Maundy Thurs- 
 day, and under the name of " the Mass of 
 the Presanctified " was administered on 
 Good Friday.* 
 
 The present custom of the Anglican 
 Communion, of singing what are called 
 the "Reproaches" and preaching a series 
 of Meditations on the Seven Words ot 
 the Cross, the latter interspersed with 
 hymns and prayers, seems most conducive 
 to the devotion suitable for such a solemn 
 time, and most fitting as a service of Com* 
 
 * This is not to be taken as inferring that Reservation for the 
 purpose of administering to the sick is not right at all times, 
 although Reservation for Adoration only may be questioned, 
 
 33 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 memoration of the Sacrifice of Christ on 
 the Cross, there crucified for the sins of the 
 whole world. 
 
 Thus then, in the observance of the 
 early days of the Christian Era, and in the 
 universal custom of the Church ever since, 
 we have the strongest warrant for the 
 keeping of Lent in the present day, hav- 
 ing an argument from history and an argu- 
 ment from religion, for as in her records 
 the Church as an Institution shows the 
 facts of her universal practice, so by this 
 universal practice, the Church as a teacher 
 shows us what must be accepted as right, 
 for being the repository and interpreter 
 of Chrises Holy Religion, this Catholic 
 Church, His Mystical Body, cannot, when 
 she acts as a whole, teach or practice what 
 is wrong. 
 
 Fortified then, with this authority of hb- 
 34 
 
Historical Authority. 
 
 tory, and armed with the endorsement of 
 the Church, let us keep this time of Lent 
 as did the Christians of old 3 as a solemn 
 period of preparation for the bright and 
 glorious Festival of Easter, commemorat- 
 ing our dear Lord's Resurrection, as Lent 
 commemorates His Fast and Crucifixion. 
 And that we may persuade others to a like 
 holy observance, let us in the following 
 pages consider for a moment this wonder- 
 ful Mystery of Life, and what it means, 
 and see how the teaching 1 of Lent in 
 a measure serves to explain that which 
 otherwise seems inexplicable, at the same 
 time enquiring into the religious reasons 
 for, and answering the worldly objections 
 to. the observance of this solemn season. 
 
 35 
 
III. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL REASONS FOR THE OBSERVANCE 
 OF LENT. 
 
 Having investigated the historical war- 
 rant for the observance of Lent, having 
 thought for a moment upon the Mystery 
 of Life, having considered the possibility of 
 the teachings of this solemn season in 
 some measure interpreting that which had 
 seemed unfathomable in this life, we now 
 come to examine into a few of the main 
 reasons for the keeping of this holy fast, 
 starting with the greatest of all Scriptural 
 arguments, the example of our Blessed 
 Lord Himself 
 
 It seems a misfortune to many, though 
 
 i* 
 
Scriptural Authority. 
 
 it should be a privilege to all, that we so 
 often have to give an explanation of much 
 that we do, and much that we believe to in- 
 quirers after truth or scorners of religion ; 
 to take the part, as it were, of the writers 
 of the dark ages of unbelief, and act as 
 Christian Apologists, Most important 
 then is it that we ourselves are thoroughly 
 schooled in the reasons for belief in those 
 things which we defend, so as to have a 
 reply for all cavillers. 
 
 As, however, the observance of Lent is 
 not only a great help to those who keep it, 
 but also a great reproof to those who do 
 not, let us ever remember at the outset 
 that the strongest answers to all scoffers, 
 unbelievers, and lukewarm Christians are 
 these : 
 
 (i) — that our Blessed Lord, Whose life 
 we are to copy, set us the example 
 37 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 of fasting forty days and forty 
 nights in the wilderness ; 
 (2) — that He Himself said of sins that 
 " This kind goeth not out but by 
 prayer and fasting ;" 
 (3) — that our self-sacrifice, devotion, and 
 earnestness show the depth of our 
 love for and belief in Him, and 
 give an example of works done 
 for Christ, not for earthly glory or 
 worldly gain. 
 Perhaps this last may do more to con- 
 vince the worldly-minded that we are in 
 earnest, and have a real love for a personal 
 Saviour than many a sermon from a pulpit, 
 many a book from a pen. 
 
 To enter briefly upon the main reasons 
 for keeping Lent — a few of which reasons 
 we hope to treat of more fully in a subse- 
 quent chapter— we find that they can be 
 
 38 
 
Scriptural Authority. 
 
 separated into topic heads and can be en- 
 larged upon as follows: 
 
 I. Because Christ set us the example. 
 
 Here in the sojourn of Christ in the 
 wilderness, we have the comfort of know- 
 ing that He, in His perfect Humanity, was 
 tempted in all things the same as we are, 
 yet without sin, This was necessary in 
 the fulfilling of our Blessed Lord's ap- 
 pointed work, to show all mankind the 
 possibility of resisting temptation and the 
 way in which to overcome it 
 
 In this sojourn in the wilderness, Christ 
 touched no food whatever, but was as the 
 sacred words tell us " an hungered!' At 
 this juncture the Devil comes, thinking in 
 the moment of physical weakness to con- 
 quer the Prince of Peace. First, he points 
 out stones and asks Christ to make them 
 
 39 
 
A Layman s Lent* 
 
 bread; then he takes Him up to a pin- 
 nacle of the Temple, and asks Christ to 
 cast Himself down, saying that God will in- 
 terfere with His Angels ; and lastly, taking 
 Him to an " exceeding high mountain/' he 
 shows him all of the kingdoms of the world 
 and the glory of them, and offers the sov- 
 ereignty to Christ if He mall worship him, 
 the Devil Herein we see the three great 
 temptations that come to all of us, in vari- 
 ous ways : those of the body, the mind, and 
 the spirit 
 
 Our Blessed Lord, being both God and 
 man, could have stopped the Devil at once, 
 but this temptation was part of the sacri- 
 fice He made for us, for herein He shows 
 us the Sinless One, in His humanity beat- 
 ing back and completely conquering the 
 Devil, the Prince of Darkness. 
 
 In the first proposition, "If thou he the 
 40 
 
Scriptural Authority, 
 
 Son of God, command that these stones be 
 made bread" we have the Devil's tempta- 
 tion to the body, appealing to hunger; in 
 the second, "If thou be the Son of God, 
 cast Thyself down ; for it is written, He 
 shall give His Angels charge concerning 
 Thee ; and in their hands they shall bear 
 Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy 
 foot against a stone," we have the Devil's 
 temptation to the mind, to pride or vanity, 
 for Christ could here have shown an in- 
 stance of His Power; in the third, "All 
 these things will I give Thee, if Thou fall 
 down and worship me" we have the Devil's 
 temptation to the spirit, to give up truth 
 and religion for sovereignty. 
 
 And as in these temptations of Christ, 
 we see the ways in which the Devil can 
 tempt us too, so in Christ's answers, we 
 see the means with which successfully to 
 
A Layman s s Lent. 
 
 resist, for as Christ quoted the Old Scrip- 
 tures * against the Devil, so we must think 
 of Christ's words to use in our tempta- 
 tions. So, too, as Ministering Angels vis- 
 ited our Blessed Lord, after His tempta- 
 tion, we will be cared for by Him if we 
 closely follow His beautiful life. 
 
 It is then in the example of Christ that 
 we find our first Scriptural argument for 
 observing Lent, It is not to be supposed 
 that there is no meaning in this wondrous 
 example. Surely it is for us to copy in 
 some special way, at some special time. 
 This time and this way have been ap- 
 pointed by the Church in her commands 
 for the season we call Lent. 
 
 Therefore since the Church both gave 
 us the Holy Scriptures and commands all 
 
 *Our Blessed Lord's answers are found respectively in 
 Deuteronomy vi, 16 ; viii, 3 ; x, 20. 
 
 42 
 
Scriptural Authority. 
 
 to observe the solemn fast of forty days 
 and forty nights in the wilderness related 
 therein, it follows that Christ in His sojourn 
 there meant it to be an example for us to 
 follow in the way of special devotion and 
 sacrifice, ordained by the Church. In these 
 special ordinances for Lent we are in some 
 degree to withdraw ourselves from the 
 busy world about us, which retreat gives 
 our second reason for keeping this holy 
 fast: 
 
 II. Because the time thus taken from 
 labour or pleasure gives us the opportunity 
 for (i) special prayer, (2) meditation, (3) 
 reading, and (4) Holy Communion. 
 
 Here then is our great chance of de- 
 veloping the spiritual life* of drawing 
 
 * The spiritual life is treated of more at length in a subse- 
 quent chapter. 
 
 43 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 closer to God, of discovering our sins, of 
 learning how to correct them. How 
 precious should such a privilege be ! How 
 lovingly should we long to draw near to 
 the Blessed Saviour's side ! Here in these 
 spiritual exercises we find the grace that 
 enables us to fast and deny ourselves, 
 which gives us the third reason for keep- 
 ing Lent : 
 
 III. Because fasting and self-denial help 
 us in three ways : (a) by proving our love 
 for Christ by suffering with Him, (b) by 
 giving us power over our bodily desires and 
 appetites, (c) by making us less likely to sin, 
 {d) by fitting us to e7idure suffering and 
 trial other than voluntary if it should come. 
 
 This then is the rule of Sacrifice* 
 Here are four great arguments. The 
 
 * Treated of in a subsequent chapter. 
 44 
 
Scriptural Authority. 
 
 first point needs no proof (a) that as it is 
 love for the dear Redeemer, Who died for 
 us, that prompts all sacrifice, so the making 
 of the sacrifice shows the reality and power 
 of this love. 
 
 In the second point, also, we see (b) that 
 the stronger grows the spiritual nature 
 (and all this fasting and sacrifice tends to 
 develop this growth) the weaker becomes 
 the lower nature. The desires and appe- 
 tites are tamed and controlled by the soul 
 or spirit living in communion with God, 
 and drawing its source of help from above. 
 Two opposite forces cannot reign at the 
 same time, hence the triumph of the spirit- 
 ual nature means the defeat of the bodily 
 one. 
 
 Still further, we find in the third point 
 {c) that the desire for sinning becomes less, 
 the more we live the life of the Crucified 
 
 45 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 and strive after the things above, for he 
 who is occupied with spiritual matters and 
 works emanating from the love of such, 
 has little time or desire for those things 
 " of the earth, earthy." 
 
 And, lastly, to glance at the fourth point, 
 we perceive id) that this keeping in sub- 
 jection the desires of the flesh, this morti- 
 fying of the body, this bringing of the lower 
 nature under the rule of the higher nature, 
 is also developing our strength and force 
 of will, for it enables us to school ourselves 
 to do without certain things, to endure 
 hardships and to bear disappointments, all, 
 so to speak, voluntary, inasmuch as they 
 are done from love and not perforce, yet 
 useful in their way, as being preparatory 
 to sorrows and trials that may fall to our 
 lot in the years to come. 
 
