Take a moment and pause, try to put yourself in the mindset of an American in 1863. It is the middle a grueling civil war, a civil war fought between brother and neighbor. A split of adversity that seems almost impossible to overcome. Abraham Lincoln recognizes the war as a failure of our human nature, and He addressed the United States with the following proclamation: 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… 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. At a time when it seemed impossible to love your enemy, President Lincoln calls on the entire nat