A Lamp to my Feet

To illustrate the Swedish Proverb shared in my previous post, I recently re-read a good book which has been a favorite since I first found it in our home library in my youth. When young I mainly enjoyed the exciting story. But through all the [dozen or more] times of re-reading it since then, The Princess and the Goblin amazes me more each time with the truth which George MacDonald fit "between the lines." For example:

"She jumped up: she had but to keep that light in view, and she must find the house.

"Her heart grew strong. Dark as it was, there was little danger now of choosing the wrong road. And – which was most strange – the light that filled her eyes from the lamp, instead of blinding them for a moment to the object upon which they next fell, enabled her for an instant to see it, despite the darkness. By looking at the lamp and then dropping her eyes, she could see the road for a yard or two in front of her, and this saved her from several falls, for the road was very rough."

Maybe you need to read the story to see the connection clearly, but this little description is to me a beautiful picture of how God's word is our light through all the dark and rough paths of life. If only we will keep looking to it/Him as our guide and focus.

Your word is a lamp to my feet
   and a light to my path. 

• Psalm 119:105

The Princess and the Goblin:
Free audiobook on LibriVox: Listen or Download Here
Free e-book on Gutenberg: Read or Download Here

A George MacDonald Caveat

I occasionally get questions requesting to know what I mean when warning George MacDonald readers to watch out for his unbiblical ideas.

As you may have guessed from my many MacDonald posts, I do appreciate and recommend many of his books (and only warn against a few that I would never, or rarely, suggest.) But even the "good ones" need to be read with discernment. Especially his unabridged novels for adults. 

While growing up reading a couple of his children's books and then getting into the abridged Michael Phillips editions of his novels, I did not notice his strange theology. I think the editing process cut out the most obvious statements and conversations. And the children's books mask it in fairytale form where it just fits the fantastical settings. But once I read more about MacDonald's life and then launched into his unabridged works in the public domain, I began to see bits of it all over. 

MacDonald was raised in a harsh form of Calvanism - coming through his grandmother in particular. As a young man he struggled deeply with the view of a distant and seemingly arbitrary God who only allowed "the elect" into heaven. Even those favored few could never know if they were one of the chosen and had to live all their life in fear.

So MacDonald swung to the opposite extreme and believed that everyone would eventually get to heaven through God's "purifying fire" - whether that happened through pain in this life or in some sort of purgatory after death. He also rejected the fact that God could view Christ's suffering and sacrifice as a substitution for our sin. (I can never quite follow the elaborate arguments he uses to explain the cross of Christ in his own way.)

All that said, his works are still so full of Christ, profound spiritual insights, and a deep love for and trust of God, that he draws me closer to God. So while I promote and even narrate audio versions of many of his books, I still want people to read with discernment.

And that goes for every book out there. Let's run them all past the sure Truth of the Bible!

"The Princess and Curdie" - Complete Audiobook

After leaving you hanging longer than planned, here is the answer to the mystery in my last post: The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald.

While this author and book are nothing new on my blog, and three and a half years have passed since I completed recording the free audio book (The Princess and Curdie, Version 2), I recently completed another big project begun a couple years ago.

Each chapter of this audiobook is now a YouTube video on my Storytime with HannahMary channel. Why bother with all that work? Because the way my sister and I first found LibriVox free audiobooks about 7 years ago was on YouTube. But it wasn't until we had heard several different readers' chapter introductions that we finally understood how to find what had sounded like "LiverBox.org." ;-)

If you like using the YouTube app, here are links:

The Princess and Curdie complete audiobook playlist - Click Here

Storytime with HannahMary YouTube channel: Click Here

And a quick Behind-the-Scenes tour of my recording "studio": Click Here

The Truth is a Strange Thing Here

Can you relate to this quote these days?

"It is hard not to be believed just because one speaks the truth," said the girl, "but that seems reason enough with some people. My mother taught me to speak the truth, and took such pains with me that I should find it hard to tell a lie, though I could invent many a story these servants would believe at once; for the truth is a strange thing here, and they don't know it when they see it. Show it them, and they all stare as if it were a wicked lie, and that with the lie yet warm that has just left their own mouths!"

