| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: then Christ has died in vain, since there is in man no defect
nor sin for which he should have died; or He would have died
only for the body, not for the soul, inasmuch as the soul is
[entirely] sound, and the body only is subject to death.
II. Of the Law
Here we hold that the Law was given by God, first, to restrain
sin by threats and the dread of punishment, and by the promise
and offer of grace and benefit. But all this miscarried on
account of the wickedness which sin has wrought in man. For
thereby a part [some] were rendered worse, those, namely, who
are hostile to [hate] the Law, because it forbids what they
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: they would extract the bone, about which the bad part generally lay,
and insert in the hole a white-hot iron. After this invention there
was no longer Number One, Two, and Three Grade--there was only Number
One Grade. The packers were always originating such schemes--they had
what they called "boneless hams," which were all the odds and ends of
pork stuffed into casings; and "California hams," which were the
shoulders, with big knuckle joints, and nearly all the meat cut out;
and fancy "skinned hams," which were made of the oldest hogs, whose
skins were so heavy and coarse that no one would buy them--that is,
until they had been cooked and chopped fine and labeled "head cheese!"
It was only when the whole ham was spoiled that it came into the
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: effects of a man's education upon a young girl, whose independent
spirit had been fostered in the first place by a country life. The
Abbe Niollant, an enthusiast and a poet, possessed the artistic
temperament in a peculiarly high degree, a temperament compatible with
many estimable qualities, but prone to raise itself above bourgeois
prejudices by the liberty of its judgments and breadth of view. In
society an intellect of this order wins pardon for its boldness by its
depth and originality; but in private life it would seem to do
positive mischief, by suggesting wanderings from the beaten track. The
Abbe was by no means wanting in goodness of heart, and his ideas were
therefore the more contagious for this high-spirited girl, in whom
|