THE EVIL OF NOT FORGIVING

'It may be infinitely less evil to murder a man than to refuse to forgive him. The former may be a moment of passion: the latter is the heart's choice. It is spiritual murder, the worst, to hate, to brood over the feeling that excludes, that, in our microcosm, kills the image, the idea of hatred.'

George Macdonald in Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet, p.158.

PRAYER

'What if the main object in God's idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need - the need of himslef? What if the good of all our smaller and lower needs lies in this, that they help drive us to God?

Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other needs; prayer is the beginning of that communion.'

George Macdonald in Kent & Barbara Hughes, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, p.72.

SUFFERING

'It is a painful thing to be misjudged. But it's no more than God puts up with every hour of the day. But he is patient. So long as He knows he's in the right, He lets folk think what they like  - 'til He has time to make them know better. Lord, make my heart clean within me, and then I'll care little of any judgment but yours!'

George Macdonald in Os Guiness, God in the Dark, p.195.