PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that.

     The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; GOD employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but GOD's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another.

     As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness.

     There was a contention as far as a suit (in which both piety and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled), which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined, that they should ring first that rose earliest.

     If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his, whose indeed it is.

     The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to GOD. Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world?

     No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

     Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by and made fit for GOD by that affliction.

     If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it.

     Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another's danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my GOD, who is our only security.

Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

1. Spiritual direction is an interpersonal relationship in which we learn how to grow, live, and love in the spiritual life.

2. Spiritual direction involves a process through which one person helps another person understand what God is doing and saying.

3. Discernment is a crucial gift in the work of spiritual direction.

4. In spiritual direction there is absolutely no domination or control.

5. The spiritual director/mentor/pastor guides another in spiritual things through the spiritual world by spiritual means.

6. God has ordained that there be spiritual directors/mentors/pastors among his people. This is the structure of love in practice.

7. Supremely, spiritual directors/mentors/ pastors are persons who have a sense of being "established" in God. Otherwise they are too dangerous to be allowed into the soul space of others.

Foster, Richard J. "Spiritual formation agenda: Richard Foster shares his three priorities for the next 30 years." Christianity Today 53, no. 1 (January 2009): 28-33. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed December 1, 2009).

1. A person who has a continuing hunger for intimacy with. God.

2. A person who has an ability to forgive others at great personal loss.

3. A person who has a lively sense that God alone can satisfy the longings of the human heart.

4. A person who has a deep satisfaction in prayer.

5. A person who has a realistic assessment of personal abilities and limitations.

6. A person who has a fundamental freedom from boasting about spiritual accomplishments.

7. A person who has a demonstrated ability to live out the demands of life patiently and wisely.

Foster, Richard J. "Spiritual formation agenda: Richard Foster shares his three priorities for the next 30 years." Christianity Today 53, no. 1 (January 2009): 28-33. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed December 1, 2009).

     As Lewis continued to read, he especially enjoyed Christian author George MacDonald. One volume, Phantastes, powerfully challenged his atheism. "What it actually did to me," wrote Lewis, "was to convert, even to baptize … my imagination." G.K. Chesterton's books worked much the same way, especially The Everlasting Man, which raised serious questions about the young intellectual's materialism.

     While MacDonald and Chesterton were stirring Lewis's thoughts, close friend Owen Barfield pounced on the logic of Lewis's atheism. Barfield had converted from atheism to theism, then finally Christianity, and frequently badgered Lewis about his materialism. So did Nevill Coghill, a brilliant fellow student and lifelong friend who to Lewis's amazement, was "a Christian and a thoroughgoing supernaturalist."

     Soon after joining the English faculty at Magdalen College, Lewis met two more Christians, Hugo Dyson and J.R.R. Tolkien. These men became close friends of Lewis. He admired their brilliance and their logic. Soon Lewis recognized that most of his friends, like his favorite authors—MacDonald, Chesterton, Johnson, Spenser, and Milton—held to this Christianity.

     In 1929 these roads met, and C.S. Lewis surrendered, admitting "God was God, and knelt and prayed." Within two years the reluctant convert also moved from theism to Christianity and joined the Church of England.

     Almost immediately, Lewis set out in a new direction, most demonstrably in his writing. Earlier efforts to become a poet were laid to rest. The new Christian devoted his talent and energy to writing prose that reflected his recently found faith. Within two years of his conversion, Lewis published The Pilgrim's Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism (1933). This little volume opened a 30-year stream of books on Christian apologetics and discipleship that became a lifelong avocation.

     Lewis's 25 Christian books sold millions of copies, including The Screwtape Letters (1942), Mere Christianity (1952), the Chronicles of Narnia (1950–56), The Great Divorce (1946), and the Abolition of Man (1943), which Encyclopedia Britannica included in its collection of Great Books of the World. But though his books gained him worldwide fame, Lewis was always first a scholar. He continued to write literary history and criticism, such as The Allegory of Love (1936), considered a classic in its field, and English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (1954).

     In spite of his intellectual accomplishments, he refused to be arrogant: "The intellectual life is not the only road to God, nor the safest, but we find it to be a road, and it may be the appointed road for us. Of course, it will be so only so long as we keep the impulse pure and disinterested."

Galli, M., & Olsen, T. (2000). 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Holman Reference)