| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less
fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray
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
Second Inaugural Address |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: [4] Lit. "harmosts"; and for the taste of living abroad, see what is
said of Dercylidas, "Hell." IV. iii. 2. The harmosts were not
removed till just before Leuctra (371 B.C.), "Hell." VI. iv. 1,
and after, see Paus. VIII. lii. 4; IX. lxiv.
[5] See Plut. "Lycurg." 30 (Clough, i. 124).
[6] This passage would seem to fix the date of the chapter xiv. as
about the time of the Athenian confederacy of 378 B.C.; "Hell." V.
iv. 34; "Rev." v. 6. See also Isocr. "Panegyr." 380 B.C.; Grote,
"H. G." ix. 325. See the text of a treaty between Athens, Chios,
Mytilene, and Byzantium; Kohler, "Herm." v. 10; Rangabe, "Antiq.
Hellen." ii. 40, 373; Naumann, op. cit. 26.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Koran: what you do is ever well aware. And rely upon God, for God is guardian
enough.
God has not made for any man two hearts in his inside; nor has He
made your wives,- whom you back away from,- your real mothers; nor has
He made your adopted sons your real sons. That is what ye speak with
your mouths; but God speaks the truth and He guides to the path!
Call them by their fathers' names; that is more just in God's sight;
but if ye know not their fathers, then they are your brothers in
religion and your clients. There is no crime against you for what
mistakes ye make therein; but what your hearts do purposely-but God is
ever forgiving and merciful.
The Koran |
