REGARDING THE BIBLE

 

“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”

George Washington, 1752

 

This is the Book. I have read the Bible through many times, and now make it a practice to read it through once every year… It is a book of all others for lawyers, as well as divines; and I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply of thought and of rules for conduct. It fits man for life- it prepares him for death.

Daniel Webster, 1843

 

The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effectual means of extirpating Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools.

Benjamin Rush, 1789

 

The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty.

Thomas Jefferson

 

All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. …Men, in word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them, or a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.

John Winthrop, 1849

 

The Bible is the Chief moral cause of all that is good, and the best corrector of all that is evil, in human society; the best book for regulating the temporal concerns of men, and the only book that can serve as an infallible guide to future felicity…

It is extremely important to our nation, in a political as well as religious view, that all possible authority and influence should be given to the scriptures, for these furnish the best principles of civil liberty, and the most effectual support of republican government.

Noah Webster, 1833

 

Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book are we indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this must we look as our guide in the future.

Ulysses S. Grant, 1876

 

The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all of our civil constitutions and laws…. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.

Noah Webster, 1829

 

The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed…

Patrick Henry

 

I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man.  All the good Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this Book.  But for this Book we could not know right from wrong.  All things most desirable for man’s welfare… are to be found portrayed in it.

Abraham Lincoln

 

I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world.  It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen.

John Adams

 

REGARDING PRAYER

 

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel… Have we now forgotten this powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?

Benjamin Franklin, 1787, Constitutional Convention

 

I yield Thee humble and hearty thanks, that Thou has preserved me from the dangers of the night past and brought me to the light of this day… Let my heart therefore Gracious God be so affected with the glory and majesty of it, that I may not do mine own works but wait on Thee… and since Thou art a God of pure eyes, and will be sanctified in all who draw nearer to Thee, who doest not regard the sacrifice of fools, nor hear sinners who tread  in Thy courts, pardon I beseech Thee, my sins, remove them from Thy presence, as far as the east is from the west, and accept of me for the merits of Thy son Jesus Christ.

George Washington, 1752

 

I conceive that we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world that the rod of tyrants may be broken to pieces, and the oppressed made free again; that wars may cease in all the earth…

Samuel Adams

 

I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. Hay none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.

John Adams

 

I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for that day.

Abraham Lincoln

 

Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word “concern” out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice.

Robert E. Lee

 

REGARDING RELIGIOUS FAITH

 

(It is my) conviction that our Government rest on religion; that religion is the source from which we derive our reverence for truth and justice, for equality and liberty, and for the rights of mankind. If the bonds of our religious convictions become loosened the guaranties which have been erected for the protection of life and liberty and all the vast body of rights that lies between, are gone. America was born in a revival of religion.

Calvin Coolidge

 

If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by Him… Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.

William Penn

 

It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe, without the agency of a Supreme Being. It is impossible to govern the universe without the aid of a Supreme Being. It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being. Religion is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion. The one cannot exist without the other. A reasoning being would lose his reason, in attempting to account for the great phenomena of nature, had he not a Supreme Being to refer to.

George Washington

 

REGARDING CHRISTIANITY

 

Direct my thoughts, words and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate Blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit, from the dross of my natural corruption, that I may with more freedom of mind and liberty of will serve thee, the ever lasting God, in righteousness and holiness this day, and all the days of my live. Increase my faith in the sweet promises of the Gospel; give me repentance from dead works; pardon my wanderings, and direct my thoughts unto Thyself, the God of my salvation; teach me how to live in Thy fear, labor in Thy service, and ever to run in the ways of Thy commandments; make me always watchful over my heart, that neither the terrors of conscience, the loathing of holy duties, the love of sin, nor the unwillingness to depart this life, may cast me into a spiritual slumber, but daily frame me more and more into the likeness of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, that living in Thy fear, and dying in Thy favor, I may in Thy appointed time attain the resurrection of the just unto eternal life.

George Washington, 1752

 

Principally, and first of all, I resign my soul to the Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying on the merits of Jesus Christ for the pardon of my sins.

Samuel Adams, Last Will and Testament

 

 On the mercy of my Redeemer I rely for salvation and on His merits not on the works I have done in obedience to His precepts.

Charles Carroll, 1825

 

I do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son the true God, and in the Holy Spirit, one God blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be given by Divine inspiration.

John Dickinson, 1776

 

The Laws of the Christian system, as embraced by the Bible, must be respected as of high authority in all our courts and it cannot be thought improper for the officers of such government to acknowledge their obligation to govern by its rule…

(Our government) originating in the voluntary compact of a people who in that very instrument profess the Christian religion, it may be considered, not a republic like Rome was, a Pagan but a Christian republic.

Nathaniel Freeman, 1802

 

The religion, which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government.

Noah Webster, 1832

 

The Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government…I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable, in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence.

Noah Webster, 1829

 

I consider the doctrines of Jesus as delivered by Himself to contain the outlines of the sublimest system of morality that has ever been taught, but I hold in the most profound detestation and execration the corruptions of it which have been invented… My views… are the result of a live of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished any one to be; sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.

Thomas Jefferson, 1804

 

1. The doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend to the happiness of man.
2. There is only one God, and He is all perfect.
3. There is a future state of rewards and punishment.
4. To love God with all the heart and thy neighbor as thyself is the sum of all.

Had there never been a commentator there never would have been and infidel. I have little doubt that the whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator, and, I hope, to the pure doctrines of Jesus also.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

Among the most inestimable of our blessings is that… of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable in His will; a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support.

Thomas Jefferson

 

Christianity is the only true and perfect religion, and that in proportion as mankind adopts its principles and obeys its precepts, they will be wise and happy.

Benjamin Rush, 1798

 

No nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has ever been given to man and I as chief Magistrate of this nation am bound to give it the sanction of my example.

Thomas Jefferson, 1808

 

Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings, which flow from them, must fall with them.

Jedediah Morse, 1799

 

My soul, I resign into the hands of my Almighty Creator, whose tender mercies are over all His works, who hated nothing that He hath made and to the Justice and Wisdom of whose dispensation I willing and cheerfully submit, humbly hoping from His unbounded mercy and benevolence, through the merits of my blessed Savior, a remission of my sins.

George Mason, Last Will and Testament

 

America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness, which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.

Woodrow Wilson, 1911

 

I am clearly of opinion that we should not strike out of the Constitution all recognition of the Christian religion. I am desirous, in so solemn a transaction as the establishment of a Constitution, that should keep in it an expression of our respect and attachment to Christianity, - not, indeed, to any of its peculiar forms, but to its general principles.

Daniel Webster, 1820

 

It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.

Patrick Henry