actness, and "a Sabbath day rarely occurs, in which it is not recorded that he went to Church." If there was an omission, it was caused by the weather, badness of roads, or indisposition. And yet the nearest church, as already stated, was seven miles, the other ten miles, from his residence. While attending to the first Congress he adhered to the same practice.

On the 9th of July 1776, he gave the following characteristic orders: "The honorable Continental Congress having been pleased to allow a Chaplain to each regiment, the colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure chaplains accordingly, persons of good characters and exemplary lives, and to see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect. The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary, but especially so in times of public distress and danger. The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man will endevor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country."

In his orders of August 3rd 1776, he says: "That the troops may have an opportunity of attending public worship, as well as to take some rest after the great fatigue they have gone through, the General in future excuses them from fatigue duty on Sunday, except at the ship-yards, and on special occasions." Again, in his orders to the Brigadier Generals, May 29, 1777, he says, "Let vice and immorality of every kind be discouraged as much as possible in your brigade; and, as a chaplain is allowed to each regiment, see that the men regularly attend divine worship. Gaining of every kind is expressly forbidden, as being the foundation of evil, and the cause of many a brave and gallant officer's ruin."

On the 17th of December, 1777 he orders thus: "To-morrow being the day set apart by the honorable Congress for public thanksgiving and praise, and duty calling us all devoutly to express our grateful acknowledgments to God for the manifold blessings he has granted to us, the General directs, that the army remain in its present quarters, and that the chaplains perform divine service with their several regiments and brigades; and earnestly exhorts all officers and soldiers, whose absence is not indispensably necessary, to attend with reverence the solemnities of the day."

His orders to the army at the close of hostilities are very touching. He says, "the proclamation will be read to-morrow evening at the head of every regiment and corps in the army; after which the chaplains with the several brigades will render thanks to Almighty God for his mercies, particularly for his over-ruling the wrath of man to his own glory, and causing the rage of war to cease among the nations." April 18, 1783.

It has been observed, and by some regarded as singular, that at a certain period of his life he ceased attending to the participation of the holy communion of the Lord's Supper. The matter, however, seems easy of explanation. No doubt his great reverence for this sacrament, led him to feel that it was not possible for him, amid the tumult of the war, to make such preparation for it, as he felt that its solemnity required.

He did, however, commune once during the war; and it was under circumstances which render the incident doubly interesting. "While the American army, under the command of Washington, lay encamped at Morristown, in New Jersey, it occurred that the service of the communion (then observed semi-annually only) was to be administered in the Presbyterian Church of that village. On a morning of the previous week, the General, after his accustomed inspection of the camp, visited the house of the Rev. Dr. Jones, then pastor of the church; and, after the usual preliminaries, thus accosted him: Doctor, I understand that the Lord's Supper is to be celebrated with you next Sunday; I would learn if it accords with the canon of your Church to admit communicants of another denomination?' The Doctor rejoined: Most certainly; ours is not the Presbyterian table, General, but the Lord's table; and hence we give the Lord's invitation to all his followers of whatever name.' The General replied, I am glad of it; that is as it ought to be; but, as I was not quite sure of the fact, I thought I would ascertain it from yourself, as I propose to join with you on that occasion. Though a member of the Church of England, I have no exclusive partialities.' The Doctor reassured him of a cordial welcome, and the General was found seated with the communicants the next Sabbath."*

From what has already been said of his regular habits in attending divine worship, we may judge of the manner in which he regarded the Lord's day. When he lived in Germantown his house was all closed up on the Sabbath until the bell commenced ringing for church, when he was seen to emerge with his family, to go to the Church. While he was President he received no company on Sunday, except that of an intimate friend, Mr Tumbull, who was sometimes with him an hour in the evening. The morning he spent at Church, the afternoon alone in his own room, in the evening he was with his family; at which time he read to his family either the Bible or a sermon. His nephew, Bushrod Washington, in answer to a letter informing him of his election as a Vice President of the American Sunday School Union, says, "The Sabbath was never violated at Mount Vernon, during the life and with the permission of its former and truly Christian owner" This is much said. The respect which this great man manifested toward the Lord's Day, shows how important he regarded it to the social, civil, and religious interests of man.

Any one who reads his letters, addresses, dispatches, and orders will be surprised to find how often, and how constantly, he expresses his entire dependence upon the over-ruling Providence of God. This is the secret of his great anxiety to have a chaplain in every regiment, and his repeated directions to his subordinate officers to see that all the men regularly attend "divine service," and "reverence the solemnities."

Speaking in a letter in 1778 of the progress of the war, and of * Sparks Vol. 12, page 155. See his ideas of religious toleration.

the success of the Americans against a powerful enemy, he says, "The hand of Providence has been so conspicious in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel, that lacks faith; and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obliga

tions."

His letter to his wife, informing her of his appointment by Congress as Commander-in-chief, he concludes by saying, "I shall rely confidently on that Providence, which has heretofore preserved and been bountiful to me."

Again: "We have abundant reasons to thank Providence for its many favorable interpositions in our behalf. It has at times been my only dependence; for all other resources seemed to have failed us." In a letter to General Armstrong, he says, "I am sure there never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe, that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God, who is alone able to protect them."

Passages of this kind are of constant recurrence in his writings -passages, in which he does not merely allude to, and express his own dependence on Providence, but where he labors to convince others, and induce them to see and confess, that the help of God was their strength, and that His favor should be devoutly and gratefully acknowledged by them.

