Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. There is some uncertainty about the word fasting." The Revised Version omits the verse altogether. It is found, however, in Mark's Gospel, and introduces a valuable topic, which finds other expression in our Lord's teaching. A man can only be ready for a time of strain by constant and careful training. A man, to be always ready, must be always disciplining himself. And if his work is to take specially serious forms, his trainings and preparations must be specially adapted. Carefully distinguish between the moral character of self-discipline, which aims at gaining acceptance, and of self-discipline, which aims at faithfulness, and power to serve.

I. SELF-DISCIPLINE, ITS CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES. Character is the product of self-discipline. Our natural dispositions are not our character; it needs to be more clearly seen that character is something that a man wins by effort, or fails to win by wilfully making no effort. The measure of a man's self-discipline is the measure of his nobility; it is the sign of his manhood. This is true in the lower sphere, but it is much more true in the higher sphere. Self-discipline provides an infallible test of the Christian man, whose moderation, whose self-restraint, should be known in all things. The terms, "prayer," "fasting," classify the characteristic features of Christian self-discipline.

1. Prayer heads and represents all the positive forms.

2. Fasting heads and represents all the negative forms. Self-discipline is often misconceived, because it is represented only by fasting. It is thought of as only self-restraints, personal deprivations, bodily austerities, stern dealings even with our pleasant things. Fasting represents bodily subduings and humiliations. The Christian self-discipline is more vigorous on the positive side. Prayer represents putting life into good shape; ordering our habits; making and using all pious opportunities; laying hold of the strength of God. There is so much to do as well as so much to undo.

II. SELF-DISCIPLINE, ITS CHARACTERISTIC EFFECTS. The weak man is the undisciplined man, who is mastered by himself. A man gains moral power as he gains control over himself. A man never finds a harder foe to conquer, when he has mastered his own habits and passions. And our Lord here shows that no man can possibly have power to influence others unto noble attainments until he has won power over himself. The parent does no good with his children while he keeps his own character undisciplined. - R.T.

I. THIS DUTY OF FASTING ADMITS OF SEVERAL KINDS AND DEGREES. For in fasting as well as in feasting we may find variety.

1. The first kind is of constant, universal exercise. It obliges at all times and extends to all persons. This is a temperate use of the creature; in abridging the appetites of nature for the designs of religion.

2. The second kind of fast is of a total abstinence, when for some time we wholly abstain from bodily repasts. The remedy to be successful must bear some proportion to the distemper. Necessity gives place to extremity.

3. The third kind of fast is an abstinence from bodily refreshments in respect of a certain degree, for some space of time. We must distinguish between murder and mortification; Christ never destroys the body to save the soul. Self-denial is a duty, but not self-murder. The height of prudence is in all precepts, laws, and institutions to distinguish persons, times, and occasions, and accordingly to discriminate the obligation.

II. THE QUALIFICATIONS THAT MUST RENDER THIS DUTY OF FASTING BOTH ACCEPTABLE TO GOD, AND EFFICACIOUS TO THIS GREAT PURPOSE.

1. The first is, that it is to be used, not as a duty either necessary or valuable for itself, but only as an instrument. There is no excelling in fasting itself; is any spiritual design carried on in it?

2. The second condition of a religious fast is, that it be done with a hearty detestation of the body of sin, for the weakening of which it is designed. Fasting means war against sin; who ever fought valiantly against him whom he did not first hate?

3. The third condition of a duly qualified fast is that it be quickened and enlivened with prayer. The reason of the fast requires the society of prayer for the procuring of good or deprecation of evil. David, Daniel, took this course.

4. The fourth condition of a truly religious fast is that it be attended with alms and works of charity (Isaiah 58:4, 7).

III. SHOW HOW THIS DUTY OF FASTING COMES TO HAVE SUCH A PECULIAR INFLUENCE IN DISPOSSESSING THE EVIL SPIRIT, AND SUBDUING OUR CORRUPTIONS. That it does not effect this work —

1. Either by any casual force naturally inherent in itself, for if it did, fasting would constantly and certainly have this effect upon all who used it.

2. Nor does fasting effect this great change by way of merit, as procuring and enjoying the help of that grace that does effect it, it is impossible for a created nature to merit anything from God by way of reward.From whence then does this duty derive this great virtue?

