fasting was, like many others, adopted from the Israelites. In fact, we learn from Arabic historians, e.g. Tabari, that Muhammad at first observed for a number of years the well-known Jewish fast of the Atonement, which was even called by its Hebrew name 'Ashur', i.e. the tenth, because it always took place on the tenth day of the seventh month of the Jews (Lev. xxiii. 27). But when his power increased in Madina, and the breach between him and the Jews grew wider, he superseded the Ashur, by introducing the Ramadan fast. Now the New Testament by no means prohibits fasting; on the contrary, it leaves every one free to fast, if he finds such abstinence necessary in order the better to overcome sinful appetites, or the more efficiently to accomplish spiritual duties (see Matt. iv. 2; vi. 16-17; ix. 15; Acts xiii. 2-3) but in no part of the New Testament is there a command to abstain from food binding on all, either for a single day amongst the Jews, or for a whole month among the Muhammadans. If some Christians, namely, those belonging to the Latin, Greek, and Armenian churches, observe a kind of general fast, they do so from regard to an ancient custom, and not in obedience to any command in the word of God; but the great Church of England, and all other Protestant churches throughout the world, do not impose such a burden equally on the necks of all, but only recommend the practice of sobriety and abstinence in

general, and leave its detailed application to the enlightened conscience of the individual believer. There can be no doubt that a religion giving this latitude to the individual, on matters of an external and subordinate nature, ranks much higher than another which, like Islam, seeks to enforce all things of that kind by strict formal laws. For whatever is done spontaneously, and from pure love to God, partakes of the character of a child's loving obedience to his parents; but what is done from mere submission to an unbending law, is more like the forced obedience of a slave to his master. But it is not merely on this general religious ground that a thinking believer must doubt the propriety of the introduction of the Ramadan fast, after the gospel had set the example of not enforcing such observances by law. There exist also special reasons from which this institution appears to be opposed to the benignity, equity, and wisdom of God, and therefore not likely to have been introduced with His sanction, or now enforced by His approval. Though the Ramadan fast may be kept in many cases without injury to health, yet the observation of the most eminent medical men goes to prove, that, in not a few cases, the daily abstinence from all eating and drinking, and the nightly free indulgence in both for a whole month, especially if the Ramadan falls in summer, is prejudicial to health, and often lays the foundation of serious.