This is a reading from a sermon delivered in 1630 by the Pilgrim leader, John Winthrop, who was aboard the ship The Arabella on his way from England to the Massachusetts Bay colony. The city on the hill passage was referenced by President Reagan in several notable speeches.

Now, the only way to provide for our posterity is to follow the council of Micah, to do justly, to walk humbly with our god. We must delight in each other. Make others' conditions our own, rejoice together. Mourn together. Labor and suffer together. Always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work as members of the same body. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us as his own people. For 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 in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world.