THESE THINGS SHOULD HAVE NO PLACE IN A FREE REPUBLIC.
Connecticut governors still appoint Good Friday as a day of fasting and prayer. The following is Governor Chamberlain’s proclamation for this present year:— State of Connecticut—By his Excellency, Abiram Chamberlain, Governor—A Proclamation. In harmony with established custom, I hereby appoint Friday, the 10th day of April next, as a day of fasting, penitence, and prayer. And I further request that all the people of this commonwealth, in their homes and various places of worship, do confess their faults, and entreat the forgiveness and favor of Almighty God, who promises in His Holy Word that the nations who observe these duties “shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.” Given under my hand and the seal of the State, this 24th day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and three, and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-seventh. Abiram Chamberlain. Now it is perfectly proper, if the governor so desires, to fast, and pray, and do penance on Good Friday; if he so chooses, he may seek to induce others so to do; but he has no right to use his office for the official appointment of a purely ecclesiastical institution. It is a mixture of poor Statecraft and bad theology. God deals with men as individuals, and the fasting must be voluntary. As Saxe well sang:— “’Tis not the stubborn fasts nor stated prayers
That make us saints;
We judge the tree by what it bears.”