The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1909-02-22
DR. |NGL|S LAUDS
FIRST PRESIDENT
TO CONGREGATION
Pastor of Third Presbyterian
Church Tells Story of
George Washington.

The third of a series of four sermons
on the lives of great national charac-
ters was preached in the Third Presby-
terrain Church by the pastor, DIR. Rob
ert s. Inglis, last night. DR.. Inglis said
in part:
"In this course of m l have
tried to contrast the lives of two great
commoners with the lives of two great
aristocrats. Lincoln and Gladstone
have been taken as the two great COM
moners while Washington and George
the Third stand as the two types of
~aristocrats. This evening we have the
grand character of our first President,
George Washington. for our considera-
ton.
without going into the details of
the life of Washington, SO well known
to all patriotic Americans, we may say
in brief that George Washington was
educated unto greatness by increasing
responsibility. He was born of aristo-
cratic ~parentage, and from his earliest
days his association was with the first
families of Virginia. To s~ubstantiate
further the claim of a~ristocracy history
informs US that Washington married a
widow in the possession of 500, 900 and
in consideration of the days in which
our various Presidents have lived vas
the wealthiest man who ever occupied
the Presidential chair.
Passing right to the greatest work
of his life 1 place it before you as a
proposition, for 1 have not convinced
myself as yet, whether 1t was not a
more difficult task to bring thirteen
colonies, each of which believed in
states rights, into harmony, than it was
to preserve by a preponderance of
states and numbers the integrity of the
nation when the weaker parts strove
to tear themselves away. Was not the
work involved in our matchmaking
more difficult han that of our nation
preserving?
''There has been various debating as
to the religious character of that man
of sorrow, Abraham Lincoln; as to the
greatness of the heart, and the kind
sympathetic nature of Lincoln there
can be no question, and we cannot
doubt that the martyr President was a
of praye Concerning the re-
ligious character of Washington there
a be absolutely no denial of the state
ment that he was a man of deep re-
ligious convictions and principles. There
can be no better picture placed in our
school buildings than that famous one
of Washington, the commander of the
Continental army. kneeling in the nov
in the forests around Valley Forge and
praying for the assistance and guild
ance of that great God he had pledged
allegiance to. We find his religious
reverted in that most respected
American document, the Farewell Adj
of Washington, where he says:
OF all the dispositions and habits which
lead to prosperity, religion and morality
are indispensable supports. In vain
would that nan claim the tribute Of
patriotism who should labor to subvert
these great pillars of human happiness,
these firment props of men and citi-
zens. And let us with caution indulge
the s~upposition that morality can be
attained without religion. Reason and
experience both forbid us to expect that
national morality car prevail to the
exclusion of religious principles