27 November 2010

Is Scripture Too Pointed For Us?

George Orwell on writing:
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were instinctively, to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink....
(He provides an example) In modern English:
" Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account."
(It is) a well-known verse from the Bible, found in ECCLESIASTES:
" I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth."
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25 November 2010

Thanks-Giving

Here dies another day
During which I have had eyes, ears, hands,
And the great world around me;
And with tomorrow begins another.
Why am I allowed two?

  • Chesterton, on gratefulness

17 November 2010

The Triumph Of Christ

God met man in a narrow place,
And they scanned each other face to face.

God spoke first: "What ails you, man,
That you should look so pale and wan?"

"You bade me conquer harm
With no strength but this weak right arm.

"I would ride to war with a glad consent
Were I, as You, omnipotent."

"You show but little sense;
What triumph is there for omnipotence?"

"If You think it well to be
Such a thing as I, make trial and see."

God answered him: "And if I do,
I'll prove Me a better Man than you."

God conquered man with His naked hands,
And bound him fast in iron bands.

  • Dorothy L Sayers







    • 13 November 2010

      Worth the Wait

      To wait an hour is long
      if love be just beyond—
      To wait eternity is short
      if love reward the end.

      • Emily Dickinson (c. 1863)