Governor Rollins Proclaims a Fast Day.
GOVERNOR ROLLINS, of New Hampshire, retains unshaken faith in the virtue of fast-day proclamations and the like issued from the executive mansion at the State Capital, and has issued another proclamation to the people of that State appointing a fast day April 19, the anniversary of the “battle” of Lexington, which is “Patriots’ day” in Massachusetts. He appeals to the people of New Hampshire for such an observance of the day as shall coincide with the practise of the fathers in earlier times. He says:— “When the country was in its infancy and dangers surrounded it on every hand, our ancestors felt the need of a protecting and guiding power, and sought it prayerfully, leaving us this annual rite as a sacred inheritance. Now that we have attained a strong and lusty manhood, now that we are a vigorous, wealthy people, having safely passed the perils of our youth, we are apt to forget the strong arm upon which our forefathers leaned. Instead of abolishing fast day as a worn out and useless custom, I would call our people to a renewed observance and a better appreciation of the real significance of the day. I would ask that large body of men who seldom, if ever, cross the threshold of a church, to kneel once more where they knelt as children, and see if the church has not some message for them. I believe that a single honest attempt to cast off the blinding and depressing influences of doubt and materialism and to look at life once more through the clear, earnest eyes of youth and in the light of the faith of our fathers, would bring a solace and satisfaction ‘like the benediction that follows after prayer.’” The trouble is that the people of to-day do not have the religious spirit that was characteristic of the fathers, and this cannot be put into them by a governor’s proclamation. If the success of fast days in the olden time had depended upon official proclamations, they would have been as much a failure and a farce then as they are to-day. The fathers came together in the observance of fast-day not because the governor had exhorted them to do so, but because the spirit of the observance was alive in their own hearts. To-day that spirit is dead; and only the letter of the institution remains, and that a dead letter, necessarily. The governor’s proclamation may have some effect, but it cannot put life into what is dead. Of course, such a proclamation is altogether outside the province of the governor’s office. His office is purely political, and as a governor, he is authorized to issue only political proclamations. Hence his fast-day and other religious proclamations, while evincing a praiseworthy interest in the religious welfare of the people, are devoid of any legal force; and being able to borrow no force from religious fervor in the minds of the people, become a farce in every sense of the word. Under such circumstances there is no reason why they should be issued at all.