| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: write books? So do I.
I will go even further with my bragging: I can exegete the psalms
and the prophets, and they cannot. I can translate, and they
cannot. I can read Holy Scriptures, and they cannot. I can pray,
they cannot. Coming down to their level, I can do their
dialectics and philosophy better than all of them put together.
Plus I know that not one of them understands Aristotle. If, in
fact, any one of them can correctly understand one part or chapter
of Aristotle, I will eat my hat! No, I am not overdoing it for I
have been educated in and have practiced their science since my
childhood. I recognize how broad and deep it is. They, too, know
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: almost all our moments. Our passions are joy and grief, love and
hatred, hope and fear. Of joy and grief, the past is the object,
and the future of hope and fear; even love and hatred respect the
past, for the cause must have been before the effect.
"The present state of things is the consequence of the former; and
it is natural to inquire what were the sources of the good that we
enjoy, or the evils that we suffer. If we act only for ourselves,
to neglect the study of history is not prudent. If we are
entrusted with the care of others, it is not just. Ignorance, when
it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may properly be charged with
evil who refused to learn how he might prevent it.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: have been previously examined and absolved. And the people are
most carefully taught concerning faith in the absolution,
about which formerly there was profound silence. Our people
are taught that they should highly prize the absolution, as
being the voice of God, and pronounced by God's command. The
power of the Keys is set forth in its beauty and they are
reminded what great consolation it brings to anxious
consciences, also, that God requires faith to believe such
absolution as a voice sounding from heaven, and that such
faith in Christ truly obtains and receives the forgiveness of
sins. Aforetime satisfactions were immoderately extolled; of
|
