In Scotland there is generally a yearly fast "ap- pointed b}' the kirk-session of the Established Church of the parish, or by concurrence of kirk-sessions in towns, but generallj' by use and wont fixed as to their date. The fast-day is always some day of the week preceding the Communion Sunday, or Sundaj- set apart in the Presbyterian churches for the Lord's Supper. It is usually appointed as a day for 'fasting, humilia- tion, and prayer.' Business is generally suspended, shops shut as on a Sunday, and churches opened for public worship. By an act of Parliament passed not many years since, factories are prohibited from carry- ing on work on the parish fast-day ; but, in conse- quence of the ecclesiastical divisions in Scotland, it has become more common than it once was for agri- cultural and other kinds of work to be carried on" (Chambers, Encyclopcedia, s. v.).
America. — The New England Puritans rejected the ancient ecclesiastical fast-days. The Pilgrim fathers observed " seasons of fasting and praj'er" before sail- ing from Europe, and after their arrival in America. They admitted the right and duty of the civil rulers to set apart days for fasting and praj'er. This right has been recognised, and tlie duty observed, in most states of the American L'nion. During the Civil War (18G1-5) the President of the LTnited States appointed days of national fasting, which were generally ob- served bv all the churches. The Methodist Episcopal Church enjoins " fasting, or abstinence,'''' upon the peo- ple in the " General Rules" {Discipline, pt. i, ch. i, § 3) ; advises weekl v fasts to her clergj' (pt. ii, ch. ii, § 3); and directs that "a fast he held in every society on the Friday preceding every quarterly meeting"' (pt. ii, ch. ii, § 17). The Presbyterian Church adopts the doctrine of tlie Westminster Confession on fasting (see above) ; makes " public solemn fasting" one of the ordinances established by Christ in the Church {Form of Government, ch. vii); ordains a fast-daj' in the con- gregation lefore an ordination (ch. xv), and declares that while "there is no day under the Gospel com- manded to l)e kept holv except the Lord's day, which is the Christian Sabbath, nevertheless, to obserre days of fasting and thanksgiving, as the extraordinary dispensations of divine Providence may direct, we judge both scriptural and rational. Fasts and thanks- givinij;s yi\a\ be observed b}' individual Christians or families in private; by particular congregations; by a number of congregations contiguous to each other ; by the congregations under the care of a presbytery or of a S3'nod ; or by all the congi-egations of our Church. It must be left to the judgment and discre- tion of ever}' Christian and ftimily to determine when it is proper to observe a private fast or th:inksgiving, and to the church-sessions to determine for particular congregations, and to the presbyteries or synods to de- termine for larger districts. When it is deemed ex-
FAT
494
FATALISM
pedient that a fast or thanksgiving should be general, the cull Cor them must he judged of hj' the Synod or (General Assembly. And if at any time the civil pow- er should think it proper to ajipoint a fast or thanks- giving, it is the duty of the ministers and people of our communion, as we live under a Cliristian govern- ment, to pay all due respect to the same" {Directory for Worship^ ch. xiv).
Besides the writers heretofore quoted, consult Tillot- son, Sermons (serm. 39) ; Bingham, Orig. Eccl. hk. xxi, chap, i-iii; Coleman, Ancient Christianiiy, p. 552 sq. ; Bishop Morris, in Meth. Quart. Review, lt?49, 205 sq. ; Augusti, Denkwiirdigkeiten, x, 311 sq. ; Suicer, Thesau- rus, s. V. vi](7Tiia ; Ducange, Glossarium, s. v. Jejunium ; Ferraris, Promta Bibliotheca, iv, 807 sq. (ed. Migne) ; Wesley, Sermons, i, 245.
Pat for receiving wine ; an old orthographj' for Vat (q. v.).
Fat (prop. :ibn, che'leV). [For the use of the word as a verb, see Fatted Fowl.] The Hebrews distin- guished between the suet, or pure fat of an animal C2-t1), and the fat which was intermixed with the lean (a°'i'5"d'a, oily pieces, Neh. viii, 10). Certain restric- tions were imposed upon them in reference to the for- mer: some parts of the suet, viz. about the stomach, the entrails, the kidneys, and the tail of a sheep, which grows to an excessive size in many Eastern countries, and is a special delicacy, were forbidden to be eaten in the case of animals offered to Jehovah in sacrifice (Lev. iii, 3, 9, 17 ; vii, 3, 23). The ground of the pro- hibition was that the fat was the richest part of the animal, and therefore belonged to him (iii, Ki). It has been supposed that other reasons were superadded, as that the us? of fat was unwholesome in the hot cli- mate of Palestine (Maimonides, More Nehochivi, pt. iii, ch. xlviii). There appears, however, to be no ground for such an assumption (Bahr, Symbol, ii, 382). The presentation of the fat as the richest part of the animf.l was agreeable to the dictates of natural feeling, and to the analogy in dedicating the first-born and first-fniits to God. this was also the ordinary practice even of heathen nations, as instanced in the Homeric descrip- tions of sacrifices {II. i, 4G0; ii, 423; Od. iii, 457), and in the customs of the Egyptians (Herod, ii, 47), and Fersians (Strabo, xv, 732). Accordingly, Abel, who brought the first animal sacrifice, not only presented to the Lord "the firstlings of his flock," but "-the fat thereof," which, by virtue of its being the best part, was as much the firstling of the animal itself as the animal was the firstling of the flock (Gen. iv, 4) ; or if the word here means the fattest of his flock, the .same idea is essentiallj' implied. Indeed, the term cheleb is itself significant of the feeling on which the regulation was based, for it sometimes describes the lest of any jiroduction (Gen. xlv, 18 ; Numb, xviii, 32; Psa. Ixxxi, IG ; cxlvii, 14; compare 2 Sam. i, 22 ; Judg. iii, 29 ; Isa. x, IG). With regard to the other parts of the fat of sacrifices or the fat of oth- er animals, it might be consumed, with the excep- tion of those dying either by a violent or a natural death (Lev. vii. 24), which miirht still be used in any other way. Tlie burning of the fat of sacrifices was particularly specified in each kind of offering, whether a peace offering (Lev. iii, 9), consecration offering (viii, 25), sin offering (iv, 8), trespass offering (vii, 3), or re- demption offering (Numb, xviii, 17). The Hebrews fully appreciated the luxuiy of well-fatted meat, and had their stall-fed oxen and calves (1 Kings iv, 23 ; Jer. xlvi, 21 ; Luke xv, 23). This was, however, not a usual jiractice; and even at this day in the East, do- mestic cattle seldom undergo an^- preparatoiy feeding or fattening before being killed. Hence there is little fat in the carcase except th:ij; liclongiug to the parts speoitied in the ))rohibition, which is all more or less of the nature of suet. Sec Food.