(March 11, 1785–April 4, 1861), was a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1829–61. He had served as a U.S. Representative from Ohio, 1813–16; a justice on the Supreme Court of Ohio, 1816–22; and the U.S. Postmaster General, 1823–29.
On November 4, 1852, in a letter from Chapel Wood, John McLean wrote to the American Bible Society:
No one can estimate or describe the salutary influence of the Bible. What would the world be without it? Compare the dark places of the earth, where the light of the Gospel has not penetrated, with those where it has been proclaimed and embraced in all its purity. Life and immortality are brought to light by the Scriptures.
Aside from Revelation, darkness rests upon the world and upon the future. There is no ray of light to shine upon our pathway; there is no star of hope. We begin our speculations as to our destiny in conjecture, and they end in uncertainty. We know not that there is a God, a heaven, or a hell, or any day of general account, when the wicked and the righteous shall be judged.
The Bible has shed a glorious light upon the world. It shows us that in the coming day we must answer for the deeds done in the body. It has opened us to a new and living way, so plainly marked out that no one can mistake it. The price paid for our redemption shows the value of our immortal souls.1862