"C.S.Lewis "George MacDonald. An Antology" (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

[ 55 ] Easy to Please and Hard to Satisfy
That no keeping but a perfect one will satisfy God, I hold with all my
heart and strength; but that there is none else He cares for, is one of the
lies of the enemy. What father is not pleased with the first tottering
attempt of his little one to walk? What father would be satisfied with
anything but the manly step of the full-grown son!

[ 56 ] The Moral Law
The immediate end of the commandments never was that men should succeed
in obeying them, but that, finding they could not do that which yet must be
done, finding the more they tried the more was required of them, they should
be driven to the source of life and law-of their life and His law-to seek
from Him such reinforcement of life as should make the fulfillment of the
law as possible, yea, as natural, as necessary.

[ 57 ] Bondage
A man is in bondage to whatever he cannot part with that is less than
himself.

[ 58 ] The Rich Young Man (Matthew 19: 16-22)
It was time . . . that he should refuse, that he should know what
manner of spirit he was of, and meet the confusions of soul, the sad
searchings of heart that must follow. A time comes to every man when he must
obey, or make such refusal-and know it. . . . The time will come, God only
knows its hour, when he will see the nature of his deed, with the knowledge
that he was dimly seeing it so even when he did it: the alternative had been
put before him.

[ 59 ] Law and Spirit
The commandments can never be kept while there is a strife to keep
them: the man is overwhelmed in the weight of their broken pieces. It needs
a clean heart to have pure hands, all the power of a live soul to keep the
law-a power of life, not of struggle; the strength of love, not the effort
of duty.

[ 60 ] Our Nonage
The number of fools not yet acknowledging the first condition of
manhood nowise alters the fact that he who has begun to recognize duty and
acknowledge the facts of his being, is but a tottering child on the path of
life. He is on the path: he is as wise as at the time he can be; the
Father's arms are stretched out to receive him; but he is not therefore a
wonderful being; not therefore a model of wisdom; not at all the admirable
creature his largely remaining folly would, in his worst moments (that is,
when he feels best) persuade him to think himself; he is just one of God's
poor creatures.

[ 61 ] Knowledge
Had he done as the Master told him, he would soon have come to
understand. Obedience is the opener of eyes.