A Quote for Mike

"We are ne'er like angels till our passions die."— Dekker This wretched INN, where we scarce stay to bait,We call our DWELLING-PLACE:We call one STEP A RACE:But angels in their full enlightened state,Angels, who LIVE, and know what 'tis to BE,Who all the nonsense of our language see,Who speak THINGS, and our WORDS,their ill-drawnPICTURES, scorn,When …

One Ordinary Disadvantage

The whole of life becomes so very jolly and livable when once we have believed in original sin. If we believe (as some, I am told, do today) that every man is born innocent – then I can only say that to such a believer every man must appear a devil. The words of the …

Oh Soaring Soul

Oh soaring soul, faint not nor tire, each heaven attained reveals a higher.George MacDonald, circa 1893

So Full of Slumber; A Vignette

Wither was not among those killed in the dining-room. He naturally knew all the possible ways out of the room, and even before the coming of the tiger he had slipped away. He understood what was happening, if not perfectly, yet better than anyone else. He saw that the Basque interpreter had done the whole …

A Live Heart

“There is a live heart at the center of the lovely order of the universe—a heart to which all the rest is but a clothing form—a heart that bears every truthful thought, every help-needing cry of each of its children, and must deliver them.” (Possibly from a letter GMD wrote to Professor George Rolleston of …

Obedience, Rule, and Mastery

Diary Of An Old Soul For September 20 and 21 Who trusts a law, might worship a god of wood; Half his soul slumbers, if it be not dead. He is a live thing shut in chaos crude, Hemmed in with dragons—a remorseless head Still hanging over its uplifted eyes. No; God is all in …

Give Me to Drink

"'Give me to drink,' He says. Believe me, my friends, there is nothing so ready to bring about a good understanding as to ask a favour. If we are not willing to be obliged to our friends, we have no business to confer favours on them. If we are not willing to accept, we are …

Better Stuff?

“The better stuff a creature is made of—the cleverer and stronger and freer it is—then the better it will be if it goes right, but also the worse it will be if it goes wrong. A cow cannot be very good or very bad; a dog can be both better and worse; a child better …

Meaning in beauty

“Anything beautiful always means more than it says; possibly means more than it means to mean.” — GK Chesterton, Robert Louis Stevenson

On Heaven and Earthly Comfort, with CS Lewis

"It is quite useless knocking at the door of heaven for earthly comfort; it’s not the sort of comfort they supply there."⏤ C.S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis (Dec. 3, 1959)