Royal Insignia: William Shakespeare and George MacDonald

“The blessedness of being little!” How slow many of us Christians often are in coming to this conclusion. Edwin and Lillian Harvey, authors of the compilation Royal Insignia, have included this quote from Shakespeare in one of their two-page readings which is entitled “Cherished Humblings.” George MacDonald, whose writings greatly influenced C. S. Lewis, has also something to say on this subject:
“I learned that it is better, a thousandfold, for a proud man to fall and be humbled, than to hold up his head in his pride and fancied innocence. I learned that he that will be a hero will barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but a doer of his work is sure of his manhood. In nothing was my ideal lowered, or dimmed, or grown less precious; I only saw it too plainly to set myself for a moment beside it. Indeed, my ideal soon became my life; whereas, formerly, my life had consisted in a vain attempt to behold, if not my ideal in myself, at least myself in my ideal.” (Royal Insignia, p. 82.)

Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their online Christian Bookstore.