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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"...But things are unbearable just until we have them to bear; their possibility comes with them. For we are not the roots of our own being." George MacDonald (From “Weighed and Wanting,” Chapter XIII, A Private Exhibition) gmdreflections.substack.com/p/a-fellow-w...

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A Fellow-Worker

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"…Some are always thinking others better off than themselves: others feel as if the lot of many about them must be absolutely unbearable, because they themselves could never bear it, they think..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"...And if in view of death we gird up the loins of our minds, and unite our hearts into a whole of love, and tenderness, and atonement, and forgiveness, then Death himself cannot be that thing of forlornness and loss." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXVII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"...in short, he must set his inward house in order, ere he went forth to the abodes of ice. Death is not a breaker but a renewer of ties..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"…his approaching departure into places unknown and a life untried, operated upon his spiritual condition like the approach of death; and he must strengthen again all the old bonds which had been stretched thin by time and absence; he must make righteous atonement for the wrong of neglect..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

(From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXVI)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"...There was disease in Alec, but the disease did not lie in his dissatisfaction. It lay in that poverty of life with which those are satisfied who call such discontent disease. Such disease is the first flicker of the aurora of a rising health." George MacDonald

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"Pain is not malady; it is the revelation of malady - the meeting and recoil between the unknown death and the unknown life; that jar of the system whereby the fact becomes known to the man that he is ill..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

(From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXIV)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"Is it true that all our experiences will one day revive in entire clearness of outline and full brilliancy of colour, passing before the horror-struck soul to the denial of time, and the assertion of ever-present eternity? If so, then God be with us, for we shall need him." George MacDonald

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"The more heartily he worked the more did the evil as well as the painful portions of his history recede into the background of his memory, growing more and more like the traces left by a bad, turbid, and sorrowful dream." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXIV)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"That's an honest man, Alec," said Cupples. "He is," returned Alec. "But he never will do as other people do." "Perhaps that's the source of his honesty - that he walks by an inward light," said Cupples thoughtfully." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXIV)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"...If he had not yet learned to look "straight up to heaven," his eyes wandered not unfrequently towards that spiritual horizon upon which things earthly and things heavenly meet and embrace." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXIII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"...Love taught Mr Cupples to deny himself that he might rescue his friend; and presently he had found his feet touching the rock..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"...A playful humanity radiated from him, the result of that powerfullest of all restoratives—giving of what one has to him who has not. Indeed his reformation had begun with this. St Paul taught a thief to labour, that he might have to give..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"...and irrigate with its sweet waters the parched border land between his physical and psychical being. And when he had once again betaken himself to the forsaken pen, there was little reason to fear a relapse or doubt a final victory..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"Nor had he found it so hard to conquer his fearful habit [of drink] as even he had expected; for with every week passed in bitter abstinence, some new well would break from the rich soil of his intellect..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"…what a fine thing illness is for bringing people to their right minds." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXIII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"...A body maunna do ill that gude may come, though wow! it's a sair temptation whiles; neither maun a body neglec to do richt for fear that ill may follow." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXIII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"Ye're no to mak' the serpent yer cooncellor, man. But ance ye ken yer duty, ye may weel tak example by him hoo to carry 't oot. Did ye ever see an edder lyin' ower a stane as gin he was naething but a stick himsel', bidin' 's time? That's me, i' the Scriptur' sense. I'm only bidin' till I see hoo..

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"Hoot! Willie," said his father, "what's come ower ye? Ye luik as gin some lass had said na to ye." "Some lasses' no's better nor ither lasses' ay, father." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

(From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"Ane by ane they gang awa'. The gatherer gathers great an' sma'. Ane by ane maks ane an' a'. Aye whan ane is ta'en frae ane, Ane on earth is left alane, Twa in heaven are knit again. Whan God's hairst is in or lang, Golden-heidit, ripe, and thrang, Syne begins a better sang." George MacDonald

