FASTING
W. John Murray
The Astor
Lectures
Divine Science Publishing Assoc.
New York, 1917, 8th ed.
"This kind goeth not out but by
prayer and fasting."
--I John 4:1.
[47] These
words were spoken by Jesus on an occasion
when some of his advanced students had
failed to cure a case of epilepsy. A man
in great sorrow, as is natural to parents
who have children afflicted with
so-called incurable maladies, had heard
the rumors spread abroad of the things
done by the Master and his students.
Perhaps he had witnessed some of these
cures, and in consequence turned to the
disciples in order that his child might
be restored to mental and physical
freedom. It was the custom then as now,
when all other means have been exhausted,
to turn to spiritual means for aid. That
is why we try every known system of
therapeutics, every so-called patent
medicine; why we travel; why we dispense
with seemingly necessary articles of
diet; why we exercise and bathe; why we
do strange things to regain what we
believe to be our divine right, health,
and strength. Not only so, but when those
who are near and dear to us, as this
man's son must have been to him, by
reason of his very affliction, it is not
difficult to understand how he could turn
to the [48] disciples in the hour of his
extremity and ask for help.
Undoubtedly
it was disappointing, after hearing all
the wonderful accounts of Divine healing,
to learn that his child, of all children,
was the one incurable. And so we find
this parent turning to Jesus and saying,
"Master, if thy disciples cannot effect a
cure, perhaps Thou canst." The
importunities of the parental mind cannot
be silenced, so we find him beseeching
Jesus to heal his afflicted son; after
admitting that he had taken him to his
disciples and they could not heal him.
Jesus said, "Bring thy son hither," and
the disciples brought him to the Master,
and the result was an instantaneous
restoration to normality.
The
disciples said to Jesus, "Why could not
we cast him out; who have sat at your
feet, and have been taught the Law of
Divine Science, and do, intellectually at
least, realize that there is no power in
the universe but the power of God, no
presence on earth but His presence,--why
could not we cast him out?" Jesus
replied, "Because of your unbelief. This
kind goeth not forth but by prayer and
fasting."
There are
many methods of prayer and fasting, but
we want to discover the particular method
which Jesus recommended to his disciples
as one of the essential necessities to
spiritual healing. What could he have
meant by fasting? Did Jesus himself fast,
in the ordinary sense of the word? We
have only to turn to the [49] New
Testament for evidence on this important
point, and so far as we can discern Jesus
did not fast.
John the
Baptist came praying and fasting. He was
a past master in the art of abstaining.
No one has ever lived a more abstemious
life than the desert prophet. Locusts and
wild honey and a camel's girdle! Surely
no one could live more simply than this
and maintain existence on the physical
plane! Yet we have no record of any
healing work accomplished by this
ascetic. He set forth moral laws, was a
stern rebuker of spiritual wickedness in
high places, a denouncer of hypocrisy, in
short, a moral giant, but nowhere do we
find any record whatsoever of any healing
work.
Instead, we
find Jesus of Nazareth living very much
as other men lived; eating and drinking
in the houses of the rich and of the poor
alike, and laying no particular emphasis
on the ascetic life. In fact, he seems to
have been anything but an ascetic. He
mingled freely with the city folk as well
as with the country people, so that he
was accused, by those who did not
understand him, of being a winebibber and
a glutton, and consorting with sinners;
eating and drinking at the tables of
publicans; permitting unclean women to
wash his feet and kiss his hand,--a mixer
of mixers, apparently; yet we find him
recommending fasting and prayer!
Fasting had
been recommended long before Jesus'
advent in the flesh. Long before
progressive thinkers questioned the
necessity of fasting, [50] Isaiah was in
doubt concerning this Jewish rite: "Is it
such a fast that I have chosen, a day for
man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow
down his head as a bulrush, and to spread
sackcloth and ashes under him?" And Jesus
later made reply, "When ye fast anoint
your heads, so that you may not appear
unto men to fast."
Fasting
means to abstain. Throughout all
generations we seem to have limited the
word "fasting" to abstinence from good
things of the table; to the things we
eat, and the things we drink. Some of us
have abstained from meat on Fridays; some
abstain from meat altogether; others from
food for certain periods of time; and we
call that fasting. Feeling that we could
grow in spirituality by abstaining from
material food, we have fasted until
brought to illness.
Back of the
idea of fasting is something infinitely
more essential than merely abstaining
from physical foods. There are two forms
of fasting: that which is recommended by
dietitians, eliminating from our menu
such things as are considered injurious
to the bodily health; that which
dispenses with food for certain periods
of time altogether, and the abstainer
comes back rejuvenated, refreshed and
invigorated. The machinery of the body
has been given a rest in order that it
may recuperate, and come back to its
ordinary habit of life strengthened.
These modes, however, have never resulted
in healing work. Jesus speaks of prayer
and fasting as essential to healing.
Tolstoy was a remarkable [51] faster. No
one ever lived a more abstemious life
than he during the last twenty-four years
of his life; yet it is not recorded that
he did any physical healing. His was a
remarkable philosophy, a life consecrated
to the preaching of Truth. He showed the
remarkable power of the Truth in
converting a worldling, but we find no
evidence of his doing the work that is
inseparable from the Gospel of
Christ.
