Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Published Writings
  3. Periodicals
  4. Journalism
  5. per.00955

A Lesson for Lent

About This Item

  • Title: A Lesson for Lent
  • Date: 1 March 1858
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.00955
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 1 March 1858: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Kaylen Michaelis Francesca Boston Jason Stacy Stephanie Blalock Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "A Lesson for Lent." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 16 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.00955.xml (TEI)
image 1image 2image 3image 4cropped image 1

A LESSON FOR LENT.

We are not of the number of those who altogether disregard times and seasons. In business, we are happy to receive payments whenever tendered; but there are certain periods of the year when we look for special diligence on the part of our delinquent customers. Hence we take pleasure in complying with the request of a clerical friend, that we would call our readers’ attention to a couple of extracts from Scripture, bearing on the duty of fasting, and which are therefore peculiarly appropriate to this season of the year. We have not so low an opinion of our readers as the Western editor had of his, who when requested to supply “more news,” treated his subscribers to a column from the Bible, with the remark that doubtless this would be “news” to them; but, notwithstanding, we believe that there are none whose practice might not be improved by a closer approximation to the following standard:

"Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thous seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors.

"Behold, 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?

"Is not this the fast that I have 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?

"Is it no to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh."

"Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward.

"But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face:

"That thou appear not unto men to fast but unto thy Father, which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly."
Back to top