Feb 04 2010
The Bible Is Our Most Important Textbook
- Image via Wikipedia
Noah Webster was a brilliant man. He is best known for his dictionary, Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828 Edition, which is still in use today. He created a textbook nicknamed the “Blue-Backed Speller.” It was the most widely used textbook in America for a hundred years.
Clearly, Webster was an expert on educating children, and this is what he said about the Bible.
“The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions. . . .”
“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 gave us the following advice concerning our responsibility as citizens.
“When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, “just men who will rule in the fear of God.”
The preservation of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.
If [our] government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the Laws.” (History of the United States by Noah Webster)