 This voluntary subjecting of ourselves to 
 4 6 
 
Scriptural Authority. 
 
 disappointment and hardship also arouses 
 our sympathy for those who have little 
 but such experiences in their lives, which 
 brings us to our fourth great reason for 
 observing Lent: 
 
 IV. Because our drawing away from 
 worldly pleasure gives us the time, and our 
 self-denial gives us the money to devote to 
 the alleviation of distress about us. 
 
 In the statement of this, the fourth great 
 reason for keeping Lent, is almost all the 
 explanation needed for understanding it. 
 
 The giving to the Church and to the poor 
 should ever be regarded as one of the most 
 holy duties and most precious privileges of 
 the Christian, and when this can be done 
 in person, it should fill one with even 
 greater joy, for in all such ministrations 
 we are brought face to face with the 
 
 47 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 poor Lazarus at the gate, the destitute and 
 wretched, to whom when we give our dear 
 Lord says we give unto Him : "Inasmuch 
 as ye have done it unto one of the least of these 
 my children, ye have done it unto Me" 
 
 Of course, we should always seek this 
 privilege, yet in the bustle and rush of this 
 nineteenth century civilization it is often 
 hard to find the time. Here, then, Lent, 
 coming with the endorsement of the Holy 
 Catholic Church, urges these great reasons, 
 among others, to persuade all to avail 
 themselves of this holy season, with its 
 manifold privileges and opportunities, only 
 secured to most of us by a withdrawing to 
 some extent from the cares or pleasures of 
 the world. 
 
 Called by Christ, bidden by the Church, 
 urged by our better nature, let us realize 
 the force and strength of these reasons for 
 
 4 8 
 
Scriptural Authority. 
 
 observing this solemn season, but let the 
 controlling motive of our keeping of Lent 
 be not logic but love, such a love as passeth 
 the love of man, inasmuch as it comes from 
 God to us and goes out from us to God, in 
 adoration, service, and sacrifice. 
 
 49 
 
IV. 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO THE OBSERVANCE OF LENT 
 ANSWERED. 
 
 We have considered some of the chief 
 reasons for observing Lent. We have seen 
 that the earnest and sincere Christian 
 should deem it his bounden duty to keep 
 this solemn season. We have also seen 
 how the doing of this should be a precious 
 privilege, rather than a great sacrifice, a 
 willing offering of one's self from love of 
 the Master. And, finally, we have found 
 that the strongest argument we can have 
 to persuade others to keep Lent is to make 
 our own lives show forth a devout and 
 
 50 
 
Objections Answered. 
 
 consistent example of the religion we 
 profess. 
 
 Let us now examine the objections gen- 
 erally urged against the observance of 
 this holy season, and show either the fal- 
 lacy of such arguments, or the true animus 
 that prompts them. It will take but little 
 space to do this, for with the exception of 
 the first objection, all may be compre- 
 hended in the statement that these per- 
 sons do not keep Lent, or want others to 
 keep it, because they do not desire in any 
 w r ay to put a curb on their lower nature or 
 restrain any of its desires, except, perhaps, 
 the most sinful ones. In other words, if 
 such people have any religion at all, it is 
 of a negative kind. 
 
 Of the objections urged, perhaps the 
 one most frequently met with is : 
 
 I. God is not pleased at the sight of men 
 51 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 fasting and denying themselves, when He 
 has surrounded them with gifts and bless- 
 ings that are to be enjoyed. 
 
 A more specious objection could hardly 
 be made. In the first place, it shows a 
 woful ignorance of God and God's ways, 
 as revealed to us in Holy Scripture, and a 
 sad inability to conceive of or understand 
 the Divine plan so clearly shown in the 
 Mystery of Life. 
 
 If God does not want sacrifices, why 
 then throughout the Scriptures do we find 
 such full and definite directions given for 
 them ? They formed the basis of the 
 Mosaic law, that law given from Mount 
 Sinai by God Himself, veiled in the fire 
 and clouds. They are advocated in all of 
 the writings of the Prophets, who we be- 
 lieve were the mouthpieces of the Almighty. 
 They are woven through and through the 
 
 52 
 
Objections Answered. 
 
 Epistles of Saint Paul, the great Apostle 
 to the Gentiles. They are the life of the 
 teachings of our Blessed Lord as given to 
 us in the Holy Gospels — where especially 
 we have shown to us the greatest and 
 most ideal of all sacrifices, the sacrifice 
 of self, commanded by Jesus Himself, 
 and exemplied in His own Sacrifice and 
 Death on the Cross, for the sins of the 
 whole world. 
 
 There is nothing vague or indefinite 
 about these teachings. They are not 
 capable of various interpretations. They 
 are not figurative expressions. On the 
 contrary, these commands are clear and 
 lucid, and are intended to be taken liter- 
 ally, for indeed only in that sense can they 
 be understood. 
 
 Prayer, fasting, sacrifice are continually 
 mentioned, and we are constrained to 
 
 53 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 practice them. We have not space to 
 quote at length, but the few instances 
 we give will show how generally through 
 the Scriptures is such teaching found: 
 in the Prophet Joel ii, we have a di- 
 rect call for the people to assemble 
 together, beginning with the 12th verse, 
 "Turn ye even to Me, saith the Lord, with 
 all your heart, and with fasting, and with 
 weeping, and with mourning" and contin- 
 uing he gives definite directions for such a 
 time of penitence ; in the Psalter we find 
 in many of those penitential psalms the 
 same authority, and in Psalm xxxv, 13, we 
 read, "I put on sackcloth and humbled my 
 soul with fasting" and in cix, 23, " My 
 knees are weak through fasting : my flesh 
 is dried up for want of fatness" in the 
 Gospels we observe that sacrifice and fast- 
 ing are continually advocated, and in Saint 
 
 54 
 
Objections Answered. 
 
 Matthew xvii, 21, we read of some sins 
 that the only way to escape them is this : 
 " Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by 
 prayer and fasting;" and again we find 
 Saint Paul in his wonderfully powerful 
 Epistles not only tells us of that which the 
 love of Christ enabled him to do, but also 
 in II Corinthians, vi, 5, lays it down as a 
 law of all workers for our Blessed Lord 
 to approve themselves "in labours, in 
 watchings, in fastings" and in his Epistle 
 to the Romans xii, 1, beseeches all " that 
 ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
 holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
 reasonable service," and once more in his 
 first letter to the Corinthians, ix, 27, tells 
 us " But I keep tinder my body and bring it 
 into subjection" 
 
 These are not isolated cases. The 
 whole Bible is aglow with this idea of 
 
 55 
 
A Layman s Lent, 
 
 bodily self-sacrifice, and if it needed more 
 to urge it (and it seems almost like blas- 
 phemy to suggest such need !) than the 
 example of our Most Holy Redeemer and 
 the Saints and Apostles of all ages, the 
 inspired words of Saint Paul to the Ro- 
 mans should be conclusive proof of God's 
 approval of fasting and sacrifice, for herein 
 the great Apostle commands us to offer 
 these our bodies as a " living sacrifice" 
 and continuing tells us this is " acceptable " 
 to God and our "reasonable service!' 
 
 As an answer then to the first point in this 
 principal objection urged, let all note that 
 as our knowledge of Christ and His com- 
 mands comes from the Church and the Bible, 
 so we are to turn there for our authority 
 on this question, and on doing so we have 
 found that fasting and self-sacrifice are 
 most emphatically set forth and enjoined. 
 
 56 
 
Objections Answered. 
 
 Taking up then the second part of this 
 objection, viz. : that God gives us His 
 blessings to use, by which blessings in this 
 instance we mean those things that minis- 
 ter to our bodies, we need only say that to 
 think for one moment that they are to be 
 used and enjoyed at all times is to miss, 
 as we have already stated, the true mean- 
 ing of the Mystery of Life, wherein it is 
 part of the Divine plan to surround us with 
 these blessings, at the same time accom- 
 panying them with a sufficiency of Divine 
 grace, to see if we will use that grace to 
 rise above mere creature comforts and 
 strive for the things of the soul. 
 
 Again, as at times in our physical nature 
 we are obliged to forego certain things in 
 themselves generally harmless to us, in 
 order to bring back the body to a better 
 condition of health, so in our spiritual na- 
 
 57 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 ture certain things have occasionally to be 
 given up, to bring this higher part of our 
 being into a more sound state of spiritual 
 health. 
 
 To this first objection then we oppose 
 two answers, (i) that the teaching of the 
 Church and the Bible is positive in advo- 
 cating fasting and sacrifice ; (2) that it is 
 part of the Mystery of Life that creature 
 comforts in themselves harmless are some- 
 times to be given up in following out the 
 Divine plan. 
 
 Another objection urged is : 
 
 II. "Prayer and fasting often make one 
 cross or at least sober-minded. Why not 
 live and enjoy life and ' eat, drink, and be 
 meny ' ?" In reply to this we would say 
 that prayer and fasting should never make 
 any one cross, for though such a condition 
 may arise from the fast, a special object of 
 
 58 
 
Objections Answered. 
 
 the prayer should be to conquer any incli- 
 nation to peevishness or irritability. An 
 earnest keeper of Lent will apply himself 
 specially to overcome any such temptation. 
 As to being "sober-minded," contrary 
 to what some may think, that trait is a 
 virtue. Life is not a playground, where 
 naught but laughter resounds or pleasure 
 is found. It is a rough, hard battle-field, 
 where sometimes we have to marshal all 
 of our forces to repel the assaults of the 
 Devil, sometimes to sleep on the cold, hard 
 ground of loneliness and discouragement. 
 It behooves us to be " sober-minded/' for 
 death may come as " a thief in the night," 
 but with this sober-mindedness, our re- 
 ligion should so pervade our being that the 
 love, the happiness, and the joy of our 
 spiritual life and hope should illumine our 
 faces, as a lamp does a sombre yet noble 
 
 59 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 room. Sober-minded, yet cheerful ; grave 
 in spirit, yet smiling of face; contemplat- 
 ing heavenly, spiritual heights, yet conde- 
 scending to earthly matters — ever trying 
 to shed forth the love of the Crucified into 
 the burden-bearing or the pleasure-loving 
 lives about us. 
 
