Saturday, June 11, 2011

C.S. Lewis, on forgivess

But though natural likings should normally be encouraged, it would be quite wrong to think that the way to become charitable is to sit trying to manufacture affectionate feelings. Some people are 'cold' by temperament; that may be a misfortune for them, but it is no more a sin than having a bad digestion is a sin; and it does not cut them out from the chance, or excuse them from the duty, of learning charity. ……………………….

.....The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. ………………………..

Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor; ……….. …………………………………………………………….act as if you did.  .....

When you are behaving as if you loved someone, …………….. …………
.....................................……………………. you will presently come to love him. ....

If you injure someone you dislike, ……………
…………………………… you will find yourself disliking him more. ..........

If you do him a good turn, ……………
…………………………………you will find yourself disliking him less. ...........

….. There is, indeed, one exception. ……..

If you do him a good turn, ………………………………….…….
……………...…………….. not to please God and obey the law of charity,................
..............................................but to show him what a fine forgiving chap you are, ………… …………………...................and to put him in your debt, ….. …………
...............................………….and then sit down to wait for his 'gratitude', ………………
......................................................…………..you will probably be disappointed. …

....(People are not fools: they have a very quick eye for anything like showing off, or patronage.)...

......But whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less.

(C.S. Lewis, Mere Chrisianity, Book 3, 7. )

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

on free will , or predestination

"Thus to his onely Son foreseeing spake.

Onely begotten Son, seest thou what rage [ 80 ]
Transports our adversarie, .....
............................whom no bounds
Prescrib'd, no barrs of Hell, ....
.............................nor all the chains
Heapt on him there, nor yet the main Abyss
Wide interrupt can hold; ...
.........................so bent he seems
On desparate reveng, that shall redound [ 85 ]
Upon his own rebellious head. ....
...............................And now
Through all restraint broke loose he wings his way
Not farr off Heav'n, in the Precincts of light,
Directly towards the new created World,

And Man there plac't, with purpose to assay [ 90 ]
If him by force he can destroy, or worse,
By some false guile pervert; ....
...............................and shall pervert
For man will heark'n to his glozing lyes,
And easily transgress the sole Command,
Sole pledge of his obedience: ......

...............................So will fall, [ 95 ]
Hee and his faithless Progenie:.....
................................ whose fault?
Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of mee
All he could have; ......
...................I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.

Such I created all th' Ethereal Powers [ 100 ]
And Spirits, both them who stood and them who faild;

Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.

Not free, what proof could they have givn sincere
Of true allegiance, constant Faith or Love,

Where onely what they needs must do, appeard, [ 105 ]
Not what they would? ..........
.....................what praise could they receive?
What pleasure I from such obedience paid,"

(John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book III)