In beautiful accordance with his feeling of absolute dependence upon Providence, was his constant habit of resort to the Throne of Grace. Washington believed in the efficacy of prayer, and was in the constant habit of praying himself. We know that the mere fact of a person's praying at one time or another is no evidence of itself that the person is pious; else had Tem Paine been pious, for he prayed once in a storm on Lake Erie; then also would all sailors be pious, and all persons overtaken with sudden sickness, who, as the prophet says, "howl upon their beds." With Washington, however, it was a regular habit, and in harmony with his general religious character. There is as much known of his habits of prayer, as can possibly be known of any one who does not pray in the market places, and on the corners of the streets, to be seen of men.

A lady, who resided in his family for twenty years, and who was his adopted daughter, says, in speaking of his evening habits, "It was his custom to retire to his library at nine or ten o'clock, where he remained an hour before he went to his chamber. He always rose before the sun, and remained in his library until called to breakfast. I never witnessed his private devotions. I never inquired about them. I should have thought it the greatest heresy to doubt his firm belief in Christianity. His life, his writings, prove that he was a Christian. He was not one of those, who act or pray, that they may be seen of men. He communed with his God in secret." His nephew, Mr. Lewis, says, that he had "accidentally witnessed

his private devotions in his study both morning and evening; that on these occasions, he had seen him in a kneeling posture, with a Bible open before him; and that he believed such to have been his daily practice."

During the war, " one morning at day-break an officer came to the General's quarters with despatches. As such communications usually passed through my hand, says one, I took the papers from the messenger, and directed my steps towards the General's room. I heard a voice within and paused, and distinctly recognized the voice of the General. Listening for a moment, when all was silent around, I found that he was earnestly engaged in prayer. I knew this to be his habit and therefore retired."

General Cobb says, that, "Throughout the war it was understood in his military family, that he gave a part of each day to private prayer and devotion." General Sullivan makes the same

remark.

During the first Congress, of which Washington was a member, a gentleman, who was desirous of knowing which one was Washington, asked Secretary Thompson how he should be able to know him? Mr. Thompson replied, "You can easily distinguish him when Congress goes to prayer: Washington is the gentleman who kneels down." When Bishop White made the first prayer in Congress, Washington was the only one observed to kneel. Indeed in all his public and private life, there was a simplicity of earnestness, connected with an humble dependence on God, and a sincere devotion to the highest interests of men, of which the world affords no human parallel.

He always asked a blessing at his own table; this he did in a standing posture. If a clergyman was present he asked him to do it.

Mr. Watson, in his Annals of Philadelphia, relates a beautiful incident, which is here in place. "The late Isaac Potts, well known for his good sense, hospitality and urbanity, who resided at the Valley Forge near Schuylkill river, a preacher to Friends, and with whom my informant spent a few days in March 1788, informed him that at the time our army was encamped there, he one day took a walk up Valley Creek, and not far from his dam he heard a solemn voice, and walked quietly towards it; he observed General Washington's horse tied to a small sapling, and in a thicket he saw the General on his knees, praying most fervently. He halted, as he did not wish to disturb him at his devotions, and as the General spoke in a low voice, he could only now and then understand a word, but not enough to connect what he said; but he saw the tears flowing copiously down his cheeks! He retired quietly and unobserved." The Quaker came agitated to his family, and as he mentioned the incidents to his wife, he burst into a flood of tears. Long afterwards he related it, always with deep emotion, and drew forth tears from those who heard it-a proof positive that the incident was true, and that it had deeply affected him at the time. He added, in relating it, "If there is any one on this earth that the Lord will listen to, it is George Washington."

The Rev. I. Eastburn saw him in like manner at prayer near the Battle of Princeton. A female testified that she had discovered it to be his habit, while at Valley Forge, to retire to a short distance from the camp for prayer.

In proportion as Washington's spirit was imbued with reverence for God-a feeling which, as we have seen, he constantly manifested in various exercises of religious adoration and worship,-did his heart feel itself wounded at the absence, or the opposite of these feelings in others. He could not endure to hear the sacred name of God profaned; neither would he suffer it to be done, within the circle over which his influence and authority extended.

While he was yet comparatively a young man, in his capacity as Colonel, he gives the strictest orders against profane swearing, and declares that the guilty shall not go unpunished. "The officers are desired, if they hear any man swear or make use of an oath or execration, to order the offender twenty-five lashes immediately, without a court-martial. For the second offence, he shall be more severely punished."

Long after, at the beginning of the revolutionary war, he manifested the same abhorrence of profanity, alluding to it frequently in his orders. "The General is sorry to be informed, that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little known in an American army, is growing into fashion; he hopes the officers will, by example as well as influence, endeavor to check it, and that both they and the men will reflect, that we can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms, if we insult it by our impiety and folly; added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it." Aug. 3rd, 1776. Let all profance black-throats hear it; Washington says they have neither sense nor character!

In his order of July 29th, 1779, he says: "Many and pointed orders have been issued against that unmeaning and abominable custom, swearing; notwithstanding which, with much regret the General observes that it prevails, if possible, more than ever; his feelings are continually wounded, by the oaths and imprecations of the soldiers. Whenever he is within hearing of them, the name of that Being from whose bountiful goodness we are permitted to enjoy the comforts of life, is incessantly imprecated and profaned in a manner as wanton as it is shocking; for the sake, therefore, of religion, decency and order, the General hopes and trusts that officers of rank will use their influence and authority to check a vice which is as unprofitable as it is wicked and shameful." Thus earnest, as well as constant, are these admonitions and reproofs; showing both how deeply it wounded him, and how daring he felt it to be to that God who has said, "I will not hold him guiltless that taketh my name in vain."

Much might be said of various graces and virtues which adorned his character, which, though they are not conclusive evidences of Christian character, are nevertheless in his case radiant with new