QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“God creates, not that there may be witnesses to render Him His due glory, but beings who shall rejoice in it as He rejoices in it Himself and who, participating in His being, participate at the same time in His beatitude. It is not therefore for Himself, but for us, that God seeks His glory; it is not to gain it, for He possesses it already, nor to increase it, for already it is perfect, but to communicate it to us.”

~Étienne Gilson (1884-1978), French philosopher and historian

“There is something which unites magic and applied science (technology) while separating them from the ‘wisdom’ of earlier ages. For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline, and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique.”

~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), writer and scholar

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

~Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third U.S. President, inscription from the Jefferson Memorial

“God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.”

~Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), polymath and statesman

“…we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

~John Adams (1735-1826), second U.S. President

“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.”

~H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), journalist, scholar, cultural critic and outspoken atheist

“It is fatal to let people suppose that Christianity is only a mode of feeling; it is vitally necessary to insist that it is first and foremost a rational explanation of the universe.”

~Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), English novelist and playwright

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 33 (ESV)

1 Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!

   Praise befits the upright.

2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;

   make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!

3 Sing to him a new song;

   play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

4 For the word of the Lord is upright,

   and all his work is done in faithfulness.

5 He loves righteousness and justice;

   the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

   and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;

   he puts the deeps in storehouses.

8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;

   let all the inhabitants of the world

  stand in awe of him!

9 For he spoke, and it came to be;

   he commanded, and it stood firm.

10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations

  to nothing;

   he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

   the plans of his heart to all generations.

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

   the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

13 The Lord looks down from heaven;

   he sees all the children of man;

14 from where he sits enthroned he looks out

   on all the inhabitants of the earth,

15 he who fashions the hearts of them all

   and observes all their deeds.

16 The king is not saved by his great army;

   a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

17 The war horse is a false hope for salvation,

   and by its great might it cannot rescue.

18 Behold, the eye of the Lord

  is on those who fear him,

   on those who hope in his steadfast love,

19 that he may deliver their soul from death

   and keep them alive in famine.

20 Our soul waits for the Lord;

   he is our help and our shield.

21 For our heart is glad in him,

   because we trust in his holy name.

22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,

   even as we hope in you.