“Is it true? Does all life sift down to just two things: the Way and not-the-way? And is this fact of the Way and not-the-way inherent in every situation and in everything? Does all life become a choice between the Way and not-the-way; and does that choice confront us in every thought, every act, every feeling — in fact, every time we do anything? Is the Christian way always the right way, and is the unchristian way always the wrong way? And does that refer to individuals and nations — the smallest and the largest? For individuals and nations, for God and man, in every conceivable circumstance in heaven and on earth, are there just two things: the Way and not-the-way? And is the Christian way always the Way and is the unchristian way always not-the-way? With no exceptions anywhere?
If that is true, then it is tremendously true. Beside that one fact — if it is a fact — everything else dwindles into insignificance. A Hindu chairman said at the close of my address, “If what the speaker has said tonight isn’t true, it doesn’t matter; but if it is true, then nothing else matters.” If the Christian way is a way among ways, you can take it or leave it and nothing much happens. It doesn’t really matter. But if it is true — if it is the Way — then nothing else matters. This is the one thing in life with which we must come to terms or ruin life itself.”
- The Way (a devotional) by e. stanley jones
“Of all evils, pain only is sterilised or disinfected evil. Intellectual evil, or error, may recur because the cause of the first error (such as fatigue or bad handwriting) continues to operate; but quite apart from that, error in its own right breeds error — if the first step in an argument is wrong, everything that follows will be wrong. Sin may recur because the original temptation continues; but quite apart form that, sin of its very anture breeds si nby strengthening sinful habit and weakening the conscience. Now pain, like the other evils, may of course recur because the cause of the first pain (disease, or an enemy) is still operative: but pain has no tendency, in its own right, to proliferate. When it is over, it is over, and the natural sequel is joy. This distinction may be put the other way round. After an error you need not only to remove the causes (the fatigue or bad handwriting) but also to correct the error itself: after a sin you must not only, if possible, remove the temptation, you must also go back and repent the sin itself. In each case an ‘undoing’ is required. Pain requires no such undoing. You may need to heal the disease which caused it, but the pain, once over, is sterile — whereas every uncorrected error and unrepented sin is, in its own right, a fountain of fresh error and fresh sin flowing on to the end of time. Again, when I err, my error infects everyone who believes me. When I sin publicly, every spectator either condones it, thus sharing guilt, or condemns it with imminent danger to his charity and humility. But suffering naturally produces in the spectators (unless they are unusually depraved) no bad effect, but a good one — pity. Thus that evil which God chiefly uses to produce the ‘complex good’ is most markedly disinfected, or deprived of that proliferous tendency which is the worst characteristic of evil in general.”
- C.S. Lewis, ‘Chapter 7: Human Pain, Continued‘, The Problem of Pain
