| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: which had been open as now about the same season a year ago, when he
and Dorothea had stood within it and talked together. Her whole heart
was going out at this moment in sympathy with Will's indignation:
she only wanted to convince him that she had never done him injustice,
and he seemed to have turned away from her as if she too had been
part of the unfriendly world.
"It would be very unkind of you to suppose that I ever attributed
any meanness to you," she began. Then in her ardent way,
wanting to plead with him, she moved from her chair and went
in front of him to her old place in the window, saying, "Do you
suppose that I ever disbelieved in you?"
 Middlemarch |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Poor and Proud by Oliver Optic: He took a stick, and threw down a cent, without a word. One more
did her a similar favor, and she left the store well satisfied
with the visit. Pretty soon she came to a large piano-forte
manufactory, where she knew that a great many men were employed.
She went up-stairs to the counting-room, where she sold three
sticks, and was about to enter the work-room, when a sign, "No
admittance except on business," confronted her. Should she go on?
Did the sign refer to her? She had business there, but perhaps
they would not be willing to admit that her business was very
urgent, and she dreaded the indignity of being turned out again.
Her mother had told her there was always a right way and a wrong
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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: men do exceedingly trouble our city."
This man Luther is also accused of being a pestilent fellow who troubles
the papacy and the Roman empire. If I would keep silent, all would be well,
and the Pope would no more persecute me. The moment I open my mouth
the Pope begins to fume and to rage. It seems we must choose between
Christ and the Pope. Let the Pope perish.
Christ foresaw the reaction of the world to the Gospel. He said: "I am come
to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?"
(Luke 12:49.)
Do not take the statement of our opponents seriously, that no good can
come of the preaching of the Gospel. What do they know? They would not
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