nvention of the French tone of
feeling with regard to religious observances. If so, it was
the more remarkable to see the aged Franklin, who was a deist
at fifteen, and had just returned from France, coming back to
the sentiments of his ancestors."--_Parton's Franklin_ Vol.
2, p. 575.]

The convention came to a triumphant close, early in September, 1787.
Behind the speaker's chair there was a picture of the Rising Sun.
While the members were signing, Franklin turned to Mr. Madison, and
said,

"I have often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of
my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at the picture behind the
President, without being able to tell whether the sun were rising or
setting. But now at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a
rising, not a setting sun."

Washington was universally revered. Franklin was both revered and
loved. It was almost the universal feeling that, next to Washington,
our nation was indebted to Franklin for its Independence. Franklin
occupied, in the arduous field of diplomacy, the position which
Washington occupied at the head of our armies. It was certain that
Franklin had, at one period of his life, entirely renounced his belief
in Christianity, as a divine revelation. His Christian friends,
numbering hundreds, encouraged by some of the utterances of his old
age, were anxious to know if he had returned to the faith of his
fathers. Dr. Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College, was a friend of
Franklin's of many years standing. When the revered patriot had
reached his eighty-fifth year, Dr. Stiles wrote, soliciting his
portrait for the college library. In this letter, he says,

"I wish to know the opinion of my venerable friend,
concerning Jesus of Nazareth. He will not impute this to
impertinence; or improper curiosity in one, who, for so many
years, has continued to love, esteem and reverence his
abilities and literary character, with an ardor and
affection bordering on adoration."

What Dr. Stiles, and the community in general, wished to know was,
whether Dr. Franklin recognized the Divine, supernatural origin of
Christianity. Franklin evaded the question. This evasion of course
indicates that he did not recognize, in the religion of Jesus, the
authority of, "Thus saith the Lord." But he wished to avoid wounding
the feelings of his Christian friends by this avowal. He wrote,

"This is my creed