George MacDonald

by C. S. Lewis

• ISBN13: 9780060653194
• ISBN10: 0060653191
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-21
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

In this collection selected by C. S. Lewis are 365 selections from MacDonald's inspiring and challenging writings.

Table of Contents

Preface	xxiii
Dryness	1	(1)
Inexorable Love	1	(1)
Divine Burning	2	(1)
The Beginning of Wisdom	3	(1)
The Unawakened	4	(1)
Sinai	4	(1)
No	5	(1)
The Law of Nature	5	(1)
Escape Is Hopeless	5	(1)
The Word	6	(1)
I Knew a Child	6	(1)
Spiritual Murder	7	(1)
Impossibilities	7	(1)
Truth Is Truth	8	(1)
The White Stone	9	(1)
Personality	10	(1)
The Secret in Man	10	(1)
The Secrets in God	11	(1)
No Massing	11	(1)
No Comparing	11	(1)
The End	12	(1)
Moth and Rust	12	(1)
Caverns and Films	13	(1)
Various Kinds of Moth	13	(1)
Holy Scriptures	14	(1)
Command That These Stones Be Made Bread	15	(1)
Religious Feeling	16	(1)
Dryness	16	(1)
Presumption	16	(1)
The Knowledge of God	17	(1)
The Passion	18	(1)
Eli, Eli	18	(1)
The Same	19	(1)
Vicarious Desolation	19	(1)
Creeping Christians	20	(1)
Dryness	20	(1)
The Use of Dryness	21	(1)
The Highest Condition of the Human Will	22	(1)
Troubled Soul	22	(1)
Dangerous Moment	23	(1)
It Is Finished	23	(1)
Members of One Another	24	(1)
Originality	24	(1)
The Moral Law	24	(1)
The Same	25	(1)
Upward toward the Center	25	(1)
No One Loves Because He Sees Why	26	(1)
My Neighbor	27	(1)
The Same	27	(1)
What Cannot Be Loved	27	(1)
Love and Justice	28	(1)
The Body	29	(1)
Goodness	29	(1)
Christ's Disregards	30	(1)
Easy to Please and Hard to Satisfy	30	(1)
The Moral Law	31	(1)
Bondage	31	(1)
The Rich Young Man	31	(1)
Law and Spirit	32	(1)
Our Nonage	32	(1)
Knowledge	33	(1)
Living Forever	33	(1)
Be Ye Perfect	34	(1)
Carrion Comfort	34	(1)
The Same	35	(1)
How Hard?	35	(1)
Things	36	(1)
Possession	37	(1)
The Torment of Death	37	(1)
The Utility of Death	38	(1)
Not the Rich Only	38	(1)
Fearful Thinking	39	(1)
Miracles	39	(1)
The Sacred Present	39	(1)
Forethought	40	(1)
Not the Rich Only	40	(1)
Care	41	(1)
The Sacred Present	41	(1)
Heaven	42	(1)
Shaky Foundations	42	(1)
Fussing	43	(1)
Housekeeping	44	(1)
Cares	44	(1)
God at the Door	44	(1)
Difficulties	45	(1)
Vain Vigilance	45	(1)
Incompleteness	46	(1)
Prayer	47	(1)
Knowledge That Would Be Useless	47	(1)
Prayer	48	(1)
Why Should It Be Necessary?	48	(1)
The Conditions of a Good Gift	49	(1)
False Spirituality	50	(1)
Small Prayers	50	(1)
Riches and Need	51	(1)
Providence	51	(1)
Divine Freedom	52	(1)
Providence	52	(1)
The Miracles of Our Lord	53	(1)
They Have No Wine	53	(1)
Intercessory Prayer	54	(1)
The Eternal Revolt	54	(1)
They Say It Does Them Good	54	(1)
Perfected Prayer	55	(1)
Corrective Granting	55	(1)
Why We Must Wait	56	(1)
God's Vengeance	57	(1)
The Way of Understanding	57	(1)
Penal Blindness	58	(1)
The Same	59	(1)
Agree with the Adversary Quickly	59	(1)
The Inexorable	60	(1)
