In private life Mr Henry was as amiable and virtuous, as he was brilliant in his public career. He was an ex emplary christian ; and his illustrious life was greatly or namented by the religion he professed. His memory will be dear to every believer in the Scriptures, for the steady and fearless example he exhibited in the observance of religious duty. In every situation he was studiously re spectful of religious characters. He was accustomed to speak of the providence of God, which was munificent to him, in the most grateful and submissive terms. His con veosation, private letters, and public speeches, evinced a constant and reverential regard of the Deity ; and, niany years before his death, he spent much of his time in religious reading and reflection. The Bible com manded his cordial accredence ; and he was accustom ed to say to his Friends, and especially to his sons, that its rejection was certain evidence of a depraved un derstanding and corrupt heart, frequently the presage of infamy in this world, and always the harbinger or adversity in that which is to come. He was benevolent and hospi table to ministers of the gospel, whom tle regarded as the heralds of peace and good will among men. He considered them not only necessary to the prosperity of the churat, but greatly beneficial to civil society. In the temperament of
his heart he was ardent, and, on all subjects which interest ed his feelings, his sentiments were expressed with energy and pathos. In his rhapsodies on freedom and religion, he would say, that, without the Bible and ministers, liberty would become licentiousness, and man more savage than the roaming tigers. In short, he was decided in the senti ments, that there was no liberty without religion ; that christianity was the source of every human blessing ; that without it there was no morality, nor restraint on the pas sions of the heart ; that there never was, nor could be, a free and happy people, who did not assume the christian religion and its precepts as the basis of civil authority ; and that the banners of the cross were the only standard under which men could be directed to a happy destiny. In con sonance with these sentiments, he also declared that the in fidel is a rebel against God and a traitor to mankind ; that licentiousness, anarchy, and despotism, are the conse quences of sin, and the offspring of hell; and that ruin would ever be the end of every empire, whose government