A fast.
Fasting is often mere superstition, as when men suppose that there is merit in their abstaining on certain days from certain kinds of food, thinking that mortification of appetite is in itself a virtue, and that God must needs be pleased with what pains or distresses his creatures. Fasting is sometimes a mockery. It is well known that many religionists keep the letter whilst they break the spirit of a fast. It is certainly difficult to sympathise with the asceticism of those who fast on Fridays upon salmon and champagne. Yet this, like other religious observances that are now largely superstitious, or at all events formal, has its origin in laudable desires, and springs from good tendencies in human nature.
I. A COMMON SORROW NATURALLY SEEKS A COMMON EXPRESSION. When a community is smitten by a general calamity, it is unbecoming that any members of that community should indulge in feasting and mirth. When the Jews were threatened with destruction, how natural that, at Esther's suggestion, the Hebrew population of the city should join in a general fast.
II. A COMMON WANT NATURALLY LEADS TO UNITED SUPPLICATION. Together the people were endangered; together they sought deliverance from their redeeming God. A fast is not only a time of abstinence from pleasure, it is a time of prayer; and God in heaven is gratified by conjoined and blended supplication and intercession. What mercies await the society, the city, the nation which will agree with one heart to seek the Lord.
III. IT IS THE SPIRITUAL FASTING WHICH IS ACCEPTABLE TO THE SEARCHER OF HEARTS. Often, in the presence of fasts which are merely outward, has he addressed the indignant question to formal religionists, "Is it such a fast that I have chosen?" Often has the appeal been addressed to such, "Rend your hearts, and not your garments!" The case of the Ninevites is an illustration of the combination of a formal with a real fast, and is a proof that such a fast is not disregarded by God. Let the words of our Saviour be remembered: "When thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast; and thy Father who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."