The Religious Life of Famous Americans (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1904. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. After the death of John Quincy Adams a book was published, entitled "Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the Bible and its Teachings." These letters were written during the younger life of Mr. Adams, while he was minister for the United States at St. Petersburg, Russia. His young son was in school in Massachusetts, and this brillant lawyer and diplomatist thought there was no way in which he could help his boy so much as to rivet his mind on the importance of the Bible as the Word of God. He sought in these letters to inculcate a love and reverence for the Bible and a delight in its perusal and study. Throughout his long life Mr. Adams was himself a daily and devout reader of both the Old and the New Testaments, and delighted in comparing and considering them in the various languages with which he was familiar, hoping thereby to acquire a nicer and clearer appreciation of their meaning. The Bible was emphatically his counsel and monitor through life, and the fruits of its guidance are seen in the unsullied character which he bore through the turbid waters of political contention to his final earthly rest. His political life was lived at a time when factional and party feeling ran high and when political abuse abounded; but the historian has said of him that he left no man behind him who would wish to fix a stain on the name he inscribed so high on the roll of his country's most gifted and illustrious sons. These letters to his son are not only of great value because of their candid and reverent spirit, but especially because of the testimony so unconsciously borne by this statesman and scholar to the truth and excellency of the Christian faith and Scriptures. John Quincy Adams was a practical Christian. This was proved by his spotless life, his ...