evidence: He was said, at the time alluded to, to be unfriendly to Christianity. It is possible this may be true. His notes [probably a reference to Notes on Virginia, which Jefferson composed six or seven years later] contain some expressions which favour that opinion. In my conversations with him in Philadelphia while he was Vice President he denied the charge, and said he believed in the divine mission of the Saviour of the World. . . . He said he believed further in the divine institution of the Sabbath, which he conceived to be a great blessing to the world, more especially to poor people and slaves.Footnote 90 [...] Several modern historians, most recently Peter Onuf, Thomas E. Buckley, and Eva Sheppard Wolf in essays published in Seeing Jefferson Anew, join Gaustad, Burstein, and Sanford in viewing Jefferson as possessing a spiritual temperament, and in Onuf's case, as deeply sympathetic with evangelical Christianity in his final years.Footnote 106 Onuf claims that, in his old age, Jefferson supported the idea that parochial schools fill the void left by Virginia's failure to provide adequate tax-supported public schools for its citizens. (In fact, Jefferson consistently opposed such an alternative, and Onuf provides no evidence for his assertion.) According to Onuf, as Jefferson aged he viewed the Second Great Awakening "in an increasingly positive light." But Jefferson was essentially lukewarm even toward his Baptist and Methodist allies. He never praised their revivalistic religious techniques; indeed, he never said anything positive about them, despite Roger Williams's ancient Baptist association with religious freedom.