An officer who served under General Washington through the eight years of the Revolution says that on every practicable occasion he sought God's blessing upon the contest; and, when no chaplain was present, he often called his staff-officers around him and reverently lifted his heart and voice in prayer. He described the scenes as of unusual solemnity, and he carried the vivid impressions of them to the grave. Just before the battle of Monmouth, Washington was seen by one of his officers alone beneath a tree, supplicating the throne of grace. He knew that God was his "refuge and strength."

The God of the Bible and his providential presence and power during the whole Revolutionary War are gratefully recognized by Washington on various occasions.

No one could express more fully his sense of the Providence of God and the dependence of man. His faith in Providence

was the anchor of his soul at all times.

"Ours is a kind of struggle," said he, "designed by Providence, I dare say, to try the patience, fortitude, and virtue of men. None, therefore, who is engaged in it will suffer himself, I trust, to sink under difficulties or be discouraged by hardships.".

"Providence having so often taken us up when bereft of other hope, I trust we shall not fail even in this."

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"To that good Providence which has so remarkably aided us in all our difficulties, the rest is committed."

"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. . . . Our affairs are brought to a perilous crisis that the hand of Providence, I trust, may be more conspicuous in our deliverance. The remarkable interpositions of the Divine government in the hours of our deepest distress and darkness have been too luminous to suffer me to doubt the happy issue of the present contest."

The same sentiments were expressed on many occasions after the war. In a letter to General Armstrong, March 11, 1792, he wrote,

"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 had forgotten that agency which was so often mani

fested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them."

The following extracts are from his circular letter to the Governors of the several States on the disbanding of the army, June 8, 1783. They are full of the sentiment and spirit of Christianity which he had developed during the war.

"I now make my earnest prayer that God would have you and the States over which you preside in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate the spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field; and, finally, that he would be most graciously pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation.

"We have all been encouraged to feel the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously displayed to this rising republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future."

A very suggestive instance of the prevailing Christian spirit and habits of the American people and the American army was the universal and explicit recognition of God's providence in every event and battle of the Revolution. The following passage will illustrate this point.

"A variety of success and defeat," said Dr. Stiles, in 1783, "hath attended our warfare both by sea and land. In our lowest and most dangerous estate, in 1776 and 1777, we sustained ourselves against the British army of sixty thousand troops, commanded by Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton, and other of the ablest generals Britain could procure throughout Europe, with a naval force of twenty-two thousand seamen in above eighty British men-of-war. These generals we sent home, one after another, conquered, defeated, and convinced of the impossibility of conquering America. While oppressed by the heavy weight of this combined force, Heaven inspired us with resolution to

cut the Gordian knot when the die was cast irrevocably in the glorious Act of Independence. This was sealed and confirmed by God Almighty in the victory of General Washington at Trenton, and in the surprising movement and battle of Princeton, by which astonishing efforts of generalship, General Howe, and the whole British army, in elated confidence and in open-mouthed march for Philadelphia, were instantly stopped, remanded back, and cooped up for a shivering winter in the little borough of Brunswick. Thus God 'turned the battle to the gate,' and this gave a finishing to the foundation of the American republic.

"This, with the Burgoynade at Saratoga by General Gates, and the glorious victory over the Earl of Cornwallis in Virginia, together with the memorable victory at Eutaw Springs and the triumphant recovery of the Southern States by General Greene, are among the most heroic acts and brilliant achievements which have decided the fate of America. And who does not see the indubitable interposition and energetic influence of Divine Providence in these great and illustrious events? Who but a Washington, inspired by Heaven, could have struck out the great movement and manoeuvre at Princeton? To whom but to the Ruler of the winds shall we ascribe it that the British reinforcement in the summer of 1777 was delayed on the ocean three months by contrary winds, until it was too late for the conflagrating General Clinton to raise the siege at Saratoga?

"What but a providential miracle detected the conspiracy of Arnold, even in the critical moment of that infernal plot, in which the body of the American army then at West Point, with his Excellency General Washington himself, were to have been rendered into the hands of the enemy? Doubtless inspired by the Supreme Illuminator of great minds were the joint councils of a Washington and a Rochambeau in that grand effort of generalship with which they deceived and astonished a Clinton and eluded his vigilance, in their transit by New York and rapid marches for Virginia. Was it not of God that both the navy and army should enter the Chesapeake at the same time? Who but God could have ordained the critical arrival of the Gallic fleet, so as to prevent and defeat the British, and assist and co-operate with the combined armies in the siege and reduction of Yorktown?

