Ben Franklin’s Proposal for Prayer on Thursday, June 28, 1787 as recorded by John Madison

 

Mr. President:

 

The small progress we have made after 4 or five weeks close attendance & continual reasonings with each other -- our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ays, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those Republics which having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist. And we have viewed Modern States all round Europe, but find none of their Constitutions suitable to our circumstances.
 

In this situation of this Assembly groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. -- Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance.

 

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 [H]is notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without [H]is aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that "except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without [H]is concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall be become a reproach and a bye word down to future age. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human Wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.

 

I therefore beg leave to move -- that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.

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“It Is impossible to rightly govern the world without God or the Bible” – 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” – George Washington

 

“Direct my thoughts, works, and work.  Wash away my sins with the Immaculate Blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit…”– George Washington

 

“…Daily frame me more and more into the likeness of Thy Son Jesus Christ” – George Washington

 

 

“I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man” – Abraham Lincoln

 

“Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!” – Abraham Lincoln

 

“Whereas, it is the duty of as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord” – Abraham Lincoln

 

“No educated man can afford to be ignorant of the Bible” – Theodore Roosevelt

 

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education” – Theodore Roosevelt

 

“That book, Sir, is the Rock upon which our republic rests” – Andrew Jackson

 

“There are a good many problems before the American people today, and before me as President, but I expect to find a solution to those problems just in the proportion that I am faithful to the study of the Word of God” – Woodrow Wilson

 

“I have always said, and I always will say, that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better citizens, fathers, and better husbands” – Thomas Jefferson

 

“I say unto you, Search the Scriptures!  The Bible is the book of all others, to be read at all ages, and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once or twice or thrice through, and then laid aside, but to be read in small portions of one or two chapters every day, and never to be intermitted, unless by some overruling necessity” – John Quincy Adams

 

“The whole inspiration of our civilization springs from the teachings of Christ and the lessons of the prophets.  To read the Bible for these fundamentals is a necessity of American Life” – Herbert Hoover

 

“The more profoundly we study this wonderful Boo, and the more closely we observe its divine precepts, the better citizens we will become and the higher will be our destiny as a nation” – William McKinley

 

“We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

“It is a foundation of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

“Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives” – Ulysses S. Grant

 

“The Bible is the best book in the world.  It contains more than all the libraries I have seen” – John Adams

 

“Within the covers of the Bible are all the answers for all the problems men face.  The Bible can touch hearts, order minds and refresh souls” – Ronald Reagan