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Benjamin Franklin
Franklin outlined his personal religious creed to Ezra Stiles in a letter written just
befare his death: "Here is my creed, 1believe in one God, Creator of the Universe.
That He governs it by His providence. That He ought to be worshipped. That the
most acceptable service we render Him is doing good to His other children .... As
to Jesus of Nazareth ...
1
think the system of morals and his religion, as he left
them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but
1
apprehend
it has
received various corrupt changes .. . " (In God We Trust,
pp. 18-19).
Like his colleague George Washington , Ben Franklin saw God in a national
setting. The following excerpt from a speech to the Constitutional Convention on
June 28, 1787, constitutes a perpetua! warning to this g reat country:
" ... The longer 1live the more convincing Proofs 1see of this Truth .
That God
governs in the Affairs of Men! -
And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without
his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid? - We have been
assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that 'except the Lord build the House, they
labour in vain that build it.' 1firmly believe this; - and 1al so believe that
without
his
concurring Aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the
Builders of Babel : we shall be divided by our little partiallocal interests, ou r
Projects will be confounded and we ourselves shall become a Reproach and a
Byeword down to future ages. "
The
PLAIN TRUTH July 1976
"Without his concurring
Aid .
. .
we
sha/1 be
divided by our little
partial local interests,
our Projects wJ!I be
confounded and we
ourselves sha/1 become
a Reproach anda
.
Byeword down to
future ages ."
19