Samuel Miller (1769-1850) was one of the three first Presbyterian professors at Princeton (alongside Archibald Alexander and Charles Hodge), which was originally founded as a seminary for training pastors. He was a man of letters and learning who wrote on a wide variety of subjects. His sermon on fasting, The Duty, the Benefits, and the Proper Methods of Religious Fasting (1831) is exceedingly helpful, and as we are in our Spring week of prayer and fasting, I want to outline the sermon for you.

His sermon text was Daniel 9:3, which says, “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.” Although he mentions several contextual details about Daniel in the introduction, the sermon is, for the most part, topical upon the subject of fasting.

He first lays out the duty of fasting under three headings.

1. The Light of Nature teaches the duty. And here he points to the fact that many pagans practice fasting as a means of consecreation or propitiation. Of course, he also writes that our our practices as Christians are different and inward, not merely outward.
2. The Examples in Scripture. He mentions David, Nehemiah, and Ninevah among other examples, and notes that fasting along with prayer so very often secured the favour and answer of God.
3. The Precepts and Intimations of Scripture. Although Miller admits that there is no specific requirement of time or place or even means enjoined in Scripture, yet there are many general commands or inferences concerning fasting, including Joel 1:14, Mat 6:16-18, Mat 17:21), and a passage that has often provoked me, Matthew 9:15, “They days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Secondly, Miller lists five benefits of fasting:

1. it expresses penitence for sin.
2. It brings the body into subjection.
3. It renders the mind active and clear.
4. It ministers health to the body.
5. It is useful for acts of charity.

In the third section of the sermon, the proper method of fasting is given. And here Miller helpfully instructs his listers to fast for the right reasons while maintaining freedom in the precise application of the discipline.

1. The heart must be sincerely engaged.
2. It must be an abstinence from food, not just a “spiritual” fast.
3. It should be accompanied by retirement from the world or normal activities.
4. “Humiliation” for our sins should be sought–what he calls a “deep and heartfelt recollection of our sins.”
5. It is to be followed by genuine reformation.
6. Self-righteousness should be put far away.
7. Accompanied by benevolence to the poor.

Miller finishes with several practical reelections, noting among other things, that “the great duty of religious fasting is by far too much neglected” and that the sins of his age (how much more our own!) call for no less fasting then practiced by holy men in former days.

The sermon, which I highly recommend to be read in full, is available at: https://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualnls/Fastings.htm