 " Eat, drink, and be merry " is a heathen 
 maxim, and ill-befitting a Christian. We 
 may, it is true, do all three, and there is no 
 sin in the doing of them, but as there is a 
 time for all things, " a time to weep, and a 
 time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to 
 dance" so Lent is a time for meditation 
 and mourning, and not a season of merri- 
 ment and rejoicing, for we mourn for the 
 sufferings of Christ and for the sins of the 
 world that made necessary His Atoning 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 We will now consider a third objection : 
 60 
 
Objections Answered. 
 
 III. So much church going is simply " re- 
 ligious dissipation" Who first propounded 
 such a sentiment we know not, but it is 
 one unbecoming a true man> much less a 
 devout Christian. Can a lover do too 
 much for the one he loves ? Can he go 
 too often to the house of his loved one ? 
 How infinitely more then must this answer 
 to those questions, which of necessity must 
 be " No," apply to spiritual things. Truly 
 the lover of his Saviour cannot do too 
 much for Him ! He cannot pray too much, 
 or make too many sacrifices for Him Who 
 died for all ! He cannot go too often to 
 His House, hallowed by His abiding Pres- 
 ence, and sanctified as a place of worship 
 of His Holy Catholic Church ! 
 
 Ah ! Scorn such an objection, for Chris- 
 tians do not dissipate, and devotion and 
 sacrifice and worship are not dissipation, 
 
 61 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 but the love and aspiration of the soul to 
 Him, Who, when all men change, changeth 
 not! 
 
 The scoffer or irreligious is now well- 
 nigh beaten back. He cannot quote Scrip- 
 ture against the observance of Lent, he 
 cannot use the other two objections al- 
 ready quoted, for the thoughtful man will 
 soon prove him a fool. Now he turns to 
 weapons of a lower nature, and urges as 
 another objection : 
 
 IV. Lent makes one neglect business or 
 household duties. Does it ? If not, then 
 the man who urges such an objection is a 
 liar before God. Such an one himself may 
 for a day of worldly pleasure, or a night 
 of wild revelry unfit himself for his busi- 
 ness duties, or absent himself altogether 
 from them, but we would fain think, as, 
 
 thank God, it has been our observation, 
 
 62 
 
Objections Answered. 
 
 that the majority of Lenten observers feel 
 all the greater responsibility of fulfilling 
 their several tasks and doing them well 
 from this keeping of Lent. 
 
 An hour in the early morning in church 
 kneeling before God's Altar, gaining help 
 and grace from partaking of the Blessed 
 Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood ; 
 an hour stolen from a night's slumbers to 
 be spent in prayer and devotion, searching 
 for one's sins and confessing them humbly 
 to God ; a few moments taken from lun- 
 cheon to listen to an address at a midday 
 service, or to kneel in quiet meditation in 
 dim cathedral aisle — is this neglecting 
 one's duties ? We think not, and we ven- 
 ture to say that by far the larger number 
 who thus pass their Lent, drawing closer to 
 God, never let their household duties or 
 their professional duties suffer for want of 
 
 63 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 attention or time, for these devotions are 
 made at hours and seasons that are the 
 worshiper's own, that usually by him are 
 devoted to rest or recreation, and are now 
 turned to religious exercises. 
 
 Yet herein comes a solemn injunction 
 for those who insist upon such working 
 hours as prevent them or their employees 
 from benefiting by the many additional 
 church services the Lenten seasons offers. 
 Let all such remember their responsibility 
 before God, and let them make the oppor- 
 tunity for all to worship at some time if so 
 disposed. Hypocritical posing as a saint 
 may result in such a man turning out a 
 great scoundrel and defaulter, but true 
 religion, devoutly followed out, is one of 
 the greatest incentives to honesty, sobriety, 
 and purity, for such religion of necessity 
 constrains to these virtues. 
 
 6 4 
 
Objections Answered. 
 
 Then as a last great objection we hear 
 urged by our now conquered opponents : 
 
 V. Those who observe Lent do not them- 
 selves seem to benefit by it. Perhaps not in 
 the eyes of the world. Perhaps in some 
 cases really not bettered. Yet such ob- 
 jectors forget that in the latter case the 
 keepers of Lent evidently are not in 
 earnest, are not using the right means to 
 attain their object, while in the former case 
 these people who do not appear to be bene- 
 fited might be many times worse if such a 
 solemn period was not observed by them. 
 
 In other words, religion may not always 
 make saints, but it may keep from becom- 
 ing sinners. To resist sin is at least going 
 so far on the road to holiness. Negative 
 religion, while always sadly lacking in 
 power and force as compared to positive 
 religion, is at least incomparably better 
 
 65 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 than no religion at all. So those, so criti- 
 cised by the objector, may indeed be fight- 
 ing a great fight with sin, and while not 
 advancing into the enemy's country yet 
 may be bravely and successfully holding 
 their own against these assaults of the 
 Devil. 
 
 We have gone over a few of the main 
 objections urged against the keeping of 
 Lent and we hope we have proven how 
 trivial and foolish they are. These objec- 
 tions may be differently phrased. They 
 may come clad in the remark that if we 
 keep Lent, the arguments hold good for 
 the whole year, yet here they are wrong, 
 and we would fain think that no great 
 reasons for and no great reasons against 
 the observance of Lent can be found that 
 are not covered or contained in the head- 
 ings we have suggested, and which it has 
 
 66 
 
Objections Answered. 
 
 been our aim to try to explain or to 
 answer. Trusting then that we have sat- 
 isfied ourselves and others as to why we 
 should keep Lent, let us specially in the 
 next few chapters consider the special 
 helps we can get from the privileges of the 
 Spiritual Life and the Life of Sacrifice, re- 
 minding all as we do so that if now 
 convinced of the bounden duty of all to 
 keep Lent, then those who after this, heed 
 not the call, assume a heavy responsibility, 
 for " those who knoweth the right, and do 
 it not to them it is sin." 
 
 67 
 
V. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 It is in the Spiritual Life that Church- 
 men are chiefly lacking at the present day. 
 Yet it is among the greatest accompani- 
 ments of our Christian Belief, for as an 
 earnest faith can never exist in the soul of 
 man unless it blossoms forth in love for 
 God, so this love for God will be but weak 
 and unreal unless it inspires the possessor 
 to acts of devotion, showing forth this love, 
 which devotion makes the Spiritual Life. 
 
 Perhaps we can find no greater contrast 
 between the Christianity of Apostolic times 
 and the Christianity of the day than in this 
 respect. Then, when confession of the 
 
 68 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 faith meant persecution, suffering, and 
 oftentimes death, the Christian never fal- 
 tered in his worship to God Who had 
 created him, in his devotion to Christ, Who 
 had died for him. 
 
 In darkened cellars, in upper rooms, in 
 gloomy Catacombs we see them leading 
 this Spiritual Life. They believed that 
 which Saint Paul said : " ... to live is 
 Christy and to die is gain!' 
 
 So too in Mediaeval times we see a devo- 
 tion rarely equalled, and though somewhat 
 dimmed with the clouds of superstition and 
 bigotry, the modern Christian has just 
 cause to turn away in shame and sorrow, 
 as he views his negative religion and com- 
 pares it with the warm, earnest devotion 
 and love of the Middle Ages. Then holy 
 monks — and most of them were holy, not- 
 withstanding some who fell and brought 
 
 69 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 disgrace upon their Orders — patiently 
 toiled, erecting mighty Cathedrals or illu- 
 minating precious manuscripts to God's 
 Glory ; then sorrowing penitents kneeling 
 before the Crucifix on the wall of their 
 bare cells communed with the Almighty 
 or meditated on the Passion of our Most 
 Holy Redeemer ; then gallant knights and 
 warriors braved the sands and suns of the 
 deserts to try to free their Saviour's tomb 
 from Moslem insult and sacrilege ; then 
 holy women nursed the sick, cared for the 
 homeless, and taught the ignorant, all the 
 while, like the monks, practising a self- 
 denial never witnessed elsewhere. 
 
 Now, instead of trying how much he can 
 do for the Crucified, man is content with 
 trying to see how little he can do. Instead 
 of his whole life being lived for God and in 
 God's Presence, he is satisfied to live with- 
 
 70 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 out Him, except at certain times, when, in 
 his presumption, he decides to give up so 
 much time to God's Worship. Are we 
 exaggerating? Glance about you, and, 
 without judgment, see how few in their 
 daily labour seem to remember God or 
 His being ever present among them. 
 Truly many an evil deed would never be 
 done if that great truth could be realized 
 and followed out. 
 
 Let us even go a step further and let 
 the light stream into our souls and 
 hearts ! Do we ourselves remember this 
 wondrous truth that God knows our every 
 thought, that He hears our every word, 
 that He sees our every act ? 
 
 Do we try to do all that we do to His 
 Glory, winning worldly success or earning 
 our daily wage, as is right and proper, but 
 chiefly happy in the obtaining of them be- 
 
 71 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 cause it adds to God's Glory, in that our 
 lives are useful ? Do we think how every 
 sin we do must add to the weight that our 
 Blessed Lord, who is the Sin-Bearer, has 
 to bear? Do we by frequent devotions 
 try to show our sorrow for our sins and 
 gain grace to conquer them, ever growing 
 purer and holier by the aid of this spiritual 
 life ? No, many a Christian of to-day does 
 not, and inasmuch as he does not, he is 
 lacking so much in the love that Christ 
 calls for, he is missing so far the precious 
 opportunity of drawing close to Him Who 
 says to all, rich and poor, high and low, 
 " Come unto Me and I will give you rest" 
 Modern Christianity may found Hos- 
 pitals and endow Colleges, may build 
 Schools and organize Charities, yet these 
 works can as readily be done from humani- 
 tarian motives, from love or pity for man- 
 
 72 
 
The Spiritual Life, 
 
 kind, and unless prompted purely and 
 simply by a love of Christ they are so far 
 meaningless as an evidence of religion. 
 Given, however, this Spiritual Life, this in- 
 tense love of Jesus, this ever-present reali- 
 zation of His Sacrifice and Death, and 
 what a wealth of Christian offering do such 
 works become ! 
 
 As the mediaeval artist pictured on glow- 
 ing canvas his conception of sacred per- 
 sonages, Whose very Divinity shone forth 
 because the artist's soul was pervaded with 
 the religious love that he tried to express ; 
 as the monk on bended knee chiselled into 
 life and beauty the stone that was to form 
 part of that glorious Cathedral pile being 
 reared to God, a holy exaltation seeming 
 to illumine his pale face, as little by little 
 the sculptured stone assumed the ideal 
 for which he was striving- • so in a more 
 
 73 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 prosaic sense, yet nevertheless as true and 
 real, will both the work and the giver be 
 blessed if the love of Christ is the im- 
 pelling power. The soul of the giver will 
 have that happy consciousness of doing his 
 little for our Blessed Lord ; the very work 
 itself, the Hospital or College, School or 
 Charity, will have an added blessing in the 
 more spiritual interest the donor will take 
 in them. 
 