Want to know who "the girl" is and in what book you can read more about her? Check back for the answer in my next post!

What Would You Have Us Do?

Doesn't this quote from George MacDonald's book [set in the Highlands of Scotland when the crumbling clans were being driven out] sound awfully familiar today? I can think of several current applications,  though I will not address them on here. Just see what comes to your mind along these lines:

"I learn from the new men on the hills," resumed Donal, "that the new lairds have conspired to exterminate us. They have discovered, apparently, that the earth was not made for man, but for rich men and beasts!" Here the little man paused, and his insignificant face grew in expression grand. "But the day of the Lord will come," he went on, "as a thief in the night. Vengeance is his, and he will know where to give many stripes, and where few.—What would you have us do, laird?"

• "What's Mine's Mine" by George MacDonald 

Did you notice that last question: "What would you have us do, laird?"

That is a good question for us to be asking The LORD!

But the answer lived out by the fictional Scottish Laird and his clan is also insightful and surprising. 

To learn the answer, find the free audiobook on Librivox.org or free e-book on Gutenberg.org

By the way: I do NOT agree with all of George MacDonald's theology, so remember to read with discernment... as for any book. Just because an author is a Christian does not mean we can accept everything they say. Remember to filter it through God's word - the Bible.

Fruits of the Earth

"The air was clear and clean, and full of life. ... A consciousness of work approaching completion filled earth and air—a mood of calm expectation, as of a man who sees his end drawing nigh, and awaits the saving judgment of the father of spirits. There was no song of birds—only a crow from the yard, or the cry of a blackcock from the hill; ...The day was of the evening of the year; in the full sunshine was present the twilight and the coming night, but there was a sense of readiness on all sides. The fruits of the earth must be housed; that alone remained to be done."

What's Mine's Mine by George MacDonald

Before winding up our harvest for 2021, we had a family picnic in the garden! The old wood stove that heated our house from the basement through my high school years has been waiting in the garden for just such a night.

The Door in the Wall

What a sweet, little book I last read from my nephew’s collection!

How often do we feel like we have just hit a wall? The way we thought we were supposed to go is blocked. Our hopes are dashed. We can’t go forward, so what can we do?!

In the imagery of this book… keep walking along the wall until you find a door.

"'Each of us has his place in the world,’ he said. ‘If we cannot serve in one way, there is always another. If we do what we are able, a door always opens to something else.'"

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli

Or, as Elisabeth Elliot put it: 

"Do the next thing."

And one more quote that I shared two years ago:

"And when she could no longer hope, she did not stand still but walked on in the dark. I think when the sun rises upon them, some people will be astonished to find how far they have got on in the dark."

Paul Faber by George MacDonald

[P.S. - Paul Faber is in the process of being recorded by a group of volunteers over at LibriVox.org. Want to join us?!]

The Way of All Wisdom

 

Two quotes for today from the book I just finished reading:

"[Letty] read her New Testament; and if she understood it only in a childish fashion, she obeyed it in a child-like one, whence the way of all wisdom lay open before her."

~ · ~

"Mary made no reply. She did not care to have the last word; nor did she fancy her cause lost when she had not at hand the answer that befitted folly."

"Mary Marston"

by George MacDonald

~ · ~

Find the free audiobook on Librivox.org and free e-book on Gutenberg.org

Sing in the Storm

"The birds, the poets of the animal creation—what though they never get beyond the lyrical! —awoke to utter their own joy, and awake like joy in others of God's children."

George MacDonald in Alec Forbes of Howglen

Our bright and cheery-voiced Baltimore Orioles came back to us May 10th!

"How cheery the bird song which was going on in spite of everything! Or perhaps the birds found no fault with the rain. I want to be like that, said Rotha to herself; not to be out of the storm, but to be able to sing through it. And that is what people are meant to do, I think."

