ALS Ministries' Quotes of the Week

"The people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt; it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. And if that body be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities. If in the next centennial does not find us a great nation it will be because the people who control the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation does not aid in controlling her political forces." Rev. James A Garfield, 20th President of the United States

“ 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.” John Jay, First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

“It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, 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, 1765

"I now offer you the outline of the plan they have suggested. Let an association be formed to be denominated 'The Christian Constitutional Society,' its object to be first: The support of the Christian religion. second: The support of the United States." Alexander Hamilton

"The Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis, or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government. . . . and 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

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams is a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and our second President.

 

"Why should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble. The reverence for the Sacred Book that is thus early impressed lasts long; and probably if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold of the mind." Fisher Ames

"Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine. . . . Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other." James Wilson

"The moral principles and precepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all 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

"Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society." George Washington

"Whereas true religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness . . . it is hereby earnestly recommended to the several States to take the most effectual measures for the encouragement thereof." Continental Congress, 1778

"Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by 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." Robert Winthrop, Former Speaker of the House

"This is a Christian nation." President Harry Truman, 1947

"To this influence of this book we are indebted for the progress made in civilization, and to this we must look as our guide in the future." Ulysses S. Grant

"A studious persual of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers and better husbands." Thomas Jefferson

"It is the rock on which our Republic rests." Andrew Jackson

"Christianity is the predominant religion in America. We all know that's an incontrovertible fact. The media always refer to the Jewish state of Isreal. They talk about the Muslim country of Saudi Arabia, of Iran, of Irag. We all talk about the Hindu nation of India. America is not a nothing country. It's a Christian country." Governor Kirk Fordice on CNN

"The only foundation for a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments." Benjamin Rush, 1798

"The Christian Religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy} have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind." Thomas Jefferson, 1801

"Let us look forward to the time when we can take the flag of our country ad nail it below the Cross, and there let it wave as it waved in the olden times, and lets us gather around it and inscribe for our motto: "Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever, and exclaim, Christ first, our country next!" Andrew Johnson

"The king is as much bound by his oath not to infringe the legal rights of the people, as the people are bound to yield subjection to him. From whence it follows that as soon as the prnce sets himself above the law, he loses the king in the tyrant. He does, to all intents and purposes, un-king himself." Rev. Jonathan Mayhew

"This is all the inheritance I can give my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.”
—The Last Will and Testament of Patrick Henry

“ We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart.”  James Madison

"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."
Jedediah Morse

“In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.” Noah Webster

“It is apprehended that Jews, Mahometans (Muslims), pagans, etc., may be elected to high offices under the government of the United States. Those who are Mahometans, or any others who are not professors of the Christian religion, can never be elected to the office of President or other high office, [unless] first the people of America lay aside the Christian religion altogether, it may happen. Should this unfortunately take place, the people will choose such men as think as they do themselves." Samuel Johnston

“Whether our religion permits Christians to vote for infidel rulers is a question which merits more consideration than it seems yet to have generally received either from the clergy or the laity. It appears to me that what the prophet said to Jehoshaphat about his attachment to Ahab ["Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord?" 2 Chronicles 19:2] affords a salutary lesson.”

 "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus." Thomas Jefferson

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” James Madison

"The duties of men are summarily comprised in the Ten Commandments, consisting of two tables; one comprehending the duties which we owe immediately to God-the other, the duties we owe to our fellow men.” Noah Webster

"The Bible was America's textbook in all fields." Noah Webster

"To the distinquished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinquished character of Christian." George Washington

"What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ." George Washington

"Without morals a republic cannot subsit any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are underminig the solid foundation of morals, the security for the duration of free governments." Charles Carrol, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

"Here is my Creed.  I believe in on God, the Creator of the Universe.  That He governs it by His Providence.  That He ought to be worshipped.  Benjamin Franklin

"Heavenly Father, May all revere Thee, And become They dutiful children and faithful subjects.  May thy Laws be obeyed on earth as perfectly as they are in Heaven.  Provide for us this day as Thou hast hitherto daily done.  Forgive us our trespasses, and enable us likewise to forgive those that offended us.  Keep us out of temptation and deliver us from Evil."  Bnjamin Franklin's own version of the Lord's Prayer

"We have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being, whose power regulates the destiny of nations." March 4, 1809 Inaugural Address