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Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the Bible and Its Teaching
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
- GenresNonfictionChristian
131 pages, Hardcover
First published October 9, 2008
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About the author
John Quincy Adams
493 books44 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
John Quincy^^Adams
John Quincy Adams as secretary of state from 1817 to 1825 helped to formulate the Monroe Doctrine of James Monroe; he served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829 and after his presidency from 1831 to 1848 in the House of Representatives advocated anti-slavery measures.
This diplomat and politician affiliated with Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Abigail Smith Adams bore John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams, later the second president of United States. Many international negotiations most famously involved him as a diplomat.
He proposed a grand program of modernization and educational advancement but lacked ability to get it through Congress. Late in life as a congressman, he led opponents of the slave power and argued that if a civil war ever broke, then war powers of the president ably abolished slavery; Abraham Lincoln followed this policy in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
To date, only this president of the United States subsequently served as a congressman.
John Quincy^^Adams
John Quincy Adams as secretary of state from 1817 to 1825 helped to formulate the Monroe Doctrine of James Monroe; he served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829 and after his presidency from 1831 to 1848 in the House of Representatives advocated anti-slavery measures.
This diplomat and politician affiliated with Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Abigail Smith Adams bore John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams, later the second president of United States. Many international negotiations most famously involved him as a diplomat.
He proposed a grand program of modernization and educational advancement but lacked ability to get it through Congress. Late in life as a congressman, he led opponents of the slave power and argued that if a civil war ever broke, then war powers of the president ably abolished slavery; Abraham Lincoln followed this policy in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
To date, only this president of the United States subsequently served as a congressman.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 7, 2015
I wanted to share my favorite excerpt from these letters. I think I connected with what John Quincy Adams was saying because you can feel his love for his son in his words. Even though he could not be with his two sons for a time, he did not give up his responsibility and his privilege as a parent to teach his children. I wrote this next to his words: "teach", "speak truth", "speak from the heart", "speak with love".
"Endeavor, my dear son, to discipline your own heart and to govern your conduct through life by these principles, thus combined. Be meek, be gentle, be kindly affectioned to all mankind, not excepting even your enemies. But never be tame or abject--never give way to the pushes of impudence, or shew yourself yielding or complying to prejudices, wrong-headedness or intractability which would lead or draw you astray from the dictates of your conscience, and your own sense of right. 'Till you die, let not your integrity depart from you'. Build your house upon the Rock,--and then let the rain descend, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon that house. It shall not fall; for it will be founded upon a Rock. So promises your blessed Lord and Master, and so prays your affectionate father."
"Endeavor, my dear son, to discipline your own heart and to govern your conduct through life by these principles, thus combined. Be meek, be gentle, be kindly affectioned to all mankind, not excepting even your enemies. But never be tame or abject--never give way to the pushes of impudence, or shew yourself yielding or complying to prejudices, wrong-headedness or intractability which would lead or draw you astray from the dictates of your conscience, and your own sense of right. 'Till you die, let not your integrity depart from you'. Build your house upon the Rock,--and then let the rain descend, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon that house. It shall not fall; for it will be founded upon a Rock. So promises your blessed Lord and Master, and so prays your affectionate father."