 As in great things, so in small ones : our 
 household duties, professional duties, busi- 
 ness duties, or whatever the labours may 
 be, are better done when done to God, as in 
 His Presence, and what is more, they lose 
 much of their labouriousness if done in 
 this way. Even the little child (whom our 
 dear Lord particularly calls to Him, for He 
 not only loves dearly these innocent little 
 souls, but also tells us that if we are to 
 
 74 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 gain Heaven we must be like them in 
 purity and child-like faith) can early begin 
 his life for Christ, doing his little part to 
 copy and please Him, the Good Shepherd, 
 Who like the earthly shepherd who brands 
 his sheep with his sign, marks every child 
 of His with the sign of the Cross in Holy 
 Baptism. 
 
 If then, this Spiritual Life is so essen- 
 tial to the usefulness of all, if it seems so 
 sadly lacking in our midst to-day, how can 
 we gain it and cultivate it, so that we can 
 have its grace illuminating our lives ? By 
 Prayer, by Meditation, by Reading, and by 
 Holy Communion, and especially in this 
 holy season of Lent, when the Church in 
 her added services, opens wide her doors 
 as she calls all to the foot of the Cross. 
 
 There are many ways in which these 
 four great aids to the Spiritual Life may 
 
 75 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 be cultivated. It is not our province to 
 assume to direct as a Priest, and it may 
 be better for each one to consult the 
 parish clergy for suggestions in this re- 
 spect, yet as we ourselves have learned 
 from the Church certain ways that prove 
 more or less helpful, we venture to outline 
 below a short and practical scheme for the 
 cultivation of this life, in the hope, how- 
 ever, that none will stop there, but will go 
 "from strength to strength" ever seeking 
 a higher ideal of the Christian Life. 
 
 Prayer : In prayer we raise our souls to 
 God, the creature speaks to the Creator, 
 the sinner to his Judge. Never a man was 
 born who did not feel the need of prayer, 
 who did not feel this great longing of the 
 soul. He may stifle the voice, he may, in 
 his presumption, say there is no God, he 
 may deny the usefulness of prayer, but 
 
 76 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 the feeling of dependency is latent in his 
 heart all the same, and though for a time 
 he may forget it, sooner or later there will 
 come a time when life to him without 
 prayer will seem a long, dreary existence. 
 Let him pray, however, and life expands 
 in a wonderful way before him, for " the 
 prayers of a righteous man availeth much" 
 and even the trials and sorrows and griefs 
 of such an one are resignedly borne. 
 
 Many people, however, do not know 
 how to pray. Some pray formally, as if 
 the mere act of praying is all that is neces- 
 sary. Others formulate and utter long 
 petitions to God, telling God, as it were, 
 what He should do for them, the sup- 
 pliants, as if God does not know best. In 
 the former case there is no earnestness or 
 heart worship, in the latter case there is no 
 humility or comprehension of God's ways, 
 
 77 
 
A Layman 's Lent. 
 
 We do not purpose to enter into what 
 we might term a " theological definition " 
 of prayer. We will say, however, that 
 prayer is of several kinds. There is prayer 
 of Thanksgiving which renders God thanks 
 for all of His blessings, but above all, for 
 His "inestimable love in the redemption of 
 the world by our Lord and Saviour yesus 
 Christ, for the means of grace and for the 
 hope of glory!' This kind of prayer is 
 best seen in the service of the celebration 
 of the Holy Communion, the other name 
 of which, Eucharist, means "thanksgiving." 
 
 Then there is prayer of Confession, ask- 
 ing God's forgiveness for our sins. This 
 should always be as full and as complete 
 as we can make it, yet never going so 
 much into detail as to lose sight of the 
 fact that God knows all our sins before 
 we confess them, only requiring such con- 
 
 73 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 fession as a mark of humility and sincere 
 repentance. 
 
 Then, lastly, there is prayer of Supplica- 
 tion, or the asking for blessings, help or 
 grace for our spiritual and bodily needs. 
 Here it should be noted that while such 
 supplication is quite right, being, in fact, 
 a great help and comfort to mankind, two 
 things should be guarded against: (i) 
 asking God for that which is wrong, not 
 only those things that are of themselves 
 evil, and consequently will not be granted 
 by God, but also those things that may of 
 themselves be good, yet for us would be 
 harmful ; (2) asking God for anything 
 without coupling with it, the humble atti- 
 tude of the heart as well as the words of 
 the mouth, "if it he Thy will." 
 
 Too often in praying we forget this sim- 
 ple truth : that we view things with a finite 
 
 79 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 mind, and so may often see them wrongly, 
 while God sees them with an Infinite Mind, 
 and knows that which is right and that 
 which is not right for us. Prayers too, are 
 generally answered (perhaps we may say 
 are always answered), although we may 
 not see the answer when it comes, or the 
 answer may be of a kind different from 
 that which we had expected. 
 
 Let us, then, learn as our chief lessons 
 from prayer: (i) that in the Mystery of 
 Life God's ways are not our ways ; (2) 
 that our petitions must be earnest and 
 from the heart ; (3) that we must realize 
 to Whom we are praying; (4) that we 
 must never forget humility and reverence, 
 and ever wish God's will, and not ours, to 
 be done. 
 
 Prayer, whether of thanksgiving, con- 
 fession or supplication, may be either in 
 
 80 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 the liturgical forms set forth in our Book 
 of Common Prayer, and works of Devotion, 
 or in our own imperfect words. Undoubt- 
 edly, the better way is to combine both 
 methods, for as our own words may more 
 truly express our individual feelings, so 
 the written prayers help us in making our 
 petitions more acceptable. Combining 
 them too, guards against formalism on the 
 one hand, and carelessness on the other. 
 The one way represents the finer mind of 
 the Church as a body, the other way, the 
 full heart of man as an individual. 
 
 Prayer, too, may be by Intention. The 
 Lord's Prayer for instance, may be offered 
 up in place of the petitions of the soul 
 that one would frame if he could, coupled 
 with it being the intention that this Prayer 
 should stand in place of those the suppliant 
 cannot express. Some especially advocate 
 
 81 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 this, as the Lord's Prayer, in its several 
 clauses, covers every need of body and 
 soul. 
 
 In preparation for partaking of the 
 Blessed Sacrament, our prayer should be 
 very earnest and our examination very 
 thorough, for not only is it requisite to be 
 penitent for sin, but it is also necessary, if 
 we would conquer that sin, to know exactly 
 what it is and under what guise it comes. 
 A helpful way of examination is : (i) by the 
 Rule of the Ten Commandments, seeing 
 wherein we have disobeyed them ; (2) by 
 the Seven Deadly Sins of Lust, Anger, 
 Pride, Covetousness, Sloth, Envy, and 
 Gluttony, and each and every phase of 
 those sins ; (3) by the great virtues of Faith, 
 Hope, and Charity, finding out wherein we 
 have fallen short of our duty in those re- 
 spects. This examination, followed by con- 
 
 82 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 fession of our sins to God, accompanied by 
 sincere repentance, coupled with restitu- 
 tion, and continued in contrition, enables us 
 worthily to make our communion and to 
 partake of the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 It has always been a devout custom to 
 say Morning and Evening Prayers in the 
 Family as well as in the Church, and until 
 this custom is again generally observed in 
 our midst, the spiritual life will continue to 
 be lacking.* It is a lovely thought, too : 
 as a Family, to speak to God in Prayer 
 before going to the labours of the day, to 
 ask His blessing in Prayer before retiring 
 for the night. 
 
 Let us then seek every opportunity for 
 prayer, and especially during the season 
 
 * A short form of daily Family Morning and Evening Prayers 
 is appended to this little work. 
 
 83 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 of Lent. Let our lives be full of prayer, 
 for it ever brings us closer to the Master. 
 
 Let us seek to attend the Church services, 
 and there join in the formal offering up of 
 the Church's written prayers ; let us have 
 twice daily Family Prayers at home ; and 
 let as apart, individually, in the quiet 
 seclusion of Church, Chapel, or sleeping 
 room humbly on bended knees, try in fer- 
 vent, earnest prayer, (our own prayers and 
 the Church's prayers,) to reach after the 
 things " pertaining to God," and fit our- 
 selves for the Life Everlasting. 
 
 In closing this topic let us glance for a 
 moment at the Lord's Prayer. What a 
 wonderful wealth of meaning is contained 
 in that name ! Prayed by Him ! Taught 
 by Him ! Commanded by Him ! The 
 prayer of God the Son, to God the 
 Father, of the Redeemer to the Creator, 
 
 84 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 given to us finite creatures to use in ad- 
 dressing the Infinite One, and given to us 
 in the blessed words of the dear Lord 
 Himself. 
 
 It is a prayer above all prayers, hallowed 
 by Christ's own use, sanctioned by His com- 
 mand, and endeared alike for its inherent 
 beauty and its association with Him and 
 the holy men of all ages. 
 
 It is almost the first prayer uttered by 
 the little child kneeling at its mother's 
 knee ; it is almost the last prayer breathed 
 by the dying Christian, standing on the 
 brink of the grave. It has its place in 
 every service of the Church, and in the 
 Celebration of the Holy Communion it ap- 
 pears twice, first to be used by the Priest 
 alone as an approach to the solemn service 
 he is to celebrate, secondly, to be used by 
 Priest and people together as an humble 
 
 85 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 form of thanksgiving after partaking of 
 the Blessed Sacrament 
 
 In its successive clauses it embodies all 
 the needs and aspirations of the human 
 soul. First it contemplates the Majesty 
 and Glory of God {Our Father, Who art 
 in Heaven), then it acknowledges the 
 holiness of His Name {Hallowed be Thy 
 Name), prays for His Holy Church 
 {Thy kingdom come), and humbly accepts 
 the necessity and rightfulness of His 
 will always and everywhere being done 
 {Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
 Heaven). Continuing it changes from 
 adoration, so to speak, to supplication, 
 and petitions for all we need for body 
 and soul, for the bread of life, Christ's 
 words, His grace, His strength, His Sac- 
 rament, and also for the earthly bread, 
 or those things we need for bodily sus- 
 
 86 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 tenance or happiness ( Give us this day our 
 daily bread). 
 
