William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), who was known as the "Father of American Poets," became popular for his poetry, which included such titles as: Thanatopsis, To a Waterfowl, The Death of the Flowers and To the Fringed Gentian.  He was the editor-in-chief of the New York Evening Post for fifty years.  William Cullen Bryant wrote:

"The sacredness of the Bible awes me, and I approach it with the same sort of reverential feeling that an ancient Hebrew might be supposed to feel who was about to touch the ark of God with unhallowed hands."  - Park Goodwin, Life of William Cullen Bryant.  Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 57.

"The very men who, in the pride of their investigations into the secrets of the internal world, turn a look of scorn upon the Christian system of belief, are not aware how much of the peace and order of society, how much the happiness of households and the purest of those who are the dearest to them, are owing to the influence of that religion extending beyond their sphere....

"In my view, the life, the teachings, the labors, and the sufferings of the blessed Jesus, there can be no admiration too profound, no love of which the human heart is capable too warm, no gratitude too earnest and deep of which He is justly the object."  - John Bigelow, Life of William Cullen Bryant, p. 275.  Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 57-58.