Read
December 30, 2023"From his youth, John Quincy accompanied his father on diplomatic missions to France and the Netherlands, and by the age of fourteen was a secretary on a diplomatic mission to Russia." (3)
"From 1811 to 1813, John Quincy penned nine letters on the importance of Bible study. Though his primary intent is to provide his son with basic knowledge helpful in the study and use of the Bible, he is mindful of his duty to all his children, and for this reason, asked his son to collect his letters on the subject, saying, 'I wish that hereafter they may be useful to your brothers and sisters, as well as to you.' Readers studying carefully the content of these letters cannot help but be taken back by the realization that the first letter was written to a ten-year-old, who was likely no more than twelve when the last letter was written." (3)
"As a time when America's Christian origin has been placed under deep suspicion, it is critical that contemporary voices communicate historical truth with the voice of continuity. That is, fidelity to America's Christian heritage means - in part - that the contemporary message of America's heritage should find continuity with the voices of previous generations." (4)
"But, I hope you have now arrived at an age to understand that reading - even in the Bible - is a thing in itself neither good nor bad, but that all the good which can be drawn from it is by the use and improvement of what you have read, with the help of your own reflection. Young people sometimes boast of how many books and how much they have read, when, instead of boasting, they ought to be ashamed of having wasted so much time to so little profit." (7)
"And, feeling and deploring my own frailties, I can only pray Almighty God for the aid of his Spirit to strengthen my good desires and to subdue my propensities to evil, for it is from him that every good and every perfect gift descends. My custom is, to read four or five chapters every morning, immediately after rising from my bed. It employs about an hour of my time, and seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day." (7)
"In your infancy and youth, you have been, and will be for some years, under the authority and control of your friends and instructors, but you must soon come to the age when you must govern yourself. You have already come to that age in many respects." (10)
"There are three points of doctrine, the belief of which, forms the foundation of all morality. The first is, the existence of a God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is, a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these articles of faith, and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains, or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy. It is possible to believe them all without believing that the Bible is a Divine revelation.
It is so obvious to every reasonable being, that he did not make himself and the world which he inhabits, could as little make itself, than the moment we begin to exercise the power of reflection, it seems impossible to escape the conviction that there is a Creator." (12)
"It begins by relating the commands of God to Abraham, to abandon his country, his kindred, and his father's house, and to go to a land which he would show him.
This command was accompanied by two promises, from which and from their fulfilment arose the differences which I have just noticed between the history of the Jews and that of every other nation. The first of these promises was that, 'God would make Abraham a great nation, and bless him.' The second, and incomparably the most important was that, 'in him all the families of the earth should be blessed.' This promise was made about two thousands years before the birth of Christ, and in him had its fulfilment. When Abraham, in obedience to the command of God, had gone into the land of Canaan, the Lord appears unto him and made him a third promise, which was that he should give that land to a nation which should descend from him, as a possession: this was fulfilled between five and six hundred years afterward. In reading all the historical books of both the Old and the New Testament, as well as the books of the prophets, you should always bear in mind the reference which they have to these three promises of God to Abraham. All the history is no more than a narrative of the particular manner, and the detail of events by which those promises were fulfilled." (22)
"In the account of the creation, we are informed that God, after having made the world, created the first human pair, and 'gave them dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' He gave them also 'every herb bearing seed, and the fruit of every tree for meat.' And, all this we are told, 'God saw was very good.' Thus, the immediate possession of everything was given them, and its perpetual enjoyment secured to their descendants on condition of abstaining from the 'fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.' It is altogether immaterial to my present remarks whether the narrative is to be understood in a literal or allegorical sense, as not only the knowledge, but the possession of created good was granted. The fruit of the tree could confer upon them no knowledge but that of evil, and the command was nothing more than to abstain from that knowledge - to forbear from rushing upon their own destruction.