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

"He went on… with wandering thoughts that in their wildest vagaries were yet tending homeward; and which when least sound, were yet busy with the wisest of mortal business—repentance…" George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"...He has had nothing to do with our story, save that once he made our Annie feel that she had a home. And to give that feeling to another is worth living for, and justifies a place in any story like mine." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXII)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"He was going to "the land o' the Leal" (loyal), the true-hearted, to wait for his wife, whose rheumatism was no chariot of fire for swiftness, whatever it might be for pain, to bear her to the "high countries." ..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

"…there was a curious admixture of outward lawlessness with the perfect inward obedience of the girl…" George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXI)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"...but never did she offer a petition that associated Alec's fate with her own; though sometimes she would find herself holding up her heart like an empty cup which knew that it was empty." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXI)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"...Even her new love did not more than occasionally ruffle the flow of her inward river. She had long cherished a deeper love, which kept it very calm. Her stillness was always wandering into prayer..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"…With one or other of these [books] she would wander along the banks of the clear brown Glamour, now watching it as it subdued its rocks or lay asleep in its shadowy pools, now reading a page or two, or now seating herself on the grass, & letting the dove of peace fold its wings upon her bosom..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

" 'Let bygones be bygones, if you please, Mr Cupples,' said Mrs Forbes pleasantly. " 'Deed no, mem. What's the use o' byganes but to learn frae them hoo to meet the bycomes?' " George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXXI)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"...But this Will is our Salvation. Because He liveth we shall live also." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXX)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"…she knew that the goal of all life is the face of God. Perhaps she had to learn a yet higher lesson: that our one free home is the Heart, the eternal lovely Will of God, than that which should fail, it were better that we and all the worlds should go out in blackness..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"The Light Princess," CHAPTER VIII, TRY A DROP OF WATER Illustration by Arthur Hughes

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"Any day, from morning till evening in summer, she might be descried—a streak of white in the blue water—lying as still as the shadow of a cloud, or shooting along like a dolphin; disappearing, and coming up again far off, just where one did not expect her." (George MacDonald)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

...Annie was silent: while she did not quite understand him, she had a dim perception of a grand meaning in what he said. George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXX)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

..."It said to me that I was a foolish man to care aboot the claiks and the strifes o' the warl'; for a' was quaiet aboon, whatever stramash they micht be makin' doon here i' the cellars o' the speeritual creation." ...

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

"I hae been to the hills." "And what got ye there?" … "Weel, I got the blue lift." "And what was that to ye?" ...

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

"...but the conviction remained that she had seen his face, and that it was infinitely beautiful." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXIX)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

"…she had seen the face of God, and that face was Love - love like the human, only deeper, deeper-tenderer, lovelier, stronger. She could not recall what she had seen, or how she had known it..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

"...It jist distresses me that there's naebody up to worship God a' nicht in sic a nicht's this." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXIX)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

"…I sat doon in a summer-seat that I cam' upo', and smokit my pipe and luikit at the stars and the cluds. And I tried to sing a sang, but naething but psalms wad come, for the nicht's sae awfu' solemn, whan ye win richt intil the mids o' 't! ..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Some of the plentiful humour in MacDonald's "The Light Princess." buymeacoffee.com/gmd.reflecti...

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Playing At Ball — Pearl Seeker

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

(From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXIX)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

"At length, one lovely morning, when the green corn lay soaking in the yellow sunlight, and the sky rose above the earth deep and pure and tender like the thought of God about it, Alec became suddenly aware that life was good, and the world beautiful." George MacDonald

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"...The delights of those spring days were endless to him whose own nature was budding with new life." George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXIX)

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"...He too was a prodigal returned at least into the vestibule of his Father's house. And the Father sent the servants out there to minister to him; and Nature, the housekeeper, put the robe of health upon him, and gave him new shoes of strength, and a ring, though not the Father's white stone..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"…every day he climbed to the top of one or other of the hills which inclosed the valley, and was rewarded with fresh vigour and renewed joy. He had not learned to read Wordsworth; yet not a wind blew through a broom-bush, but it blew a joy from it into his heart..."

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George MacDonald - Reflections @gmd-reflections.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

...- The obfuscations of self-indulgence will soon vanish where they have not been sealed by crime and systematic selfishness…" George MacDonald (From "Alec Forbes of Howglen," CHAPTER LXXIX)

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