A Pear Tree

A Pear Tree.  Considering C. S. Lewis (quote below), urged on by A. W. Tozer (quote below and a prayer), may we read again from the old books today. New classics in spiritual formation are undoubtedly being written today, but we will only know if they become classics in the next century. But St. Augustine’s Confessions (written 400 ad) has generated over sixteen centuries of relevance. So, without needing any additional commentary, drink deeply from his section which is often referenced by its simpler heading: A Pear Tree.

“Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period . . .  The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books” (C. S. Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books,” God in the Dock, p. 202).

“Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God . . .  The whole testimony of the worshipping, seeking, singing church [leads us into] the experiential heart-theology of a grand army of fragrant saints” (A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, pp. 15, 16). “O God, I have tasted Your goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want You; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Your glory, I pray, so I may know You indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ name. Amen” (pg. 20).

“There was a pear tree close to our own vineyard, heavily laden with fruit, which was not tempting either for its color or for its flavor. Late one night–having prolonged our games in the streets until then, as our bad habit was–a group of young scoundrels, and I among them, went to shake and rob this tree. We carried off a huge load of pears, not to eat ourselves, but to dump out to the hogs, after barely tasting some of them ourselves. Doing this pleased us all the more because it was forbidden. Such was my heart, O God, such was my heart–which thou didst pity even in that bottomless pit. Behold, now let my heart confess to thee what it was seeking there, when I was being gratuitously wanton, having no inducement to evil but the evil itself. It was foul, and I loved it. I loved my own undoing. I loved my error–not that for which I erred but the error itself. A depraved soul, falling away from security in thee to destruction in itself, seeking nothing from the shameful deed but shame itself” (St. Augustine, Confessions, Book II, Chapter 4, Section 9).