Joel 2:12-14 Therefore also now, said the LORD, turn you even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:… From very ancient times Ash Wednesday has been kept by Christians with great strictness. Our Church too marks this day as a specially solemn day, by providing a special service for it, namely, the "Commination, or denouncing of God's anger and judgments against sinners" — a service well fitted to stir up our dull minds to the thought of our sins, and to rouse our slumbering con sciences to the feeling of our guilt. Now the great use of special days like this is to fill our hearts and minds with some special thought or feeling, to fix it firmly in our memory, to press and stamp it in so deeply that it will not easily be rubbed out by the wear and tear of the world: and on Ash Wednesday the thought that should fill our mind is the thought of our sinfulness; the feeling that should be uppermost in our hearts is the feeling of our deep guilt in the sight of God. This thought and feeling should rise with us in the morning, should go forth with us to our daily toil or business, should be with us wherever we are, and go with us wherever we go, if we would spend this day as it is meant to be spent, as a day of deep and earnest penitence. The very reason why most people's religion is so poor and weak is because their religious feelings are so shallow, their religious acts so hasty and formal. A day like this is meant to correct the fault. It is meant to deepen the feelings, to give occasion for a more real and searching penitence. It is meant to be a day of much strict self-examination, of much humble confession of sin, of much earnest prayer, of much godly sorrow, of much hearty resolve. To fast on this day, and deny ourselves outwardly, is a mere mockery and snare, tempting us to think well of ourselves, and to fancy we are doing great things, if we have not the inward spirit of fasting, which is the humbling of the soul in secret shame and sorrow before God. Let this be what we aim at, and then we shall be thankful for every aid, such as fasting is, to so good an end. Only we must remember the end is greater than the means. Let us not, then, despise a day and a service which may be so blest to us, and which have been so blest to thousands and thousands of Christian people. Nay, till we can say that our sense of sin cannot be made deeper, that our confessions cannot be more earnest, that our knowledge of self cannot be increased, that our repentance cannot be more sincere, — have we any right to despise these helps? (W. Walsham How, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: |
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