George MacDonald ( 10 of 85 )
Friends, if we be honest with ourselves, we shall be honest with each other.
Friends, if we be honest with ourselves, we shall be honest with each other.
And so all growth that is not towards God
Is growing to decay.
And so all growth that is not towards God
Is growing to decay.
Feast of Simon & Jude, Apostles Some natures will endure an immense amount of misery before they feel read more
Feast of Simon & Jude, Apostles Some natures will endure an immense amount of misery before they feel compelled to look there for help whence all help and healing come. They cannot believe that there is verily an unseen, mysterious power, till the world and all that is in it has vanished in the smoke of despair; till cause and effect are nothing to the intellect, and possible glories have faded from the imagination. Then, deprived of all that made life pleasant or hopeful, the immortal essence, lonely and wretched and unable to cease, looks up with its now unfettered and wakened instinct to the source of its own life -- to the possible God who, notwithstanding all the improbabilities of His existence, may yet perhaps be, and may yet perhaps hear His wretched creature that calls. In this loneliness of despair, life must find The Life: for joy is gone, and life is all that is left; it is compelled to seek its source, its root, its eternal life. This alone remains a possible thing. Strange condition of despair into which the Spirit of God drives a man -- a condition in which the Best alone is the Possible!
In God, we live every commonplace as well as the most exalted moment of our being. To trust in Him read more
In God, we live every commonplace as well as the most exalted moment of our being. To trust in Him when no need is pressing, when things seem going right of themselves, may be harder than when things seem going wrong.
Alas! how easily things go wrong!
A sigh too deep, or a kiss too long,
And then read more
Alas! how easily things go wrong!
A sigh too deep, or a kiss too long,
And then comes a mist and a weeping rain,
And life is never the same again.
There are those who in their very first seeking of it are nearer the kingdom of Heaven than many who read more
There are those who in their very first seeking of it are nearer the kingdom of Heaven than many who have for years believed themselves to be of it. In the former there is more of the mind of Jesus, and when He calls them they recognize Him at once and go after Him; while the others examine Him from head to foot and, finding Him not sufficiently like the Jesus of their conception, turn their backs and go to church or chapel or chamber to kneel before a vague form mingled of tradition and fancy.
You can't live on amusement. It is the froth on water -- an inch deep and then the mud.
You can't live on amusement. It is the froth on water -- an inch deep and then the mud.
Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330 The kingdom of heaven is not come even when read more
Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330 The kingdom of heaven is not come even when God's will is our law; it is fully come when God's will is our will.
Where did you get that pearly ear?
God spoke and it came out to hear.
Where did you get that pearly ear?
God spoke and it came out to hear.
Do you think that the work God gives us to do is never easy? Jesus says that His yoke is read more
Do you think that the work God gives us to do is never easy? Jesus says that His yoke is easy, His burden is light. People sometimes refuse to do God's work just because it is easy. This is sometimes because they cannot believe that easy work is His work; but there may be a very bad pride in it... Some, again, accept it with half a heart and do it with half a hand. But however easy any work may be, it can nnot be well done without taking thought about it. And such people, instead of taking thought about their work, generally take thought about the morrow -- in which no work can be done, any more than in yesterday.
