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"Suppose
a nation in some distant region should
take the Bible for their only Law Book,
and every member should regulate his
conduct by the precepts there exhibited .
. . . What a paradise would this region
be!"
John
Adams, 1756
Second
President of the United
States
"We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal. That they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are life, liberty
and the pursuit of
happiness."
Declaration
of Independence, 1776
"God
who gave us life gave us liberty. And can
the liberties of a nation be thought
secure when we have removed their only
firm basis, a conviction in the minds of
the people that these liberties are a gift
of God? That they are not to be violated
but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for
my country when I reflect that God is
just; that His justice cannot sleep
forever."
Thomas
Jefferson, 1781
"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."
Benjamin
Franklin, 1787
Statement
made at the Constitutional
Convention
"It is the duty
of all nations to acknowledge the
Providence of Almighty God, to obey His
will, to be grateful for His benefits, and
to humbly implore His protection and
favor."
George
Washington, 1789
Proclaiming
a National Day of Prayer and
Thanksgiving
"We have no
government armed with power capable of
contending with human passions unbridled
by morality and religion. Avarice,
ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would
break the strongest cords of our
Constitution as a whale goes through a
net. Our Constitution was made for a moral
and religious people. It is wholly
inadequate to the government of any
other."
President
John Adams
Address to the Military, October 11, 1798
"This
is all the inheritance I give to my dear
family. The religion of Christ will give
them one which will make them rich
indeed."
Patrick
Henry, 1798
Last
Will and Testament
"I have a
tender reliance on the mercy of the
Almighty; through the merits of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him
for mercy; pray for me."
Alexander
Hamilton, 1804
His last words
"Almighty
God, Who has given us this good land for
our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that
we may always prove ourselves a people
mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy
will. Bless our land with honorable
ministry, sound learning, and pure
manners.
"Save us from
violence, discord, and confusion, from
pride and arrogance, and from every evil
way. Defend our liberties, and fashion
into one united people the multitude
brought hither out of many kindreds and
tongues.
"Endow with thy
spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy Name
we entrust the authority of government,
that there may be justice and peace at
home, and that through obedience to Thy
law, we may show forth Thy praise among
the nations of the earth.
"In time of
prosperity fill our hearts with
thankfulness, and in the day of trouble,
suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all
of which we ask through Jesus Christ our
Lord, Amen."
President
Thomas Jefferson
A National Prayer for Peace, March 4,
1805
"If we abide by
the principles taught in the Bible, our
country will go on prospering and to
prosper; but if we and our posterity
neglect its instructions and authority, no
man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may
overwhelm us and bury all our glory in
profound obscurity."
"If religious
books are not widely circulated among the
masses in this country, I do not know what
is going to become of us as a nation. If
truth be not diffused, error will be; if
God and His Word are not known and
received, the devil and his works will
gain the ascendancy; if the evangelical
volume does not reach every hamlet, the
pages of a corrupt and licentious
literature will; if the power of the
Gospel is not felt throughout the length
and breadth of the land, anarchy and
misrule, degradation and misery,
corruption and darkness, will reign
without mitigation or end."
Daniel
Webster, 1821, 1823
"It is
fit and becoming in all people, at all
times, to acknowledge and revere the
Supreme Government of God; to bow in
humble submission to His chastisement; to
confess and deplore their sins and
transgressions in the full conviction that
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom; and to pray, with all fervency and
contrition, for the pardon of their past
offenses, and for a blessing upon their
present and prospective
action."
Abraham
Lincoln
Declaring
a National Day of Prayer and Fasting after
the Battle of Bull Run
"Our
laws and our institutions must necessarily
be based upon the teachings of the
Redeemer of Mankind. It is impossible that
it should be otherwise; and in this sense
and to this extent, our civilization and
our institutions are emphatically
Christian."
US Supreme
Court, 1892
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