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"The world is a fine thing to save, but a wretch to worship." --(George MacDonald)-- |
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Edited by: Michael R. Phillips, Bethany House Publishers, Copyright © 1987 Michael R. Phillips, 220 Pages. Originally published in 1882 as Weighed and Wanting.
"It is the individual Christians forming the church by their obedient individuality that have done all the good since men for the love of Christ began to gather together. No organization, not even a religious organization, can ever accomplish anything. It is individual love alone that can combine in a larger flame. There is no true power but that which has individual roots. Neither custom nor habit nor law nor foundation has a root. The real roots are individual conscience that hates evil, individual faith that loves and obeys God, individual heart with its kiss of charity." --(George MacDonald)--
"Scotland's master storyteller gives another vivid portrayal of the mercy and compassion of God as seen in the lives of those who truly know Him. Perhaps more than any other MacDonald novel, this story manifests one of the strongest driving forces in his spiritual vision: the theme of godly service to the poor. The narrative centers around Hester Raymount, a twenty-three-year-old Londoner whose loving heart continually reaches out—to God and to the poor in her neighborhood. Her benevolence is not without its price, however; growing up in an environment of strict social mores where faith in God was often more cultural than spiritual, Hester's choices concerned obedience to the gospel or conforming to the culture of her day." --(Back Cover)--
"Hester's family is a so-called religious one, yet without deep convictions. Hester has grown up in an environment where the words of life were present but had not penetrated into action. It is this empty shell of pseudo spirituality, exemplified by Hester's father, and the negative fruit revealed in the character of one of her brothers, which has been "weighed" and found "wanting" in the end—the unconverted heart that gives only lip service to a faith in God, but which puts self-interests first when the test comes. Hester, however, rising above her parental training, chooses a different road. . . and ultimately discovers her fulfillment in the path of selflessness, the path of laying down one's life in the service of God and his people. In so doing, she exemplifies one of the most profound lessons MacDonald emphasizes in nearly all of his books—letting God use you where you are, with the talents you possess, to help and minister to those around you. Also, in so doing, Hester helps raise her family to an increased consciousness of God. In one sense, this book capsulizes MacDonald's urgent message to the Christian body. He urges us to worry less about doctrine, theology, and the forms and trappings of religion. Instead he advises us to do the work God has put before us. . . . It illustrates that faith without works is no faith at all—it will be weighed, and in the end found to be lacking substance or value." --(Michael R. Phillips, Editor)-- |
| It would seem that
far too many professing Christians (by professing Christians I indicate
those who give lip service to the faith, but reserve their thoughts, acts,
and deeds for selfish and worldly motives) are well-pleased with the filling
of a pew on Sunday morning. By so doing, they seem self-assured that all
duty and obligation to their Creator has been duly satisfied. Not unlike
those who cling to Christ as Savior, yet are unwilling to name Him as Lord,
these misguided individuals stand in the gravest danger of hearing He,
whom they profess to worship, say to them on that Great and Terrible Day,
"Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you."
The Raymount family is characteristic of the majority of those who claim the mantle of Christianity without having known the responsibilities and obligations it entails. While reaching for the crown, they have somehow forgotten to bear the Cross. It is enough that conscience has, perhaps, been assuaged by the promise of eternal life in Paradise minus the attendant responsibilities so honorably borne by the Apostles and those dear men of God who followed in their wake. Christianity, if anything, is a way of life unto life. Life cannot be devoted to self, then, at the moment of death, the expectation arise that a merciful Savior will be awaiting the soon-to-be departed's entrance into Heaven. In The Gentlewoman's Choice, MacDonald acquaints us with a so-called Christian family comprised of various personalities and attendant character traits as well as those inescapable flaws endemic to mankind. In the eldest daughter, Hester, and the youngest son, Mark, we are delighted to discover two individuals who, despite their apparent differences, are journeying the same path, although, quite obviously, not at the same point. Both live to seek and serve God by means of the individual capacities with which they have been endowed. Unfortunately, the remainder of the family wanders disconnected along shadowed paths speaking of right and wrong, good and evil, black and white, yet never truly demonstrating any awareness of the formidable chasm that yawns between speaking and doing; for without doing there exists no more than the whited-sepulcher—Hypocrisy; of words disjointed from their deeds, and words without deeds result in the greatest of nothings—evil. The family patriarch is a man of strongest principles, integrity, and moral rectitude. He is, however, unfamiliar with those essential commodities of the heart—compassion and forgiveness. The mother, while evincing an ample quantity of those particular qualities lacking in her husband, is, nevertheless, deficient in her resolve to follow the narrow way regardless of pain or price to pay. The eldest son seems to possess neither the righteousness of the father nor the love and empathy of the mother, but is, it would appear, an utter wretch. We invite you to join the Raymount family as well as the assorted and quite interesting cast of characters with whom their lives intersect and intertwine as the various members either strive to discover God, or are forced, of God, to become aware that He does, in fact, exist, and requires both their attention and their action. He may be loved, He may be loathed, but He will not long be ignored. --(Dr. David J. Thomas)-- |
George MacDonald Titles:
What's Mine's Mine | The Lady's Confession | Castle Warlock |
Alec Forbes Of Howglen | Salted With Fire | Robert Falconer |
The Peasant Girl's Dream | The Poet's Homecoming | David Elginbrod |
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