If to fast
means to abstain, we must at least know
what it means to abstain from. Since mere
abstinence from physical food did not
confer upon John the Baptist the power
that characterized Jesus and his
immediate disciples, then it is a fair
assumption that the mere abstinence from
physical food is not sufficient to equip
the student of Divine Science with
healing power. There is more meaning in
the term "fasting" than has heretofore
been attributed to it.
It must have
been in the sense of abstaining on the
moral plane, from lust, wrath, anger,
jealousy, envy, and evils of all
character, that Jesus recommended it as
an essential necessity to spiritual
healing. This makes for the
exalted life; for moral power, and great
strength. It enables us to rise above the
physical states of consciousness where
fasting is not so much a fasting from
physical food, as it is the fasting from
thoughts that make for disease and
decrepitude. When this plane of
consciousness is reached, we learn that
fasting is infinitely more spiritual,
infinitely less natural than we have ever
thought of it before, [52] for we learn
that we now are to abstain not only from
wrong thinking, from sin, and from sickly
and poverty thinking, but that we are to
abstain from everything that makes for
unhappiness, disease, pain and death, as
well. This form of fasting is that which
Jesus praised, and if we grow in this,
then we need pay very little attention to
the things on the table. We grow
naturally away from over-eating and
intemperance, for as we grow in Spirit,
we naturally rise above our appetites,
passions, fears and anxieties; and as we
come into the rarefied atmosphere of
Truth, error becomes less potent and less
powerful to us, and the Truth of Being
ever present and more potent.
Jesus
recommended the form of fasting that we
in Divine Science are trying to practice.
It is the form of self-denial. It is not
denying the so-called pleasures, but
denying that false sense of self which
would suggest that we are material beings
instead of spiritual entities. When Jesus
healed the boy whom his disciples could
not heal, he abstained from just one
thing,---from believing that the lad was
afflicted with an incurable malady. He
abstained from believing the evidence of
the senses--from the suggestion that man,
made in the image and likeness of God,
can ever be anything less than perfect.
His fast consisted of closing the doors
of the senses to everything that
suggested imperfection, and clinging
tenaciously to the Truth of Being. He
persisted in seeing only that which was
Real [53] and True. Therefore, his prayer
was not a petition for recovery, but a
declaration of Truth.
"Why could
not we cast him out?" "Because," said
Jesus, "of your unbelief; because you
believed that man, who was made in the
image and likeness of God, could be
diseased or demented, and through that
belief you have given strength to error."
We cannot cast out except by true prayer
and true fasting. As we grow spiritually
minded, we naturally become less carnally
minded. Our great attention must be to
"seek first the kingdom of righteousness,
and all other things will be added unto
us." We shall grow temperate; we shall
grow abstinent, and that without any
conscious effort. How often we find
people denying themselves certain
articles of food, in order that they may
grow in grace! But spirituality and grace
do not come this way. Seek first the
kingdom of God. There is no necessity for
other seeking, for these will be added.
As we grow in Spirit, we become less
conscious of the demands of the
flesh,--less conscious of our so-called
appetites and passions, and so grow into
a larger sense of freedom.
Jesus had
unfolded to such a high state of
spiritual consciousness, that his fasting
was not at all like that of John, and
hence the people of his time judged him
after appearances and said that he ate
and drank as other men, that he even
consorted with sinners and associated
with publicans! They were indulging in
criticism; they were stoning adulterous
women; were criticizing [54] the motive
of Matthew when he invited Jesus to his
table, and were condemning the attitude
of the people who were following Jesus
when he was fasting; abstaining from
condemnation and everything that would
suggest to his mind imperfection on the
part of any one.
To fast
means to keep always the perfect mental
picture of the creation of God. It means
to abstain from any belief in that which
God has not created. Thus, the mind is
concentrated on the one supreme Reality,
which is that which enables us to heal.
To dispense with all the things at the
table, to fast until one is gaunt and
weak, will never enable us to do the work
that Jesus did, for it is a knowledge of
the Truth that enables us to do the works
of that Master mind. We see that material
fastings have not eventuated in the
things that humanity needs so much, which
is to be cured of its moral, mental and
physical diseases. It is not for a man to
afflict his soul, and to cover himself
with sackcloth and ashes, to deny himself
the necessities of life. These are
negative virtues, while Isaiah tells us
"to loose the bonds of wickedness, to let
the oppressed go free, and to break every
yoke." The spiritual side of fasting is
not giving up something, but it is doing
something. John came doing; Jesus came
consoling. John came thundering forth
diatribes; Jesus came healing the sick.
"By their fruits ye shall know them."
Every day
people come asking if fasting is not a
means to a larger measure of grace, and
would [55] not this lead them into a
larger knowledge of Christ? Some tell me
how they have deprived themselves of
food, and how exalted they have felt
after the first few days, and they seem
to think fasting a necessary means of
obtaining spiritual power. And so it is
for these, for such is their mental view.
