The Christian fathers combated a superstitious notion which attached great importance to a certain bodily posture and certain outward ceremonies in prayer; they endeavoured to show, as Cyprian in the passage above, that everything in prayer depended not on a certain posture of the body, but a certain posture of the heart. Thus Origen says, "It appears to me that whoever wishes to pray, should first retire into himself and collect his thoughts, and then surrender himself with so much greater ardour to prayer. He must, as much as possible, be impressed with the greatness of that Being to whom he draws nigh; that it is an insult to come to him negligently, as if we despised him: a man should come to prayer, dismissing from his mind all foreign matters; he raises his soul before his hands; he raises his spirit to God before his eyes; he should banish from his soul all desire of revenge, if there is any one from whom he has suffered wrong, when he is seeking that his own offences may not be punished by God. It cannot be doubted that among the various postures of the body that is preferable to others in which man stretches forth his hands and raises his eyes, as an image of that state of the disposition in which the soul should be found when praying. But we only think that this posture is to be preferred when no circumstances prevent it; for under certain circumstances a man may pray in a becoming manner sitting or even lying, as in case of illness. And under certain circumstances, as, for example, on shipboard, or when our employments do not permit us to retire and offer up our wonted prayer, a man may pray without appearing to pray. The apostle seems to refer, in Phil. ii. 10, to the spiritual bowing of the knee, since the heart throws itself down before God in the name of Jesus, and humbles itself in his presence." "God," Tertullian says, reproving those who uttered too loudly their prayers in public,* hears not the voice but the heart, even as he looks into the heart." And against those who believed that they ought to wash before every prayer, he says, "What can prayer effect with washed hands but with an impure mind? Purity of mind is necessary even for the hands, that before they are raised to God they should be pure from deceit, bloodshed, cruelty, sorcery, idolatry,

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* Deus non vocis, sed cordis auditor est, sicut conspector.-Tertull. de Orat. § 13.

and other evils which proceed from the mind, but are accomplished by the labour of the hands. This is true purity, not merely what is external, about which many are careful, who have brought Jewish or heathenish superstition with them. into Christianity. Our hands are pure enough, which we washed with our bodies once for all in Christ. (An allusion to baptism, which at time was performed by the immersion of the whole body. Probably Tertullian thought of John xiii. 10. His meaning is: since we are once for all purified through regeneration by faith in the Redeemer, nothing can defile us, if we only faithfully guard the purification we have received.) Of all such vain usages, which were not learnt from the teaching of the Lord and his apostles, he says: "Such affected practices belong not to religion, but to superstition; they are the signs rather of a barren service taken up with outward things, than of a rational devotion. We ought to stand aloof from such things, for they make us like the heathen." Elsewhere he says: "The faithful observance of the teachings of Christ paves the way to heaven for our prayers, and it is most important that if we have been at variance with our brethren, or injured them, we should not approach God's altar before we are reconciled to them. For what can that mean, to come to the peace of God without peace? To seek forgiveness of sins when we withhold it from others? How can he be reconciled to his Father who angry with his brother? And the posture of prayer must be free, not only from wrath, but from all perturbation of mind, so that it may come from a spirit that resembles the Spirit to whom it is offered. The Holy Spirit cannot recognize an impure spirit, nor the spirit of joy a melancholy spirit, nor the free spirit a spirit entangled with worldly cares; no one receives into his society one who is hostile to him; every one admits only persons with friendly feelings to his communion." Cyprian says: "The Lord teaches us to pray in quiet, in our chamber, for we know that God is omnipresent; he sees and hears all things; he penetrates the most obscure corner with the fulness of his majesty; God hears not the voice, but the heart. When we pray, our whole heart must be directed to the prayer. It should be closed to the adversary, and open to God alone; for the former frequently creeps in, and by his deceptions draws

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away our prayer from God, so that we have one thing in our hearts, and another in our mouths; for we must pray to the Lord with an upright disposition, not with the sound of the voice, but with the soul and the feelings. Christ teaches us to pray, 'Our Father,' not 'my Father.' Each Christian must not pray for himself alone. Ours is a common prayer. We pray not merely for individuals, but for the whole church; because, as the church is one, we are one with it. It is God's will that one should pray for all, even as he permitted one to bear the sins of all."

Especially were Christians convinced that prayer should be connected with the reading of the Scriptures, in order to enter rightly into its meaning. When Origen was exhorting one of his disciples, afterwards known as the illustrious Gregory Thaumaturgus, to the diligent study of the Scriptures, he added, It is not enough for thee to seek and knock; prayer is most necessary in order to understand divine things. When our Lord excited us to this, he said not only, Knock and it shall be opened to you, seek and shall find,' but also, 'Ask and it shall be given you.'

