| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: [freely, and without their own works or merits] by His grace,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood,
Rom. 3, 23 f.
Now, since it is necessary to believe this, and it cannot be
otherwise acquired or apprehended by any work, law, or merit,
it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us as
St. Paul says, Rom. 3, 28: For we conclude that a man is
justified by faith, without the deeds of the Law. Likewise v.
26: That He might be just, and the Justifier of him which
believeth in Christ.
Of this article nothing can be yielded or surrendered [nor can
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: a man returned. Whither had they all gone? Whither went all the
tourists and pedlars with strange wares? whither all the brisk
barouches with servants in the dicky? whither the water of the
stream, ever coursing downward and ever renewed from above? Even
the wind blew oftener down the valley, and carried the dead leaves
along with it in the fall. It seemed like a great conspiracy of
things animate and inanimate; they all went downward, fleetly and
gaily downward, and only he, it seemed, remained behind, like a
stock upon the wayside. It sometimes made him glad when he noticed
how the fishes kept their heads up stream. They, at least, stood
faithfully by him, while all else were posting downward to the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: that, during Wilfred's absence, Rowena might relinquish
her preference, but in this hope he was
disappointed; a disappointment which might be
attributed in part to the mode in which his ward
had been educated. Cedric, to whom the name of
Alfred was as that of a deity, had treated the sole
remaining scion of that great monarch with a degree
of observance, such as, perhaps, was in those
days scarce paid to an acknowledged princess.
Rowena's will had been in almost all cases a law
to his household; and Cedric himself, as if determined
Ivanhoe |