Christ Our Righteousness	60	(1)
Agree Quickly	60	(1)
Duties to an Enemy	61	(1)
The Prison	61	(1)
Not Good to Be Alone	62	(1)
Be Ye Perfect	63	(1)
The Heart	63	(1)
Precious Blame	64	(1)
The Same	65	(1)
Man Glorified	65	(1)
Life in the Word	65	(1)
The Office of Christ	66	(1)
The Slowness of the New Creation	66	(1)
The New Creation	67	(1)
Pessimism	67	(1)
The Work of the Father	68	(1)
The End	68	(1)
Deadlock	69	(1)
The Two Worst Heresies	69	(1)
Christian Growth	69	(1)
Life and Shadow	70	(1)
False Refuge	70	(1)
A Silly Notion	71	(1)
Dryness	71	(1)
Perseverance	71	(1)
The Lower Forms	72	(1)
Life	72	(1)
The Eternal Round	72	(1)
The Great One Life	73	(1)
The Beginning of Wisdom	73	(1)
``Peace in Our Time''	74	(1)
Divine Fire	75	(1)
The Safe Place	75	(1)
God and Death	75	(1)
Terror	76	(1)
False Want	76	(1)
A Man's Right	76	(1)
Nature	77	(1)
The Same	78	(1)
Doubt	79	(1)
Job	79	(1)
The Close of the Book of Job	79	(1)
The Way	80	(1)
Self-Control	80	(1)
Self-Denial	81	(1)
Killing the Nerve	82	(1)
Self	82	(1)
My Yoke Is Easy	83	(1)
We Must Be Jealous	84	(1)
Facing Both Ways	84	(1)
The Careless Soul	85	(1)
There Is No Merit in It	85	(1)
Faith	86	(1)
The Misguided	86	(1)
The Way	87	(1)
The First and Second Persons	87	(1)
Warning	88	(1)
Creation	88	(1)
The Unknowable	88	(1)
Warning	89	(1)
The Two First Persons	89	(1)
The Imitation of Christ	89	(1)
Pain and Joy	90	(1)
``By Him All Things Consist''	90	(1)
``In Him Was Life''	91	(1)
Why We Have Not Christ's ``Ipsissima Verba''	91	(1)
Warning	92	(1)
On Bad Religious Art	92	(1)
How to Read the Epistles	93	(1)
The Entrance of Christ	93	(1)
The Same	94	(1)
The Uses of Nature	95	(1)
Natural Science	95	(1)
The Value of Analysis	95	(1)
Nature	96	(1)
Water	96	(2)
Truth of Things	98	(1)
Caution	98	(1)
Duties	98	(1)
Why Free Will Was Permitted	99	(1)
Eternal Death	99	(1)
The Redemption of Our Nature	100	(1)
No Mystery	101	(1)
The Live Truth	101	(1)
Likeness to Christ	101	(1)
Grace and Freedom	102	(1)
Glorious Liberty	102	(1)
No Middle Way	103	(1)
On Having One's Own Way	103	(1)
The Death of Christ	104	(1)
Hell	104	(1)
The Lie	105	(1)
The Author's Fear	105	(1)
Sincerity	105	(1)
First Things First	106	(1)
Inexorable Love	106	(1)
Salvation	106	(1)
Charity and Orthodoxy	107	(1)
Evasion	107	(1)
Inexorable Love	107	(1)
The Holy Ghost	108	(1)
The Sense of Sin	108	(1)
Mean Theologies	109	(1)
On Believing Ill of God	109	(1)
Condemnation	110	(1)
Excuses	110	(1)
Impossibilities	111	(1)
Disobedience	111	(1)
The Same	112	(1)
The God of Remembrance	112	(1)
Bereavement	112	(1)
Abraham's Faith	113	(1)
The Same	113	(1)
Perception of Duties	114	(1)
Righteousness of Faith	114	(1)
The Same	115	(1)
Reckoned unto Us for Righteousness	115	(1)
St. Paul's Faith	116	(1)
The Full-Grown Christian	116	(1)
Revealed to Babes	117	(1)
Answer	118	(1)
Useless Knowledge	118	(1)
The Art of Being Created	118	(1)
When We Do Not Find Him	119	(1)
Prayer	119	(1)
On One's Critics	119	(1)
