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State of Maine.

By Albion K. Parris,

Governor of the State of Maine:

A Proclamation

For a Day of

Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer

If we analyze national prosperity and trace to their source the several elements of which it is composed, the result can scarcely fail to be a conviction that they all flow directly or mediately from that Being whom enlightened reason and revelation teach us to recognize as the Giver of every good and perfect gift. For civil and religious liberty, for wisdom to guide our National Councils, for preservation from foreign and domestic enemies, for the enjoyment of health, for the fruits of the earth, and for success in all our public and private enterprise, we depend entirely on Him alone. Nor is it less evident that He, who bestows these blessings, can, with equal ease, take them away and scourge an offending people with the opposite evils. “He increaseth the nations and destroyeth them, He enlargeth nations and straiteneth them again.” To secure the favour [favor] of this Great Arbiter of the destinies of nations, is, then, the first dictate of true political wisdom, the grand secret of national prosperity. Of the means by which His favour [favor] may be secured, He has not left us uninformed. Among these means, acknowledgments of our dependance [dependence], penetent [penitent] confessions of our offences, and applications for pardon, through the merits of His Son hold a distinguished place. I have, therefore, thought fit to appoint, and with the advice of the Council, do appoint Thursday, the sixth day of April next, to be observed by the inhabitants of this State, as a day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer. And they are requested to assemble, on that day, in their respective places of religious worship, that we may, in a public and united manner, humble ourselves before the Most High, on account of our numerous offences, deprecate the merited expressions of His just displeasure, and, in the name of the “One Mediator between God and man”