It is not sufficient to say that this was a command in its own nature light and easy. It was a command to pursue the only law of their nature, to keep the happiness that had been heaped upon them without measure." (23)
"The obedience required of Adam, was merely to retain all the blessings he enjoyed. The obedience of Abraham was to sacrifice all that he possessed for the vague and distant prospect of a future compensation to his posterity." (24)
"...let me call your attention, to the reason assigned by God for bestowing such extraordinary blessings upon Abraham. . . The rigorous trials of Abraham's obedience mentioned in this, and my last letter, were only tests to ascertain his character in reference to the single, and I may say abstract point of obedience. Here we have a precious gleam of light, disclosing what the nature of this will of God was, that he should command his children, and his household after him, by which the parental authority to instruct, and direct his descendants in the way of the Lord was given him as an authority, and enjoined upon him as a duty. And, the lessons which he was then empowered and required to teach his posterity were, 'to do justice and judgment.' Thus, as obedience to the will of God, is the first, and all-comprehensive virtue taught in the Bible, so the second is justice and judgment toward mankind, and this is exhibited as the result naturally following fro the other. In the same chapter is related the intercession of Abraham with God for the preservation of Sodom from destruction. The city was destroyed for its crimes, but the Lord promised Abraham it should be spared, if only ten righteous should be found in it. The principle of mercy was, therefore, sanctioned in immediate connection with that of justice." (27)
"For Mr. Adams, the key to right living was right revelation. That is, he believed it was necessary to have a right understanding of God if an individual was to enjoy a right understanding of living." (40)
"The law was given not merely in the form of a commandment from God, but in the form of a covenant or compact between the Supreme Creator and the Jewish people." (41)
"The prophetical books are themselves historical - for prophecy, in the strictest sense, is no more than history related before the event." (42)
"The purposes of the Supreme Creator in restricting the knowledge of himself to one petty herd of Egyptian slaves, are as inaccessible to our intelligence as those of his having concealed from them, and from the rest of mankind, the certain knowledge of their own immortality. Yet, the fact is unquestionable. The mission of Christ was intended to communicate to the whole human race all the permanent advantages of the Mosaic law, superadding to them - upon the condition of repentance - the kingdom of heaven, the blessing of eternal life." (49)
"The language of Christ to his disciples is explicit:'Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect' - and this he enjoins at the conclusion of that precept, so expressly laid down, and so unanswerably argued, to 'love their enemies, to bless those who curse them, and pray for those who despitefully used and persecuted them.' He seems to consider the temper of love in return for injury, as constituting of itself a perfection similar to that of the Divine nature. . . It was practiced by himself throughout his life; practiced to the last instant of his agony on the cross; practiced under circumstances of trial, such as no other human being was ever exposed to. He proved by his own example the possibility of that virtue which he taught, and although possessed of miraculous powers sufficient to control all the laws of nature, he expressly and repeatedly declined the use of them to save himself from any part of the sufferings which he was able to endure." (50)
"The sum of Christian morality, then, consists in fidelity to God, and love to man. Fidelity to God, manifested, not by formal, solemn rites and sacrifices of burnt-offerings, but by repentance, by obedience, by submission, by humility, by the worship of the heart, and by benevolence - not founded upon selfish motives, but superior even to a sense of wrong, or the resentment of injuries." (51)
"If someone objects, saying that the principles of love toward enemies and the forgiveness of injuries may be found not only in the Old Testament, but even in some of the heathen writers, particularly the discourses of Socrates, I answer, that the same may. be said of the immortality of the soul, and of the rewards and punishments of a future state. The doctrine was not more a discovery than the precept; but their connection with each other, the authority with which they were taught, and the miracles by which they were enforced, belong exclusively to the mission of Christ." (52)
"The weakness and frailty of our nature, it is not possible to deny - it is too strongly tested by all human experience, as well as by the whole tenor of the Scriptures, but the degree of weakness bust be measured by efforts to overcome it, and not by indulgence to it. Once admit weakness as an argument to forbear exertion, and it results in absolute impotence. It is also very inconclusive reasoning to infer, that because perfection is not absolutely to be obtained, it is therefore not to be sought." (55)
"Endeavor, my dear son, to discipline your heart and to govern your conduct by these principles thus combined. Be meek, be gentle, be kindly affectionate to all mankind - not excluding your enemies. But, never be 'tame or abject;' never give way to the pushes of impudence, or show yourself yielding or complying to prejudice, wrong-headedness, or intractability, which would lead or draw you astray from the dictates of your own conscience, and your own sense of right: 'till you die, let not your integrity depart from you.' Build your house upon the rock, and then let the rains descend, and the flood come, and the winds blow and beat upon that house - 'it shall not fall, it will be founded upon a rock.'" (59)
"That it [writing] was an Egyptian invention, there is little doubt; and it was a part of that learning of the Egyptians, in all of which we were told, 'Moses was versed.' It is probable that when Moses wrote, this act was - if not absolutely recent - of no very remote invention. . .
