Bryan – born

ON THIS DATE 

William Jennings Bryan was born 3/19/1860, Salem, IL, to Silas Lillard & Mariah Elizabeth (Jennings) Bryan. Silas was a Scotch-Irish, Jacksonian Democrat serving the state senate & later as state circuit judge.  WJB was home schooled to age ten using the Bible & McGuffey Readers, then attended Whipple Academy, & Illinois College (valedictorian) & Union Law College, later part of Northwestern Univ. (Chicago).  Though he attended both a Methodist & a Baptist church in his youth he became a Presbyterian.    

While he prepared for his bar exam he taught high school. In this era he married Mary Elizabeth Baird (10/1/1884), who also became a lawyer (they had two children).  They soon moved to Lincoln, NE where Bryan began his life in politics being elected to the Fifty-second & Fifty-third Congresses (3/4/1891 & 3/3/1895).  He is said to have “electrified” the Democratic Convention (1896) with his speech “Cross of Gold” & was selected as their presidential nominee.  He also ran (unsuccessfully) in 1900 & 1908.

He was Secretary of State under Wilson serving 3/4/1913 – 6/9/1915.  Bryan true to his convictions resigned, disagreeing with Wilson going to war with Germany. Bryan’s defense of the Bible (Scope’s Monkey Trial) was not a show – he believed the Great Book.  Bryan College (Dayton, TN, site of the trial) was erected in his memory. NOTE: Don’t believe all you read about Bryan – his opposition to evolution was/is not popular & makes him a target for pseudo scientists (1Ti 6.20) as they worship “science.” 

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William Jennings Bryan – birth, Mar. 19, 1860

…Self — the most popular of all the false gods…

                                – William Jennings Bryan, In His Image (NY: Fleming Revell Co., 1922), 75.

 

There is more science in the twenty-fourth verse of the first chapter of Genesis…than in all Darwin wrote.

                                – William Jennings Bryan, In His Image (NY: Fleming Revell Co., 1922), 94.

 

What shall it profit a man if he shall gain all the learning of the schools and lose his faith in God?

                                – William Jennings Bryan, In His Image (NY: Fleming Revell Co., 1922), 118.

 

…The worship of the intellect — an idolatry as deadly to spiritual progress as the worship of images…

                                – William Jennings Bryan, In His Image (NY: Fleming Revell Co., 1922), 127.

           

One can afford to be in a minority but he cannot afford to be wrong.

                                – William Jennings Bryan, In His Image (NY: Fleming Revell Co., 1922), 189.

 

…Confucius…Buddha…Mahomet…Hindu [followers of these] except where they have borrowed from Christian nations…have made no progress in fifteen hundred years.

                                – William Jennings Bryan, In His Image (NY: Fleming Revell Co., 1922), 202.

 

War is not a private affair; it disturbs the commerce of the world obstructs the ocean’s highways and kills innocent bystanders.

                                – William Jennings Bryan, In His Image (NY: Fleming Revell Co., 1922), 231.

 

The preacher should be the boldest of men because of the unselfish character of his work.

                                – William Jennings Bryan, In His Image (NY: Fleming Revell Co., 1922), 261.

William Jennings Bryan was born this date (3/19/1860) in Salem, IL.  He was Democratic contender for the US presidency three-times and Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson until he felt Wilson compromised and Bryan resigned.  He has been called America’s best-known fundamentalist between the uncivil war to the great depression.

 

As a Presbyterian layman, lawyer, and Christian, he defended and won (1925) for the state a victory against the teaching of evolution, in the Tennessee “Scopes Monkey Trial.  Bryan College is named for this great man.  He is also know for his “Cross of Gold” speech 7/8/1896, Chicago.

 

 

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