This time, it's gacked from my newest LJ friend, wheatear, who is seriously impressing with the comments from some of my earliest entries. :)

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
6. Tag five other people to do the same.

Before I quote, let me just say that I had two books close to me at the time of writing this post, The Battle for the Beginning by John MacArthur and The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel. Since I haven't gotten to page 56 of The Battle for the Beginning, I chose The Case for Faith, because I had finished that one.

And, of course The Case for Faith has no page 56 (or at least no page 56 with text on it), so I'll just gack the third closest book, which just happens to be Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. Am starting with sentence four to add context.

"If God was prepared to let us off, why on earth did He not do so? And what possible point could there be in punishing an innocent person itself? None at all that I can see, if you are thinking of punishment in the police-court sense. On the other hand, if you think of a debt, there is plenty of point in a person who has some assets paying it on behalf of someone who has not. Or if you take 'paying the penalty', not in the sense of being punished, but in the more general sense of 'standing the racket' or 'footing the bill', then, of course, it is a matter of common experience that, when one person has got himself into a hole, the trouble of getting him out usually falls on a kind friend.

Now what was the sort of 'hole' man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself..."

Now that was long, but you know, I remember the context. And C. S. Lewis is amazing at laying down his main points understandably, even if you might not agree with them.

That is why I love C. S. Lewis.