Our Christian Heritage: Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was one of the most gifted orators in American history. He served as a congressman, senator, and the fourteenth Secretary of State. He served under three different presidents: William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Filmore. His political career spanned a total of 40 years.
If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures. 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.
In giving a speech at the Bunker Hill Monument on June 17th, 1843, he spoke of the Founding Fathers regard for the Bible:
The Bible came with them. And it is not doubted, that to free and universal reading of the Bible, in that age, men were much indebted for right views of civil liberty.
The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of religion, of special revelation from God; but it is also a book which teaches man his own individual responsibility, his own dignity, and his equality with his fellow-man.
Thank God! I-I also-am an American.
Daniel Webster once said:
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 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.
