[ 20 j
 he was equally opposed to his making his civil or pox
 litical connections subservient in the least to his re-
 ligious character, or subservient to the views or par-
 ty namnes of his religious friends.
   Nor was he a religious enthusiast, who supposed
 that upon his becon.ing a Christian he was to re-
 nounce at once and forever all intercourse and con-
 nection with the world, or with the nmen of the world.
 He had devoted himself, soul and body, to his Maker
 and his Saviour, but he was to serve his God and
 his Saviour by attending to the duties of his pro.
 fession, and by his having, while doing his own bu-
 siness, and while transacting the business of others
 anal of the commonwealth, extensive and frequent,
 and in some cases intimate, connection with men
 who were not only strangers to religion, but with
 Len who were hostile to the very forms of Christi-
 anity. And to maintain a christian profession, and
 to live a life of piety, under such circumstances, was
 no ensy task. That he succeded in acting out the
 christian life, in all its extent, under these circuin-
 stances, we affirm not. "If we say we have no sin,
 we deceive ourselves. and the truth is not in us.",
 But this mutch we say, that under all circumstances,
 and in every situation, there was a something about
 Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, which at once distin-
 guished him from the men of the world, and also
 from theim who have only 'a name to live while dead.
 His principles of action were generally correct-but,
 like all other men, he sometimes failed in applying
these general principles to particular cases; vet eved