1. It receives it from Divine institution.

2. Fasting comes to be effectual to dispossess the evil spirit, by being a direct defiance to that disposition of body and mind upon which especially he works.

1. It is a notable act of self-revenge.

2. It corrects the ill temper of pride.

(R. South, D. D.)

And whosoever struggles with any unruly corruption, will perhaps find, that the constant turn of a well-guided abstinence will, in the issue, give a surer despatch to it, than those extraordinary instances of total abstinence and higher severities, only undertaken for a time. As a land flood, it carries a bigger stream and comes with a mightier force and noise, yet presently dries up and disappears; but the emissions of a fountain, though gentle and silent, yet are constant and perpetual; and whereas the other, being gone, leaves nothing behind it but slime and mud, this, wheresoever it flows, gently soaks into verdure and fertility. This constant temperance, therefore, is by all means intended by the rules of Christianity; the constancy of which, running through our whole lives, makes abstinence our diet, and fasting our meat and drink.

(R. South, D. D.)

Every remedy is successful according to the proportion it bears to the distemper: and certainly a cure is not likely to be wrought where an ordinary remedy encounters an extraordinary disease; where the plaster is narrow and the wound broad. Temperance is good, but that is to be our continual diet; and surely, that man is not like to recover who makes his food his physic. Where the humour is strong and predominant, there the prescription must be rugged, and the evacuation violent. We must leave the road of nature when nature itself is disordered, and the principles of life in danger.

(R. South, D. D.)

And the physician is merciful, if he pines his patient into a recovery. In this case we encounter sin in the body, like a besieged enemy: and such a one, when he has once engarrisoned himself in a strong hold, will endure a storm and repel assaults: you must cut off his supplies of provision, and never think to win the fort, till hunger breaks through the walls, and starves him into a surrender.

(R. South, D. D.)

Now, by all that has been said it appears, that fasting is required, not as a virtue, but as a help to virtue; and that by controlling its hindrance, removing its impediments, subduing the emulations of a contrary principle, and so enabling it to act with freedom. Otherwise, were there no reluctancy from the inferior appetites against a virtuous and a pious course, these arts and stratagems against the flesh would be superfluous, and we should have no more need of fasting than the angels or the blessed spirits have of eating. Could the mariner sail with as much ease and safety in a storm, as he does in a calm, he would never empty or unlade his vessel.

(R. South, D. D.)

of sin: — If we have not first wrought our minds to a settled dislike and a bitter disgust of sin as our mortal enemy, all our attempts against it will be faint and heartless, our mortifications treacherous, and our lastings frustraneous; much like David's sending an army against Absalom with a design to save him, and to deal with him gently. It will be only an alarm to sin to put itself into a posture of defence, to retreat further into the soul, and. there to rally together its strengths, and to secure itself by a firmer possession.

(R. South, D. D.)

It is not a mournful expression, a solemn dress, or a thin table, that God so much regards. It is the heart, and not the stomach, that He would have empty; and, therefore, if a man carries a luxurious soul in a pining body, or the aspiring mind of a Lucifer in the hanging head of a bulrush, he fasts only to upbraid his Maker, and to disgrace his religion, and to heighten his final reckoning, till he becomes ten times more the son of perdition than those who own their inward love of sin by the open undissembled enmities of a suitable behaviour.

(R. South, D. D.)

Prayer, joined with fasting, is like "an apple of gold set off with a picture of silver." Now we have it at its best advantage; it shines bright, and it flames pure, like fire without the incumbrances of smoke, or the allay of contrary blasts.

(R. South, D. D.)

No doubt the primary meaning of the word translated "fasting," is that abstinence from food which was practised by the saints of the Old Testament, by our Lord Himself, His apostles, and His Church in all times and climes, for the subjection of the flesh to the spirit. But the Church of England, while she commends and commands this Scriptural discipline, makes no severe definitions and lays down no rigid rule, for many and righteous reasons.

I. Because no rules could be applicable to all, the young, the old, the weak, the poor.

II. Because, if it were compulsory, it would become a mere form or evasion; e.g., a fast from flesh meat might be only a feast on other dainties.

