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: VERSE 25. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a
schoolmaster.
The Apostle declares that we are free from the Law. Christ fulfilled the
Law for us. We may live in joy and safety under Christ. The trouble is, our
flesh will not let us believe in Christ with all our heart. The fault lies not
with Christ, but with us. Sin clings to us as long as we live and spoils our
happiness in Christ. Hence, we are only partly free from the Law. "With
the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
(Romans 7:25.)
As far as the conscience is concerned it may cheerfully ignore the Law. But
because sin continues to dwell in the flesh, the Law waits around to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: All this has a similar drift, for Simonides was not so ignorant as to say
that he praised those who did no evil voluntarily, as though there were
some who did evil voluntarily. For no wise man, as I believe, will allow
that any human being errs voluntarily, or voluntarily does evil and
dishonourable actions; but they are very well aware that all who do evil
and dishonourable things do them against their will. And Simonides never
says that he praises him who does no evil voluntarily; the word
'voluntarily' applies to himself. For he was under the impression that a
good man might often compel himself to love and praise another, and to be
the friend and approver of another; and that there might be an involuntary
love, such as a man might feel to an unnatural father or mother, or
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: to the depths in the search for new sensation. What the paradox
was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became to me in the
sphere of passion. Desire, at the end, was a malady, or a madness,
or both. I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure
where it pleased me, and passed on. I forgot that every little
action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that
therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day
to cry aloud on the housetop. I ceased to be lord over myself. I
was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. I
allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace.
There is only one thing for me now, absolute humility.
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