Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1863-04-10
NATIONAL FAST DAY.

= ST
WHEREAS, Tho Senate Of the United
States devoutly recognizing the Supreme au.
thority and Just government Of Almighty
God in all the affairs Of men and nations,
has bytresolution, requested the Presdent.to
designate and set apart day for national
prayer and humiliation; and, ra u.
WHEREAS. II is the duty Of nations, as
we'll as of men, to own their dependence upon
the over-ru.ing power Of God, to confess
their sins and transgressions, IN humble sor-
row, yet with assured hope that genuine re.
pentance 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 5E
And, insomuch az we know that, by His
divine law, nations, like individuals, are sub
ject to punishment and chastisements in this
world, may we not justly fear that the awfu,
calamity Of civil war, which now desolatcs
the land, may be but punishment inflicted
upon US for our presumptious sins, to the
necdful end Of our national reformation as a
whole people9 We have been the recipiants
Of the choicest bounties lof Heaven. We
have been preserved, these many years, in
peace and prosperity. We have grown in
numbers, wealth and power, as no other ma
ton has grown. But VIC have forgotten
God. We have forgotten the gracious hand
which preserved us in peace, and multiplied
and enriched, and strengthened us and We
nave vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness ol
our hearts, that all these blessings were pro
duced by some superior wisdom and virtue
Of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken sue
\ yy,s,vN -
feel the necessity Of redeeming and pre-
serving grace, too proud to pray to the Got
that made us g... g..
1t behooves us, then, to humble oursclvc!
before the offended Power, to confess ou,
national sins and to pray for cemency anc
forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the re
quest, and fully concurring in the views o
the Senate, do, by this my proclamation
designate and set apart Thursday, the 30tf
day of April, 1863, as day Of national hu
initiation, fasting and prayer. And | d,
hereby request all the people to abstain or
that day from their ordinary secular pur
SUITS and to unite at their several places o
public worship and their respective homes
in keeping the day holy to the Lord, ant
devoted to tie humble discharge of the re
ligious duties proper to that solemn occa
| sion.
All this being done in sincerity and truth
let us then rest humbly in the hope author
wed by the Divine teachings, that the united
cry ol the nation will be heard on high, ant
answered with blessings, no less than par
don of our national sins, and restoration q
our nov divided and suffering country to II,
form r. condition OF unity and peace.
In witness whereof, | .lavc hereunto sc
my hand aud caused the seal Of the Unitet
States to be affixed
Done at the City Of Washington, thi
thnteth day Of March. in the year Of ou
Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixt.
three, and Of the independence Of the Unite,
States the eighty seventh. .....
| ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
| by the President. ......
MILAN II. SEWARD, Secretary CT State.