| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: valid; for (as the Canon says) no vow ought to bind men to
wickedness.
Paul says, Gal. 5, 4: Christ is become of no effect unto you,
whosoever of you are justified by the Law, ye are fallen from
grace. To those, therefore, who want to be justified by their
vows Christ is made of no effect, and they fall from grace.
For also these who ascribe justification to vows ascribe to
their own works that which properly belongs to the glory of
Christ.
Nor can it be denied, indeed, that the monks have taught that,
by their vows and observances, they were justified, and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: pardon, calling execrations upon his family, his sister, and David.
"I had such faith in you!" she said. "M. de Cante-Croix had an adored
mother; but to win a letter from me, and the words, 'I am satisfied,'
he fell in the thick of the fight. And now, when I ask you to take a
journey with me, you cannot think of giving up a wedding dinner for my
sake."
Lucien was ready to kill himself; his desperation was so unfeigned,
that Louise forgave him, though at the same time she made him feel
that he must redeem his mistake.
"Come, come," she said, "be discreet, and to-morrow at midnight be
upon the road, a hundred paces out of Mansle."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: victory crowned his arms.
At last we set forth for Silverado on foot. Kelmar and his
jolly Jew girls were full of the sentiment of Sunday outings,
breathed geniality and vagueness, and suffered a little vile
boy from the hotel to lead them here and there about the
woods. For three people all so old, so bulky in body, and
belonging to a race so venerable, they could not but surprise
us by their extreme and almost imbecile youthfulness of
spirit. They were only going to stay ten minutes at the Toll
House; had they not twenty long miles of road before them on
the other side? Stay to dinner? Not they! Put up the
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