IV.—Fasting is not, as some have thought, a trick of priestcraft. The great Destroyer of priestcraft coupled fasting with prayer. The Old Catholics, when they left the kind and degree and time of fasting to each man's conscience, were careful not to reject it altogether. Our Puritans 250 years ago fasted as rigorously as any hermit. Now we know that the meagre or Lenten fare includes eggs, milk, butter, even fish. These rules of fasting are bequest of vast experience. They show that a low diet tends to mortify the flesh. Vegetarian testimony may not wholly bear out the strong assertion of Dr. Jas. C Jackson[1]:—
But certainly the vast majority of Vegetarians are teetotalers, though bound by no official pledge. The henroost, the milk-pail, the churn, the hive, do not brutalise, do not offend our instincts of mercy as do the shambles, cattle transports and trucks, the port industry of Chicago, the pigeon-shooting of Hurlingham, the wholesale slaughter of game, the deer forest supplanting our native peasantry. Mr. Collyns declares:—
Vegetarians, even of the V.E.M. persuasion, take an active part in many works of mercy and charity. Many can say, with Mr. Collyns:—
V.—Our name. Sir H. Thompson says (Nineteenth Century, May 1885, p. 781):—
- ↑ The Drink Crave—How To Cure, p. 3.