The art of writing, speaking, and thinking, with their several modifications of grammar, rhetoric, and logic, were never cultivated among the Hebrews, as they were (though not till a thousand years later than Moses) among the Greeks." (61)
"I, therefore, recommend to you to set apart a small portion of every day to read one or more chapters of the Bible, and always read it with reference to some particular train of observation or reflection. In these letters, I have suggested to you four general ones. Considering the Scriptures as Divine Revelations, as historical records, as a system of morals, and as literary compositions.
There are many other points of view in which they may be subjects of useful investigation. As an expedient for fixing your attention, make it also a practice for some time, to write down your reflections upon what you read from day to day. You. may perhaps at first find this irksome and your reflections scanty and unimportant, but they will soon become both easy and copious. Be careful of all not to let your reading make you a pedant or a bigot. Let it never puff you up with pride or a conceited opinion of your own knowledge, nor make you intolerant of the opinions which others draw from the same source, however different from your own. And may the merciful Creator, who gave the Scriptures for our instruction, bless your study of them, and make them to you ' fruitful of good works.'
Your affectionate Father,
John Quincy Adams" (665)
"From 1811 to 1813, John Quincy penned nine letters on the importance of Bible study. Though his primary intent is to provide his son with basic knowledge helpful in the study and use of the Bible, he is mindful of his duty to all his children, and for this reason, asked his son to collect his letters on the subject, saying, 'I wish that hereafter they may be useful to your brothers and sisters, as well as to you.' Readers studying carefully the content of these letters cannot help but be taken back by the realization that the first letter was written to a ten-year-old, who was likely no more than twelve when the last letter was written." (3)
"As a time when America's Christian origin has been placed under deep suspicion, it is critical that contemporary voices communicate historical truth with the voice of continuity. That is, fidelity to America's Christian heritage means - in part - that the contemporary message of America's heritage should find continuity with the voices of previous generations." (4)
"But, I hope you have now arrived at an age to understand that reading - even in the Bible - is a thing in itself neither good nor bad, but that all the good which can be drawn from it is by the use and improvement of what you have read, with the help of your own reflection. Young people sometimes boast of how many books and how much they have read, when, instead of boasting, they ought to be ashamed of having wasted so much time to so little profit." (7)
"And, feeling and deploring my own frailties, I can only pray Almighty God for the aid of his Spirit to strengthen my good desires and to subdue my propensities to evil, for it is from him that every good and every perfect gift descends. My custom is, to read four or five chapters every morning, immediately after rising from my bed. It employs about an hour of my time, and seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day." (7)
"In your infancy and youth, you have been, and will be for some years, under the authority and control of your friends and instructors, but you must soon come to the age when you must govern yourself. You have already come to that age in many respects." (10)
"There are three points of doctrine, the belief of which, forms the foundation of all morality. The first is, the existence of a God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is, a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these articles of faith, and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains, or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy. It is possible to believe them all without believing that the Bible is a Divine revelation.
It is so obvious to every reasonable being, that he did not make himself and the world which he inhabits, could as little make itself, than the moment we begin to exercise the power of reflection, it seems impossible to escape the conviction that there is a Creator." (12)
"It begins by relating the commands of God to Abraham, to abandon his country, his kindred, and his father's house, and to go to a land which he would show him.