Susan Warner in The Letter of Credit

[one of last summer's stray robin-nestlings]

Never Too Old for Children's Literature

A children's story which is
enjoyed only by children is
a bad children's story.
The good ones last.

C.S. Lewis

"Where the children's story is simply the right form for what the author has to say, then of course readers who want to hear that, will read the story or re-read it, at any age. ... I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story. The good ones last. 

"...the neat sorting-out of books into age-groups, so dear to publishers, has only a very sketchy relation with the habits of any real readers. Those of us who are blamed when old for reading childish books were blamed when children for reading books too old for us. No reader worth his salt trots along in obedience to a time-table."

C.S. Lewis On Three Ways of Writing for Children

"Some such readers, in virtue of
their hearts being young and old
both at once, discern more in the
children's books than the children
themselves."

George MacDonald in 
Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood

"But I find I have been forgetting that those for whom I write are young -- too young to understand this. Let it remain, however, for those older persons who at an odd moment, while waiting for dinner, or before going to bed, may take up a little one's book, and turn over a few of its leaves. Some such readers, in virtue of their hearts being young and old both at once, discern more in the children's books than the children themselves."

George MacDonald in Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood

[NOTE: Please never take the word of any Christian author for ultimate truth, but rather check it against the Bible. MacDonald was a fallible man with some unorthodox/unbiblical beliefs and both he and Lewis were also influenced by the unbiblical evolutionary worldview. That said, their works contain so many gems that draw me closer to the Saviour.]

To Be Misjudged

One of my volunteer jobs on LibriVox.org is to proof-listen chapters that other readers are recording. 

As I have been involved in many George MacDonald projects since I joined the community, I have worked with some of the same people many times. Devorah is one of the readers who regularly puts in the many months it takes to record a long solo in her spare time from a full-time job. I am grateful that she tackles the MacDonald books with more Scotch Doric than I can handle - and does it in such a beautiful way that (at least we American) listeners can quickly grow accustomed to the unfamiliar vocabulary and often follow the storyline better than if trying to read the print ourselves.

Click here for the free audiobook of Malcolm

Last year Devorah completed recording the book Malcolm (which was abridged by Michael Phillips as The Fisherman's Lady). Now she is working on the sequel - one of my top-three favorite George MacDonald novels.

Here is a bit that jumped out at me from the last chapter I proofed from The Marquis of Lossie. (If the Scotch Doric dialect is too hard to understand when first reading, scroll down to my paraphrase below.)

"It's a sair thing to be misjeedged," said Malcolm to himself as he put the [horse] in her stall; "but it's no more than the Macker o' 's pits up wi' ilka hoor o' the day, an' says na a word. Eh, but God's unco quaiet! Sae lang as he kens till himsel' 'at he's a' richt, he lats fowk think 'at they like -- till he has time to lat them ken better. Lord, mak' clean my hert within me, an' syne I'll care little for ony jeedgement but thine."

Can You Prove it False?

 

While the storyline of There and Back is full of memorable characters, suspense, conflict, love, life, and growth... George MacDonald never fails to weave in thought-provoking conversations.

[Please never take his word for ultimate truth, but rather check it against the Bible, as MacDonald was a fallible man with some unorthodox beliefs. That said, his works contain many gems that draw me closer to the Saviour.]

A God that could be proved, 

would not be worth proving.

There and Back by George MacDonald

"That the unprovable is necessarily the unknowable, a thousand beliefs deny. 'You cannot prove to me that you have a father!' says the blind sage, reasoning with the little child. 'Why should I prove it?' answers the child. 'I am sitting on his knee! If I could prove it, that would not make you see him; that would not make you happy like me! You do not care about my father, or you would not stand there disputing; you would feel about until you found him!'...