"Should we not ever admire and ascribe to a Supreme energy the wise and firm generalship displayed by General Greene,

when, leaving the active and roving Cornwallis to pursue his helter-skelter, ill-fated march into Virginia, he coolly and steadily went onwards, and deliberately, judiciously, and heroically recovered the Carolinas and the Southern States?

"How rare have been the defections and apostasies of our capital characters, though tempted with all the charms of gold, titles, and nobility! Whence is it that so few men of our armies have deserted to the enemy? Whence that our brave sailors have chosen the horrors of prison-ships and death, rather than to fight against their country? Whence that men of every rank have so generally felt and spoken alike, as if the cords of life struck unison through the continent? What but a miracle has preserved the union of the States, the purity of Congress, and the unshaken patriotism of every General Assembly? It is God who has raised up for us a great and powerful ally,-an ally which sent us a chosen army and a naval force. It is God who so ordered the balancing interests of nations as to produce an irresistible motive in the European maritime Powers to take our part.

"So wonderfully does Providence order the time and coincidence of the public national motives co-operating in effecting great public events and revolutions. But time would fail me to recount the wonder-working providences of God in the events of this war. Let these serve as specimens, and lead us to hope that God will not forsake this people, for whom he has done such marvellous things, whereof we are glad and rejoice this day, having at length brought us to the dawn of peace.

"O Peace, thou welcome guest, all hail! Thou heavenly visitant, calm the tumult of nations, and wave thy balmy wing perpetually over this region of liberty. Let there be a tranquil period for the unmolested accomplishment of the magnalia Dei,-the great events in God's moral government designed from eternal ages to be displayed in these ends of the earth.

"May this great event excite and elevate our first and highest acknowledgments to the Sovereign Monarch of universal nature, to the Supreme Disposer and Controller of all events! Let this our pious, sincere, and devout gratitude ascend in one general effusion of heartfelt praise and hallelujah, in one united cloud of incense, even the incense of universal joy and thanksgiving, to God, from the collective body of the United States." "The special interposition of Providence," said Dr. Ramsey,

of South Carolina, July, 1777, in an oration on the advantages of American independence, "in our behalf makes it impious to disbelieve the final establishment of our Heaven-protected independence. Can any one seriously review the beginning, progress, and present state of the war, and not see indisputable evidence of an overruling influence on the minds of men, preparing the way for the accomplishment of this great event?

"As all the tops of corn in a waving field are inclined in one direction by a gust of wind, in like manner the Governor of the world has given one and the same universal bent of inclination to the whole body of our people. Is it the work of man that thirteen States, frequently quarrelling about boundaries, clashing in interests, differing in politics, manners, customs, forms of government, and religion, scattered over an extensive continent, under the influence of a variety of local prejudices, jealousies, and aversions, should all harmoniously agree as if one mighty mind inspired the whole?

"Our enemies seemed confident of the impossibility of our union; our friends doubted it; and all indifferent persons, who judged of things present by what has heretofore happened, considered the expectation thereof as romantic. But He who sitteth at the helm of the universe, and who boweth the hearts of a whole nation as the heart of one man, for the accomplishment of his own purpose, has effected that which to human. wisdom and foresight seemed impossible."

"When I trace," said Henry Lee, of Virginia, "the heroes of Seventy-Six through all their countless difficulties and hardships,-when I behold all the dangers and plots which encompassed them, their 'hair-breadth escapes,' and final glorious triumphs, I am as strongly impressed with the belief that our cause was guided by Heaven as that Moses and the Israelites were directed by the finger of God through the wilderness."

The following extract, from an address by Dr. Ladd, of Charleston, South Carolina, delivered before the Governor of the State, and a large number of other gentlemen, on the 4th of July, 1785, being the anniversary of American independence, will present the views of the patriots of that day in reference to the special presence of Almighty God through the scenes and triumphs of the Revolution, and their desire to enthrone God as the Governor of the nation. The motto of his oration was,