 This supplication is continued, but now 
 coupled with confession, for in the following 
 clauses we beg for forgiveness for our 
 sins, realizing, however, that we cannot 
 obtain this unless we, too, pardon those 
 who have done evil to us, {And forgive 
 us our trespasses as we forgive those who 
 trespass against us.) Then we break out 
 with the whole strength of our heart, asking 
 God not to lead or permit us to go into 
 temptation too great for us to resist, but 
 to grant us so to go into temptation as to 
 resist it by His grace, knowing as Saint 
 James says (i, 13), that we are tempted 
 with evil, not by God but by our own lust 
 {And lead us not into temptation) . Quickly 
 we follow on with the next petition : to be 
 delivered from all evil that may assault the 
 
 87 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 body or the soul, unless, of course, it is 
 God's will that we should undergo such 
 trial {But deliver us from evil). And, con- 
 tinuing, we end with the beautiful ascrip- 
 tion of adoration to Almighty God {For 
 Thine is the kingdom and the power and 
 the glory for ever and ever) . 
 
 Study the petitions of this prayer ; mark 
 its beauty and its simplicity, its brevity and 
 its adaptability to all the needs of man ; 
 say it and many another prayer frequently 
 this Lent, with a sincere desire to be better, 
 and we venture to say that Easter will find 
 all who do this happier and holier, and well 
 on the road of the spiritual life. 
 
 Meditation : In prayer we address God, 
 praising Him for His goodness and thank- 
 ing Him for His blessings, beseeching Him 
 for our needs and confessing to Him our 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 frailties. In Meditation we think of Him, 
 the " Father of Lights from Whom cometh 
 every good and perfect gift!' 
 
 Oh ! What a blessed privilege is this : to 
 think of God, for to think of Him is, for the 
 time being, to live with Him. No human 
 mind, it is true, can conceive of God as He 
 is, for finiteness cannot grasp infiniteness, 
 yet, as a little child loves to gaze into his 
 earthly father's face, and ofttimes thinks of 
 that father's love for him, although he may 
 not understand that father's being, so we, 
 the children of God, can look in spirit at 
 our Heavenly Father and think of His 
 graciousness, although we may not com- 
 prehend His Deity. 
 
 In meditation, the soul grows into har- 
 mony with the Divine mind, for the higher 
 we raise our thoughts above earthly things, 
 the more heavenly things come and dwell 
 
 8f 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 in us. The Beatitude says : " Blessed are 
 the pure in heart, for they shall see God" 
 here now on earth as well as hereafter. 
 Will any gainsay the statement that the 
 earnest communicant at the Altar, the 
 devout soul in meditation, the fervent man 
 in prayer, does not see God, though it be 
 " through a glass darkly " ? We fancy not, 
 for never one tries to raise himself to a 
 higher life and to strive after the things per- 
 taining to God, that the Heavenly Father 
 does not send His Light and Grace to 
 brighten the way. 
 
 In meditation we may think of the Father, 
 the First Person of the Trinity, as the Cre- 
 ator and Ruler, of all His wondrous works 
 about us, of His Divine guidance through 
 all the ages of the world, and of the many 
 blessings with which He surrounds us. 
 Or we may think of Christ, the Second 
 
 9 o 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 Person of the Trinity, as our Saviour and 
 Judge, of His miraculous birth, of His per- 
 fect life in His humanity, of His beautiful 
 teachings, of His bitter Passion and Death 
 on the Cross, and we may contemplate 
 Him as now in Glory, He, the Crucified 
 One sits at the Right Hand of God. Or 
 again we may think of the Holy Ghost, the 
 Third Person of the Trinity, of His mar- 
 vellous works and powers, of His ever 
 dwelling with us, of His speaking to our 
 inmost souls, urging us to do right, re- 
 straining us from doing evil. 
 
 This meditation may be well made some- 
 times silently kneeling in dim Cathedral 
 aisle, or quiet Church, gazing at the Cross 
 that rears itself upon the Rood Screen 
 under the vaulted heights ; sometimes at 
 home, looking on the Crucifix, the re- 
 minder of our Blessed Saviour's Death, 
 
 91 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 thinking of that sacred symbol, until the 
 reality of that of which it is but the sign 
 dawns more and more upon us, and before 
 our eyes we see the Suffering Christ, 
 as on that Tree of Calvary He shows us 
 the greatest agony that the world has ever 
 seen, while He seems to beckon us with 
 those pierced, outstretched arms, to come 
 unto Him, " the Lamb of God Who taketh 
 away the Sins of the World? 
 
 Another plan is to select a passage of 
 Holy Scripture, study it, read the com- 
 mentary upon it, and then reverently and 
 earnestly consider it in all its bearings, try- 
 ing to obtain some strong lesson to apply 
 to our own lives and experiences. 
 
 Still another suggestion, and this is one 
 that even a little child may follow, is to pro- 
 cure some book of drawings or photographs 
 of Holy Persons, Scriptural characters or 
 
 92 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 scenes, pictured by the greatest artists of 
 ancient or modern times, and then with it 
 in hand to turn its pages with a devotional 
 spirit, thinking of the meaning of each and 
 every subject we see. We well know 
 in the early days of the Church, when few 
 could read, that the people were taught 
 the central doctrines of the Christian Re- 
 ligion by means of pictorial representation, 
 giving rise to the illuminated books, the 
 rich stained windows, and the life-like 
 carvings, still the glory of our Cathedrals 
 and Churches. Why not still follow to 
 some extent a practice that cannot but 
 exercise a good effect upon all ? 
 
 In this fleeting life let us then not forego 
 meditation of Him Who makes the Ever- 
 lasting Life a possibility, and especially in 
 Lent, when we commemorate Christ's 
 Fasting in the Wilderness, let us think 
 
 93 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 oft and deeply upon His Passion and 
 Crucifixion. 
 
 Reading : This needs but few words to 
 endorse it, for it should be apparent to all 
 that if we would learn much about God we 
 must read that which tells us of Him. And 
 in Lent it will also form a consistent part 
 of our withdrawal from the world if we de- 
 vote what leisure we have for reading to 
 works of a religious or devotional charac- 
 ter, 
 
 Study the Holy Scriptures — we cannot 
 know too much of their teaching ; the 
 Book of Common Prayer — it forms part 
 of our Church life ; books of devotion and 
 instruction — they raise the soul to God ; 
 works of religious history and doctrine — 
 they explain the things pertaining to 
 God. 
 
 94 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 And above all, let there be a method in 
 our reading. Let us not attempt too much, 
 yet let us aim high, for better to fall short 
 of a noble ideal than to choose a low one 
 and scarcely attain it. 
 
 Holy Communion : In prayer, in medi- 
 tation, in reading, we go to God; in Holy 
 Communion God comes to us. The first 
 three mark our spiritual duty : the last one 
 marks our spiritual privilege. 
 
 We worship not, as the poor benighted 
 heathen, a god of stone, which compre- 
 hends not, which receives the adoration 
 but is impotent to give a blessing, for un- 
 like our God, the Living God, Who created 
 his worshipers, the poor savage worships 
 the stone god his own feeble art created. 
 
 We render God our love, our adoration, 
 our devotion. He rewards us here on 
 
 95 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 earth by making us partakers of the 
 Blessed Body and Blood of Jesus, given to 
 each faithful communicant under the forms 
 of bread and wine which still remain. 
 
 Reader, have you knelt in lowly peni- 
 tence at God's Altar and partaken of that 
 Blessed Sacrament? If so, then you 
 know of the wondrous joy and exaltation, 
 the heavenly grace and comfort that 
 come with the Bread of Life ! If you do 
 not in some degree feel this then be as- 
 sured that something is lacking in your 
 approach, be it humility or repentance, love 
 or faith, and if so, you should lose no time 
 for a searching examination of yourself so 
 as worthily to partake. 
 
 Have you never had this Blessed Sac- 
 rament? Have you never experienced 
 the joy that cannot be expressed, that 
 may even seem incomprehensible to all 
 
 9 6 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 but those who have communicated in the 
 right spirit and who know ? If not, then 
 why not ? Why do you hold back ? Why 
 do you not avail yourself of all of the 
 privileges of the Church? If not a com- 
 municant, be confirmed. If a lax communi- 
 cant, resolve to be different. 
 
 Do not put yourself in antagonism 
 with Christ, our Blessed Master, Who said, 
 "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man 
 and drink His blood, ye have no life in yoit. 
 Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
 blood hath eternal life." It is the command 
 of the Master. No Christian needs greater 
 reason than that ! It is also the faith and 
 practice of the Church. If we had not the 
 former unanswerable reason this would be 
 enough ! Come, then, trusting as a little 
 child, believing that what Jesus said He 
 would do, He will do, and with faith and 
 
 97 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 humility, love and repentance seek Him 
 Who, in His own appointed way, gives 
 Himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament of 
 the Altar. 
 
 And as the Blessed Sacrament is at all 
 times, not only our solace and joy, but also 
 our greatest help in resisting temptation, 
 let us especially in this Lenten season 
 make frequent communions, for then spe- 
 cially will the Devil assail us, yet fresh 
 from Christ's Holy Presence, and strong 
 in the help that comes in the Blessed Sac- 
 rament, we will now be able to beat back 
 the arch-enemy and win the battle for 
 Christ. 
 
 Herein, then, lies the power of the Spir- 
 itual Life. He is not really a Christian 
 who scorns such a life. He is but a luke- 
 warm Christian who refuses to follow it. 
 Some, in the past, may not have realized 
 
 98 
 
The Spiritual Life. 
 
 all that it means. Others may have failed 
 to live up to their high ideals and good 
 resolutions. 
 
 But given an humble heart, an earnest 
 resolve, and an undaunted perseverance, 
 and each year will see such an one further 
 on in the path of life, higher up the ladder 
 that leads to the things of God. 
 
 Let all, then, make Lent a time of test- 
 ing their strength, as well as storing up 
 power to resist temptation in the future, 
 and let all humbly begin at once in the 
 cultivation of what is a prime necessity if 
 we would live for Christ and in Christ, the 
 Spiritual Life. 
 
 99 
 
VI. 
 
 THE LIFE OF SACRIFICE. 
 
