Baruch, Chapter 6, Verse 2-4
2 When
you reach Babylon you will be there many years, a long time—seven generations; after that I will bring you
back from there in peace. 3 And now in Babylon you will see gods of
silver and gold and wood, carried shoulder high, to cast fear upon the nations.
4 Take care that you yourselves do not become like these foreigners and
let not such fear possess you.
Do not let fear possess you!
Sometimes people lose hope when
they enter a strange land. John McCain highlights in his book Character is
Destiny[1] the hopefulness of John Winthrop who
left the security of his native country to face the dangers of an unknown world
to create and shape the character of a new civilization in America. Is there
still hope in this country He helped found? Only if we have hope!
John was a puritan and followed
the idea that they are to be in the world but not of the world. They should not
love earthly pleasures but neither should they shun the blessings of God. To be
humble and grateful and give hope to others, by being faithful and encouraging
in their own society. John believed men should strive to build a shining city
on the hill by putting ones duty to God and community before one’s own personal
desires and to never despair.
He wrote and preached the sermon,
“Model of Christian Charity”
to give hope to others. He led always by example and never, never gave up hope.
Today is also the birthday of Rene Descartes.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650), founder of
Analytical Geometry and Modern Philosophy[2]
1.
In the beginning of his Meditations (1641) Descartes wrote:
“I
have always been of the opinion that the two questions respecting God and the
Soul were the chief of those that ought to be determined by help of Philosophy
rather than of Theology; for although to us, the faithful, it be sufficient to
hold as matters of faith, that the human soul does not perish with the body,
and that God exists, it yet assuredly seems impossible ever to persuade
infidels of the reality of any religion, or almost even any moral virtue,
unless, first of all, those two things be proved to them by natural reason. And
since in this life there are frequently greater rewards held out to vice than to
virtue, few would prefer the right to the useful, if they were restrained
neither by the fear of God nor the expectation of another life.” (Descartes
1901).
2. “It is
absolutely true that we must believe in God, because it is also taught by the
Holy Scriptures. On the other hand, we must believe in the Sacred Scriptures
because they come from God.” (Descartes 1950, Letter of Dedication).
3.
“And thus I very clearly see that the certitude and truth of all science
depends on the knowledge alone of the true God, insomuch that, before I knew
him, I could have no perfect knowledge of any other thing. And now that I know
him, I possess the means of acquiring a perfect knowledge respecting
innumerable matters, as well relative to God himself and other intellectual
objects as to corporeal nature.” (Descartes 1901, Meditation V).
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