Description
"A sermon preached in the Village Church, before the College and the united Congregations of the town of Amherst, Mass., on the National Fast Day, Thursday, September 26, 1861."
Sermon preached by Rev. William A. Stearns, president of Amherst College.
Two weeks after the disastrous Union defeat at the first Bull Run (July 21, 1861), Congress requested, and Lincoln proclaimed, a national Fast Day, "a day of public prayer, humiliation, and fasting, to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnities, and the offering of fervent supplications to Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States, his blessings on their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace."
This sermon was the big event in Amherst to commemorate the national fast day.