Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude it, the question "What on earth is he up to now?" will intrude. It lays one's devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, "I wish they'd remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.

We cannot understand. The best is perhaps what we understand least.

Any amount of theology can now be smuggled into people's minds under the cover of fiction without their knowing it.

But I will not tell you how long or short the way will be; only that it lies across a river. But do not fear that, for I am the great Bridge Builder.

A tyrannous and gluttonous demand for affection can be a horrible thing. But in ordinary life no one calls a child selfish because it turns for comfort to its mother; nor an adult who turns to his fellow "for company." Those, whether children or adults, who do so least are not usually the most selfless.

A promise must be about actions: no one can promise to go on feeling a certain way.

The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is the hand over your whole self--all your wishes and precautions--to Christ.