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CHAPTER IX.

FASTING JOINED WITH PRAYER.

Ir was certainly the aim of the Christian development, that the whole life should be one continuous prayer,that it should commence with a surrender of the heart to God, and that every action should be only an illustration of this grand fundamental principle. But though the entrance into the manifold engagements of life, into the variety of worldly things, as might be required by the activity of an ardent love for the kingdom of God, was not inconsistent with the tendency of the soul towards the one great object, yet human infirmity occasioned the entrance of contrarieties, interruptions, and fluctuations. The soul, in its occupation with the things of the world, cannot always persist in the

same undeviating tendency towards God, in the same attitude of prayer. Hence, in order that the fountain of the divine life may not fail, that the inner man may not be a prey to distraction, intervals were set apart for intercourse with God, when the soul might collect its scattered powers in devotion, and thus a consecration and refreshment might be diffused over the rest of life, which was taken up by worldly affairs.

Thus while Christians considered prayer as the daily nourishment of their hearts and souls, as the daily consecration of their lives; still they had, each one according to his peculiar situation and necessities, certain times when they retired from the confusion of worldly affairs, collected themselves in silence before God, examined the course of their lives, as in his sight and according to the directions of his word, repented of the evil which they detected in their inward and outward life, and with contrite hearts implored forgiveness and sanctification in the name of Christ.

The custom of connecting times of prayer and fasting wit one another was not peculiarly Christian, but usual among the Jews, and hence probably was adopted by Christian churches. The mention of prayer and fasting in close connection in Matt. xvii. 21, appears designed to indicate devout, earnest prayer. When the Pharisees expressed their astonishment that Christ did not accustom his disciples to prayer and fasting, he declared that the joy which they experienced in intercourse with himself precluded fasting, as it was to them a season of festivity. But the sorrow occasioned by their separation from him would, of itself, induce them to fast. Yet the pain of separation from him would be only transitory, and would be followed by a perfect and enduring joy in the consciousness of an indissoluble spiritual communion with the glorified Christ. And this ever-enduring festive joy must exclude all fasting; therefore, the only fasting that could be practised, would be the involuntary expression of pain in some transitory states of the inner life, when the consciousness of redemption momentarily retires before the feeling of contrition in estrangement from God; or we must understand these fasts of such abstinence as was laid on the apostles by the duties of their calling, and to which they were induced to submit with joy through the power of the Spirit that animated them. (Matt. ix. 15;

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Luke v. 35) From what is contained in those words of our Lord, a correct rule may easily be drawn for all fasts on the Christian stand-point. But at that time, men followed in these things an indistinct tradition of the church, and a feeling not always certain and purely Christian, instead of forgetting everything else, and examining impartially the meaning of Christ's words, and thence deducing a rule of universal adaptation. Those words of Christ were so misunderstood, that the necessity of celebrating the remembrance of the sufferings of Christ by a fast, was deduced from them, and thus the foundation was laid of ecclesiastical fasts.

When individual Christians, therefore, by their peculiar necessities or disposition, felt impelled to appoint for themselves such a day of penitence and fasting, they were accustomed to refrain from food during a certain part of it, perhaps till three o'clock in the afternoon, or only to take a very scanty portion in the course of the day; but what they saved by their abstinence on such days, they applied to the relief of the poor. Friday was particularly set apart for this purpose, in order that the recollection of the redemptive sufferings of Christ might contribute to awaken the feelings of genuine penitence. Christ, crucified and risen, formed the central point of the whole Christian life, in the two-fold reference to that ancient stand-point from which it was freed, and from which it was to be increasingly freed, while it was attracted and fixed even more firmly to the new stand-point; with Christ the crucified to die to sin, to self, and to the world; to follow him in penitence and the crucifixion of the old man; and with Christ the risen, to rise to a new divine life consecrated to him in his communion.

To this view the most ancient church-festivals corresponded. In accordance with it, as Friday was the day set apart for penitence and fasting, so Sunday, being devoted to the commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, was exempt from all fasts, and from everything which bore the marks of sorrow. The joy of the new divine life, proceeding from communion with the risen Saviour. was to be impressed on all the transactions of that day. On Sunday, instead of kneeling, an upright posture was adopted, as more expressive of the joyful feeling that Christ had raised fallen man to heaven. On the same grounds one Friday in the year was especially chosen as