As a young Christian I struggled to understand how to engage in religious fasting. That it was expected by Christ was undeniable, “…when ye fast…” (Matthew 6:16). However, when was this to happen? How was I to go about it? How could I avoid the errors of the hypocrites Christ mentioned? Doubtlessly, many today encountered similar questions when various days of humiliation were established over the past several months in light of God’s judgment upon our land and world. While excellent sections in several works exist, few book-length treatments can be found to address the topic. Fewer still are worthy of a Christian’s precious time.
He is crying unto us, “Sing, O heaven”—that is, “Sing, O Church; and rejoice, O earth. Sing, O State: sing both Church and State of Scotland.” Oh! how should we sing? Hath not the Lord forsaken and forgotten us? Nay, though it appears so, yet it is not really so. “A woman may forget her sucking child, but the Lord cannot forget his people.” The purpose of God is pregnant and about to bring forth a great deliverance unto the Church and State of Scotland. If we saw the days that our Lord is to bestow upon us in Scotland, and had a view of the ministers that shall be in it, it would make us sing. Ye think now that the ministers are gone. Indeed a great part of them are so, and the magistrates are rejected by us. We declare before sun, moon, and stars that this is the case. But the Lord hath yet ministers that shall be polished shafts in His quiver; and He will yet give us rulers, and will make out that promise: “And kings shall be thy nursing fathers;” so that if we saw the good days that are coming upon the back of these troubles, we would not get men and women kept from dancing for joy. Ye would all go home with gladness, rejoicing as if ye were frantic for joy. But you may say, “How can this be?” For there are two things to be objected against it:
