| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great
contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies
of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress
of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known
to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory
and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction
in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--
all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered
from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war,
Second Inaugural Address |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: Your mouth has a humorous, tremulous, half-shy sweetness,
Your eyes are April grey. . . .with jonquils in them?'
No, if I tell at all, I shall tell in silence . . .
I'll say--my childhood broke through chords of music
--Or were they chords of sun?--wherein fell shadows,
Or silences; I rose through seas of sunlight;
Or sometimes found a darkness stooped above me
With wings of death, and a face of cold clear beauty. .
I lay in the warm sweet grass on a blue May morning,
My chin in a dandelion, my hands in clover,
And drowsed there like a bee. . . .blue days behind me
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: [and every single one of them] are not to be borne, and are
not only without the Word of God, without necessity, not
commanded, but are against the chief article. For the merit of
Christ is [apprehended and] obtained not by our works or
pence, but from grace through faith, without money and merit;
and is offered [and presented] not through the power of the
Pope, but through the preaching of God's Word.
Of the Invocation of Saints.
The invocation of saints is also one of the abuses of
Antichrist conflicting with the chief article, and destroys
the knowledge of Christ. Neither is it commanded nor
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