[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 104 (Tuesday, August 2, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Richard C. Halverson, D.D., offered the 
following prayer:
  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh 
* * *.--Romans 8:3.
  Eternal God, the apostle Paul reminds us there are some things law 
cannot do. Even the perfect Law of God, as in the Ten Commandments, is 
limited in its power, because of the weakness of the flesh.
  Thou knowest the frustration--the sense of futility--which must touch 
the hearts and minds of the Senators and their committees. Long hours 
of hard work and debate finally produce a law as good as the human mind 
can conceive. And yet, the problem which the law was supposed to 
address not only does not stop, but grows.
  Patient God, help Your servants to see that the real problem is human 
nature itself--``the flesh,'' as Paul calls it. And that social and 
cultural disintegration are rooted in human weakness. Help them to see 
that the Bible addresses itself to this fundamental problem in history 
with solutions which are grounded in faith.
  In the name of Him who came to fulfill the law. Amen.

                          ____________________