Proclamation 4165—National Day of Prayer

The great king Solomon, told in a night vision to ask what he wished of God, was reverent and humble enough to pray, "I am but a little child . . . Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart . . . for who is able to judge this Thy so great a people?"

In our time as in Solomon's, no nation can expect to prosper and live in peace—no people can govern themselves wisely—except they invoke and rely on the divine wisdom.

In all our concerns and all our affairs as a nation, both at home and abroad, prayer should be not merely an embellishment, but an essential: both the prayer of affirmation that our God is great and good, that He made us and not we ourselves, and the prayer of petition that He may guide and protect us every one.

In 1952 the Congress directed the President to set aside a suitable day other than a Sunday each year as a National Day of Prayer, in recognition of the profound religious faith on which America is built.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, October 18, as National Day of Prayer, 1972.

I call upon all Americans to pray that day, each after his or her own manner and convictions, for Deity's blessing on our land and for peace on earth, goodwill among all men.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-seventh.

RICHARD NIXON