This command was accompanied by two promises, from which and from their fulfilment arose the differences which I have just noticed between the history of the Jews and that of every other nation. The first of these promises was that, 'God would make Abraham a great nation, and bless him.' The second, and incomparably the most important was that, 'in him all the families of the earth should be blessed.' This promise was made about two thousands years before the birth of Christ, and in him had its fulfilment. When Abraham, in obedience to the command of God, had gone into the land of Canaan, the Lord appears unto him and made him a third promise, which was that he should give that land to a nation which should descend from him, as a possession: this was fulfilled between five and six hundred years afterward. In reading all the historical books of both the Old and the New Testament, as well as the books of the prophets, you should always bear in mind the reference which they have to these three promises of God to Abraham. All the history is no more than a narrative of the particular manner, and the detail of events by which those promises were fulfilled." (22)
"In the account of the creation, we are informed that God, after having made the world, created the first human pair, and 'gave them dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' He gave them also 'every herb bearing seed, and the fruit of every tree for meat.' And, all this we are told, 'God saw was very good.' Thus, the immediate possession of everything was given them, and its perpetual enjoyment secured to their descendants on condition of abstaining from the 'fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.' It is altogether immaterial to my present remarks whether the narrative is to be understood in a literal or allegorical sense, as not only the knowledge, but the possession of created good was granted. The fruit of the tree could confer upon them no knowledge but that of evil, and the command was nothing more than to abstain from that knowledge - to forbear from rushing upon their own destruction.
It is not sufficient to say that this was a command in its own nature light and easy. It was a command to pursue the only law of their nature, to keep the happiness that had been heaped upon them without measure." (23)
"The obedience required of Adam, was merely to retain all the blessings he enjoyed. The obedience of Abraham was to sacrifice all that he possessed for the vague and distant prospect of a future compensation to his posterity." (24)
"...let me call your attention, to the reason assigned by God for bestowing such extraordinary blessings upon Abraham. . . The rigorous trials of Abraham's obedience mentioned in this, and my last letter, were only tests to ascertain his character in reference to the single, and I may say abstract point of obedience. Here we have a precious gleam of light, disclosing what the nature of this will of God was, that he should command his children, and his household after him, by which the parental authority to instruct, and direct his descendants in the way of the Lord was given him as an authority, and enjoined upon him as a duty. And, the lessons which he was then empowered and required to teach his posterity were, 'to do justice and judgment.' Thus, as obedience to the will of God, is the first, and all-comprehensive virtue taught in the Bible, so the second is justice and judgment toward mankind, and this is exhibited as the result naturally following fro the other. In the same chapter is related the intercession of Abraham with God for the preservation of Sodom from destruction. The city was destroyed for its crimes, but the Lord promised Abraham it should be spared, if only ten righteous should be found in it. The principle of mercy was, therefore, sanctioned in immediate connection with that of justice." (27)
"For Mr. Adams, the key to right living was right revelation. That is, he believed it was necessary to have a right understanding of God if an individual was to enjoy a right understanding of living." (40)
"The law was given not merely in the form of a commandment from God, but in the form of a covenant or compact between the Supreme Creator and the Jewish people." (41)
"The prophetical books are themselves historical - for prophecy, in the strictest sense, is no more than history related before the event." (42)
"The purposes of the Supreme Creator in restricting the knowledge of himself to one petty herd of Egyptian slaves, are as inaccessible to our intelligence as those of his having concealed from them, and from the rest of mankind, the certain knowledge of their own immortality. Yet, the fact is unquestionable. The mission of Christ was intended to communicate to the whole human race all the permanent advantages of the Mosaic law, superadding to them - upon the condition of repentance - the kingdom of heaven, the blessing of eternal life." (49)
"The language of Christ to his disciples is explicit:'Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect' - and this he enjoins at the conclusion of that precept, so expressly laid down, and so unanswerably argued, to 'love their enemies, to bless those who curse them, and pray for those who despitefully used and persecuted them.' He seems to consider the temper of love in return for injury, as constituting of itself a perfection similar to that of the Divine nature. . . It was practiced by himself throughout his life; practiced to the last instant of his agony on the cross; practiced under circumstances of trial, such as no other human being was ever exposed to. He proved by his own example the possibility of that virtue which he taught, and although possessed of miraculous powers sufficient to control all the laws of nature, he expressly and repeatedly declined the use of them to save himself from any part of the sufferings which he was able to endure." (50)
