| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: I seem to overhear a retort, "No one, of course, is deprived of his
civil rights at Athens unjustly." My answer is, that there are some
who are unjustly deprived of their civil rights, though the cases are
certainly rare. But it will take more than a few to attack the
democracy at Athens, since you may take it as an established fact, it
is not the man who has lost his civil rights justly that takes the
matter to heart, but the victims, if any, of injustice. But how in the
world can any one imagine that many are in a state of civil disability
at Athens, where the People and the holders of office are one and the
same? It is from iniquitous exercise of office, from iniquity
exhibited either in speech or action, and the like circumstances, that
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Koran: towards Him, 'If thou dost save from this we will surely be of those
who thank.' But when He has saved them, lo! they are wilful in the
earth unjustly;- O ye folk! your wilfulness against yourselves is
but a provision of this world's life; then unto us is your return, and
we will inform you of that which ye have done!
Verily, the likeness of this world's life is like water which we
send down from the sky, and the plants of the earth, from which men
and cattle eat, are mingled therewith; until when the earth puts on
its gilding and is adorned, the people thereof think that they have
power over it. Our order comes to it by night or day, and we make it
as it were mown down- as though it had not yesterday been rich!-
The Koran |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: XXXV.
King Abenner was pricked to the heart by this inspired wisdom and
with loud voice and fervent heart confessed Christ his Saviour,
and forthwith forsook all superstitious error. He venerated the
sign of the life-giving Cross in the sight of all and, in the
hearing of all, proclaimed our Lord Jesus Christ to be God. By
telling in full the tale of his former ungodliness, and of his
own cruelty and blood-thirstiness toward the Christians, he
proved himself a great power for religion. So here was proved in
fact, the saying of Paul; that where sin abounded, there did
grace much more abound.
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