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VERMONT.

Middlebury, E. Brewster.

Rutland, Charles Walker.
Sharon, Chester Baxter.

Bennington, Stephen Hinsdale.

Brattleboro', Ilolbrook & Fessenden.
Burlington, C. Goodrich.
Castleton, N. Higley.
Norwich, C. Partridge.

MASSACHUSETTS.

Boston, A. Russel, 25 Cornhill.
Salem, Whipple & Lawrence.
Newburyport, Charles Whipple..
Springfield, Solomon Warriner.
Northampton, Simeon Butler & Son.
Amherst, J. 8. & C. Adams.
Greenfield, A. Phelps.
Pittsfield, Joshua Danforth.
ua Plymouth, Ezra Collier.
Andover, Jason Chapin.
Wrentham, Robert Blake.
Worcester, Janies Wilson.
Berkley, Asahel Hathaway.
Stockbridge, Oliver Partridge.

CONNECTICUT.
New-Haven, Nathan Whiting.
Hartford, Goodwin & Co.
Middletown, E. G. Southmayd.
Norwich City, Wm. Palmer.
Woodstock, George Bowen.
New London, E. Chesebrough.
Norwich, John Hyde.
Stonington, Giles R. Hallam
Greenwich, Esbon Husted.
Lyme, O. J. Lay.

RHODE-ISLAND.
East Greenwich, John Brown.
Providence, Alexander Jones.
NEW-YORK.
Albany, George J. Loomis.
Kinderhook, Henry L. Van Dyck.
Onondaga C. H. Hezekiali Strong.
Auburn Seminary, Isaac Bliss.
Utica, Charles Hastings.
Mount Pleasant, J. Dickerson.
East Ridge, William Stone.
Newburgh, J. B. Benjamin.
Rochester, Louis Chapin.
De Ruyter, Sylvester Aylesworth.
Geneva, James Bogert.
Lansingburgh, Elias Parmalo
Catskill, Joseph Penfield.
Union Collere, A. P. Cumming
Venice, Sherman Beardsley.
Youngstown, A. G. Hinman
Troy, William Pierce.
Syracuse, Pliny Dickinson.
Poughkeepsie, Sabin Lewis.
Sag Harbour, Henry T. Dering
Buffalo Aptverter Eaton.

Richmond, Collins & Co.
Petersburg, A. G. McIlvaine.
Norfolk, Shepard K. Kollock.
Romuey, John Jack.

Roanoke Bridge, J. W. Douglass.
Powhatan C. H. Thon.as Scott.
Lynchburg, Willian Poe.
Charlotte C. H. John Morton.
Winchester, Samuel H. Davis.
Prince Edward C. H., A. P. Calhoun.
Otter Bridge, W. L. Bell.
Rappahannock Acad, B. Anderson.
Fredericksburg, Layton Y. Atkina
Lexington, John G. Caruthers.

NORTH CAROLINA.
Newbern, Thomas Watson.
Wilmington, W. D. Cairns.
Lincolnton, David Reinhardt.
Halifax, Sidney Weller.
Milton, Malbon Kenyon.

SOUTH CAROLINA.
Charleston, John Dickson.
Camden, Thomas M'Millan.
Beaufort, David Turner.
Edgefield, A. B. M'Whorter.
Conwayboro', Henry Durant.
Lexington C. II., J. Meetze.
Sumpterville, Charles Chester.
GEORGIA.
Savannah, J. C. A. Johnston.
Augusta, Andrew J. Miller.
Riceborough, David Ste'son.
Wrightsborough, Joseph Barnes.
Hilsboro, Oliver Moreo.
Mount Zion, Joel Kelsey.
Powelton, J. H. Burnet.
Clarkesville, Thomas J. Rusk.
Athens, Leander A. Erwin.
Carmel. Isaac Proctor.
Milleageville, Leonard Perkins.

Montreal, William Hedge.

SOUTH AMERICA. Buenos Ayres, Theoph. Parvia

XCVIII & XCIX.
ON FASTING

Mifs & Riggs

THE AMERICAN

Terms, see 3d page.

NATIONAL PREACHER:

OR ORIGINAL SERMONS FROM LIVING MINISTERS.

MONTHLY.

EDITED BY REV. A DICKINSON, NEW-YORK.

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UPWARD of fifty Clergymen, of five Christian denominations, and belonging to sixteen different States, most of whom are well known to the public as Authors, have furnished, or encouraged the Editor to expect from them, Sermons for this Work; among whom are the following:

Rev. Dr. Richards; Professor in the Theological Seminary at Auburn; Rev. Dr. Proudfit, Salem, and Rev. Mr. Beman, Trcy; Rev. Drs. Mason, Milnor, Mathews, Spring, Woodbridge, and De Witt, New-York City; Rev. Dr. MDowell, Elizabethtown, N. J.; Rev. Drs. Alexander and Miller, Professors in Princeton Theological Seminary; Rev. Professor McClelland, Rutgers College, New-Jersey; Rev. Drs. Green, Skinner, and Bedell, Philadelphia; Rev. Dr. Taylor, Professor in New-Haven Theological Seminary; Rev. Dr. Fitch, Professor of Divinity, Yale College; Rev. Asahel Nettleton, Killingworth, Con.; Rev. Dr. Wayland, President of Brown University; Rt. Rev. Bp. Griswold, Salem, Ms.; Rev. Dr. Griffin, President of Williams College; Rev. Dr. Humphrey, President of Amherst College, Ms.; Rev. Dr. Beecher, Boston; Rev. Professors Porier, Woods, and Stuart, of Andover Theological Seminary; Rev. Dr. Fisk, President of the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Ct.; Rev. Daniel A. Clark, Bennington, Vt.; Rev. Dr. Rates, President of Middlebury College; Rev. Dr. Matthews, Hanover Theological Seminary, Indiana; Rev. Dr. Rice, Union Theo. Sem., Virg. ; Rev. Dr. Tyler and Rev. Dr. Payson, Portland, Me.; Rev. Dr. Lord, President of Dartmouth College; Rev. Dr. Church, Pelham, N. H.; Rev. Dr. Leland, Charleston, S. C.; Rev. Dr. Coffin, President of E. Tennessee College; Rev. Prof. Halsey, Western Theo. Seminary.

