The Sermon on the Mount (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: Sermo in monte) is a collection of sayings and teachings of Jesus, which emphasizes his moral teaching found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6 and 7). It is the first of the Five Discourses of Matthew and takes place relatively early in the Ministry of Jesus after he has been baptized by John the Baptist and preached in Galilee.

The Sermon is the longest piece of teaching from Jesus in the New Testament, and has been one of the most widely quoted elements of the Canonical Gospels. It includes some of the best known teachings of Jesus such as the Beatitudes, and the widely recited Lord's Prayer. To most believers in Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount contains the central tenets of Christian discipleship.

The last verse of chapter 5 is a focal point that summarizes the teaching of the sermon: "be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect", advising the disciples or students to seek the path towards perfection and the Kingdom of God.

The Mountain Goats (stylized "the Mountain Goats") are an American folk rock band formed in Claremont, California by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle himself, despite the plural moniker.

Darnielle remains the sole core member of the band, but has worked with a variety of collaborators over the years, including bassist Peter Hughes, drummer Jon Wurster (of Superchunk), singer-songwriter Franklin Bruno, bassist and vocalist Rachel Ware, singer-songwriter/producer John Vanderslice, guitarist Kaki King, and Annie Clark (of St. Vincent).

Throughout the 1990s, the Mountain Goats were known for producing "militantly lo-fi" home recordings (most famously, on a boom box) and releasing recordings in cassette or vinyl 7" formats. Since 2002, the Mountain Goats have transitioned to a more polished approach, recording studio albums with a full band.

The Mountain Goats are currently based in Durham, North Carolina.

In 1991, Darnielle began performing under the name The Mountain Goats in Claremont, California, where he attended Pitzer College and worked as an electrical technician. The band's name is a reference to the Screamin' Jay Hawkins song "Yellow Coat". Darnielle released his first album, Taboo VI: The Homecoming, on Shrimper Records. Many of his first recordings and performances featured Darnielle accompanied by members of the all-girl reggae band The Casual Girls, who became known as The Bright Mountain Choir. One of this group's members, Rachel Ware, continued to accompany Darnielle on bass, both live and in studio, until 1995.

Abraham Lincoln ⁱ/ˈeɪbrəhæm ˈlɪŋkən/ (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union while ending slavery, and promoting economic and financial modernization. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was mostly self-educated. He became a country lawyer, a Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator in the 1830s, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives in the 1840s. After a series of debates in 1858 that gave national visibility to his opposition to the expansion of slavery, Lincoln lost a Senate race to his arch-rival Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln, a moderate from a swing state, secured the Republican Party nomination. With almost no support in the South he swept the North and was elected president in 1860. His election was the signal for seven southern slave states to declare their secession from the Union and form the Confederate States of America. The departure of the Southerners gave Lincoln's party firm control of Congress, but no formula for compromise or reconciliation was found. And the war came.

John Vernon McGee, Th.D., LL.D, (June 17, 1904 – December 1, 1988) was an ordained Presbyterian minister (PCUS) who later pastored an interdenominational church, a Bible teacher, theologian, and was also a radio minister.

He was born in Hillsboro, Texas. He graduated with his B.D. from Columbia Theological Seminary and his Th.M. and Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas. He served Presbyterian churches in Decatur, Georgia; Nashville, Tennessee; and Cleburne, Texas before he moved with his wife to Pasadena, California, where he accepted a position at the Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian Church.

He moved from Pasadena to Los Angeles and became the pastor of the Church of the Open Door in 1949, where he continued as pastor until 1970. McGee also served as chairman of the Bible department at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (a.k.a. Biola University) and as a visiting lecturer at Dallas Theological Seminary.

In 1967, he began the Thru the Bible Radio Network program. In a systematic study of each book of the Bible, Dr. McGee took his listeners from Genesis to Revelation in a two and one-half year "Bible bus trip," as he called it. After retiring from the pastorate in January, 1970, and realizing that two and a half years was not enough time to teach the Bible, McGee completed another study of the entire Bible in a five year period. Thru the Bible is broadcast on Trans World Radio in the UK and throughout the world every weekday.