In 1630, four ships with 700 Puritan immigrants set sail for “New England.” At that time, John Winthrop (who was a preacher and a lawyer) gave this prophetic sermon to the Puritan settlers. His sermon is just as relevant today as it was then: You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. —Matthew 5:14
Now the only way to avoid failure, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah 6:8 "to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God."
We must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must approach one other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our excess, for the supply of others’ necessities. We must commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality.
We must delight in each other; make other’s conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as his own people, and will command a blessing upon us. So that we shall see much more of his wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when he shall make us a praise and glory so that people shall say of successive endeavors, “the Lord make it like that of New England.”
We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God. We shall shame God’s worthy servants, and cause curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land where we are going.
Beloved there is now set before us life and good, death and evil, in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us.
But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other gods, and pleasures and profits, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land. Therefore, let us choose life that we, and our seed may live, by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him, for He is our life and our prosperity. John Winthrop, 1630 A.D.,
Abridged and updated. 
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