| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: interpretation. The ruins of the earthquake at Lisbon, for
example: the whole of past history had to be planned exactly as
it was to bring about in the fullness of time just that
particular arrangement of debris of masonry, furniture, and once
living bodies. No other train of causes would have been
sufficient. And so of any other arrangement, bad or good, which
might as a matter of fact be found resulting anywhere from
previous conditions. To avoid such pessimistic consequences and
save its beneficent designer, the design argument accordingly
invokes two other principles, restrictive in their operation.
The first is physical: Nature's forces tend of their own accord
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: as the angel will not allow itself to be worshipped by John. [Rev.
22] So the worship of saints shows itself as nothing but human
nonsense, our own invention separated from the word of God and the
Scriptures.
As it is not proper in the matter of divine worship for us to do
anything that is not commanded by God (and that whoever does is
putting God to the test), it is therefore also not advisable or
tolerable for one to call upon the saints for intercession or to
teach others to do so. In fact, it is to be condemned and people
taught to avoid it. Therefore, I also will not advise it and
burden my conscience with the iniquities of others. It was
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: what. His ideas about the future would not
crystallize; the more he tried to think about it,
the vaguer his conception of it became. But
one thing was clear, he told himself; it was
high time that he made good to Alexandra,
and that ought to be incentive enough to begin
with.
As he went about gathering up his books he
felt as if he were uprooting things. At last he
threw himself down on the old slat lounge where
O Pioneers! |
