THE 

DAY OF NATIONAL PRAYER AND FASTING, 

SEPT. 26, 1861, APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE 
RECOMMENDATION OF BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS 

FROM A SERMON OF THE REV. DR. E. L. CLEAVELAND, 
NEW HAVEN, SEPT. 1, 1861. 



" This kind goeth not out but by prater and fasting," said 
our Lord on a trying occasion ; and the words are applicable 
to the church in all periods of time. Religious fasting is a 
natural method by which the soul expresses its grief for sin. 
Even the heathen Ninevites, when deprecating the judgments 
of God, kept a rigorous fast. On the murder of Abner, David 
said, " God do so to me and more also if I taste bread, or aught 
else, till the sun be down ;" and again it is recorded, he " hum- 
bled his soul with fasting." Daniel "set his face to seek the 
Lord by prayer and supplication with fasting." Nehemiah 
" mourned certain days and fasted." Anna " served God with 
fastings and prayers." " Four days ago I was fasting until this 
hour," said Cornelius ; when God declared to him, " Thy prayer 
is heard." Paul and his brethren " approved themselves as 
ministers of God, in labors, in watchings, in fastings ;" and our 
Lord, in preparation for his ministry, fasted forty days. 

As our Chief Magistrate has appointed a day for national 
fasting and prayer in behalf of our country in its present sore 
trial, the occasion seems a favorable one for considering the 
PROPER manner of keeping a public fast. 

1. The entire day should be given up to the duty. It is a 
day of humiliation and prayer, and not merely the hour spent 
in the sanctuary. To meet the occasion and avert the threat- 
ening danger, we need a greatly deepened sense of oiur own 
exceeding sinfulness ; we need to be filled with the spirit of 
prayer and th« power of faith ; and need the entire day de- 
voted to self-inspection and abasement, to repentance and 
supplication. It will greatly promote this frame of mind, if 
the cares and engrossments of business be laid aside, and we 
are permitted to feel that we have nothing to do on that day 
but to fast and pray, and prostrate ourselves before God. 

2. To keep a public fast acceptably, we must not neglect 
assembling ourselves together for humiliation and worship. A 
pubUc fast must have public meetings and services. God can 
indeed see and hear in secret ; but in this, as in other duties 



2 THE NATIONAL FAST. 

of religion, he appeals to the social principle of our nature. 
Thus he summoned his ancient people : " Sanctify ye a fast, 
call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhab- 
itants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry 
unto the Lord." God would have us mourn by churches, just 
as he would have us rejoice and praise by churches. He calls 
for " all the inhabitants of the land " to assemble for prayer ; 
the old and the young, even little children, are to be gathered 
in the sanctuary. Surely, if any one class has more to gain or 
to lose by the present conflict than another, it is the rising 
generation. To them belongs that great future which, if we 
succeed, is to open in unprecedented blessings on this western 
continent ; or that night of ages which, if we fail, is to settle 
down on this fair hemisphere. Wliether their day of life is to 
be passed under the bright sky of that glorious nationality 
which protects all its subjects and all their interests from foes 
without and ti'aitors within, or under the black banner of an 
intolerable oppression ; whether they are to walk these plains 
and hills with the firm tread of freemen, or with the timid step 
of bondmen ; amid scenes of peace and prosperity, or of war 
and poverty, must depend upon our success at the throne of 
grace. Have not our children, then, a profound interest in this 
coming fast ? Ought they not to assemble with us in the sanc- 
tuary, and take part with us in the humiliation ? We trust 
each house will be filled with a great congregation of the old 
and the young, bound as by one impulse and under a common 
burden, before the footstool of divine mercy. 

3. There must be adiMilfa.sting. It is a mockery of God to 
pretend to observe a fast and yet not abstain from food. If we 
profess to keep the fast, we should do so in good faith; and 
not, by presenting ourselves in one manner in public, and an- 
other in private, provoke, instead of turning away, the right- 
ous displeasure of the Most High. 

4. We must mourn and pray in private as well as in public. 
Our devotion must not be confined to public meetings. Every 
family must mourn apart ; for what have not families to suffer 
if this rebellion triumph? Every individual too must mourn 
in secret; let each one seek out some spot where, unseen, ho 
may pour out his soul before God for himself and his country. 

