This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories,

the show where America is the star and the American people. If you want to

know about the history of America, it's imperative that you know the role that the Bible played

in shaping our country. Here to share another story is Robert Morgan, who is the author of 100

Bible verses that made America defining moments that shaped our enduring foundation of faith.

Let's take a listen.

Elijah Lovejoy was born in my wife's home state of Maine in 1802. His father was a congregational pastor and a farmer.

Lovejoy began reading his Bible at the age of four, and while still very young, he memorized the entire 119th Psalm, which is the longest chapter in the Bible, along with other passages and many

classic hymns. He later graduated at the top of his class and decided to move west to St. Louis.

His parents, concerned for his spiritual well-being, prayed earnestly for him, and their prayers were answered when he

wrote home telling them he had experienced a personal relationship with Christ during a

revival meeting. He also told them that he was entering the Presbyterian ministry. He enrolled

in Princeton, and as he grew in his knowledge of scripture, his convictions

about the abolition of slavery deepened. Within a year, Lovejoy was licensed to preach, and while on a

preaching circuit through Missouri, he met Celia and French, and in love with her and married her. Lovejoy didn't

confine his sermons to the pulpit. Returning to St. Louis, he became the editor of a weekly

Christian publication called the St. Louis Observer. The first issue rolled off the press on

November the 22nd of 1833.

In his opening editorial, Lovejoy wrote that his paper will seek no controversy, and it will decline none,

when by so doing it might compromise the purity of the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The observer became a

vehicle for teaching scripture, relating the news of the day, and interpreting the latter by the

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