“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. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

“All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest, humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine Teachings that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our National Sins and the Restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy conditions of unity and peace.

“In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

“Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

NOTE how wonderfully applicable and how sorely needed is this prayer today.

Abraham Lincoln knew that American civilization was builded up on the word of God. The Day of Prayer which he called in the above document represents the true historic spirit which must be again established in Washington if our beloved Nation is to survive the attacks to which it is now being subjected.

Would that we be given such a President and Leader in the grave times ahead, who is big and wise and spiritual enough to call the people of this country to unite in such a Day of Prayer. For did not the Lord God promise:

“If My people which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.—II Chron. 7:14.

AMERICA, GET BACK TO GOD!