| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: him---"Mercy on us! it's an awfu' thing to touch what has been
sae lately in the claws of something no canny, I canna shake
mysell loose o' the belief that there has been some jookery-
paukery of Satan's in a' this; but I am determined to conduct
mysell like an honest man and a good Christian, come o't what
will."
He advanced accordingly to the cottage door, and having knocked
repeatedly without receiving any answer, he at length elevated
his voice and addressed the inmate of the hut. "Elshie! Father
Elshie! I ken ye're within doors, and wauking, for I saw ye at
the door-cheek as I cam ower the bent; will ye come out and speak
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: which all the others proceed, in which they exist, and by which
they are directed and measured, so also its work, that is, the
faith or confidence in God's favor at all times, is the very
first, highest and best, from which all others must proceed,
exist, remain, be directed and measured. Compared with this,
other works are just as if the other Commandments were without
the First, and there were no God, Therefore St. Augustine well
says that the works of the First Commandment are faith, hope and
love. As I said above, such faith and confidence bring love and
hope with them. Nay, if we see it aright, love is the first, or
comes at the same instant with faith. For I could not trust God,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: and altogether so worked upon his feelings that he cried like a
child. In conclusion his kind mistress said: "I will forgive you
this time on the condition that you promise faithfully to reform,
and never again to take what does not belong to you."
Polikey, still weeping, replied: "I will never steal again in all
my life, and if I break my promise may the earth open and swallow
me up, and let my body be burned with red-hot irons!"
Polikey returned to his home, and throwing himself on the oven
spent the entire day weeping and repeating the promise made to
his mistress.
From that time on he was not again caught stealing, but his life
The Kreutzer Sonata |
