December 3

"I say to you: Search the Scriptures! The bible is the book of all others, to be read at all ages, and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once or twice or thrice...but to be read in small portions every day."

John Quincy Adams, 6th President, 1825-1829- from a letter to the officers of a Baltimore Literary Society, June 22, 1838,apparently in reply to a request for a recommended reading list: "... I could scarcely name any list of books, or of authors, which I could recommend as equally worthy of attention to you all. The first, and almost the only book, deserving such universal recommendation, is THE BIBLE—The Bible is the book, of all others, to be read at all ages, and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once or twice or thrice through, and then to be laid aside but to be read in small portions of one or two chapters, every day, and never to be intermitted, unless by some overruling necessity...attentive and repeated reading of the Bible, in small portions every day, leads the mind to habitual meditation upon subjects of the highest interest to the welfare of the individual in this world...It furnishes rules of conduct for our conduct towards others in our social relations... If ever you tire of them in seeking for a rule of faith and a standard of morals, search them as records of history... It is a book which neither the most ignorant and weakest, nor the most learned and intelligent mind can read without improvement." I remain your friend and fellow-student for life, J. Q. ADAMS.