| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: serve and be useful to others in all that he does; having nothing
before his eyes but the necessities and the advantage of his
neighbour. Thus the Apostle commands us to work with our own
hands, that we may have to give to those that need. He might have
said, that we may support ourselves; but he tells us to give to
those that need. It is the part of a Christian to take care of
his own body for the very purpose that, by its soundness and
well-being, he may be enabled to labour, and to acquire and
preserve property, for the aid of those who are in want, that
thus the stronger member may serve the weaker member, and we may
be children of God, thoughtful and busy one for another, bearing
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: anger, and his blood well-nigh curdled at the tidings.
Immediately he bade call one Araches, who held the second rank
after the king, and was the chief in all his private councils:
besides which the man was learned in star-lore. When he was
come, with much despondency and dejection the king told him of
that which had happened. He, seeing the king's trouble and
confusion of mind, said, "O king, trouble and distress thyself no
more. We are not without hope that the prince will yet change
for the better: nay, I know for very certain that he will
speedily renounce the teaching of this deceiver, and conform to
thy will."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: want of occupation, the listless and horrible vacancy of your
hours, you will feel as anxious to hear those shrieks, as you were
at first terrified to hear them,--when you will watch for the
ravings of your next neighbor, as you would for a scene on the
stage. All humanity will be extinguished in you. The ravings of
these wretches will become at once your sport and your torture.
You will watch for the sounds, to mock them with the grimaces and
bellowings of a fiend. The mind has a power of accommodating
itself to its situation, that you will experience in its most
frightful and deplorable efficacy. Then comes the dreadful doubt
of one's own sanity, the terrible announcer that THAT doubt will
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