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through the Comforter He would still be with them, and they were not
to spend their time in mourning. This was what Satan wanted. He de-
sired them to give the world the impression that they had been deceived
and disappointed; but by faith they were to look to the sanctuary above,
where Jesus was ministering for them; they were to open their hearts
to the Holy Spirit, His representative, and to rejoice in the light of His
presence. Yet days of temptation and trial would come, when they
would be brought into conflict with the rulers of this world, and the
leaders of the kingdom of darkness; when Christ was not personally
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with them, and they failed to discern the Comforter, then it would be
more fitting for them to fast.
The Pharisees sought to exalt themselves by their rigorous obser-
vance of forms, while their hearts were filled with envy and strife.
“Behold,” says the Scripture, “ye fast for strife and debate, and to
smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day,
to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have
chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head
as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou
call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?”
Isaiah 58:4, 5
.
The true fast is no mere formal service. The Scripture describes
the fast that God has chosen,—“to loose the bands of wickedness, to
undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye
break every yoke;” to “draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy
the afflicted soul.”
Isaiah 58:6, 10
. Here is set forth the very spirit
and character of the work of Christ. His whole life was a sacrifice of
Himself for the saving of the world. Whether fasting in the wilderness
of temptation or eating with the publicans at Matthew’s feast, He was
giving His life for the redemption of the lost. Not in idle mourning,
in mere bodily humiliation and multitudinous sacrifices, is the true
spirit of devotion manifested, but it is shown in the surrender of self in
willing service to God and man.
Continuing His answer to the disciples of John, Jesus spoke a
parable, saying, “No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an
old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that
was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.” The message of John
the Baptist was not to be interwoven with tradition and superstition.
An attempt to blend the pretense of the Pharisees with the devotion of
John would only make more evident the breach between them.