From first to last, he preached the goodness of God,
the power of God, the justice and mercy and infallibility of God; and
he lived in a profound trust in and love for God, and a hopeful and
courageous effort to carry out such principles of moral and national
right-doing as he believed to be the will of his beloved Creator.
"If this," as one indignant enthusiast exclaimed, "is to be an
Atheist, then Jesus Christ must have been an Atheist!"
As incongruous as anything else, in the judgment of Paine, is the fact
that he has, apparently, been adopted by the pacifists. The pacifists
and--Paine!--Paine who never in all his seventy years was out of a
scrap! They could scarcely have chosen a less singularly unfit guiding
star, for Paine was a confirmed fighter for anything and everything he
held right. And his militancy was not merely of action but of the
soul, not only of policy or necessity but of spiritual conviction.
When even Washington was inclined to submit patiently a bit longer, it
was Paine who lashed America into righteous war.
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