Sermons & Devotionals by George MacDonald
George MacDonald
The Fear of God
‘And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last and the Living one.’—Rev. i. 17, 18. It is not alone the first beginnings of religion that are full of fear. So long as love is imperfect, there is room for torment.... Read More
George MacDonald
The Final Unmasking
For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.—Matthew x. 26; Luke xii. 2. God is not a God that hides, but a God that reveals. His whole work in relation to the creatures he has made—and where else can lie his work?—is revelation—the giving them truth, t... Read More
George MacDonald
The God of the Living
He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.—Luke xx. 38. It is a recurring cause of perplexity in our Lord’s teaching, that he is too simple for us; that while we are questioning with ourselves about the design of Solomon’s carving upon some gold-plated door of the temple,... Read More
George MacDonald
The Hands of the Father
“Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit.”—Luke xxiii. 46. Neither St Matthew nor St Mark tells us of any words uttered by our Lord after the Eloi. They both, along with St Luke, tell us of a cry with a loud voice, and the giving up of the ghost; between which cry and the giving up, St Luke record... Read More
George MacDonald
The Hardness of the Way
‘Children, how hard is it!’—St. Mark x. 24. I suspect there is scarcely a young man rich and thoughtful who is not ready to feel our Lord’s treatment of this young man hard. He is apt to ask, ‘Why should it be difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven?’ He is ready to look upon th... Read More
George MacDonald
The Higher Faith
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.—John xx. 29. The aspiring child is often checked by the dull disciple who has learned his lessons so imperfectly that he has never got beyond his school-books. Ful... Read More
George MacDonald
The Inheritance
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.—Ep. to the Colossians i. 12. To have a share in any earthly inheritance, is to diminish the share of the other inheritors. In the inheritance of the saints, that which each has, goes to ... Read More
George MacDonald
The Knowing of the Son
Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you; for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.—John v. 37, 38. We shall know one day just how near we come in the New Testament to the very words of the Lord. That we have them with a difference, I ... Read More
George MacDonald
The Last Farthing
‘Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou have paid the last farthing.’—St. Matthew v. 26. There is a thing wonderful and admirable in the parables, not readily grasped, but specially indicated by the Lord himself—their unintelligibility to the mere intellect. They a... Read More
George MacDonald
The Mirrors of the Lord
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord.—II Corinthians iii. 18. We may see from this passage how the apostle Paul received the Lord, and how he understands his life to be the lig... Read More
George MacDonald
The New Name
To him that overcometh, I will give a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.—Rev. ii. 17. Whether the Book of the Revelation be written by the same man who wrote the Gospel according to St John or not, there is, at least, one element commo... Read More
George MacDonald
The Temptation in the Wilderness
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and sa... Read More
George MacDonald
The Truth
I am the truth.—John xiv. 6. When the man of the five senses talks of truth, he regards it but as a predicate of something historical or scientific proved a fact; or, if he allows that, for aught he knows, there may be higher truth, yet, as he cannot obtain proof of it from without, he acts as if un... Read More
George MacDonald
The Truth in Jesus
‘But ye did not so learn Christ; if so be that ye heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus: that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit.’—Eph. iv. 20-22. How have we learned Christ? It ought to be a start... Read More
George MacDonald
The Voice of Job
‘O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer... Read More
George MacDonald
The Way
‘If thou wouldest be perfect.’—St. Matthew xix. 21. For reasons many and profound, amongst the least because of the fragmentary nature of the records, he who would read them without the candle of the Lord—that is, the light of truth in his inward parts—must not merely fall into a thousand errors—a t... Read More
George MacDonald
The Word of Jesus on Prayer
‘They ought always to pray.’—St. Luke xviii. 1. The impossibility of doing what we would as we would, drives us to look for help. And this brings us to a new point of departure. Everything difficult indicates something more than our theory of life yet embraces, checks some tendency to abandon the st... Read More
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George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.
Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence."
Even Mark Twain, who initially disliked MacDonald, became friends with him, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald.
MacDonald grew up influenced by his Congregational Church, with an atmosphere of Calvinism. But MacDonald never felt comfortable with some aspects of Calvinist doctrine; indeed, legend has it that when the doctrine of predestination was first explained to him, he burst into tears (although assured that he was one of the elect). Later novels, such as Robert Falconer and Lilith, show a distaste for the idea that God's electing love is limited to some and denied to others.