| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: after our works, then it is all pure deception, outwardly
honoring God, but inwardly setting up self as a false god. This
is the reason why I have so often spoken against the display,
magnificence and multitude of such works and have rejected them,
because it is as clear as day that they are not only done in
doubt or without faith, but there is not one in a thousand who
does not set his confidence upon the works, expecting by them to
win God's favor and anticipate His grace; and so they make a fair
of them, a thing which God cannot endure, since He has promised
His grace freely, and wills that we begin by trusting that grace,
and in it perform all works, whatever they may be.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: would arrive upon the scene.
He put his ear to the ground, and it seemed to him as if he heard a
jarring and hollow noise from townward. Back to the beach he went
hurrying. But the work was already done; the last body was
disarmed and stripped to the skin, and four fellows were already
wading seaward to commit it to the mercies of the deep.
A few minutes later, when there debauched out of the nearest lanes
of Shoreby some two score horsemen, hastily arrayed and moving at
the gallop of their steeds, the neighbourhood of the house beside
the sea was entirely silent and deserted.
Meanwhile, Dick and his men had returned to the ale-house of the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: terribly base idea entered my head that, like the wife of Uri,
she wished to conceal a fault already committed, and that it was
for this reason that she came to see me at this unseasonable
hour. 'Is it possible,' thought I, 'that she is coming to see
me?' On hearing her step as it approached: 'If it is to see me
that she is coming, then I am right.'
"An inexpressible hatred invaded my soul. The steps drew nearer,
and nearer, and nearer yet. Would she pass by and go on to the
other room? No, the hinges creaked, and at the door her tall,
graceful, languid figure appeared. In her face, in her eyes, a
timidity, an insinuating expression, which she tried to hide, but
The Kreutzer Sonata |