"If a man say, 'I cannot believe; I was not made to believe what I could not prove;' I reply, Do you really say, 'It is not true,' because you have no proof? Ask yourself whether you do not turn from the idea because you prefer it should not be true. You accept a thousand things without proof, and a thousand things may be perfectly true, and have no proof. But if you cannot be sure, why therefore do you turn away? Is the thing assuredly false? Then you ought of course to turn away. Can you prove it false? You cannot. Again, why do you turn away? That a thing is not assuredly true, cannot be reason for turning from it, else farewell to all theory and all scientific research!...

"But," said Barbara, "perhaps the man would say that we see such suffering in the world, that the being who made it, if there be one, cannot possibly be both strong and good, otherwise he would not allow it." 

"Say then, that he might be both strong and good, and have some reason for allowing, or even causing it, which those who suffer will themselves one day justify, ready for the sake of it to go through all the suffering again. Less than that would not satisfy me."

There and Back by George MacDonald

The entire audiobook can be downloaded for free at https://librivox.org/there-and-back-by-george-macdonald/

There and Back

Breaking News:
There and Back, published by George MacDonald in 1891, is now an audiobook! Several volunteers helped me record this for you all, and it can now be downloaded for free from LibriVox.org.

Book Summary: 
An unscrupulous baronet is left a widower and couldn't care less what happens to his ugly newborn heir. But when an icy stepmother moves in and the child is stolen away by his loving nurse, what can unfold but a riveting account of the years of mystery, drama, love and lessons for which MacDonald's writings are known. 

Quote: 

"I would move a long way to see that Mr. Tuke cared to do right: that is my business. It is not much to me, and nothing to my business, whether Mr. Tuke be rich or poor, a baronet or a bookbinder; it is everything to me whether Mr. Tuke will be an honest fellow or not."

While it can be read as a stand-alone work, There and Back is a sort of sequel to Thomas Wingfold, Curate and Paul Faber, Surgeon in that they all include the character of Wingfold. The three have been abridged by Michael Phillips and republished under the names: The Curate's Awakening, The Lady's Confession, and The Baron's Apprenticeship, but these are not in the public domain, as are the originals.

"Are You Ready?" - The Princess and Curdie

· Now, Curdie, are you ready?" she said
· Yes, ma'am, answered Curdie.
· You do not know what for.
· You do, ma'am. That is enough.
· You could not have given me a better answer,
   or done more to prepare yourself, Curdie.

[from The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald]

To hear a short sample of my free audiobook recording 

of The Princess and Curdie, click here.

The entire audiobook can be downloaded for free here.

This book is a sequel to The Princess and the Goblin 

- a lifelong favorite of mine that grows better every time 

I read it. Make sure to read that book before Curdie! 

A British gentleman did a lovely job recording that 

free audiobook - available here.

Come Through the Gloom of Clouded Skies

"Come through the gloom of clouded skies,
The slow dim rain and fog athwart;
Through east winds keen, and wrong and lies
Come and make strong my hopeless heart.

"Come through the sickness and the pain,
The sore unrest that tosses still;
The aching dark that hides the gain
Come and arouse my fainting will.

"Through all the fears that spirits bow
Of what hath been, or may befall,
Come down and talk with me, for Thou
Canst tell me all about them all.

"Come, Lord of life; here is Thy seat,
Heart of all joy, below, above!
One minute let me kiss Thy feet,
And name the names of those I love!"

Poem by George MacDonald as found in his biography by Michael Phillips 

Words

Who else remembers "Auntie"?

My first glimpse of the internet in the late 1980's was using an online bulletin board by this name.

How things have changed since then. For example, to the best of my memory, our computer screen was about 6 inches and probably weighed more than my whole computer today. Back then we had no inkling of all we would do on a computer hooked up to the phone line (let alone a cell-phone beaming through thin air). It was just a novelty that we didn't take seriously as children. My cousins and I occasionally "logged on" to "post a comment" (terms I had not yet heard) on the bulletin board which anyone could read.

Our comments were mostly "Hi, Daniel" or a joke from our favorite, tattered joke book. Even that petered out long before the world-wide-web had any significant meaning.

But what has changed even more than the tech side is the appalling decline in human communications.

