Magdalen College, Oxford, where C. S. Lewis spent much of his academic career, was founded in 1458.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)
Among other things in the remarkable Neal A. Maxwell Lecture (“The Maxwell Legacy in the 21st Century”) that he delivered on the Provo, Utah, campus of Brigham Young University on the evening of Saturday, 10 November 2018, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Council of the Twelve Apostles cited a passage from George MacDonald (1824-1905), a Scottish clergyman, author, and poet.
The great English scholar, writer, Christian apologist C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) ranked very high among Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s most beloved authors. And, in his turn, Lewis was vocal throughout the years that followed his adult conversion to Christianity about his admiration for, and his debt to, George MacDonald.
MacDonald posed an important question and then answered it himself
Is every Christian expected to bear witness?
A man content to bear no witness to the truth is not of the kingdom of heaven. One who believes must bear witness. One who sees the truth, must live witnessing to it. Is our life, then, a witnessing to the truth? Do we carry ourselves in [the] bank, on [the] farm, in [the] house or shop, in [the] study or chamber or workshop, as the Lord would, or as the Lord would not?
Are we careful to be true? . . . When contempt is cast on the truth, do we smile? Wronged in our presence, do we make no sign that we hold by it? I do not say we are called upon to dispute, and defend with logic and argument, but we are called upon to show that we are on the other side. . . .
The soul that loves the truth and tries to be true, will know when to speak and when to be silent; but the true man [or woman] will never look as if he [or she] did not care. We are not bound to say all we think, but we are bound not even to look [like] what we do not think.”
[1] George MacDonald, Creation in Christ: Unspoken Sermons, ed. Rolland Hein (Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 1976), 142. [bracketed insertions by Elder Holland]
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The latest installment of Dr. Jeffrey Mark Bradshaw’s reflections on his recent experience of serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa Mission is now available on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:
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