the sun has risen

THE SUN HAS RISEN

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only

because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

C.S. Lewis

GOD CANNOT GIVE US A HAPPINESS

AND PEACE APART FROM HIMSELF,

BECAUSE IT IS NOT THERE.

DDAIM ATIAND YOUDDEARTHDSIN. AIMIIYOU GET

THERE IS NO SUCH THING.

H E AV E NWILL GETTHROWNIN. EARTHNEITHER

You must show that a man

is wrong before you start

explaining why he is wrong.

The modern method is to

assume without discussion

that he is wrong and then

distract his attention from this

(the only real issue) by busily

explaining how he became so

silly. In the course of the last

fifteen years I have found this

vice so common that I have had

to invent a name for it. I call

it “Bulverism.” Some day I am

going to write the biography of

its imaginary inventor, Ezekiel

Bulver, whose destiny was

determined at the age of five

when he heard his mother say

to his father—who had been

B U LV E RI S M

maintaining that two sides of a

triangle were together greater

than a third — ”Oh you say

that because you are a man.”

“At that moment,” E. Bulver

assures us, “there flashed

across my opening mind the

great truth that refutation is

no necessary part of argument.

Assume that your opponent

is wrong, and the world will

be at your feet. Attempt to

prove that he is wrong or

(worse still) try to find out

whether he is wrong or right,

and the national dynamism

of our age will thrust you to

the wall.” That is how Bulver

became one of the makers

of the Twentieth Century.

TYRANNIES

VICTIMS

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised

for the good of its victims may be the most

oppressive. It would be better to live under robber

barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep,

his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but

those who torment us for our own good will

torment us without end for they do so with the

approval of their own conscience. They may be

more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time

likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness

stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against

one’s will and cured of states which we may not

regard as disease is to be put on a level of those

who have not yet reached the age of reason or

those who never will; to be classed with infants,

imbeciles, and domestic animals.

URCHCH

A c

old

, self-rig

hte

ou

s prig

wh

o

go

es re

gu

larly

to ch

urch

may

be

far nearer to

hell th

an a p

rostitu

te.

Imagine yourself as a living

house. God comes in to

rebuild that house. At first,

perhaps, you can understand

what He is doing. He is

getting the drains right and

stopping the leaks in the roof

and so on; you knew that

those jobs needed doing and

so you are not surprised. But

presently He starts knocking

the house about in a way that

hurts abominably and does

not seem to make any sense.

What on earth is He up to?

The explanation is that He

is building quite a different

house from the one you

thought of - throwing out a

new wing here, putting on an

extra floor there, running up

towers, making courtyards.

You thought you were being

made into a decent little

cottage: but He is building a

palace. He intends to come

and live in it Himself.

URCHCH

COURAGE IS NOT SIMPLY

ONE OF THE VIRTUES

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a

bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it

to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We

are like eggs at present. And you cannot

go on indefinitely being just an ordinary,

decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

FAILURES ARE FINGER

POSTS ON THE ROAD

TO ACHIEVEMENT.

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us

to obey ‘people.’ People say different things:

so do instincts. Our instincts are at war...

Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim

to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

PEOPLE SAY

DIFFERENT THINGS

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love

anything, and your heart will certainly

be wrung and possibly be broken.

TO LOVE AT ALL

IS TO BE VULNERABLE

BLIND WAR // A RETROSPECTIVE

JUNE 11, 2014 // 1 LMU DRIVE

L O S A N G E L E S , C A 9 0 0 4 5

the sun has risen

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