nessed,—though before opposed to the cause, at once changed his course, affirming his belief that that cause must be a good one, and in the end a successful one, the leader in which thus looked to and depended on God for guidance and assistance. Here, then, was the secret source of Washington's patriotism, and influence over men's minds, and final triumph over difficulties so great as to have overwhelmed with despair any man who trusted only in himself—any but a man of religious principle, and of courage sustained from above. His was a character, which has, alas! been most rare in the history of the world,—that of a Christian hero and statesman.
To multiply examples further were needless: as a sufficient number have already been adduced, io effect the purpose we had in view, which was, in the first place, to prove, from facts universally known and acknowledged, the existence of disinterested goodness, as exhibited in man; and then, to show, from the conduct and acknowledgment of those good men themselves, that their goodness was not their own, but was derived from a Power above themselves—from God. Thus we have sought to make it plain, not only that God is good, but that He alone[1] is good; and that all man's goodness is but God's love in him, as all man's wisdom is but God's light in him.
- ↑ "There is none good but ONE, that is, God."—Matt. xix. 17.
