| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: words, "Oh, my son," were but a murmur.
"Is this one going to die in our hands too?" said the turnkey.
"No; it is impossible!" Jacques Collin went on, raising himself and
looking at the two witnesses of the scene with a dead, cold eye. "You
are mistaken; it is not Lucien; you did not see. A man cannot hang
himself in one of these cells. Look--how could I hang myself here? All
Paris shall answer to me for that boy's life! God owes it to me."
The warder and the doctor were amazed in their turn--they, whom
nothing had astonished for many a long day.
On seeing the governor, Jacques Collin, crushed by the very violence
of this outburst of grief, seemed somewhat calmer.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Before Adam by Jack London: high in the water, and bobbed up and down or rolled
over when we put our weight upon them.
Here and there between the trunks were water-cracks,
and through them we could see schools of small fish,
like minnows, darting back and forth. Lop-Ear and I
became fishermen at once. Lying flat on the logs,
keeping perfectly quiet, waiting till the minnows came
close, we would make swift passes with our hands. Our
prizes we ate on the spot, wriggling and moist. We did
not notice the lack of salt.
The mouth of the slough became our favorite playground.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: in the Decrees, Chrysostom is quoted, who says thus: I say not
to you that you should disclose yourself in public, nor that
you accuse yourself before others, but I would have you obey
the prophet who says: "Disclose thy self before God."
Therefore confess your sins before God, the true Judge, with
prayer. Tell your errors, not with the tongue, but with the
memory of your conscience, etc. And the Gloss (Of Repentance,
Distinct. V, Cap. Consideret) admits that Confession is of
human right only [not commanded by Scripture, but ordained by
the Church]. Nevertheless, on account of the great benefit of
absolution, and because it is otherwise useful to the
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