A Day of Prayer and Fasting

This entry is from Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War by a Lady of Virginia (Mrs. Judith W. McGuire)

McGuire writes about a day of prayer and fasting and the sermon delivered on that day by Bishop William Meade.  Meade was the Bishop of Virginia.  He strongly opposed secession, but once the state of Virginia made the decision to do so, he supported the state. His father was an aide to George Washington during the Revolutionary War, so he had patriot blood flowing through him.

June 15, 1861

Yesterday was set apart by the President as a day of prayer and fasting, and I trust that throughout the Confederacy the blessing of God was invoked upon the army and country.  We went to church at Millwood, and heard Bishop Meade.  His sermon was full of wisdom and love ; he urged us to individual piety in all things, particularly to love and charity to our enemies.  He is full of enthusiasms and zeal for our cause.  His whole heart is in it, and from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, for he talks most delightfully land encouragingly on the subject.  He says that if our ancestors had good reason for taking up arms in 1775, surely we had much better, for the oppressions they suffered from the mother-country was not a tithe of the provocation we have received from the Government at Washington.

Bishop William Meade from anglicanhistory.org