“I can't say for certain which bits came into Christianity from earlier religions. An enormous amount did. I should find it hard to believe Christianity if that were not so. I couldn't believe that nine hundred and ninety-nine religions were completely false and the remaining one true. In reality, Christianity is primarily the fulfillment of …

Acts of Love

“But since the frailty of our nature is such that we cannot hope from each other an unvaried rectitude of conduct, or an uninterrupted course of wisdom or virtue; as folly will sometimes intrude upon an unguarded hour; and temptations, by frequent attacks, will sometimes prevail; one of the chief acts of love is readily …

Corage, God Mend Al

"To think that in the whole course of a life, a man may at last, after many wanderings, creep up an old worn man to his Father's door - with just strength enough to sit down on the doorsteps, and hardly the strength to knock, and that he will get in and be clothed in …

The Songs of Ánodos

I.The king sat on his throneGlowing in gold and red;The crown in his right hand shone,And the gray hairs crowned his head.His only son walks in,And in walls of steel he stands:Make me, O father, strong to win,With the blessing of holy hands."He knelt before his sire,Who blessed him with feeble smileHis eyes shone out …

A Closing Song

“Oh, well for him who breaks his dreamWith the blow that ends the strifeAnd, waking, knows the peace that flowsAround the pain of life!We are dead, my brothers! Our bodies clasp,As an armour, our souls about;This hand is the battle-axe I grasp,And this my hammer stout.Fear not, my brothers, for we are dead;No noise can …

Know Yourself

“Whose work is it but your own to open your eyes? But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool of you that you will know yourself for one, and so begin to be wise!” — George MacDonald, Lilith

Night

After the fret and failure of this day, And weariness of thought, O Mother Night, Come with soft kiss to soothe our care away And all our little tumults set to right; Most pitiful of all death's kindred fair, Riding above us through the curtained air On thy dusk car, thou scatterest to the earth …

Let Us not Grow Old

"Ah! I should like to write for you, old men, old women, to help you to read the past, to help you to look for the future. Now is your salvation nearer than when you believed.; for, however your souls may be at peace, however your quietness and confidence may give you strength, in the …

We Shall Be… More

"We know not what we shall be; but we may be sure that we shall be more, not less, than we were on earth. Our natural experiences (sensory, emotional, imaginative) are only like the drawing, like pencilled lines on flat paper. If they vanish in the risen life, they will vanish only as pencil lines …

On the Great Moral Teachers, and Christ

“It is quite true that if we took Christ’s advice we should soon be living in a happier world. You need not even go as far as Christ. If we did all that Plato or Aristotle or Confucius told us, we should get on a great deal better than we do. And so what? We …