| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other.
It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces;
but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both
could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully.
The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because
of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe
to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose
that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the
providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he
Second Inaugural Address |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: poor miserable men and just because we are unworthy; unless it be some
one who desires no grace and absolution nor intends to reform.
But whoever would gladly obtain grace and consolation should impel
himself, and allow no one to frighten him away, but say: I, indeed,
would like to be worthy, but I come, not upon any worthiness, but upon
Thy Word, because Thou hast commanded it, as one who would gladly be
Thy disciple, no matter what becomes of my worthiness. But this is
difficult; for we always have this obstacle and hindrance to encounter,
that we look more upon ourselves than upon the Word and lips of Christ.
For nature desires so to act that it can stand and rest firmly on
itself, otherwise it refuses to make the approach. Let this suffice
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: thought Lyzhin, as he fell asleep, still hearing through the wall
his host's subdued, as it were bereaved, voice.
The examining magistrate did not sleep soundly. He felt hot and
uncomfortable, and it seemed to him in his sleep that he was not
at Von Taunitz's, and not in a soft clean bed, but still in the
hay at the Zemstvo hut, hearing the subdued voices of the
witnesses; he fancied that Lesnitsky was close by, not fifteen
paces away. In his dreams he remembered how the insurance agent,
black-haired and pale, wearing dusty high boots, had come into
the bookkeeper's office. "This is our insurance agent.
. . ."
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
