Greater soldiers, more intellectual statesmen, and profounder sages have doubtless existed in the history of the English race, perhaps in our own country, but not one who to great excellence in the threefold composition of man, the physical, intellectual, and moral, has added such exalted integrity, such unaffected piety, such unsullied purity of soul, and such wondrous control of his own spirit.  He illustrated and adorned the civilization of Christianity, and furnished an example of the wisdom and perfection of its teachings which the subtlest arguments of its enemies cannot impeach.  That one grand, rounded life, full-orbed with intellectual and moral glory, is worth, as the product of Christianity, more than all the dogmas of all the teachers.  The youth of America who aspire to promote their own and their country’s welfare should never cease to gaze upon his great example, or to remember that the brightest gems in the crown of his immortality, the qualities which uphold his fame on earth and plead for him in heaven, were those which characterized him as the patient, brave, Christian gentleman.  In this respect he was a blessing to the whole human race no less than to his own countrymen, to the many millions who annually celebrate the day of his birth.

Such sentiments fitly illustrate the controlling element of character which made the conduct of Washington so peerless in the field and in the chair of state.  His first utterances upon assuming command of the American army before Boston, on the 2d of July, 1775, were a rebuke of religious bigotry and an impressive protest against gaming, swearing, and all immoral practices, which might forfeit divine aid in the great struggle for national independence.  Succeeding orders, preparatory to the battle of Long Island, in August, 1776, breathe the same spirit,—­that which transfused all his activities, as with celestial fire, until he surrendered his commission with a devout and public recognition of Almighty God as the author of his success.

FOOTNOTES: 

[19] From the “Patriotic Reader.”  Lippincott Co.

* * * * *

FROM THE “COMMEMORATION ODE”

World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, October 21, 1892

BY HARRIET MONROE

WASHINGTON

  When dreaming kings, at odds with swift-paced time,
    Would strike that banner down,
  A nobler knight than ever writ or rhyme
    With fame’s bright wreath did crown
  Through armed hosts bore it till it floated high
  Beyond the clouds, a light that cannot die! 
    Ah, hero of our younger race! 
      Great builder of a temple new! 
    Ruler, who sought no lordly place! 
      Warrior, who sheathed the sword he drew! 
    Lover of men, who saw afar
    A world unmarred by want or