Free Will	120	(1)
On Idle Tongues	120	(1)
Do We Love Light?	120	(1)
Shame	121	(1)
The Wakening	121	(1)
The Wakening of the Rich	122	(1)
Self-Deception	122	(1)
Warning	123	(1)
The Slow Descent	123	(1)
Justice and Revenge	123	(1)
Recognition Hereafter	124	(1)
From Dante	124	(1)
What God Means by ``Good''	124	(1)
All Things from God	125	(1)
Absolute Being	125	(1)
Beasts	125	(1)
Diversity of Souls	126	(1)
The Disillusioned	126	(1)
Evil	127	(1)
The Loss of the Shadow	127	(1)
Love	127	(1)
From Spring to Summer	128	(1)
The Door into Life	128	(1)
A Lonely Religion	128	(1)
Love	129	(1)
A False Method	129	(1)
Assimilation	129	(1)
Looking	129	(1)
Progress	130	(1)
Providence	130	(1)
Ordinariness	131	(1)
Forgiveness	131	(1)
Visitors	132	(1)
Prose	132	(1)
Integrity	132	(1)
Contentment	133	(1)
Psychical Research	133	(1)
The Blotting Out	134	(1)
On a Chapter in Isaiah	134	(1)
Providence	135	(1)
No Other Way	135	(1)
Death	135	(1)
Criterion of a True Vision	136	(1)
One Reason for Sex	136	(1)
Easy Work	136	(1)
Lebensraum	137	(1)
Nature	137	(1)
For Parents	138	(1)
Hoarding	139	(1)
Today and Yesterday	139	(1)
Obstinate Illusion	140	(1)
Possessions	140	(1)
Lost in the Mountains	140	(1)
The Birth of Persecution	141	(1)
Daily Death	141	(1)
On Duty to Oneself	141	(1)
A Theory of Sleep	142	(1)
Sacred Idleness	143	(1)
The Modern Bane	143	(1)
Immortality	144	(1)
Prayer	144	(1)
Self	145	(1)
Visions	145	(1)
The Impervious Soul	146	(1)
An Old Garden	146	(1)
Experience	147	(1)
Difficulties	147	(1)
A Hard Saying	147	(1)
Truisms	148	(1)
On Asking Advice	149	(1)
No Heel Taps	149	(1)
Silence Before the Judge	149	(1)
Nothing So Deadening	150	(1)
Rounding and Completion	150	(1)
Immortality	151	(1)
The Eternal Now	152	(1)
The Silences Below	152	(1)
Dipsomania	152	(1)
Reminder	153	(1)
Things Rare and Common	153	(1)
Holy Laughter	154	(1)
The Self	154	(1)
Either-Or	155	(1)
Prayer	155	(1)
A Bad Conscience	156	(1)
Money	156	(1)
Scrubbing the Cell	156	(1)
The Mystery of Evil	157	(1)
Prudence	157	(1)
Competition	158	(1)
Method	158	(1)
Prudence	158	(1)
How to Become a Dunce	159	(1)
Love	159	(1)
Preacher's Repentance	160	(1)
Deeds	160	(1)
Prayer	160	(1)
The House Is Not for Me	161	(1)
Hoarding	161	(1)
The Day's First Job	162	(1)
Obstinate Illusion	162	(1)
The Rules of Conversation	162	(1)
A Neglected Form of Justice	163	(1)
Good	163	(1)
Thou Shalt Not Make Any Graven Image	164	(1)
How to Become a Dunce	164	(1)
Our Insolvency	164	(1)
A Sad Pity	165	(1)
On Method	165	(1)
Wishing	165	(1)
Fear	166	(1)
The Root of All Rebellion	166	(1)
Two Silly Young Women	166	(1)
Hospitality	167	(1)
Boredom	167	(1)
Counting the Cost	168	(1)
Realism	168	(1)
Avarice	169	(1)
The Lobster Pot	170	(1)
The First Meeting	170	(1)
Reminder	170	(1)
The Wrong Way with Anxiety	171	(1)
Deadlock	171	(1)
Solitude	172	(1)
Death	172	(1)
The Mystery of Evil	172	(1)
The Last Resource	173	(2)
Sources	175	(8)
Bibliography	183

