[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 142 (Saturday, October 10, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S12284]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          NATIONAL BIBLE WEEK

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, one of our country's most important 
observances is National Bible Week sponsored by the National Bible 
Association. This year, as in the past, it will be observed by houses 
of worship and individuals of all faiths during the week in which 
Thanksgiving Day falls. That will be from Sunday, November 22 through 
Sunday, November 29.
  It is my great and underserved honor to be this year's congressional 
co-chair of that observance. In that capacity, I would like to 
recommend to all my colleagues, and to the American people, that, in 
this season of strife and division we look to National Bible Week as an 
opportunity to join together in prayerful reflection.
  The German poet Heinrich Heine called the Bible ``that great medicine 
chest of humanity,'' the greatest cure for the worst ills of mankind. 
And he observed how--during the great fire that destroyed the Second 
Temple of ancient Israel--the Jewish people rushed to save, not the 
gold and silver vessels of sacrifice, not the bejeweled breastplate of 
the High Priest, but their Scriptures. For the Word of God was the 
greatest treasure they had.
  It remains our greatest treasure today. The lessons it teaches, and 
the morality it commands, are the foundation on which a free people 
build self-government. In that sense, the Bible is the charter of our 
liberties. Daniel Webster put it this way: ``If we abide by the 
principles taught by the Bible, our country will go on prospering.''
  That has never been a partisan sentiment, and neither should it be so 
today. Two great political rivals of the early twentieth century, both 
of whom achieved the Presidency and attained world leadership, agreed 
on this one point.
  Teddy Roosevelt said, ``A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth 
more than a college education.'' And Woodrow Wilson, a university 
president at Princeton before reaching the White House, counselled, 
``When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God, 
because you will have found in it the key to your own heart, your own 
happiness and your own duty.''
  Here in the Senate, as in the House of Representatives, there are 
several small Bible study groups. Members of all faiths regularly come 
together, away from the public spotlight, to learn from one another and 
seek inspiration from sacred Scripture.
  For my part, I find in those sessions both enlightenment and 
challenge. For any time we read the Bible with an open heart, we may 
find ourselves falling short, in some way, of the standard it sets for 
us and the promise it offers us.
  In that way, reading the Bible can be like a spiritual work-out. And 
if, in the process, we feel the spiritual equivalent of a few sore 
muscles, we can remember the saying, ``No pain, no gain.'' And the gain 
that Scripture offers lasts a lifetime--and even longer.
  For that reason, it is especially appropriate that Thanksgiving Day 
comes during National Bible Week, for the Bible itself is something for 
which we should give thanks, on that day and every day.

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