George MacDonald. An Antology (edited by C.S.Lewis) -
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Indeed, the wonder of the growing corn is to me greater than the wonder of
feeding the thousands. It is easier to understand the creative power going
forth at once- immediately-than through the countless, the lovely, the
seemingly forsaken wonders of the cornfield.
[ 27 ] Religious Feeling
In the higher aspect of this first temptation, arising from the fact
that a man cannot feel the things he believes except under certain
conditions of physical well-being dependent upon food, the answer is the
same: A man does not live by his feelings any more than by bread.
[ 28 ] Dryness
And when he can no longer feel the truth, he shall not therefore
die.
He lives because God is true; and he is able to know that he lives because
he knows, having once understood the word that God is truth. He believes in
the God of former vision, lives by that word therefore, when all is dark and
there is no vision.
[ 29 ] Presumption
"If ye have faith and doubt not, if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be
thou removed and cast into the sea, it shall be done." Good people . . .
have been tempted to tempt the Lord their God upon the strength of this
saying. . . . Happily for such, the assurance to which they would give the
name of faith generally fails them in time. Faith is that which, knowing the
Lord's will, goes and does it; or, not knowing it, stands and waits... But
to put God to the question in any other way than by saying, "What wilt thou
have me to do?" is an attempt to compel God to declare Himself, or to hasten
His work. . . . The man is therein dissociating himself from God so far
that, instead of acting by the divine will from within, he acts in God's
face, as it were, to see what He will do. Man's first business is, "What