III. Because a fast kept ostentatiously in direct disobedience to our Lord's warning that we appear not unto men to fast, would only be a feast of pride — the pride which apes humility.

IV. Because under the gospel, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, we fast by the love of virtue and our own choice, rather than by the coercion of any law.

V. Because the best form of abstinence is to be temperate in all things.

VI. Because bodily fasting is but a part of that self-denial which Christianity teaches, and which has a far more definite and comprehensive scope. True fasting is, to spend less upon ourselves, that we may have more to spend upon others; less upon luxuries and dainties, that others may have common food.

(S. . R. Hole, M. A.)

When the greatest speed of a horse is to be tested, the trainer does not allow him to run at will over in the pasture, nor does he simply put him on a wholesale diet. He almost counts the straws that he gives the horse. He cleans and sifts the oats, and gives him the very best kinds. He measures the horse's exercise, and every part of the horse is under the trainer's watch and care, that he may be in the finest condition when he puts forth his energy in competition. And shall a man do so much for his horse and nothing for himself? Shall there be no preparation, no discipline, no care as to diet, no training, nothing but going on through the linked year, Sabbath joined to Sabbath, taking things as they come, allowing themselves to move about as the current sweeps them along? Is that the wisest method of spiritual culture?

(H. W. Beecher.)

When the Christian is buffeted with any temptation, or overpowered with a corruption, and cannot by the use of ordinary means quench the one or mortify the other; when the short dagger of ordinary prayer will not reach the heart of a lust, then it is time to draw out the long sword of extraordinary prayer upon it. Some poor souls complain that they have come to the Word in their daily prayers, begged power over such a lust, resolved against it many a time, and none of these means cure it; what can they now do more? Here thou art told: bring thy condition to Christ in this solemn ordinance of prayer and fasting; this hath been the happy means of strengthening many a poor Christian, to be avenged on those spiritual enemies which have outbraved all his former efforts, and, like Samson, to pull down the devil's house upon his head.

(Gurnall.)

If we are not to expect that the devil should go out of a particular person, under a bodily possession, without extraordinary prayer, or "prayer and fasting;" how much less should we expect to have him cast out of the land and the world without it!

(President Edward.)

Elias, Elijah, James, Jesus, John, Peter, SimonCapernaum, Galilee, High MountainDoesn't, Driven, Evil, Except, Fasting, Forth, Howbeit, However, Kind, Prayer, Save, Spirit1. The transfiguration of Jesus.
14. He heals the boy with a demon,
22. foretells his own passion,
24. and pays tribute.

Matthew 17:21

     8620   prayer, practicalities

January 18. "That Take and Give for Me and Thee" (Matt. xvii. 27).
"That take and give for Me and thee" (Matt. xvii. 27). There is a beautiful touch of loving thoughtfulness in the account of Christ's miracle at Capernaum in providing the tribute money. After the reference to Peter's interview with the tax collector, it is added, "When he came into the house Jesus prevented him," that is, anticipated him, as the old Saxon word means, by arranging for the need before Peter needed to speak about it at all, and He sent Peter down to the sea to find the piece of gold …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The King in his Beauty
'And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 2. And was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light. 3. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him. 4. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus. Lord, it is good for us to be here: if Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 5. While he …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Secret of Power
'Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? 20. And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief.'--MATT. xvii. 19, 20. 'And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out.' That same power was bestowed, too, on the wider circle of the seventy who returned again with joy, saying, 'Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name.' The ground of it was laid in the solemn words with which …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Coin in the Fish's Mouth
'And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest them, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? 26. Peter saith unto Him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.'--MATT. xvii. 25, 26. All our Lord's miracles are 'signs' as well as 'wonders.' They have a meaning. They not only authenticate His teaching, but they are themselves no inconsiderable portion of the teaching. They are not …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Again on the Words of the Gospel, Matt. xvii. , Where Jesus Showed Himself on the Mount to his Three Disciples.
1. We heard when the Holy Gospel was being read of the great vision on the mount, in which Jesus showed Himself to the three disciples, Peter, James, and John. "His face did shine as the sun:" this is a figure of the shining of the Gospel. "His raiment was white as the snow:" [2666] this is a figure of the purity of the Church, to which it was said by the Prophet, "Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow." [2667] Elias and Moses were talking with Him; because the grace of the …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

