| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Jew, Gentile, or barbarian in the dark
Of wildernesses that are not so much
As names yet in a book. And there are many,
Finding at last that words are not the Word,
And finding only that, will flourish aloft,
Like heads of captured Pharisees on pikes,
Our contradictions and discrepancies;
And there are many more will hang themselves
Upon the letter, seeing not in the Word
The friend of all who fail, and in their faith
A sword of excellence to cut them down.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: with the earlier pagan creeds and is for the most part a
re-statement and renewed expression of world-wide doctrines
whose first genesis is lost in the haze of the past, beyond all
recorded history.
I have illustrated this view with regard to the doctrine of
Sin and Sacrifice. Let us take two or three other
illustrations. Let us take the doctrine of Re-birth or
Regeneration. The first few verses of St. John's Gospel are
occupied with the subject of salvation through rebirth or
regeneration. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God." . . . "Except a man be born of water
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: But the mother of Tamatea stood at Hiopa's side,
And shook for terror and joy like a girl that is a bride.
Night fell on the toilers, and first Hiopa the wise
Made the round of the house, visiting all with his eyes;
And all was piled to the eaves, and fuel blockaded the door;
And within, in the house beleaguered, slumbered the forty score.
Then was an aito dispatched and came with fire in his hand,
And Hiopa took it. - "Within," said he, "is the life of a land;
And behold! I breathe on the coal, I breathe on the dales of the east,
And silence falls on forest and shore; the voice of the feast
Is quenched, and the smoke of cooking; the rooftree decays and falls
Ballads |
