| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: that of having the fresh clear water. One day as he was returning
from the well, he stumbled against the step of the stile, and his
brown pot, falling with force against the stones that overarched the
ditch below him, was broken in three pieces. Silas picked up the
pieces and carried them home with grief in his heart. The brown pot
could never be of use to him any more, but he stuck the bits
together and propped the ruin in its old place for a memorial.
This is the history of Silas Marner, until the fifteenth year after
he came to Raveloe. The livelong day he sat in his loom, his ear
filled with its monotony, his eyes bent close down on the slow
growth of sameness in the brownish web, his muscles moving with such
Silas Marner |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: first sat down, and in the movement he met the lady whom he had
seen praying and who was now on her way to the door. She passed
him quickly, and he had only a glimpse of her pale face and her
unconscious, almost sightless eyes. For that instant she looked
faded and handsome.
This was the origin of the rites more public, yet certainly
esoteric, that he at last found himself able to establish. It took
a long time, it took a year, and both the process and the result
would have been - for any who knew - a vivid picture of his good
faith. No one did know, in fact - no one but the bland
ecclesiastics whose acquaintance he had promptly sought, whose
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: Christ. Paul, Christ's apostle, declares that "Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." (Gal. 3:13.) I hear with my
own ears that I cannot be saved except by the blood and death of Christ. I
conclude, therefore, that it is up to Christ to overcome my sins, and not up
to the Law, or my own efforts. If He is the price of my redemption, if He
was made sin for my justification, I don't give a care if you quote me a
thousand Scripture passages for the righteousness of works against the
righteousness of faith. I have the Author and Lord of the Scriptures on my
side. I would rather believe Him than all that riffraff of "pious" law-
workers.
VERSE 11. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
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