Oh, I know people are in touch more than ever now, though the methods of my childhood: snail-mail, telephone, and face-to-face (whatever that is in 2020?!) are on their way to extinction. It seems, so are English grammar and spelling.

Don't get me wrong. The internet is a compounded blessing to those of us who are ill and mostly home-bound for years. Being able to keep our off-site family daily updated with notes, quips, prayer requests, and photos is an unheard-of connection just a generation ago. Email is invaluable for keeping up with friends and conducting business. My sister can even start and run a whole business from home, thanks to the internet. And then being able to do our shopping from the couch - especially for specialty groceries - and having podcasts, audio books and Sunday sermons at our fingertips...

What concerns me most is the change in attitudes regarding human interaction. Have you noticed how less than 30 years online has drastically lowered standards in courtesy and decency? Kindness is the exception. Civility is rarely considered. You can say whatever you want to utter strangers and think nothing of tearing down and picking fights with friends and relatives. Even opinions are often couched in "fightin' words."

What a contrast to the list of standards we can read that George Washington set as his goal in his youth. No wonder he was so greatly respected and trusted and was such an effective leader for our country in times of bitter turmoil and war. [Side-note: I have read three biographies of Washington these years. Even the one "In Words of One Syllable" uses richer language than most writing now!]

What a greater contrast our online words are to the standards of relationships given by God, which were really the foundation of George Washington's character. 

For example:

Philippians 2:4
Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Ephesians 4:32
Be kind and compassionate... forgiving...

Psalm 19:14
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Philippians 4:8
Whatever is true...noble...right...pure...lovely... admirable...excellent...praiseworthy... think about such things.

Luke 6:45
...for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

James 3:4-5
The tongue is like a small rudder turning a large ship, and...
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!

(And to dig deeper, use a concordance to search the book of Proverbs for its many warnings about the power and use of the tongue.)

I cringe to think how an entire generation has now been raised with the internet's standards for using our words. How can we possibly raise the standard again? 

Only by looking to THE WORD. (John 1:1,14)

After typing all these words, I can only pray that this blog avoids the pitfall described by George MacDonald in A Quiet Neighborhood which described a person, "with an immense amount of mental inertia discharging itself in constant lingual activity about little nothings."

No Place Like Home

"There is nothing like this anywhere!" said Ian. 

"Do you mean nothing so beautiful?" asked Alister.

"No; I mean just what I say: there is nothing like it. I do not care a straw whether one scene be more or less beautiful than another; what I do care for is—its individual speech to my soul. I feel towards visions of nature as towards writers. If a book or a prospect produces in my mind a mood that no other produces, then I feel it individual, original, real, therefore precious. If a scene or a song play upon the organ of my heart as no other scene or song could, why should I ask at all whether it be beautiful? A bare hill may be more to me than a garden of Damascus, but I love them both."

What's Mine's Mine by George MacDonald

Into a Sick Chamber

Here are some interesting thoughts from a fictional pastor, penned by a real-life pastor:

"I had found that it was quite possible to be sympathetic with those of my flock who were ill without putting on a long face when I went to see them. 

"Of course, I do not mean that I could, or that it was desirable that I should, look cheerful when any were in great pain or mental distress. But in ordinary conditions of illness a cheerful countenance is as a message of all’s well, which may surely be carried into a sick chamber by the man who believes that the heart of a loving Father is at the centre of things, that he is light all about the darkness, and that he will not only bring good out of evil at last, but will be with the sufferer all the time, making endurance possible, and pain tolerable. 

"There are a thousand alleviations that people do not often think of, coming from God himself."

From The Seaboard Parish by George MacDonald

I Have Forgot

Sometimes I wake, and, lo, I have forgot,

And drifted out upon an ebbing sea!

My soul that was at rest now resteth not,

For I am with myself and not with Thee;

Truth seems a blind moon in a glaring morn,

Where nothing is but sick-heart vanity:

Oh, Thou who knowest, save Thy child forlorn.

Diary of an Old Soul, January 3rd

by George MacDonald