Excerpts

George MacDonald

Chapter One

[1] Dryness

That man is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and desires, without a glow or an aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to Him, "Thou art my refuge."

[2] Inexorable Love

Nothing is inexorable but love. Love which will yield to prayer is imperfect and poor. Nor is it then the love that yields, but its alloy... For love loves unto purity. Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds. Where loveliness is incomplete, and love cannot love its fill of loving, it spends itself to make more lovely, that it may love more; it strives for perfection, even that itself may be perfected -- not in itself, but in the object.... Therefore all that is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between and is not of love's kind, must be destroyed. And our God is a consuming fire.

[3] Divine Burning

He will shake heaven and earth, that only the unshakable may remain: he is a consuming fire, that only that which cannot be consumed may stand forth eternal. It is the nature of God, so terribly pure that it destroys all that is not pure as fire, which demands like purity in our worship. He will have purity. It is not that the fire will burn us if we do not worship thus; yea, will go on burning within us after all that is foreign to it has yielded to its force, no longer with pain and consuming, but as the highest consciousness of life, the presence of God.

[4] The Beginning of Wisdom

How should the Hebrews be other than terrified at that which was opposed to all they knew of themselves, beings judging it good to honor a golden calf? Such as they were, they did well to be afraid.... Fear is nobler than sensuality. Fear is better than no God, better than a god made with hands.... The worship of fear is true, although very low: and though not acceptable to God in itself, for only the worship of spirit and of truth is acceptable to Him, yet even in his sight it is precious. For He regards men not as they are merely, but as they shall be; not as they shall be merely, but as they are now growing, or capable of growing, toward that image after which He made them that they might grow to it. Therefore a thousand stages, each in itself all but valueless, are of inestimable worth as the necessary and connected gradations of an infinite progress. A condition which of declension would indicate a devil, may of growth indicate a saint.

[5] The Unawakened

Can it be any comfort to them to be told that God loves them so that He will burn them clean? ... They do not want to be clean, and they cannot bear to be tortured.

[6] Sinai

And is not God ready to do unto them even as they fear, though with another feeling and a different end from any which they are capable of supposing? He is against sin: insofar as, and while, they and sin are one, He is against them-against their desires, their aims, their fears, and their hopes; and thus He is altogether and always for them. That thunder and lightning and tempest, that blackness torn with the sound of a trumpet, that visible horror billowed with the voice of words, was all but a faint image ... of what God thinks and feels against vileness and selfishness, of the unrest of unassuageable repulsion with which He regards such conditions.

[7] No

When we say that God is Love, do we teach men that their fear of Him is groundless? No. As much as they fear will come upon them, possibly far more.... The wrath will consume what they call themselves; so that the selves God made shall appear.

[8] The Law of Nature

For that which cannot be shaken shall remain. That which is immortal in God shall remain in man. The death that is in them shall be consumed. It is the law of Nature-that is, the law of God-that all that is destructible shall be destroyed.

[9] Escape Is Hopeless

The man whose deeds are evil, fears the burning. But the burning will not come the less that he fears it or denies it. Escape is hopeless. For Love is inexorable. Our God is a consuming fire. He shall not come out till he has paid the uttermost farthing.

[10] The Word

But herein is the Bible itself greatly wronged. It nowhere lays claim to be regarded as the Word, the Way, the Truth. The Bible leads us to Jesus, the inexhaustible, the ever unfolding Revelation of God. It is Christ "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," not the Bible, save as leading to HIM.

[11] I Knew a Child

I knew a child who believed she had committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, because she had, in her toilette, made an improper use of a pin. Dare not to rebuke me for adducing the diseased fancy of a child in a weighty matter of theology. "Despise not one of these little ones." Would the theologians were as near the truth in such matters as the children. Diseased fancy! The child knew, and was conscious that she knew, that she was doing wrong because she had been forbidden. There was rational ground for her fear... He would not have told her she was silly, and "never to mind." Child as she was, might He not have said to her, "I do not condemn thee: and go and sin no more?"

[12] Spiritual Murder

It may be an infinitely less evil to murder a man than to refuse to forgive him. The former may be the act of a moment of passion: the latter is the heart's choice. It is spiritual murder, the worst, to hate, to brood over the feeling that excludes, that, in our microcosm, kills the image, the idea of the hated.

George MacDonald. Copyright © by C. Lewis . Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from George MacDonald: An Anthology by C. S. Lewis
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.