| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: which shows the high demeanour in question to have been altogether in
keeping with the master's rational purpose.[7] Hermogenes says that,
seeing Socrates discoursing on every topic rather than that of his
impending trial, he roundly put it to him whether he ought not to be
debating the line of his defence, to which Socrates in the first
instance answered: "What! do I not seem to you to have spent my whole
life in meditating my defence?" And when Hermogenes asked him, "How?"
he added: "By a lifelong persistence in doing nothing wrong, and that
I take to be the finest practice for his defence which a man could
devise." Presently reverting to the topic, Hermogenes demanded: "Do
you not see, SOcrates, how often Athenian juries[8] are constrained by
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: pray that God would not suffer us to become weary and faint and to
relapse into sin, shame, and unbelief. For otherwise it is impossible
to overcome even the least temptation.
This, then, is leading us not into temptation, to wit, when He gives us
power and strength to resist, the temptation, however, not being taken
away or removed. For while we live in the flesh and have the devil
about us, no one can escape temptation and allurements; and it cannot
be otherwise than that we must endure trials, yea, be engulfed in them;
but we pray for this, that we may not fall and be drowned in them.
To feel temptation is therefore a far different thing from consenting
or yielding to it. We must all feel it, although not all in the same
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: have learned this, I will set you free."
Then the Brownies bore him to a high, dark rock, and, entering a
little door, led him to a small cell, dimly lighted by a crevice
through which came a single gleam of sunlight; and there, through
long, long days, poor Thistle sat alone, and gazed with wistful eyes
at the little opening, longing to be out on the green earth. No one
came to him, but the silent Brownies who brought his daily food; and
with bitter tears he wept for Lily-Bell, mourning his cruelty and
selfishness, seeking to do some kindly deed that might atone for his
wrong-doing.
A little vine that grew outside his prison rock came creeping up,
Flower Fables |
