Without question, the Bible is the greatest book the world has ever known and ever will know. This would be true even if it wasn't the all-time greatest best seller! The word of God is unparalleled in both the temporal and eternal realms. Jesus Himself said - "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away" (Matt. 24:35). The Bible is great because it is the inspired word of God and contains the power to transform wicked, selfish men into righteous, humble servants. The Bible is not great because of what great men have said about it. Nevertheless, it is still a worthwhile exercise to reflect upon what well respected men of the past have said about the Scriptures.

• John Adams: "The Bible is the best book in the world."
• George Washington: "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."
• Thomas Jefferson: "Of all the systems of morality, none appears so pure to me as that of Jesus."
• James K. Polk: "I have read the sacred Scriptures a great deal, and deeply reverence them as divine truth."
• Edmund Burke: "I have read the Bible morning, noon, and night, and have ever since been the happier and better man for such reading."
• Ulysses S. Grant: "Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts and practice them in your lives."
• John Quincy Adams: "So great is my veneration for the Bible, and so strong my belief, that when duly read and meditated on, it is of all books in the world, that which contributes most to make men good, wise, and happy...the earlier my children begin to read it, the more steadily they pursue the practice of reading it throughout their lives, the more lively and confident will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens of their country, respectable members of society, and a real blessing to their parents...I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year; it is an inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue."
• Benjamin Franklin: "Young man, my advice to you is that you cultivate an acquaintance with, and a firm belief in, the Holy Scripture; this is your certain interest."
• Sir Isaac Newton: "We count the Scriptures to be the most sublime philosophy. I find more marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatever."
• Samuel Colgate: "The only spiritual light in the world comes through Jesus Christ and the inspired Book; redemption and forgiveness of sin alone through Christ. Without His presence and the teachings of the Bible we would be enshrouded in moral darkness and despair."
• Horace Greeley: "It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the ground-work of human freedom."
• Patrick Henry: "The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed."
• Andrew Jackson: "That book, sir, is the rock on which our republic rests."
• Robert E. Lee: "In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength."
• Abraham Lincoln: "In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for this Book we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it."
• Theodore Roosevelt: "A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education."
• William H. Seward: "I do not believe human society, including not merely a few persons in any state, but whole masses of men, ever have attained, or ever can attain, a high state of intelligence, virtue, security, liberty, or happiness without the Holy Scriptures; even the whole hope of human progress is suspended on the ever growing influence of the Bible."
• Noah Webster : "The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good, and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society; the best book for regulating the temporal concerns of men, and the only book that can serve as an infallible guide to future felicity."
• Daniel Webster: "There is no solid basis for civilization but in the Word of God...If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity...If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be; if God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy; if the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; if the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end."

Dear friends, have you been spending enough time with God's great book?