“And whereas it is the duty of nations as well of men to own their dependence upon overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;
And insomuch as we know that by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now dissolutes the land, may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation of a whole people. We've been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We've been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown, but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious land which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request and fully concurring in the views of the senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer.”
Amen, and amen!
Please Join Us!
September 15, 2024 (Article V Day) from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm eastern time for a time of fasting, prayer, and contrition as we seek Divine aid to our labors to preserve the liberty which God has given us.
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