Washington, who has been claimed by the Episcopal church, was like Paine a Deist: His wife was a communicant of this church. During his eight years incumbency of the Presidency, and during the Revolution, and at other times when Mrs. Washington was with him in Philadelphia, he attended, but not regularly, the Episcopal churches of which Bishop White, father of the Episcopal church of America, and the Rev. Dr. Abercrombie were rectors. When Bishop White was asked if Washington had ever communed he replied: "Truth requires me to say that Gen. Washington never received the communion in the churches of which I am the parochial minister"--_Memoir of Bishop White,_ pp. 196, 197. The _Western Christian Advocate_ accepts this testimony as conclusive. It says: "Bishop White seems to have had more intimate relations with Washington than any clergyman of his time. His testimony outweighs any amount of influential argumentation on the question." Dr. Abercrombie says: "On sacramental Sundays, Gen. Washington, immediately after the desk and pulpit services went out with the greater part of the congregation--always leaving Mrs. Washington with the other communicants."--_Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit_, vol. v., p. 394. Fearing the effect of Washington's example Dr. Abercrombie administered a mild reproof. Washington, he says, "never afterwards came on the morning of sacramental Sunday."--_Ibid_. Regarding Washington's conduct in Virginia, the Rev. Beverly Tucker, D.D., of the Episcopal church, says: "The General was accustomed on Communion Sundays to leave the church with her [Nellie Custis, his step-granddaughter], sending back the carriage for Mrs. Washington." The Rev. William Jackson, who was at a later, period, rector of this church, conducted an exhaustive search to discover if possible some evidence of Washington once having communed. His search was futile. He says: "I find no one who ever communed with him." Early in the last century the Rev. E. D. Neill, a prominent clergyman of the Episcopal church, contributed to the Episcopal _Recorder_, the organ of the Episcopal church, an article on Washington's religion. Regarding Washington's church membership he says: "The President was not a communicant, notwithstanding all the pretty stories to the contrary, and after the close of the sermon on Sacramental Sundays, had fallen into the habit of retiring from the church while his wife remained and communed." The foregoing testimony in disproof of the claim that Washington was a communicant, conclusive as it is, is not needed. His own testimony is sufficient. To Dr. Abercrombie he declared that "_he had never been a communicant._"--Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. v., p. 394.