For you will certainly carry out God's purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John.

When we force a boy to be a mediocrity in a dozen subjects we destroy his standards, perhaps for life.

This wasn't a garden,' said Susan presently. 'It was a castle.

The central Christian belief is that Christ's death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. Theories as to how it did this are another matter. A good many different theories have been held as to how it works; what all Christians are agreed on is that it does work.

Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you.

The human qualities of the raw materials show through. Naivety, error, contradiction, even (as in the cursing Psalms) wickedness are not removed. The total result is not "the Word of God" in the sense that every passage in itself, gives impeccable science or history. It carries the Word of God.

I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.