 We now come to the consideration of 
 the greatest and primary teaching of Lent, 
 and one that in its observance embodies 
 all that has gone before — the lesson of 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 We have inquired into the historical 
 warrant for Lent, and have traced its ob- 
 servance back to the earliest days of the 
 Christian Church, showing the authority 
 for the fast as presented to us in the 
 Church's universal custom; we have 
 searched the Scriptures and there, in that 
 Holy Bible, have found our Blessed Lord's 
 endorsement of such a fast, in His own 
 
The Life of Sacrifice. 
 
 example, and in the teachings of His fol- 
 lowers, in the Gospels and in the Epistles, 
 thus giving' us the authority for the fast as 
 shown to us in the Church's written teach- 
 ing ; we have examined the important 
 phases of the Spiritual Life, as exemplified 
 in the lives of the Saints of olden time and 
 in the lives of some in our midst to-day, 
 seeing therein the authority for the fast as 
 witnessed in the beneficial results of their 
 labours and abstinences, giving to us the 
 Church's teaching of expediency, and now, 
 ere closing our little argument, we submit 
 in the lesson of Sacrifice a fourth source 
 of authority for the fast, or the Church's 
 doctrine of necessity, for if we believe the 
 words of Saint Paul (Epistle to the Ephe- 
 sians vi, 14), " But God forbid that I 
 should glory ', save in the Cross of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is cruci- 
 
 IOI 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 fied unto me and I unto the world" then of 
 necessity it becomes the duty of all to learn 
 this central lesson of self-sacrifice, for 
 hereby only do we own the Cross and 
 copy the Life of the Crucified. 
 
 As Christianity infuses a hidden power 
 into the Mystery of Life, and makes even 
 that which has seemed a monotonous round 
 of duty become a glorious opportunity for 
 good, so the love of Christ, which is the 
 basis of all Christian living, when alone it 
 prompts the every thought, word, and deed, 
 transforms the sacrifice into a precious 
 privilege of serving Christ. As the little 
 coral insect, building in the sea, rises little 
 by little in its labours, until at last, it 
 reaches the air and sunlight to die, giving 
 us the lovely coral island, against which 
 the mighty billows of the sea thunder in 
 vain, so we, by steadily doing our duty in 
 
 1 02 
 
The Life of Sacrifice. 
 
 the sea of trouble, sorrow, and toil, will rise 
 superior to it all, ere we pass away to that 
 eternal sunlight of God's glory, giving to 
 the world an example of holy living which 
 adds its power to that Church, against 
 which even the powers of Hell cannot 
 prevail. 
 
 Sacrifice is not only one of the funda- 
 mental bases of the Christian Religion, but 
 it is also the corner-stone of the well-being 
 of society. Without it society falls lower 
 than the level of the brute creation, and 
 drags on its existence of contemptible sel- 
 fishness. With it society becomes elevated 
 and ennobled, for the spirit of self-sacrifice, 
 emanating from God as all noble things 
 do, shines forth in its beauty in all who 
 cultivate it. There may be no acknowl- 
 edgment of any Christian motive prompt- 
 ing it, but confessed or not, there is no 
 
 103 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 denying the truth that sacrifice is essen- 
 tially Christlike. 
 
 This applies to the doers of the numer- 
 ous philanthropic and humanitarian works 
 seen on every side, where in their lives is 
 seen the first glimmering light of Christian 
 faith. Not yet do they their good deeds for 
 the Blessed Master, but still in a measure 
 they serve and believe in Him inasmuch as 
 they do these things to His creatures, their 
 brother-men. 
 
 Thank God ! We see this lovely spirit 
 of self-sacrifice even now in the midst of 
 a gainsaying, naughty world ! 
 
 How willingly does the matron bear the 
 bitter pains of travail and labour, even 
 cheerfully going through the valley of the 
 shadow of death that she may become a 
 mother ! Does she endure this to bring 
 into the world an immortal soul to be 
 
 104 
 
The Life of Sacrifice. 
 
 reared to the service of Christ and 
 prepared for the world to come ? Per- 
 haps in many cases not so, but when- 
 ever you see a good mother patiently 
 teaching her child to do good and to resist 
 evil, so far at least she practices if she 
 does not profess the glorious vocation re- 
 ferred to. From the birth of her child to 
 her death, the life of a good mother is one 
 of continual love and self-sacrifice ! 
 
 How gladly a father wearily toils and 
 works, sometimes far into the hours of the 
 night, enduring discomfort, fatigue, and 
 privation that he may surround his wife 
 and family with the comforts and neces- 
 saries, if not the luxuries of life, and give 
 his children an opportunity in the world ! 
 Does he make these sacrifices because he 
 realizes that God has given to him the re- 
 sponsibility not only for the support of his 
 
 105 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 household, but also for its spiritual and 
 moral life ? Perhaps not, yet 'he very love 
 for his dear ones, that makes him reck not 
 the sacrifices he makes, is a love born of 
 heaven, not of earth, and in its way shows 
 forth God's love. 
 
 So it is in many spheres of life. The 
 lover's life is only elevated and noble when 
 mutual sacrifices enter into it ; the married 
 state is only the happiest of all when its 
 varied responsibilities are cheerfully as- 
 sumed. Then the many sacrifices are 
 gladly made, in order to minister to an- 
 other's comfort or contribute to another's 
 pleasure, or to cheer in joy and soothe in 
 sorrow that dear one whom it has been 
 God's grace and pleasure to unite in Holy 
 Matrimony with the other. Aged persons 
 may show it ; young children may show it ; 
 all men may show it and many do show it 
 
 106 
 
The Life of Sacrifice. 
 
 — in fact, it is in sacrifice that all the rela- 
 tions of the family show forth in their 
 beauty. 
 
 Sacrifice is undoubtedly an ideal of the 
 social world. All commend it, though few 
 practice it. Even the man who is steeped 
 in the poison of selfishness and self-indulg- 
 ence is rarely so far gone to what is noble 
 as not to have at least a faint appreciation 
 of this beauty of self-sacrifice in others. 
 
 Yet all of these sacrifices, while ap- 
 proved by the whole social state and en- 
 dorsed by the Christian Church, are never- 
 theless not the noblest kind, for they are 
 by nature a mingling of the earth earthy 
 and the heaven heavenly, the first because 
 the acknowledged motive is generally to 
 achieve worldly comfort or success, the 
 second because whatsoever the motive, the 
 act is essentially of God. 
 
 107 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 If, then, such sacrifices by man for man 
 are accounted virtues, how much more so 
 are they so, when they are done to God and 
 not to man, to the Unseen and not to the 
 seen ! Here is the highest type of sacri- 
 fice ! Here there can be but one motive ! 
 There is no earthly reward ! There is no 
 worldly gain ! The sacrifices are made to 
 Him alone, Who lovingly looking down on 
 the world, sees every good and evil deed, 
 and in each sacrifice made for Him and to 
 Him breathes upon it His blessing. 
 
 This is the kind of sacrifice that shines 
 out in the full light as a glorious privilege. 
 All our sacrifices should be willing sacri- 
 fices, for we do them not to propitiate a 
 stern God, but to show forth love to a 
 dear Redeemer. 
 
 It needs no logical reason to support it. 
 
 The sum of the whole argument is this : 
 
The Life of Sacrifice. 
 
 Christ died for us on the cross of Calvary : 
 can anything be too much for us to bear 
 and suffer for Him ? Christ gave Himself 
 up that He might gain for us the Hope of 
 Eternal Salvation: can anything be too 
 much for us to give to Him ? 
 
 As we realize the wonderful fact of this 
 Great Sacrifice of our Most Holy Re- 
 deemer, which alas ! too few seem either 
 to realize or to care to realize, we find in 
 it both the incentive for us to make any 
 and all sacrifices, and the strength to enable 
 us to bear any and all sorrows. How beau- 
 tiful sound the words of the great Saint 
 Augustine as translated by Charles Reader 
 " O Christian Soul, look on the wounds of 
 the Suffering One, the blood of the dying 
 One, the price paid for our redemption. 
 These things, Oh, think how great they be, 
 and weigh them in the balance of thy 
 
 109 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 mind, that He may be wholly nailed to thy 
 heart, Who for thee was all nailed unto 
 the Cross ? For do but call to mind the 
 sufferings of Christ and there is nought 
 on earth too hard to endure with com- 
 posure." If earthly love for their dear ones 
 has made martyrs and heroes of many an 
 one both in palace and hut, what should 
 love for the Saviour make men be ? 
 
 As sacrifice for mankind is a duty and 
 a virtue, as sacrifice for Christ is a greater 
 duty and a greater virtue, though here let 
 it ever be remembered that we are saved 
 through no merit of our own, but through 
 the merits of Christ, where do we turn for 
 the full embodiment and full exemplifica- 
 tion of this self-sacrifice which we have 
 aimed to prove is incumbent upon all who 
 profess Christianity ? Truly to the Life of 
 our Blessed Lord, Who, though the Son of 
 
 no 
 
The Life of Sacrifice. 
 
 God, was born of a Virgin and lived among 
 men as the Perfect Man. 
 
 To have been a perfect man He must 
 have been endowed with all the various at- 
 tributes of our humanity : a body in which 
 to feel hunger and thirst, cold and heat ; a 
 mind with which to grieve over the awful- 
 ness of sin, which He above all others must 
 have felt; a soul with which to seethe loveli- 
 ness of God, which He alone knew. Christ 
 being thus perfect, we must of necessity 
 admit that each and every function of the 
 body must have reached the highest de- 
 velopment of which it is capable, hence the 
 bodily ills and sufferings which He volun- 
 tarily assumed must have been felt all the 
 more acutely. That fast in the wilderness 
 must have been incomparably greater to 
 Him than it would have been to any of us ; 
 that agony in the Garden must have 
 
 in 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 brought a cup of anguish such as we could 
 never conceive; that Crucifixion must 
 have been such an agony to that perfect 
 nervous system as we in our incomplete- 
 ness can but imperfectly realize ! So in 
 Him, the Sinless One, though endowed 
 with our humanity, we see the Christian 
 Ideal. We worship and adore Him as 
 God : as man we copy and follow Him, 
 
 Some love to copy the beautiful lives of 
 dear ones about them. All should love to 
 copy Him, Who is the Brother to all. 
 
 He fasted : let us fast or abstain at stated 
 periods from earthly food. He endured 
 a lonely watch in the wilderness : let us 
 watch and pray. He defeated the Devil 
 with words of Holy Scripture ; let us study 
 the sacred writings in order to do likewise. 
 
 Yet in all that we do let our sacrifices 
 be real and rational. Not like the ancient 
 
 112 
 
The Life of Sacrifice. 
 
 Manicheans do we scourge and mortify 
 the flesh and speak of " this vile body," 
 but rather do we remember that Christ 
 tells us that our bodies are the " temples of 
 the Holy Ghost" to be honoured and treated 
 as such. 
 
 There can be no iron-clad rule laid down 
 for the measure of fasting each can do, but 
 if we are truly in earnest, our love, con- 
 trolled, however, by reason and common 
 sense, will show us that which we can do, 
 each in his or her own way. Here, of 
 course, we refer to actual fasting from food 
 and abstaining from flesh meat, two very 
 different things, yet both accentuating the 
 same idea. Prayer, advice, and trial, will 
 show how closely we can live up to the full 
 sense of the Church's requirements. 
 