On the Words of the Gospel, Matt. xvii. 1, "After Six Days Jesus Taketh with Him Peter, and James, and John his Brother," Etc.
1. We must now look into and treat of that vision which the Lord showed on the mount. For it is this of which He had said, "Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man in His Kingdom." [2643] Then began the passage which has just been read. "When He had said this, after six days He took three disciples, Peter, and James, and John, and went up into a mountain." [2644] These three were those "some," of whom He had said, "There be some …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

On the Words of the Gospel, Matt. xvii. 19, "Why could not we Cast it Out"? Etc. , and on Prayer.
1. Our Lord Jesus Christ reproved unbelief even in His own disciples, as we heard just now when the Gospel was being read. For when they had said, "Why could not we cast him out?" He answered, "Because of your unbelief." [2669] If the Apostles were unbelievers, who is a believer? What must the lambs do, if the rams totter? Yet the mercy of the Lord did not disdain them in their unbelief; but reproved, nourished, perfected, crowned them. For they themselves, as mindful of their own weakness, said …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

On the Words of the Gospel, Matt. xvii. 21, "How Oft Shall My Brother Sin against Me," Etc.
1. Yesterday the holy Gospel warned us not to neglect the sins of our brethren: "But if thy brother shall sin against thee, rebuke him between him and thee alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he shall refuse to hear thee, take with thee two or three more; that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them too, tell it to the Church. But if he shall neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

A Desperate Case --How to Meet It
How great the difference between Moses and Christ! When Moses had been forty days upon the mountain-top, he underwent a kind of transfiguration, so that his face shone with exceeding brightness when he came down among the people, and he was obliged to put a veil over his face; for they could not bear to look upon his glory. Not so our Saviour! He had been really transfigured with a greater glory than Moses could ever know, and yet, as he came down from the mount, whatever radiance shone upon his …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 10: 1864

Jesus Only
This morning, in trying to dwell upon the simple sight of "Jesus only," we shall hold it up as beyond measure important and delightful, and shall bear our witness that as it was said of Goliath's sword, "there is none like it," so may it be said of fellowship with "Jesus only." We shall first notice what might have happened to the disciples after the transfiguration; we shall then dwell on what did happen; and then, thirdly, we shall speak on what we anxiously desire may happen to those who hear …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 16: 1870

The Transfiguration
(Preached before the Queen.) Matthew xvii. 2 and 9. And he was transfigured before them. . . . And he charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. Any one who will consider the gospels, will see that there is a peculiar calm, a soberness and modesty about them, very different from what we should have expected to find in them. Speaking, as they do, of the grandest person who ever trod this earth, of the grandest events which ever happened upon …
Charles Kingsley—Town and Country Sermons

1 to Pray is as it were to be on Speaking Terms with Me...
1. To pray is as it were to be on speaking terms with Me, and so by being in communion with and abiding in Me to become like Me. There is a kind of insect which feeds upon and lives among grass and green leaves and becomes like them in colour. Also the polar bear dwelling among the white snows has the same snowy whiteness, and the tiger of Bengal bears upon its skin the marks of the reeds among which it lives. So those, who by means of prayer abide in communion with Me partake, with the saints and …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet

