George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Congregational minister for roughly seven years before leaving the professional ministry and turning his attention to writing. His faith was fearless, the very center of his life and work. He continued to speak in congregations when needed, and wrote several books of “unspoken sermons.” These unspoken sermons are a treasury of devotion, filled with pure new covenant theology and fervor. His influence on the faith and practice of many was enormous in his day and for some time after his death. C.S. Lewis referred to MacDonald as ‘his master.” Lewis Carroll and J.R.R Tolkien were strongly influenced by MacDonald’s writings and thoughts. I highly recommend to you the reading of his “Unspoken Sermons” series. The Scottish vernacular is at times a bit difficult, but the truths are worth the effort.

You can read more about him in the following posts on this blog: https://1pursuit.org/2025/02/19/george-macdonald-on-eternal-life/ and https://1pursuit.org/2022/07/14/notable-and-quotable-28/ .

MacDonald on faith:

“That man is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and desires, without a glow or an aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to Him, “Thou are my refuge.””

“If we will but let our God and Father work His will with us, there can be no limit to His enlargement of our existence.”

MacDonald on truth:

“Truth is truth, whether from the lips of Jesus or Balaam.”

“I do not say we are called upon to dispute and defend the truth with logic and argument, but we are called upon to show by our lives that we stand on the side of truth. But when I say truth, I do not mean opinion. To treat opinion as if that were truth is grievously to wrong the truth. The soul that loves the truth and tries to be true will know when to speak and when to be silent.”

MacDonald on the Bible:

“But herein is the Bible itself greatly wronged. It nowhere lays claim to be regarded as the Word, the Way, the Truth. The Bible leads us to Jesus, the inexhaustible, the every unfolding Revelation of God. it is Christ “in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” not the Bible, save as leading to Him.”

MacDonald on worship:

“He will shake heaven and earth, that only the unshakable may remain: He is a consuming fine, that only that which cannot be consumed may stand forth eternal. It is the nature of God, so terribly pure that it destroys all that is not pure as fire, which demands purity in our worship. He will have purity. It is not that the fire will burn us if we do not worship thus; yea, will go on burning within us after all that is foreign to it has yielded to its force, no longer with pain and consuming, but as the highest consciousness of life, the presence of God.”

“The name is one “which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” Not only then has each man his individual relation to God, but each man has his peculiar relation to God. He is to God a peculiar being, made after his own fashion, and that of no one else. Hence he can worship God as no man else can worship Him.”

MacDonald on prayer:

“If God were not only to hear our prayers, as he does ever and always, but to answer them as we want them answered, he would not be God our Saviour but the ministering genius of our destruction.”