 But there are many other sacrifices all 
 can make : the sacrifice of fleshly lusts by 
 
 "3 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 controlling such sinful desires ; the sacri- 
 fice of ease, by avoiding idleness and lazi- 
 ness and having a real object in life ; the 
 sacrifice of inordinate longings as for drink 
 and dainties, by giving them up ; the sacri- 
 fice of personal convenience and comfort 
 in order to do a kind act to one who needs 
 it ; the sacrifice of leisure moments in order 
 to visit the sick and the poor and to help 
 the work of the Church ; the sacrifice of 
 money, to give liberally to those who need 
 it, especially denying ourselves luxuries 
 and even comforts in order to give more 
 away ; the sacrifice of dislike of spiritual 
 things, by bringing more heart and love to 
 bear upon them so that perfunctory duties 
 become religious joys ; and, lastly, the sac- 
 rifice and crucifixion of self, bringing 
 each and every part of our nature into sub- 
 jection to Christ, so that "we live in Him 
 
 xi4 
 
The Life of Sacrifice. 
 
 and He in us" each day starting out to do 
 so much for Him and so much for our fel- 
 low-men. 
 
 Now, however, we see the change in 
 the latter vocation, wherein our works no 
 longer done from mere philanthropic 
 motives, but from the love of Christ, in- 
 stead of being so much done for man be- 
 come so much done for Him, for "Inas- 
 much as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
 these my children, ye have done it unto Me /" 
 
 Thus all Christian sacrifices end as they 
 begin, in works done for Him through love 
 of Him, and as we climb this ladder of 
 sacrifice, each round being some selfish 
 desire that we have trodden under foot, we 
 find in the conquering of self that we have 
 gained that which nothing in the world 
 would give us : " The peace of God, which 
 passeth all understanding!' 
 
 "5 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 And here a last but most helpful thought 
 comes in what is known as Vicarious 
 Sacrifice, or what might be interpreted in 
 the language of everyday as sacrifice made 
 for another, in order to atone or make ex- 
 piation for sin. 
 
 Our Blessed Master gave us the greatest 
 example of this when on the Cross of Cal- 
 vary, by His Sacrifice of Himself for the 
 sins of the whole world, He made expiation 
 and atonement for us. Vicarious sacrifice 
 is often seen in our midst to-day, though 
 sometimes not perceived as such, for 
 whenever we give for another, whenever 
 we suffer for another, whenever we bear 
 for another, that in a measure is vicarious 
 sacrifice. 
 
 This thought can be carried with con- 
 sistency one step further : as Christ in 
 His vicarious sacrifice on the Cross atoned 
 
 116 
 
The Life of Sacrifice. 
 
 for the sins of the whole world and opened 
 to man the Kingdom of Heaven, if man will 
 so live as to gain that eternal happiness, so 
 we in self-consecrated lives, and in special 
 ways may make vicarious sacrifices which 
 under God's Providence and with His 
 Divine approval may atone for the sins of 
 some one near and dear to us. 
 
 It is a beautiful thought and a helpful 
 one, and we commend it to the consider- 
 ation of all, for it adds another incentive to 
 the living a life of sacrifice. 
 
 This is the lesson for all the year, but 
 Lent is the battlefield. Conquer self this 
 Lent, and ever keep a strong guard upon 
 it, and each succeeding Lent will find less 
 to win, and will partly reveal the Mystery 
 of Life in the glorious privilege of self- 
 sacrifice. 
 
 Perhaps some one exclaims, " Here is 
 117 
 
A Layman s Lent. 
 
 the argument for Lent, but there is no 
 rule." No ! There is no rule given. If 
 any one wishes a fixed rule to be given 
 him, let him consult some of the clergy, 
 who are those who are the best and truest 
 guides in the spiritual life and the life of 
 sacrifice, as they are Christ's ordained fol- 
 lowers in the Eternal Priesthood. 
 
 And yet if there are some desirous of 
 keeping Lent, who are too shy to call on 
 the clergy to obtain their advice and guid- 
 ance, or find it impossible to decide for 
 themselves that which they should do, we 
 will vouchsafe this much of a rule, very 
 imperfect, it is true, yet tried and found 
 helpful by laymen : 
 
 Church-going : Go once a day to church, 
 if possible, during Lent, and let nothing 
 prevent you except a work of mercy or a 
 call of duty. Try to hear the preaching of 
 
 118 
 
The Life of Sacrifice. 
 
 the Cross, and let its truths sink deep into 
 the soul. Frequently be present at the 
 celebration of the Holy Communion, and, 
 if possible, often partake, but use special 
 care that this frequency does not lessen 
 the proper preparation for such a blessed 
 gift. 
 
 Fasting : Follow the rules, if possible, 
 to be found in the Church's Kalendar, or 
 if really assured that health and strength 
 will not permit, then at least give up some- 
 thing in the way of comfort or luxury that 
 is hard to give up, so that the sacrifice may 
 be a real one. 
 
 Devotion: Give regularly some time 
 daily to earnest prayer, if but ten minutes, 
 at morning and evening. Try to find out 
 your greatest sins and faults and correct 
 them. Meditate regularly as suggested in 
 our argument, if but five minutes at a 
 
 "9 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 time. Read regularly good and helpful 
 books and try to be more learned in the 
 things pertaining to God. A short amount 
 of time well spent in such ways is far 
 better than hours which have no love 
 behind them. 
 
 Almsgiving : Give liberally to the Church 
 and to the distressed. Seek out the de- 
 serving poor. Sympathize with them. Do 
 not ruin them with foolish alms but strive 
 to help them sensibly. Study their needs 
 and conditions. Look on them as brothers 
 in Christ. Deny yourselves that you may 
 have more to give, and do all for Christ, 
 Who sees all. 
 
 In conclusion, let love be your control- 
 ling power, common sense your rudder, 
 and the Cross your flag. Withdraw as 
 much as possible from gayety and merri- 
 ment and with quiet, happy, thankful 
 
 120 
 
The Life of Sacrifice. 
 
 hearts try to follow your rules, ever in- 
 creasing that which you do as you grow in 
 grace and strength. And may God bless 
 and help you ! 
 
 121 
 
VII. 
 
 THE CALL OF THE CRUCIFIED. 
 
 On the cold wintry air of the early morn 
 of Ash Wednesday toll out the bells of 
 the Churches ushering in the Lenten Fast. 
 Deep, sonorous, musical, they call the 
 hearer to God's Altar, to make confession 
 of sin and renew the resolutions for a 
 better life. In Church and Chapel, in 
 Spire and Tower, they chime or toll, and 
 their ringing seems to voice the privileges 
 and joys of the Lenten season if the 
 listeners will but avail themselves of them ; 
 privileges and joys embodied in the one 
 beautiful thought of a closer life with 
 Christ. 
 
 122 
 
The Call of the Crucified. 
 
 Hark ! Dost hear that other sound, far 
 more beautiful, far more inspiring than 
 even the softest toned bell ! Far down the 
 centuries we hear it, cheering each chang- 
 ing age with its music ! In spirit we 
 follow it as it seems to call us, back 
 along the cycles of time, until, kneeling at 
 the Cross of Calvary, we look upwards 
 and see there between the earth and the 
 sky the form of the Saviour ! 
 
 It is the Voice of the Crucified One ! Far 
 sweeter than chiming church bell, or any 
 earthly sound, that Voice seems to say 
 in loving, pleading tones : "Is it nothing to 
 you, all ye that pass by?" Down through 
 the centuries we hear Him asking that 
 solemn question. Down through the 
 centuries we see the vision of that Cross, 
 underneath which seem written the words, 
 " Sinner, see thy work." 
 
 123 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 My brothers, the Voice of the Crucified 
 is calling us now. He is pointing to the 
 Cross. He is showing us that one "full, 
 perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and 
 satisfaction for the sins of the whole world!' 
 He is re-presenting to us that wondrous 
 act of suffering and death that startled 
 even the heathen philosopher out of his 
 sophistries and stoicism and brought many 
 an one to the feet of the Crucified Christ. 
 He is bringing before our eyes the greatest 
 example of love that the world has ever 
 witnessed or ever will witness, for there 
 could be no greater ! 
 
 Clear, beautiful, pleading the Voice of 
 the Crucified sounds. My brothers, what 
 answer will you make ? No lover of Him 
 or follower of Him, turns away from that 
 Cross ! No true servant of Him avoids 
 the shadow of the Cross, as it falls across 
 
 124 
 
The Call of the Crucified. 
 
 the earthly path of life, in the solemn 
 season of Lent. Paradoxical as it seems, 
 in an acceptance or refusal of that Cross, 
 lies our spiritual life or death. If we 
 refuse it, it will crush us with its weight; 
 if we accept it, it will raise us toward 
 Heaven. 
 
 Let us this holy season draw near to 
 the Cross with love and adoration. Let 
 us journey to Calvary, and gaze on that 
 Divine Form. Let us cast all of our cares 
 and trials, sorrows and sins at the foot of 
 the Cross, and look to Him the Burthen- 
 Bearer ! Let us embrace that Cross as did 
 the holy women, and carry it in our hearts 
 throughout our life's journey ! Let it be 
 our solace for earthly care and grief, and 
 our help against sin and temptation. 
 Let it be the reminder of the Saviour's 
 Love and Sacrifice and the incentive to 
 
 "5 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 our own love and sacrifice. Let it be the 
 sacred symbol by which we bring others 
 to the Redeemer's feet, and the means 
 of keeping alive our own faith and devo- 
 tion. Let it be our guide in life, in the 
 sunshine of our youth, in the noonday 
 of our prime, in the even of our age. 
 Let it be our one hope in " the dry land 
 where no water is" that land of the Valley 
 of the Shadow of Death. Let it sustain 
 us until in the last day again we hear the 
 Voice of the Crucified, "Come unto Me, all 
 ye that labour and are heavy laden and I 
 will give you rest" " My peace I give unto 
 you" "And ye shall find rest unto your 
 souls" 
 
 Rest and peace ! On earth who would 
 not have rest and peace ? Not the rest 
 and peace that comes in sloth and idleness, 
 (which is no real rest), but the inner joy 
 
 126 
 
The Call of the Crucified. 
 
 that comes from a life given up to the 
 Master's work ! 
 
 Rest and peace for Christian workers, 
 not " Christian " idlers ! For Christian be- 
 lievers, not " Christian " scorners ! 
 
 Rest and peace! In Heaven who would 
 not have rest and peace ? There in the 
 company of the saints and angels to stand 
 in the presence of God, on Whose right 
 hand is the Crucified Christ, with the marks 
 of the nails in His hands and His feet and 
 the piercing of the spear in His side, Him 
 the Saviour and Redeemer of mankind, 
 Who, for the sacrifice on the Cross, asks 
 but for our hearts with all their adoring 
 love and devotion. 
 