"The sum of Christian morality, then, consists in fidelity to God, and love to man. Fidelity to God, manifested, not by formal, solemn rites and sacrifices of burnt-offerings, but by repentance, by obedience, by submission, by humility, by the worship of the heart, and by benevolence - not founded upon selfish motives, but superior even to a sense of wrong, or the resentment of injuries." (51)
"If someone objects, saying that the principles of love toward enemies and the forgiveness of injuries may be found not only in the Old Testament, but even in some of the heathen writers, particularly the discourses of Socrates, I answer, that the same may. be said of the immortality of the soul, and of the rewards and punishments of a future state. The doctrine was not more a discovery than the precept; but their connection with each other, the authority with which they were taught, and the miracles by which they were enforced, belong exclusively to the mission of Christ." (52)
"The weakness and frailty of our nature, it is not possible to deny - it is too strongly tested by all human experience, as well as by the whole tenor of the Scriptures, but the degree of weakness bust be measured by efforts to overcome it, and not by indulgence to it. Once admit weakness as an argument to forbear exertion, and it results in absolute impotence. It is also very inconclusive reasoning to infer, that because perfection is not absolutely to be obtained, it is therefore not to be sought." (55)
"Endeavor, my dear son, to discipline your heart and to govern your conduct by these principles thus combined. Be meek, be gentle, be kindly affectionate to all mankind - not excluding your enemies. But, never be 'tame or abject;' never give way to the pushes of impudence, or show yourself yielding or complying to prejudice, wrong-headedness, or intractability, which would lead or draw you astray from the dictates of your own conscience, and your own sense of right: 'till you die, let not your integrity depart from you.' Build your house upon the rock, and then let the rains descend, and the flood come, and the winds blow and beat upon that house - 'it shall not fall, it will be founded upon a rock.'" (59)
"That it [writing] was an Egyptian invention, there is little doubt; and it was a part of that learning of the Egyptians, in all of which we were told, 'Moses was versed.' It is probable that when Moses wrote, this act was - if not absolutely recent - of no very remote invention. . .
The art of writing, speaking, and thinking, with their several modifications of grammar, rhetoric, and logic, were never cultivated among the Hebrews, as they were (though not till a thousand years later than Moses) among the Greeks." (61)
"I, therefore, recommend to you to set apart a small portion of every day to read one or more chapters of the Bible, and always read it with reference to some particular train of observation or reflection. In these letters, I have suggested to you four general ones. Considering the Scriptures as Divine Revelations, as historical records, as a system of morals, and as literary compositions.
There are many other points of view in which they may be subjects of useful investigation. As an expedient for fixing your attention, make it also a practice for some time, to write down your reflections upon what you read from day to day. You. may perhaps at first find this irksome and your reflections scanty and unimportant, but they will soon become both easy and copious. Be careful of all not to let your reading make you a pedant or a bigot. Let it never puff you up with pride or a conceited opinion of your own knowledge, nor make you intolerant of the opinions which others draw from the same source, however different from your own. And may the merciful Creator, who gave the Scriptures for our instruction, bless your study of them, and make them to you ' fruitful of good works.'
Your affectionate Father,
John Quincy Adams" (665)
May 21, 2017
Adams Dedication to the Scriptures and His Son
I am grateful for the individual who put this to Kindle format. JQ Adams definitely was a great student of the scriptures. These letters capture his testimony of the scriptures and his love and dedication to his son. These are a great asset to my library.
I am grateful for the individual who put this to Kindle format. JQ Adams definitely was a great student of the scriptures. These letters capture his testimony of the scriptures and his love and dedication to his son. These are a great asset to my library.
June 7, 2023
It is absolutely amazing that a president of the United States of America knew the Bible and its teachings, and that he knew how to teach others about it.
December 9, 2019
Awesome!
Thoroughly enjoyed his understanding of the scriptures and the finished work of the cross. Love indeed is the fulfilling of the law.
Thoroughly enjoyed his understanding of the scriptures and the finished work of the cross. Love indeed is the fulfilling of the law.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews