AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BIBLE SOCIETY IN BOSTON, MAY 28, 1849.

Editor’s Introduction

President Andrew Jackson said on June 8, 1845, that “the Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests.” Early
Americans would almost universally agree that the religious, social, educational, and political life of
America was primarily shaped by the Bible.

Our states were colonized by people who desired to freely worship the God of the Bible; our schools were begun so
that everyone would be able to read and understand the Bible for themselves; our universities were founded to
train ministers who were knowledgeable of the Scriptures; our laws and constitutions were written based on Biblical
ideas; and our founding fathers overwhelmingly had a Biblical worldview.

Most Americans today have not been taught this important truth, even though many still recognize it.

It used to be common knowledge that America’s Biblical foundation produced America’s freedom, justice, and prosperity.
In recent generations America has been shifting from a Biblical foundation to a humanistic foundation, where the
God of the Bible is being replaced by man as god. The result has been the decay of society and loss of liberty.
Noah Webster wrote:


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.

Read more:
[link to providencefoundation.com]