| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Likewise in St. Mark, the last chapter, v. 16:
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned .
In these words you must note, in the first place, that here stand
God's commandment and institution, lest we doubt that Baptism is
divine, not devised nor invented by men. For as truly as I can say, No
man has spun the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer out
of his head, but they are revealed and given by God Himself, so also I
can boast that Baptism is no human trifle, but instituted by God
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: the Eleatic circle. And now an unforeseen consequence began to arise. If
the Many were not, if all things were names of the One, and nothing could
be predicated of any other thing, how could truth be distinguished from
falsehood? The Eleatic philosopher would have replied that Being is alone
true. But mankind had got beyond his barren abstractions: they were
beginning to analyze, to classify, to define, to ask what is the nature of
knowledge, opinion, sensation. Still less could they be content with the
description which Achilles gives in Homer of the man whom his soul hates--
os chi eteron men keuthe eni phresin, allo de eipe.
For their difficulty was not a practical but a metaphysical one; and their
conception of falsehood was really impaired and weakened by a metaphysical
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: At this point Percy Beaumont certainly looked straight at his kinsman;
he tried to catch his eye. But Lord Lambeth would not look at him; his own
eyes were better occupied. "I shall be very happy," cried Bessie Alden.
"I am only going to some shops. But I will drive you about and show
you the place."
"An American woman who respects herself," said Mrs. Westgate,
turning to Beaumont with her bright expository air, "must buy
something every day of her life. If she can not do it herself,
she must send out some member of her family for the purpose.
So Bessie goes forth to fulfill my mission."
The young girl had walked away, with Lord Lambeth by her side,
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