It would seem, however, that there is
another way--not a spasmodic sort of
fasting, but an abstinence every hour of
the day, every day and every week of the
year, from thoughts that make for
imperfection of any kind. This will lead
us naturally away from the things that
are not good, and be a source of strength
to our moral muscles. It will elevate our
aspirations, and will lead us into green
pastures and fresh fields, where we shall
overcome evil with good.
The question
is, are we to be ascetics or useful
members of society? There is a happy mean
between gluttony and self-imposed
starvation. Dietitians recommend
abstinence from food for various physical
reasons; moralists recommend it for
various moral reasons. Jesus did neither.
The life of John was abstinence from
food, and from healing as well. Physical
fasting in itself is nothing. It is
ignored by the Spirit unless it is
accompanied by mentally abstaining from
such ephemeral sensual delights as tend
to over-shadow the eternal, timeless,
changeless joys of the Spirit. Such joy
men and women feel when by their
realization of the power of Spirit they
are able to loose another from the bonds
of appetite; [56] --one, perhaps, who has
tried in vain to free himself from the
lust of drink. What joy can compare to
that of seeing such an one rise from his
physical degradation to a free man of
Spirit? This imperishable knowledge of
God as the only Reality is the fact that
enables man to free his brother from the
shackles of sin, and send him forth
intoxicated with the joys of the Spirit.
Every effort at overcoming, on the part
of one who is seeking to emulate the
Master's healing mission of mental and
physical redemption, is preparing that
one to partake of the possibilities that
gleam transcendent above him, and which
is to enable him to raise up the living
Christ from what seemed a man dead in the
marshes of sin.
In its
largest sense, then, fasting involves
tremendous personal responsibility,
because it is setting a watch upon the
lips. There are those who have fasted
from physical food, and have not
abstained from saying harsh things, or
thinking unkind thoughts. Men have been
known to abstain from certain articles of
food in order that they might grow in
grace, and they have only grown
physically weaker. "Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness," in
order that the things that now control
you will gradually disappear as you turn
your face in the direction of God and His
perfection;--which is your own
perfectness as the son of God. It was
said the other day by a woman, "The more
I deny these things the more real they
become to [57] my consciousness. I seem
to remind myself of the very things I am
trying to get away from." Frequently that
is so; hence the necessity of affirming
the real, instead of denying the unreal.
If in the past we have believed fasting
from physical food to be an aid, an
accessory to the spiritual life is the
means by which these things fall off,
just as the leaves fall off the trees in
autumn from lack of sustenance, and
through this natural order we shall grow
into a larger comprehension of our
divinity. We shall eat to live, but we
shall live to one purpose only,--of
abstaining from everything that is unlike
God.
Our
appetites will grow beautifully less. Our
wants will grow beautifully fewer,
because there will be but one great
supreme need in our souls and that will
be to know God and to know our own divine
powers. When we know our divine powers,
they will manifest themselves, they will
demonstrate themselves without any
conscious effort. The sun makes no
conscious effort to shine! The godly man
makes no conscious effort to rise above
his appetites. He is godly and his
appetites forsake him. He is spiritual,
and carnality holds no charms for him. He
is resurrected, and the sins of the flesh
have no attractions for him. His mind is
so filled with the beauty, grandeur and
glory of God that the things of earth do
not appeal to him. It is no sacrifice for
the man of God to give up the sins of the
flesh, for he has outgrown them. They
[58] have served their purpose--if they
ever had a purpose. His mind is consumed
with the love of God, and his mental eye
is filled with the vision of perfectness.
He abstains from evil belief, and he
heals as naturally as the sun sends forth
its beneficent rays upon us. He thinks
truly, and his mind knows no error. This
is the true fast.
Let this be
our mode of fasting. Let us abstain from
every thought of error, and strive to
keep our thoughts free from every sign of
envy and malice and jealousy. Let us
cease to see anything imperfect in form
of disease, decrepitude or poverty. Let
us hold the true picture of ourselves,
and within a few days it will have
resulted in a better order of things
physically, mentally, morally and
spiritually. We shall be eating less and
drinking less, because this is the way
the true fast works. It floods the soul
with Truth, and the things of sense
gradually disappear.
Let this,
then, be our Lenten Week. There are men
in the world who fast, but they are
always longing for the feast that
follows. This is the idea of fasting that
obtains in the public mind. Abstaining
from a few articles of diet does not
suggest to them that they should also be
free from criticism, and censure and
condemnation. As such their fast will
profit them nothing.
We in Divine
Science know that such is not the real
meaning of fasting. We know that it is to
follow in the footsteps of that
illuminated Master; to stand porter at
the gateway of our [59] minds, and give
admittance to that only which is like the
true Reality of our being. This is the
true abstinence. This is what Jesus meant
when he said, "Seek first the kingdom,"
and this is the pathway that will lead us
at last into our own Reality, of our
unity with God--the Perfect Image and
Creator.
Next: Prayer
* * * * *
The Astor Lectures
Table of
Contents
(Formerly at
Northwoods Divine Science Resource
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