Return to Galilee. The Passion Foretold.
^A Matt. XVII. 22, 23; ^B Mark IX. 30-32; ^C Luke IX. 43-45. ^b 30 And they went forth from thence [from the region of Cæsarea Philippi], and passed through Galilee [on his way to Capernaum]; and he would not that any man should know it. [He was still seeking that retirement which began on the journey to Tyre. See page 399. This is the last definite mention of that retirement, but we find it referred to again at John vii. 3, 4. See page 439.] 31 For he taught his disciples [the reason for his …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Jesus Pays the Tribute Money.
(Capernaum, Autumn, a.d. 29) ^A Matt. XVII. 24-27. ^a 24 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received the half-shekel came to Peter, and said, Doth not your teacher pay the half-shekel? [The law of Moses required from every male of twenty years and upward the payment of a tax of half a shekel for the support of the temple (Ex. xxx. 12-16; II. Chron. xxiv. 5, 6). This tax was collected annually. We are told that a dispute existed between the Pharisees and Sadducees as to whether the payment …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Transfiguration.
THE great confession of Peter, as the representative Apostle, had laid the foundations of the Church as such. In contradistinction to the varying opinions of even those best disposed towards Christ, it openly declared that Jesus was the Very Christ of God, the fulfilment of all Old Testament prophecy, the heir of Old Testament promise, the realisation of the Old Testament hope for Israel, and, in Israel, for all mankind. Without this confession, Christians might have been a Jewish sect, a religious …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Last Events in Galilee - the Tribute-Money, the Dispute by the Way, the Forbidding of Him who could not Follow with the Disciples, and The
Now that the Lord's retreat in the utmost borders of the land, at Cæsarea Philippi, was known to the Scribes, and that He was again surrounded and followed by the multitude, there could be no further object in His retirement. Indeed, the time was coming that He should meet that for which He had been, and was still, preparing the minds of His disciples - His Decease at Jerusalem. Accordingly, we find Him once more with His disciples in Galilee - not to abide there, [3743] nor to traverse it …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

On the Morrow of the Transfiguration
IT was the early dawn of another summer's day when the Master and His disciples turned their steps once more towards the plain. They had seen His Glory; they had had the most solemn witness which, as Jews, the could have; and they had gained a new knowledge of the Old Testament. It all bore reference to the Christ, and it spake of His Decease. Perhaps on that morning better than in the previous night did they realise the vision, and feel its calm happiness. It was to their souls like the morning-air …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

William Ellery Channing.
We are far from placing Dr. Channing, the great leader of American Unitarianism, and one of the brightest ornaments of American literature (born 1780, at Newport, Rhode Island; died 1842, at Bennington, Vermont), in the company of unbelievers. Although heretical on the fundamental articles of the Holy Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, and the Atonement, he was, in his way, a worshiper of Jesus, and exhibited the power of his holy example in his lovely character and written works. He was deeply penetrated …
Philip Schaff—The Person of Christ

Thirteenth Lesson. Prayer and Fasting;'
Prayer and fasting;' Or, The Cure of Unbelief. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible to you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting'--Matt. xvii. 19-21. WHEN the disciples saw Jesus cast the evil spirit out of the epileptic whom they could not cure,' they asked the Master for the …
Andrew Murray—With Christ in the School of Prayer

Instructions for those who have Attained to the Prayer of Quiet. Many Advance So Far, but Few Go Farther.
1. Let us now go back to the subject. This quiet and recollection of the soul makes itself in great measure felt in the satisfaction and peace, attended with very great joy and repose of the faculties, and most sweet delight, wherein the soul is established. [1] It thinks, because it has not gone beyond it, that there is nothing further to wish for, but that its abode might be there, and it would willingly say so with St. Peter. [2] It dares not move nor stir, because it thinks that this blessing …
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

A Homily Delivered on the Saturday Before the Second Sunday in Lent --On the Transfiguration, S. Matt. xvii. 13-Jan
A Homily delivered on the Saturday before the Second Sunday in Lent--on the Transfiguration, S. Matt. xvii. 1-13 I. Peter's confession shown to lead up to the Transfiguration. The Gospel lesson, dearly-beloved, which has reached the inner hearing of our minds through our bodily ears, calls us to the understanding of a great mystery, to which we shall by the help of God's grace the better attain, if we turn our attention to what is narrated just before. The Saviour of mankind, Jesus Christ, in founding …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Text: Romans 13, 8-10. 8 Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; love therefore is the fulfilment of the law. CHRISTIAN LOVE AND THE COMMAND TO LOVE. 1. This, like the two …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Letter Lvii to the Duke and Duchess of Lorraine
To the Duke and Duchess of Lorraine [87] He thanks them for having hitherto remitted customs [or tolls, but asks that they will see that their princely liberality is not interfered with by the efforts of their servants. To the Duke and Duchess of Lorraine, Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, sends greeting, and prays that they may so lovingly and purely rejoice in each other's affection that the love of Christ alone maybe supreme in them both. Ever since the needs of our Order obliged me to send for necessaries …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

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