| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: >From all this you will again understand why so much importance is
attributed to faith, so that it alone can fulfil the law and
justify without any works. For you see that the First
Commandment, which says, "Thou shalt worship one God only," is
fulfilled by faith alone. If you were nothing but good works from
the soles of your feet to the crown of your head, you would not
be worshipping God, nor fulfilling the First Commandment, since
it is impossible to worship God without ascribing to Him the
glory of truth and of universal goodness, as it ought in truth to
be ascribed. Now this is not done by works, but only by faith of
heart. It is not by working, but by believing, that we glorify
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: nor the result. Her companion's discourse now sunk from
its hitherto animated pitch to nothing more than a short
decisive sentence of praise or condemnation on the face
of every woman they met; and Catherine, after listening
and agreeing as long as she could, with all the civility
and deference of the youthful female mind, fearful of
hazarding an opinion of its own in opposition to that of a
self-assured man, especially where the beauty of her own
sex is concerned, ventured at length to vary the subject
by a question which had been long uppermost in her thoughts;
it was, "Have you ever read Udolpho, Mr. Thorpe?"
Northanger Abbey |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: pallid face, strongly lighted from the window, framed in beautiful
black hair, the eyes gleaming with despair and fiery with morning
thoughts, was the first object which met the eyes of the incoming
Suzanne. The grisette, who belonged to a class which certainly has the
instinct of misery and the sufferings of the heart, suddenly felt that
electric spark, darting from Heaven knows where, which can never be
explained, which some strong minds deny, but the sympathetic stroke of
which has been felt by many men and many women. It is at once a light
which lightens the darkness of the future, a presentiment of the
sacred joys of a shared love, the certainty of mutual comprehension.
Above all, it is like the touch of a firm and able hand on the
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