In my office I have my grandfather’s bible from his time in the Army in World War I. It’s a very precious momenento for me, both for it’s significance to my family and for the historical significance of it. This pocket bible is like the many that soldiers carried with them in battle across Europe and the world. President Woodrow Wilson, devout Presbyterian and son of a minister, wrote a letter that is in the front of the bible that is inspiring and a breath of fresh air when held against modern day politicians. Below is the letter – I hope that you are as inspired by it as I was when I first read it!
The White House
Washington
28 July 1917
The Bible is the word of life. I beg that you will read it and find this out for yourselves, –read, not little snatches here and there, but long passages that will really be the road to the heart of it. You will fin it full of real men and women not only but also of the things you have wondered about and been troubled about all your life, as men have been always; and the more you read the more it will become plain to you what things are worth while and what are not, what things make men happy, –loyalty, right dealing, speaking the truth, readiness to give everything for what they think their duty, and, most of all, the wish that they may have the approval of the Christ, who gave everything for them, –and the things that are guaranteed to make men unhappy, –selfishness, cowardice, greed, and everything that is low and mean. When you have read the Bible you will know that it is the Word of God, because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness, and your own duty.
Woodrow Wilson
