SEPTEMBER 26, 1861:
At school
in Blue Hill Maine, James Elijah Tinker reflects on President Lincoln’s
proclaimed day of Prayer. His diary reads in part:
"Fast Day 26 Sept. 1861
Fast Day is a
time-honored custom; in truth, it has grown to be an established
institution. It generally comes
regularly, after stated intervals, and has become so customary that the
Governor who should fail to appoint and request the observance of it would be
considered negligent and insensible to his duties.
Perhaps it might be
so. But when it comes, who thinks of
observing the true principles of the day by fasting? We may say in truth there is scarcely any
one. 'Tis true, they may humble
themselves before God in prayer, or chant to Him their songs of praise, and
thus perform the high duties devolving to upon them as Christians and citizens
of an enlightened nation, bu they fail to recognize the day as particularly a
day of fasting and prayer, yes fasting with prayer, and rather make it a day of
thanksgiving and feasting…And when we come out of the trial, may we be cleansed
from that sin of which we have been so long guilty, and which is the loathing
of all civilized and Christianized nations…A nation, looked to by the civilized
world as the embodiment of happiness and prosperity, a government founded on
the principles of justice and freedom - though it proved but partial freedom -
and considered the best on earth; a country which, when other empires had risen
and stood for centuries, and then fallen - when monarchies were crumbling to
dust with rottenness and age - was undiscovered by the eyes, and uncultivated
by the hands of the civilized world; a land of untold wealth and resources,
capable of sustaining a countless multitudes of happy and prosperous people; a
republic based on the will of the people, which in its weakness and infancy had
defied the most powerful nation on the globe, and now, in an almost incredibly
short period of time, having risen to the proud preeminence herself; so
suddenly hurled upon the brink of destruction, and plunged into a frightful
civil war, as revengeful and vindictive as was that of ancient Peloponnesus
(sp). Brother is fighting against
brother, and kindred against kindred - who can behold the spectacle and not
blush with shame that this should have been in the nineteenth century, an age
of the world never before surpassed in intelligence, or by a more enlightened
and Christianized people. But surely Christianity has forsaken them, and even
humanity, who will thus wage a cruel warfare without cause, without reason,
upon a nation which had hitherto enjoyed, they in common with all, that boon of
which we can never be too proud, the blessing of peace. A more wicked, more causeless war, could
scarcely be imagined, and most certainly will the wrath of a just God be
visited upon them, if they do not turn back to their allegiance, and cease
their iniquitous purposes."
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