The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-04-21

lWher many presidents have worshiped. MIR.
Cleveland among them.
cy held its two hundredth anniversary
in 1880 John Quincy Adams wrote
special hymn for the occasion. and we
get some idea both of his quality as n
poet and his faith as s. Christian from
its lines:
Alas how swift the moments fly,
How flash the years nlongi
Scarce here. yet gone already by
The burden OF song.
See childhood. youth and manhood pass,
And age with furrowed brow
Time was, time shall be-turn the glass
But where I'm time is now?
Time Is the measure but OF change,
No present hour Is found;
The past, the future fill the range
or times unccasing round.
Where, then, is now? In realms above
With Gods atoniug Lamb,
In regions OF eternal love,
Where sits enthroncd AM.
Then, pilgrim, let thy Joys and tears
On lime no longer lean,
But hcnccfortl all thy hopes ana fears
From carths affections wean.
10 Goa let votivc accents rise;
With truth, with virtue 1--we.
SO all the bliss that time denies
Eternity shall give"
1t is said of President John Quincy
Adams that when his hair had been
whitencd by the frosts of four score
winters he was still accustomed to re-
peat every night before he slept the
prayer which his mother had taught
him in infancy, the familiar 'Now /
lay inc down to sleep" lie died, like
England's great earl of Chatham, from
stroke of paralysis while he was
speaking from his place in the nation
al legislature.
far different figure in the prssi-
dental panorama is that of Andrew
jackson, whose wild boyhood filed his
good Presbyterian mother with the
darkest fears both for his temporal
and spiritual welfare. His early man
hood and his mature life were admit
tedly unchristian. His profanity was
marvellous He swore great, strange
oaths, such as were never heard before
or since, and he kept it up until he
was quite an old man. At Salisbury,
n. c., where he lived as youth, it is
recorded that he was "the most roar
ing, rollcking, game cooking, horse
racing, card playing, mischievous fell
low that ever lived in the town."
At a series of revival meetings held
near 1.-The Hermitage" after his retire
ment from the presidency Gen. jackson
was converted and made n public profess
sion of repentance and faith in Christ.
In the modest little church near his
mansion, buried in the forests of Ten
nessee, Old Hickory llnelt humbly at
the altar and was baptized and became
member of the Presbyterian church
After that he conducted family prayers
in his home every day. On June 8,
1915, he felt that death was near and
summoned his family around him. He
took leave of each member of it separ-
ately and then spoke for nearly half an
hour with great earnestness on the
subject of religion, closing with these
words: 'My dear children and friends
and servants, hope and trust to meet
You all in Heaven, both white and
black
AS to President Martin Van Buren's
religious status his biographers are
singularly silent. They all say of him,
however, that he was man of ire
proachable morality. President Will
liam Henry Harrison was of the old
aristocratic stock of Virginia and an
Episcopa'an. On sundry occasions he
placed himself upon record as man of
strong Christian convictions. lie de-
clined to fight q duel because, he said
"a sense OF higher obligations than
human laws or human opinions ca n i'm
pose" had determined him never to
do so.
President John Tyler was another of
the old Virginia school of statesmen,
and he, too, was an Episcopalian.
Then came President James X. Polk.
lie made no profession of faith until
he was stricken with death. On his
way to his home in Nashville, Tenn.
he was seized with the cholera and
rapidly sank. Before the end came he
received tie rite of baptism at the
hands OF Methodist clergyman. Of
his successor, President Zachary Tay-
Tor, nothing definite is said by his
biographers, and 1t seems tolerably
certain that he was not regular com
,municant of any church. His wife was
aAdevout Episcopalian, and it seems
thft he gave general assent and sup
port to the same faith. He was, as is
well known, thoroughly illiterate
ifinn, and 1t is not likely that he ever
troubled his mind to inquire into the
difference between the creeds Of the
various religious sects. Gen, Scott
says of him that she had n contempt
Tor learning Of every kind" but ncveh-
theless had the true basis of great