| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: human observation. Besides, the bare idea of a foreign bogus was
not very terrifying. The Chinese possessed too many familiar devils
of their own. But there was another and a much deeper reason, which
we shall come to later, why Christianity made but little headway in
the Far East.
But it is by no means in externals only that the two religions are
alike. If the first glance at them awakens that peculiar sensation
which most of us have felt at some time or other, a sense of having
seen all this before, further scrutiny reveals a deeper agreement
than merely in appearances.
In passing from the surface into the substance, it may be mentioned
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: reflections, whether you do eventually recover or not. Does the
idea of death appal you very much?'
'It's just the only thing I can't bear to think of; so if you've
any - '
'But it must come some time,' interrupted I, 'and if it be years
hence, it will as certainly overtake you as if it came to-day, -
and no doubt be as unwelcome then as now, unless you - '
'Oh, hang it! don't torment me with your preachments now, unless
you want to kill me outright. I can't stand it, I tell you. I've
sufferings enough without that. If you think there's danger, save
me from it; and then, in gratitude, I'll hear whatever you like to
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
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: We are not like these Jews, the children of the bondwoman, the Law, who
were cast out of the house by Jesus. We are children of the promise like
Isaac, born of grace and faith unto an everlasting inheritance.
VERSE 29. But as that he that was born after the flesh persecuted him
that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
This is a cheering thought. We who are born of the Gospel, and live in
Christ, and rejoice in our inheritance, have Ishmael for our enemy. The
children of the Law will always persecute the children of the Gospel. This is
our daily experience. Our opponents tell us that everything was at peace
before the Gospel was revived by us. Since then the whole world has been
upset. People blame us and the Gospel for everything, for the disobedience
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