Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-05-17
Roosevelt on the Bible.

\ letter from President Roosevelt upOn
THE Bible" furnished interesting
feature of the thirteenth anniversary ex-
ercises Of the Epworth League Of Straw
bridge Methodist Episcopal church, il
Baltimore recently. President Roosevelt
together with a large number of other
prominent men Of the country, was re-
Gently asked by Mr.. Charles Z. Clcave-
land, president Of the Strawbridge Ep-
worth League what class of men and
women the world most needs now. Presi-
dent Roosevclt's letter was as follows:
Every thinking man, when he thinks,
realizes what a very large number OF pep-
pie tend to forget that the teachings OF
the Bible are 50 interviewer and cntwned
with our whole civic and social life that
it would be literally do not mean fig
uratively, mean htcrallN-lmpusSlble tor
us to figure to ourselves what that life
would be If these teachings We're re-
moved We would lose almost all the
standards by which we now judge butn
public and private morals; all the stand
ards towards which We, with more or
less resolution, strive to raise ourselves.
Almost every man who has, by his life
work, added to the sum of human
achievement of which the race IS proud,
almost every such man has based his life
work largely upon the teachings OF the
Bible. Sometimes it has been done I'M
consciously, more Citen consciously, an /
among the very greatest men dispropur-
tiOnately large number have been dlligent
and close students of the Bible ut first
hand.
"Lincoln-sad, patient, kindly Lincoln.
who. after bearing upon his weary
shoulders for four years greater bur
den than that borne by any other man Of
the nineteenth century laid down his life
for the people hon. living, he haG
served so well-built up his entire read
ing upon his early study of the Bible. He
had mastered it absolutely; mastered i
as. later, he mastered only one or two
other books notably Shakespeare; mas
tered il So that he became almost a man
OF one book who knew that book and
who instinctively put into practice VIVA
he had been taught therein; and he left
his life as part of the browning work OF
the century that has just closed.
you may look through the Bible, from
cover to cover. and no%here Will YOU filri
a line that can be construed into an apoi-
ogy for the man of brains who sins
against the light. on the contrary, in thu
Bible taking that as a guide, you viii
find that because much has been given
to you much will be expected Of You. an!
a heavier condemnation is to be visited
upon the able man who goes wrong than
upon his weaker brother who cannot df
the harm that the other does, because
il is not in him to do il.
81 plead, not merely for training Of tn.
mind but for the moral and Spiritua
training that have always been found IN
and that have ever accompanies tn'
almost every CiViliZ a tongue. can be de
scrihed as The Book with the certainty
of all understanding you when you 50 de
scribe it,
The immense moral influence OF inc
Bible though of course. infinitely tn
most important, is not the only power II
has for good IN addition there is IN
unccasng influence it eXerts on the side
OF good taste. Of goou literature Of prop
or sense of proportion, OF Slmpl" am
straightforward writing ana thinking.
This is not a small matter in an az
when there is a tendency to read mucf
that even. if not actually harmful or
moral grounds. is yet injurious. because
IL represents slpshod, Slovcnly though
and work: not the kind of serious though'
of serious expression. which we like t
see in anything that goes INTO the HOT
of our character.
.''The Bible does not teach us to shirt
difficulties but to overcome them: ina
is a lesson that each one of us VINO ha'
children is bound to honor to teach theS
children. If he or she expects to see ther
become fitted to play the part of men ant
women in our world.
''If we read the Bible Alright we read
book which teaches ms to go forth and d
the work Of the Lord; to do the work o
the ord in the world as we find it; t
try To make things better In this wOrlo
even IL only a little better, because W
have lived in it. That kind Of work ca
be done only by the man who is neithe
weaklinE nor a coward by the ma
who, in the fullest sense of the world,
n true Christan-lke Great Heart. Bar
vans hero. We plead for a closer an
wider and deeper study of the Bible, S
that our people may be in fact as well a
in theory doors of the word and nc
hearers only