| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: faith in the Christ to come. If Cornelius had died before Christ, he
would have been saved because he believed in the Christ to come. But
because the Messiah had already come, Cornelius had to be apprized of
the fact. Since Christ has come we cannot be saved by faith in the
Christ to come, but we must believe that he has come. The object of
Peter's visit was to acquaint Cornelius with the fact that Christ was
no longer to be looked for, because He is here.
As to the contention of our opponents that Cornelius deserved grace and the
gift of the Holy Ghost, because he was devout and just, we say that these
attributes are the characteristics of a spiritual person who already has
faith in Christ, and not the characteristics of a Gentile or of natural man.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: would be presented to my senses, must originate in some human being
gifted by constitution with the power so to present them, and
having some motive so to do, I felt an interest in my theory which,
in its way, was rather philosophical than superstitious. And I can
sincerely say that I was in as tranquil a temper for observation as
any practical experimentalist could be in awaiting the effects of
some rare, though perhaps perilous, chemical combination. Of
course, the more I kept my mind detached from fancy, the more the
temper fitted for observation would be obtained; and I therefore
riveted eye and thought on the strong daylight sense in the page of
my Macaulay.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: miles along the windless night air, and its shadow lay far
abroad in the moonlight upon the glittering alkali. As we
continued to draw near, besides, a regular and panting throb
began to divide the silence. First it seemed to me like the
beating of a heart; and next it put into my mind the thought
of some giant, smothered under mountains and still, with
incalculable effort, fetching breath. I had heard of the
railway, though I had not seen it, and I turned to ask the
driver if this resembled it. But some look in his eye, some
pallor, whether of fear or moonlight on his face, caused the
words to die upon my lips. We continued, therefore, to
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