Without making ostentatious professions of religion, he was a sincere believer in the Christian faith, and a truly devout man, JOHN MARSHALL, Chief Justice of the United States. The virtues of our departed friend were crowned by piety. He is known to have been habitually devout. To Christian institutions he gave the countenance of his example; and no one could express, more fully, his sense of the Providence of God, and the dependence of man. REV. J. T. KIRKLAND, Dec. 29, 1799. His hopes for his country, were always founded on the righteousness of the cause, and the blessing of Heaven. His was the belief of Reason and Revelation; and that belief was illustrated and exemplified in all his actions. JAMES K. PAULDING. I take the liberty to introduce your august and immortal name in a short sentence, which will be found in the book* I send you. I have a large acquaintance among the most valuable and exalted classes of men; but you are the only human being for whom I ever felt an awful reverence. I sincerely pray God, to grant a long and serene evening to a life so gloriously devoted to the universal happiness of the world. T. ERSKINE, afterward LORD ERSKINE, Lond. 1795. On the War with France. RELIGIOUS MAXIMS. 1. GOD. Neither in the parade of military life, nor in the cares of civil administration; neither in a state of depression, nor amidst the intoxicating sweets of power and adulation; did he forget to pay homage to the “MosT HIGH, who doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth." WILLIAM LINN, D.D., Feb. 22, 1800. THE EXISTENCE OF A SUPREME BEING. It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe, without the agency of a Supreme Being. It is impossible to govern the universe, without th aid of a Supreme Being. It is impossible to reason, without arriving at a Supreme Being. Religion is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion. The one cannot exist, without the other. A reasoning being would lose his reason, in attempting to account for the great phenomena of nature, had he not a Supreme Being to refer to; and well has it been said, that if there had been no God, mankind would have been obliged to imagine one. THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. That great and glorious Being is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. THE SOURCE OF ALL BLESSINGS. The sentiments we have mutually expressed, of profound gratitude to the source of those numerous blessings, the Author of all good, are pledges of our obligations, to unite our sincere and zealous endeavors, as the instruments of Divine Providence, to preserve and perpetuate them. 1795. THE DISPOSER OF EVENTS; ALL-POWERFUL, AND ALL-WISE. I feel now, as I conceive a wearied traveller must do, who, after treading many a painful step, with a heavy burden on his shoulders, is eased of the latter, having reached the haven to which all the former were directed; and from his house-top is looking back, and tracing, with an eager eye, the meanders, by which he escaped the quicksands and mires which lay in his way; and into which none but the All-powerful Guide and Dispenser of human events could have prevented his falling. 1784, As the All-wise Disposer of events has hitherto watched over my steps, I trust, that, in the important one I may soon be called upon to take, he will mark the course so plainly, that I cannot mistake the way, 1792. DIVINE WISDOM AND GOODNESS. I flatter myself, that a Superintending Providence is ordering every thing for the best, and that, in due time, all will end well. That it may be so, and soon, is my most fervent wish. 1777. The determinations of Providence are always wise, often inscrutable; and, though its decrees appear to |
