Good Old E.G.

I just finished reading "The Rosemary Tree" by Elizabeth Goudge. A pretty good read, in my opinion. I took it back to the library this morning, along with four or five other books that were hideously overdue. Oooops. Sowwy.

Here are a couple thought provoking quotes from "The Rosemary Tree" that I enjoyed. I love having these little gems of truth hit me between the eyes.

“ She stood by the window, looking at the day with astonished recognition, as though she had not seen an English spring for twenty years. John thought that possibly she hadn’t. Beauty awakened such intolerable longing that people often shut their eyes to it, unaware that the longing was the greatest treasure that they had, their very lifeline, uniting the country of their lost innocence with the heavenly country for which their sails were set. He dared not move or speak while she took hold of her lifeline again.”

“ ‘The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.’ That was the artist’s problem as well as the man’s. Progress in evil was quick and easy; Apollyon was not a chap who hid himself and he gave every assistance in his power. The growth in goodness was so slow, at times so flat, so dull, and like the White Queen one had to run so fast to stay where one was, let alone progress; and there were few men who dared to say they had found God. It was easy to be a clever sinner, for the race to an earthly visible goal was short to run, so impossibly hard to be a wise saint, with the goal set at so vast a distance from this world and clouded with such uncertainty. Patience with the apparent hopelessness of spiritual growth was the man’s task, patience with breaking chalks and the smudgy drawing was the artist’s. And for both the grim struggle of faith. …Did such men as John, and the old man…at times lose their faith that an hour spent in mental prayer was not a shocking waste of time?”