| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: vengeance. Then there arise cursing and blows, from which follow
finally misery and murder. Here, now, God like a kind father steps in
ahead of Us, interposes and wishes to have the quarrel settled, that no
misfortune come of it, nor one destroy another. And briefly He would
hereby protect, set free, and keep in peace every one against the crime
and violence of every one else; and would have this commandment placed
as a wall, fortress, and refuge about our neighbor, that we do him no
hurt nor harm in his body.
Thus this commandment aims at this, that no one offend his neighbor on
account of any evil deed, even though he have fully deserved it. For
where murder is forbidden, all cause also is forbidden whence murder
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: decease, saying, "Wherefore, father, seekest thou only thine own,
and not thy neighbour's welfare? How fulfillest thou perfect
love in this, according to him that said, `Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself,' in departing thyself to rest and life, and
leaving me to tribulation and distress? And, before I have been
well exercised in the conflicts of the religious life, before I
have learned the wily attacks of the enemy, why expose me to
fight singlehanded against their marshalled host? And for what
purpose but to see me overthrown by their mischievous
machinations, and to see me die, alas! the true spiritual and
eternal death? That is the fate which must befall inexperienced
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: that man who had been captain of the guard when Umslopogaas and Galazi
and another passed through the archway. This man, indeed, said
nothing, yet he was not without his thoughts. For it seemed to him
that he had seen three pass through the archway, and not two. It
seemed to him, moreover, that the kaross which the third wore had
slipped aside as she pressed past him, and that beneath it he had seen
the shape of a beautiful woman, and above it had caught the glint of a
woman's eye--an eye full and dark, like a buck's.
Also, this captain noted that Bulalio called none of the captives to
swear to the body of the Lily maid, and that he shook the torch to and
fro as he held it over her--he whose hand was of the steadiest. All of
Nada the Lily |
