To free a man from suffering, he must be set right, put in health; and the health at the root of man's being, his rightness, is to be free from wrongness, that is, from sin. A man is right when there is no wrong in him. I do not mean set free from the sins he has done: that will follow; I mean the sins he is doing, or is capable of doing; the sins in his being which spoil his nature โ the wrongness in him โ the evil he consents to; the sin he is, which makes him do the sin he does.
George MacDonaldIt is when people do wrong things wilfully that they are the more likely to do them again.
George MacDonaldIn very truth, a wise imagination, which is the presence of the spirit of God, is the best guide that man or woman can have; for it is not the things we see the most clearly that influence us the most powerfully; undefined, yet vivid visions of something beyond, something which eye has not seen nor ear heard, have far more influence than any logical sequences whereby the same things may be demonstrated to the intellect. It is the nature of the thing, not the clearness of its outline, that determines its operation. We live by faith, and not by sight.
George MacDonaldCome, then, affliction, if my Father wills, and be my frowning friend. A friend that frowns is better than a smiling enemy.
George MacDonaldA man's real belief is that which he lives by. What a man believes is the thing he does, not the thing he thinks.
George MacDonaldIt is not the cares of today, but the cares of tomorrow, that weigh a man down. For the needs of today we have corresponding strength given. For the morrow we are told to trust. It is not ours yet. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear.
George MacDonald