December 10, 1824

George MacDonald (December 10, 1824 to September 18, 1905), a popular Victorian writer of fiction for adults and children, and considerations of a Christian life, is today mainly remembered for his friendships, people like G. K. Chesterton and Lewis Carroll admired him greatly. C. S. Lewis edited an anthology of George MacDonald's writings, in 1947. No doubt part of his neglect is his thoughtful Christianity, though what else could someone do then, except endorse the explanatory structures of his era, which made so much sense of what seems to have been his natural gift for mysticism.

Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood, (1867) is a novel MacDonald wrote, and we can see how his religion was used in his fiction:

'Perhaps it might do something to modify the scorn of all classes for those beneath them, to consider that by regarding others thus, they justify those above them in looking down upon them in their turn. In London shops I am credibly informed, the young women who serve in the show rooms or behind the counters are called ladies, and [they] talk of the girls who make up the articles for sale, as persons. To the learned professions however the distinction between the shopwomen and milliners is from their superior height, unrecognizable, while doctors and lawyers are again I doubt not, massed by countesses and other blue blooded realities, with the literary lions who roar at soirees and kettle drums or even with chiropodists and violin players. But I am growing scornful at scorn and forget that I too have been scornful. Brothers, sisters, all good men and true women, let the Master seat us where He will. Until he says Come up higher, let us sit at the foot of the board or stand behind, honoured in waiting upon His guests. All that kind of thing is worth nothing in the kingdom and nothing will be remembered of us, but the Master's judgment.'