Conveying the Bible by David Barton

John Jay, as the Court’s first Chief Justice, was, along with James Wilson, an original member of the Supreme Court. You may recall that John Jay was a founding vice-president of the American Bible Society. Five years after he helped found that organization, he became its second president upon the death of its original president, Elias Boudinot.

The annual speeches John Jay delivered to the American Bible Society as its president are powerful declarations of his own beliefs the court’s first chief justices: john jay (top left), john rutledge (top right) oliver ellsworth (lower left), and john marshall (lower right) about the efficacy of the Bible. For example, in one of those speeches, Chief Justice John Jay declared:

David Barton tells us that by conveying the Bible to people . . . we certainly do them a most interesting act of kindness. We thereby enable them to learn that man was originally created and placed in a state of happiness, but, becoming disobedient, was subjected to the degradation and evils which he and his posterity have since experienced. The Bible will also inform them that our gracious Creator has provided for us a Redeemer in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed – that this Redeemer has made atonement “for the sins of the whole world,” and thereby reconciling the Divine justice with the Divine mercy, has opened a way for our redemption and salvation; and that these inestimable benefits are of the free gift and grace of God, not of our deserving, nor in our power to deserve.

The Bible will also [encourage] them with many explicit and consoling assurances of the Divine mercy to our fallen race, and with repeated invitations to accept the offers of pardon and reconciliation. . . . They, therefore, who enlist in His service, have the highest encouragement to fulfil the duties assigned to their respective stations; for most certain it is, that those of His followers who [participate in] His conquests will also participate in the transcendent glories and blessings of His Triumph. 86