| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: the personal indignities offered him as a colored man, sometimes
becomes a hyper-sensitiveness to such assaults as men of his mark
will meet with, on paper. Keen and unscrupulous opponents have
sought, and not unsuccessfully, to pierce him in this direction;
for well they know, that if assailed, he will smite back.
It is not without a feeling of pride, dear reader, that I present
you with this book. The son of a self-emancipated bond-woman, I
feel joy in introducing to you my brother, who has rent his own
bonds, and who, in his every relation--as a public man, as a
husband and as a father--is such as does honor to the land which
gave him birth. I shall place this book in the hands of the only
My Bondage and My Freedom |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: himself readily infer that it is a far higher work than any work
performed by a man or a saint. For what work greater than the work of
God can we do?
But here the devil is busy to delude us with false appearances, and
lead us away from the work of God to our own works. For there is a much
more splendid appearance when a Carthusian does many great and
difficult works and we all think much more of that which we do and
merit ourselves. But the Scriptures teach thus: Even though we collect
in one mass the works of all the monks, however splendidly they may
shine, they would not be as noble and good as if God should pick up a
straw. Why? Because the person is nobler and better. Here, then, we
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: partridges with the air of a man proud of his office, and
asked him how these men had landed, as no vessel of any kind
was visible.
"Never mind that," returned the sailor, "I know their
vessel."
"Is it a very beautiful vessel?"
"I would not wish for a better to sail round the world."
"Of what burden is she?"
"About a hundred tons; but she is built to stand any
weather. She is what the English call a yacht."
"Where was she built?"
The Count of Monte Cristo |
