| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: Christ out of their sight and focusing their eyes upon the Law.
But why does Paul accuse the Galatians of reverting to the weak and beggarly
elements of the Law when they never had the Law? Why does he not say to
them: "At one time you Galatians did not know God. You then served idols that
were no gods. But now that you have come to know the true God, why do you
go back to the worship of idols?" Paul seems to identify their defection from
the Gospel to the Law with their former idolatry. Indeed he does. Whoever
gives up the article of justification does not know the true God. It is one and
the same thing whether a person reverts to the Law or to the worship of
idols. When the article of justification is lost, nothing remains except error,
hypocrisy, godlessness, and idolatry.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: seen of Lincoln Island was the narrow rock which now served as a refuge to
the six colonists and their dog Top.
The animals had also perished in the catastrophe; the birds, as well as
those representing the fauna of the island--all either crushed or drowned,
and the unfortunate Jup himself had, alas! found his death in some crevice
of the soil.
If Cyrus Harding, Gideon Spilett, Herbert, Pencroft, Neb, and Ayrton had
survived, it was because, assembled under their tent, they had been hurled
into the sea at the instant when the fragments of the island rained down on
every side.
When they reached the surface they could only perceive, at half a cable's
The Mysterious Island |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: and make acquaintance with me, and with these young men, that I may
continue your friend, as I was your father's. I shall expect you to do so,
and shall venture at some future time to remind you of your duty. But what
say you of the matter of which we were beginning to speak--the art of
fighting in armour? Is that a practice in which the lads may be
advantageously instructed?
SOCRATES: I will endeavour to advise you, Lysimachus, as far as I can in
this matter, and also in every way will comply with your wishes; but as I
am younger and not so experienced, I think that I ought certainly to hear
first what my elders have to say, and to learn of them, and if I have
anything to add, then I may venture to give my opinion to them as well as
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