COMPLETE SETS.

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"CALL TO PROFESSING CHRISTIANS ON

TEMPERANCE."

Of this Sermon eighteen thousand copies have already been published. It is stereotyped, and such arrangements are made that any quantity will be furnished at $25 a thousand, on application to the Editor, or to A. Russel, 25 Cornhill, Boston, or B. Wells, 17 Franklin-Place, Philadelphia.

Says the N. Y. Evangelist; "It is admirably adapted to tell upon the churches generally, and ought to be universally circulated." Says the Journal of Humanity; "The author's Appeal to American Youth, on the same subject, has had an unprecedented circulation: we commend this pamphlet to equal patronage."

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THE DUTY, THE BENEFITS, AND THE PROPER
METHOD OF RELIGIOUS FASTING.

DANIEL, IX. 3. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting.

He is speaking of

THIS is the language of the prophet Daniel. that which occurred in Babylon, where he and his brethren were in captivity. It was a dark and distressing day. Religion was at a low ebb among the professing people of God. Even their deep adversity had not led them to repentance and reformation. And idolatry, attended with the most deplorable moral corruption, reigned among the heathen around them. Every thing, to the eye of sense, appeared in the highest degree discou raging, not to say desperate. But this holy man trusted in God; and in the exercise of faith, saw, beyond the clouds which encircled him and his people, a ray of light which promised at once deliverance and glory. He perceived nothing, indeed, among the mass of his Jewish brethren which indicated a speedy termination of their captivity; but he "understood by books," that is, he firmly believed, on the ground of a recorded prophecy, delivered by Jeremiah, that the period of their liberation was drawing nigh. In this situation, what does he do? Instead of desponding, he "encourages himself in the Lord his God." And, instead of allowing himself to indulge a spirit of presumption or indolence, on account of the certainty of the approaching deliverance, he considers himself as called to special humiliation, fasting and prayer; to humble himself before God under a sense of the deep unworthiness of himself and his companions in captivity; and to pray with importunity that their unmerited emancipation might be at once hastened and sanctified. Such is the spirit of genuine piety. It neither despairs in adversity, nor is elated with pride at the approach of help. On the contrary, the firmer its confidence in the Divine fidelity, the lower does it lie in humility and penitence, and the more powerfully does it excite to holy action, and to holy desires to be a "worker together with God." It was when this man of God distinctly understood that the desolations of seventy years were coming to an end, that he "set his face to seek unto the Lord God by prayer and supplications with fasting."

The captive Jews in Babylon, as a body, seem to have been in the habit, before this time, of observing certain stated days of fasting and prayer; but they were evidently observed in a formal and heartless manner; and, therefore, instead of proving a blessing, had but increased their guilt. The exercise of the servant of God, to which our text refers, was of a very different character. It was with him a season of special, earnest, elevated devotion; prompted by special feelings; consecrated to a special object; and accompanied by those special circumstances of humility which indicated a soul deeply abased before God, and fervently engaged in pleading for his blessing.

I shall take occasion from the example of Daniel to consider the duty of FASTING, as a suitable and very important accompaniment of special humiliation and prayer. And in pursuance of this design, I shall request your attention to the DUTY, the BENEFITS, and the PROPER METHOD of RELIGIOUS FASTING. After which the way will be prepared for some remarks more immediately practical.

I. The DUTY of religious fasting will claim our attention in the first place.

It is unnecessary to say that fasting is abstinence from food. It is not, however, every kind of abstinence that constitutes a religious fast. Some abstain from their usual aliment because, from indisposition, they loathe it; others, because they cannot obtain it; and a third class, because abstinence is enjoined by medical prescription. But the Christian, as such, refrains from choice, denying his appetite from religious principle, and with a view to spiritual benefit. Now, when it is affirmed that occasional fasting, in this sense, and with this view, is a Christian duty, it is not intended to be maintained that it is one of those stated duties which all are bound to attend upon at certain fixed periods, whatever may be their situation, or the aspect of Providence towards them. There is no precept in the word of God which enjoins the observance of a particular number of fast days in each year. It is to be considered as an occasional, or, perhaps, more properly speaking, a special duty, which, like seasons of special prayer, ought to be regulated, as to its frequency and manner of observance, by the circumstances in which we are placed. But although the times and seasons of religious fasting be left, as they obviously must be, to the judgment and the conscience of each individual, it may be confidently affirmed that it is a DIVINE INSTITUTION; that it is a duty on which ALL CHRISTIANS are BOUND, at PROPER SEASONS, to attend. This, it is believed, may be firmly established by the following considerations.

1. The LIGHT OF NATURE seems to recognise this duty. Abstinence from food, either as an aid or an expression of piety, has been common in all ages, and among all nations. Those who have attended to the various forms of Paganism, know that in all of them fasting has had a place, and in some of them a very prominent place. In entering on important undertakings, and in preparing for sacrifices of more than common solemnity, their fasts were often protracted and rigid to an almost incredible degree. Now, the question is, how came this practice to be so general, nay universal, among those, whether polished or barbarous, who enjoyed no written revelation? Was it a dictate of nature? Then our position is established. If abstinence from food be a natural expression of deep humiliation and mourning, no further argument is necessary to show that it ought to accom

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