The Wall

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“What a dear old wall that is that runs along by the river there! I never pass it without feeling better for the sight of it. Such a mellow, bright, sweet old wall; what a charming picture it would make, with the lichen creeping here, and the moss growing there, a shy young vine peeping over the top at this spot, to see what is going on upon the busy river, and the sober old ivy clustering a little farther down! There are fifty shades and tints and hues in every ten yards of that old wall. . . . It looks so peaceful and so quiet, and it is such a dear old place to ramble round in the early morning before many people are about.” Jerome K. Jerome, “Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)” Ch. 6 (1889)
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"God does not stand behind a heavenly door with arms full of presents ready to hand out to those Christians who learn the ritual of some religious 'open sesame.' He is not a force that we may avail ourselves of if only we learn the techniques of postive thinking or (if we live on the West Coast) the routines of possibility thinking. He is the God who tells us what to do and what not to do. He is not only the God of 'shoulds' and 'oughts', but the God of 'musts!'"

Adams, Jay. A Theology of Christian Counseling. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979. p. 49

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