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Don’t Believe In Anything That Can’t Be Told In Coloured Pictures (Chesterton)

G.K. Chesterton wrote these words in a Randolph Caldecott picture-book he gave to a child:

You will not understand a word
Of all the words, including mine;
Never you trouble; you can see,
And all directness is divine—
Stand up and keep your childishness:
Read all the pedants’ screeds and strictures;
But don’t believe in anything
That can’t be told in coloured pictures.

A former teacher (and pastor) of mine regularly uses the last four lines of this poem as he introduces the Book of Revelation. (He also does a good job of tying a ringing cell-phone into his sermon!).

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