| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: Nevertheless, it must be known that such people as deprive themselves
of, and withdraw from, the Sacrament so long a time are not to be
considered Christians. For Christ has not instituted it to be treated
as a show, but has commanded His Christians to eat and drink it, and
thereby remember Him.
And, indeed, those who are true Christians and esteem the Sacrament
precious and holy will urge and impel themselves unto it. Yet that the
simple-minded and the weak who also would like to be Christians be the
more incited to consider the cause and need which ought to impel them,
we will treat somewhat of this point. For as in other matters
pertaining to faith, love, and patience, it is not enough to teach and
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: advantage by any betrayal of indifference. During the first year
of her widowhood their friendship dragged on with halting renewals
of sentiment, becoming more and more a banquet of empty dishes
from which the covers were never removed; then Glennard went to
New York to live and exchanged the faded pleasures of intercourse
for the comparative novelty of correspondence. Her letters, oddly
enough, seemed at first to bring her nearer than her presence.
She had adopted, and she successfully maintained, a note as
affectionately impersonal as his own; she wrote ardently of her
work, she questioned him about his, she even bantered him on the
inevitable pretty girl who was certain before long to divert the
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