In God We Trust

Independence Day, 2012.  How much is our National Motto, "In God We Trust," honored or even recognized by a vast number of people in this country, once blessed by Our Creator?  In our daily paper this morning was a whole page of quotes from presidents, founding fathers, congress, supreme court, etc. I thought it worth setting some of them down here.

George Washington: "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 humbly to implore His protection and favor."

Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, co-author of the Federalist Papers; first Chief-Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: "the Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts." and    "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."

Joseph Story: U.S. Supreme Court , called the Father of American Jurisprudence, placed on the Court by James Madison: "One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law...There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations...I verily believe Christianitynecessary to the support of civil society."

House Judiciary Committee Report, March 27, 1854: "At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged...In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity...That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants."

Senate Judiciary Committee Report, January 19, 1853: "We are a Christian people...not because the law demands it, not to gain exclusive benefits or to avoid legal disabilities, but from choice and education; and in a land thus universally Christian, what is to be expected, what desired, but that we shall pay due regard to Christianity?"

Harvard 1836 Student Guidelines: "Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17;3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom a the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.......Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein."

Yale 1787 Student Guidelines: "All the scholars are required to live a religious and blameless life according to the rules of God's Word, diligently reading the Holy Scriptures, that fountain of Divine light and truth, and constantly attending all the duties of religion."

Again, the Supreme Court:, 1844, encouraging the use of the Bible in Government-run schools: "Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in (schools) - its general precepts expounded, its eveidences explained and its glorious principles of morality inculcated?   Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament?"

                                               My, how education has changed.

In 1892 there was a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court declaring America to be a Christian Nation.

A most telling quote from one of the founders, Jedediah Morse, called the Father of American Geography: "To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness, which mankind now enjoys...Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown our present republican forms of government - and all blessings which flow from them - must fall with them."

                                                              Amen!