Mysticism: the Human Power of Questioning Things

"Mysticism in its noblest sense, mysticism as it existed in St John, and Plato, and Paracelsus, and Sir Thomas Browne, is not an exceptionally dark and secret thing, but an exceptionally luminous and open thing. It is in reality too clear for most of us to comprehend, and too obvious for most of us to …

The Sun Beside the Moon

If I set the sun beside the moon,And if I set the land beside the sea,And if I set the flower beside the fruitAnd if I set the town beside the countryAnd if I set the man beside the womanI suppose some fool would talkAbout one being better. – GK Chesterton

The Wrong Side of the Door

"At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure … But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so … …

Listening to That Other Voice

"I must be ploughed up and re-sown. That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each …

There is a Better, Closer, Nearer

“It is for the sake of such vision as God would give that you are denied such vision as you would have. The Father of our spirits is not content that we should know Him as we know each other. There is a better, closer, nearer than any human way of knowing, and that He …

Bring Us Back to God

“The notion of eternal punishment is as loathsome a lie against God as could find place in a heart too undeveloped to understand what justice is, and too low to look up into the face of Jesus. It never in truth found place in any heart, though in many a pettifogging brain. There is but …

This Advantage in the Dark

"There is this advantage in the dark. You do not see how dangerous the way is. We take the darkness about us for the source of our difficulties. It is a great mistake. Christian would hardly have dared go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, had he not had the shield of the …

Mirrors of Christ

"Men are mirrors, or ‘carriers’ of Christ to other men. Sometimes unconscious carriers. This ‘good infection’ can be carried by those who have not got it themselves. People who were not Christians themselves helped me to Christianity. But usually it is those who know Him that bring Him to others. That is why the Church, …

To Taste and Not Know, or Know and Not Taste

"Human intellect is incurably abstract. Pure mathematics is the type of successful thought. Yet the only realities we experience are concrete—this pain, this pleasure, this dog, this man. While we are loving the man, bearing the pain, enjoying the pleasure, we are not intellectually apprehending Pleasure, Pain or Personality. When we begin to do so, …

This Everlasting Calling

“Do you think we mortals will find you gods easier to bear if you're beautiful? I tell you that if that's true we'll find you a thousand times worse. For then (I know what beauty does) you'll lure and entice.You'll leave us nothing; nothing that's worth our keeping or your taking. Those we love best— …