 Rest and peace, we find it there for ever, 
 and ever and ever, but it is the rest for 
 the weary, for those who fought, strug- 
 gled and worked in their earthly life, for 
 
 127 
 
A Layman's Lent. 
 
 those who offered up themselves as a 
 loving sacrifice to Him, Who died for 
 them, for those who sought out every 
 chance and opportunity for prayer and 
 devotion, communion and sacrifice. 
 
 Rest and peace for those who have 
 copied the Master ; ay, copied the Master 
 even in keeping the Lenten Fast ordered 
 by His Divine Institution the Holy Catholic 
 Church, a fast that has made weak men 
 strong, doubting men believers. 
 
 Hark ! The Divine Voice of Jesus is 
 calling : " Is it nothing to you, all ye that 
 pass byf He hungers for our love, He 
 thirsts for our devotion ! What love to 
 die on the Cross for us ! The Crucified 
 calls us : " Come unto me all ye that 
 labour and are heavy laden and I will give 
 you rest." Longingly the Divine Face 
 of the Crucified looks down from the 
 
 128 
 
The Call of the Crucified. 
 
 Cross ! Beseechingly the Pierced Hands 
 of the Crucified beckon ! Lovingly the 
 Beautiful Voice of the Crucified pleads ! 
 My brothers, what answer will you make ? 
 
 129 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 CONTAINING A 
 
 SHORT FORM OF PRAYERS FOR DAILY MORNING 
 AND EVENING USE, 
 
 APPROVED BY THE 
 
 Bishop of Milwaukee. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 A Few Practical Suggestions to be Followed in Preparation 
 for Receiving the Holy Communion. 
 
 (The forms herein set forth are intended not only to be used during 
 Lent, but also during the whole year. They should especially commend 
 themselves for Family Worship. The Prayers for the most part are but 
 shortened forms of those to be found in the Book of Common Prayer. It is 
 hoped they will but lead to a more regular use of that book. On Wednes- 
 days and Fridays the Litany should also be said as set forth in the Book 
 of Common Prayer.) 
 
I 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 SHORT PRAYERS FOR MORNING USE. 
 
 N the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy- 
 Ghost. Amen. 
 
 OUR Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. 
 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is 
 in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us 
 our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And 
 lead us not into temptation ; But deliver us from evil : For 
 Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 ALMIGHTY God, we most heartily thank Thee for our crea- 
 tion, preservation and all the blessings of this life, for Thy 
 loving care and watchful providence over us all our days and for 
 having delivered us from all the dangers and perils of the past 
 night, but above all things for Thine inestimable love in the 
 redemption of the world by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. And we be- 
 seech Thee to accept this our morning sacrifice of praise and 
 thanksgiving, continuing these Thy blessings to us and to all 
 men, and taking us and all who are dear to us under Thy 
 fatherly care and protection. More especially we pray Thee to 
 give us the grace of Thy Holy Spirit, that we, being unfeignedly 
 thankful, may show forth our praise, not only with our lips but in 
 our lives, by giving up ourselves to Thy service and walking 
 before Thee in holiness and righteousness all our days : throug;h 
 
 132 
 
Short Morning Prayers, 
 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, to Whom with Thee and the Holy Ghost 
 be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen. 
 
 DIRECT us, O Lord, in all our doings with Thy most gracious 
 favour and further us with Thy continual help, that in all 
 our works begun, continued and ended in Thee we may glorify 
 Thy holy Name and finally by Thy mercy obtain everlasting life 
 through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 
 
 OMOST Merciful Father, look with pity, we beseech Thee, 
 upon all those in sorrow, trouble, sickness, or distress, re- 
 lieving them according to their several necessities or else giving 
 them patience to bear their troubles ; remember in mercy all 
 sinners and criminals and all who have erred and strayed from 
 Thy ways, giving them repentance and better minds; have 
 compassion upon all men, and pour into their hearts such love 
 towards Thee that they may turn from their wickedness and 
 follow Thee, the only God, for the sake of our Lord and Re- 
 deemer, Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
 OLORD, Who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty 
 nights; Give us grace to use such abstinence that our 
 flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey Thy godly 
 motions in righteousness and true holiness, to Thy honour and 
 glory, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy 
 Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen. 
 
 THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God 
 and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all 
 evermore. Amen. 
 
 1 33 
 
Appendix. 
 
 SHORT PRAYERS FOR EVENING USE. 
 
 i 
 
 N the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost. Amen. 
 
 OUR Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. 
 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is 
 in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us 
 our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And 
 lead us not into temptation ; But deliver us from evil : For 
 Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 ALMIGHTY God, we most heartily thank Thee for Thy 
 goodness and loving kindness to us and to all men, for 
 Thy loving care and protection to us this day and for all the 
 many blessings of the same, beseeching Thee that we may ever 
 love and praise Thy Holy Name and follow Thee all the days 
 of our life for the sake of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 
 Amen. 
 
 ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, we humbly pray 
 Thee to have compassion upon our sins and infirmities 
 and grant that we being sincerely penitent and confessing them 
 unto Thee, by Thine infinite goodness and mercy may obtain 
 forgiveness of the same. And we beseech Thee, grant us grace 
 so to resist the deceits of the world, the flesh and the devil, that 
 we may live to Thy honour and glory in this present and in the 
 
 134 
 
Short Evening Prayers, 
 
 world to come attain everlasting life, through the merits and 
 mediation of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Amen. 
 
 OLORD, Who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty 
 nights; Give us grace to use such abstinence that our 
 flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey Thy godly 
 motions in righteousness and true holiness, to Thy honour and 
 glory, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy 
 Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen. 
 
 WE beseech Thee, O Lord, pour Thy grace into our hearts : 
 that as we have known the Incarnation of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by His Cross and 
 Passion we may be brought to the glory of His resurrection, 
 through the same Thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 
 
 LIGHTEN our darkness, we beseech Thee, O Lord; and 
 by Thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers 
 of this night ; for the love of Thy only Son our Saviour, Jesus 
 Christ. Amen. 
 
 O SAVIOUR of the world, Who by Thy Cross and Precious 
 Blood hath redeemed us, save us and help us, we humbly 
 beseech Thee, O Lord. Amen. 
 
 THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God 
 and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all ever- 
 more. Amen. 
 
 135 
 
Appendix. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR HOLY COMMUNION. 
 
 IT is our bounden duty, ere we presume to receive the Blessed 
 Sacrament, that we should make a careful and thorough 
 examination of our conscience and follow this with a full and 
 complete Confession to Almighty God. This must not merely be 
 a Confession of Sin in the abstract but must be a Confession of 
 Specific Sins, which we may have committed in thought and 
 word and deed, and it must include Sins of Omission as well as 
 Sins of Commission. 
 
 This Examination and Confession to be real must be coupled 
 with sincere Repentance and Contrition, and must be supple- 
 mented by self-imposed Penance (and Restitution and Repara- 
 tion if the sin calls for it). Examination and Confession must 
 also embody the sincere resolve to lead a better life, and must be 
 made in love and charity with all men. 
 
 There are many printed forms containing detailed questions 
 for self-examination. Some persons need these and should use 
 them. Others having a greater insight into spiritual things and 
 a more devotional nature, may find their own questions more 
 to the point (assuming of course that the examination be made 
 in a most humble and conscientious manner) . 
 
 A very good and helpful method of self-examination is : 
 
 I. By the Rule of the Ten Commandments, in all their 
 various application. 
 
 II. By the Seven Deadly Sins of Anger, Covetousness, 
 Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Pride, and Sloth, which in reality em- 
 body many sins sometimes looked upon as venial. 
 
 136 
 
Preparation for Communion. 
 
 III. By Faith, Repentance, and Charity, or our duty toward 
 God and our duty toward our neighbor. 
 
 Only after such Examination and Confession to God do we 
 worthily partake of the Blessed Sacrament, which is the "re- 
 freshing and strengthening of our souls" by the Body and 
 Blood of Jesus, Supernatural ly, Spiritually, and Really Present 
 under the forms of bread and wine which remain after Conse- 
 cration. Surely such a precious gift should excite our deepest 
 longing, and should be approached with holy fear and repent- 
 ance, deep adoration and thanksgiving. 
 
 Sins are generally divided into two classes, Mortal (or 
 Deadly) sins and Venial sins. 
 
 This classification, however, is but an arbitrary one, for what 
 we commonly regard as a trivial, venial sin may in reality be to 
 us a mortal one, inasmuch as if constantly indulged in, it may 
 cut us off or separate us from God> when little by little the soul 
 will sink into such a condition, that no longer will it be able 
 to see or do aright or realize the depth of its fall. 
 
 Separation from God, then, is the best definition for Deadly 
 Sin, for as our natural members die physically if cut off, so we 
 who are members of Christ die spiritually if cut off or separated 
 from Him, Who is God. 
 
 Thus, then, it behooves us to meditate oft and deeply upon 
 the awfulness of sin and the power of sin, in order that we 
 may the more strongly fight against it, and may the more 
 humbly seek our dear Redeemer Who gives us in the Blessed 
 Sacrament of His Body and Blood special grace and strength to 
 fight and conquer. 
 
 137 
 
Appendix. 
 
 (And if any one after such devout and thorough self-examina- 
 tion "cannot quiet his own conscience but requireth further 
 comfort or counsel,'' let him follow the instruction of the Ex- 
 hortation in the Prayer Book after the Holy Communion Office, 
 and seek some Priest of God, to him to " open his grief; that 
 he may receive such Godly counsel and advice as may tend to 
 the quieting of his conscience and the removal of all scruple 
 and doubtfulness.") 
 
 A PRAYER TO BE USED BEFORE SELF-EXAMINA- 
 TION. 
 
 OMOST merciful Father, Who hast compassion upon all men, 
 help us now so to examine ourselves and to confess our sins 
 unto Thee that we may obtain Thy pardon and forgiveness. Re- 
 ceive us we pray Thee in mercy. Help us feel true sorrow for 
 our faults. Grant us grace to have a firm trust in Thee. Cleanse 
 us from all our sins in the Precious Blood of Jesus. Enlighten 
 our hearts with the grace of Thy Holy Spirit, so that truly re- 
 penting of our sins, earnestly resolved to lead a new life and in 
 love and charity with all men, we may worthily receive the 
 Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ with all the benefits and blessings of the same, for the 
 sake of Thy dear Son, our Lord and Redeemer. Amen. 
 
 138 
 
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