Quoteworthy - Mercy

The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes;
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.


But mercy is above the scepter's sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute of God Himself,
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
That in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
the deeds of mercy.

   --- Merchant of Venice, by Shakespeare

Patches of God-light - C S Lewis

Have I tasted and seen?

William Law remarks that people are merely 'amusing themselves' by asking for the patience which a famine or a persecution would call for if, in the meantime, the weather and every other inconvenience sets them grumbling.

One must learn to walk before one can run.

So here. We -- or at least I -- shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasion if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest.

At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not have found Him so, not have 'tasted and seen.'

Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy.

These pure and spontaneous pleasures are 'patches of God-light' in the woods of our experience.

  --  From Letters to Malcolm, by C. S. Lewis