5. The most essential part of a true fast is the sincere hum- 
bling of ourselves before God for our sins. This embraces our 
sins as individuals, as a church, and as a nation ; it demands 
not only a survey of the present, but a review of the past. 
All our sins of every date and of every kind are known to 



THE NATIONAL FAST. 3 

God, and have something to do with the calamities we are suf- 
fering. We are suffering to-day for national sins all along the 
path of our history, and it becomes us to bring all these things 
into remembrance before God. Let it be observed too, that 
there can be no genuine humiliation for sin, if we are thinking 
only or mainly of other men's offences : if we devote ourselves 
to the rehearsal and denunciation of crimes not our own, we 
do but reenact the part of the boasting Pharisee, and provoke 
the anger we desire to avert. We are not to exalt, but to 
humble ourselves. Whatever sins we confess, it must be in 
the spirit of self-abasement, not of censoriousness. Let us not 
forget that, despite the pretended secession of states, we are 
still one nation; we acknowledge no dismemberment. We 
appear before God on this fast as one people humbling our- 
selves for all our national sins, whenever or wherever commit- 
ted. One class of offences abound in some parts of the repub- 
lic ; in other jjarts, a different class ; but all of them belong to 
the one nation we call our country. All of them contribute to 
the injury and disgrace of that nation ; and all are to be con- 
fessed and bewailed as a part of our national sin and shame. 
There may be particulars in which it is right for us to defend 
ourselves from the aspersions of men against whom we have 
done no Avrong ; but on this day of fasting we stand before the 
bar of God, in whose sight the heavens are unclean, and how 
much more the humaa heart 1 In his presence our holiest 
things require purifying ; our repentance must be repented of, 
and our very tears of soitow need washing again. The great 
object of this appointment is to propitiate the divine favor ; 
but this is impossible, unless He who looks on the heart sees 
that we are truly and deeply humble in view of our personal 
and national sins. 

Never since oirr fathers fasted and prayed amid their des- 
perate struggle for national independence, have we had so 
much reason to humble ourselves before God as at the present 
moment. When I recall the heaven-provoking sins which, as 
a people, we have been accumulating against ourselves in the 
past years of our existence, when I think of the rapid increase 
of every species of crime in all parts of the land, and when I 
reflect that God is just, and that his justice can be executed 
upon nations only in this world, I confess to a fearful misgiv- 
ing as to the scenes about to open upon us. Whether this be 
not the beginning of a judgment which shall consume the land 
until the people shall know and acknowledge that there is a 
God in heaven who ruleth in the earth, and who will be had in 



4 THE NATIONAL FAST. 

reverence of all his creatures, is a question which only He can 
determine. That the cause for which we are contending is a 
just one, I have not a doubt. I can and do pray for it with a 
full and unwavering heart. I believe it to be the cause of good 
government, humanity, and religion. Even should our enemies 
triumph over us, it would be no proof that they are right and 
we are wrong on the questions now at issue. So triumphed 
Egypt over Israel, Nebuchadnezzar over Jj^ah, Papists over 
Huguenots, Russia over Poland, Austria over Hungary, but not 
because the right was wholly with the victors, and all the 
wrong with the vanquished. God has wise ends in permitting 
these tilings. And how do wc know that our impenitence 
and unbelief are not imposing upon him the necessity of hum- 
bling and distressing us still more? It is in vain to talk of our 
twenty millions, of our vast resources of money and means, of 
our indomitable energy and invincible prowess. The panic of 
one sad day should teach us how our pride and power may be 
humbled. Panics are as truly God's instruments in frusti-ating 
the purposes of man as pestilences, and we have no adequate 
defence against them, except in the protection of his shield. 
Let us not then put our trust in armies, or in generals, but 
appeal rather to Him who holds these mighty agents of destruc- 
tion in the hollow of his hand. His favor is absolutely es- 
SE.vTiAL TO OUR SUCCESS. If WC think to crush this rebellion 
without his aid, we shall find ourselves wofuUy mistaken. 
Anil if we think to secure that aid without humiliation and 
prayer, we shall probably discover the error too late to escape 
its ruinous consequences. With what unanimity then, vrith what 
earnestness and solemnity, with what humility and godly sorrow, 
with what fervent and believing supplication ought we to keep the 
appointed fast. May it be kept as never fast was kept hero 
before. May the sun of that day look down upon the entire 
people mourning, weeping, and confessing their sins, and pour- 
ing out their hearts in prayer to God in behalf of their country- 
Then will our offerings go up as sweet incense, and he will 
remember us, and his ancient mercy to our fathers, and turn 
again and save us. 

*i* Copies of the above may be had of the American Tract Society, 
1.50 Nassau-street, New York. The Society also publish The Soldier's 
Camp Library, Soldier's Tockot Library, Cromwell's Soldier's Bible, 
and Tracts for Soldiers m English, Gorman, and other languages. 



7/ . AiaCJj, (fii^ , ^SVjTo 



