The world is a problem, not a Theorem
And the word of the last Day will be Q.E.F.
God sets the problem, God tells the story, but can those know Him who are characters in His story, who are working out His problem?
Have you ever known what it is to walk along a road in such a frame
of mind that you thought you might meet God at any turn of the path?
For this a man must be ready, against this he must never shut the door.
There is one kind of infidelity blacker than all infidelities,
Worse than any blow of secularist, pessimist, atheist,
It is that of those persons
Who regard God as an old institution.
VOICES
The axe falls on the wood in thuds, "God, God."
The cry of the rook, "God," answers it
The crack of the fire on the hearth, the voice of the brook, say the
same name;
All things, dog, cat, fiddle, baby,
Wind, breaker, sea, thunderclap
Repeat in a thousand languages—
God.
Next in his thought comes a point where he hesitates as to the meeting place between God and Man. How and where can these two incommensurates find a meeting place? What is Incarnation? The greatness and the littleness of Man obsessed Chesterton as it did Pascal; it is the eternal riddle:
TWO STRANDS
Man is a spark flying upwards. God is everlasting.