Chapter Books

Imitation Lion

“Well,” said the black dwarf (whose name was Griffle), “I don’t know how all you chaps feel, but I’ve heard about as much about Aslan as I want to for the rest of my life.”

“That’s right, that’s right,” growled the other Dwarfs. “It’s all a plant, all a blooming plant.”

“What do you mean?” said Tirian. He had not been pale when he was fighting but he was pale now. He had thought this was going to be a beautiful moment, but it was turning out more like a bad dream.

“You must think we’re blooming soft in the head, that you must,” said Griffle. “We’ve been taken in once and now you expect us to be taken in again the next minute. We’ve no more use for stories about Aslan, see! Look at him! An old moke with long ears!”

“By heaven, you make me mad,” said Tirian. “Which of us said that was Aslan? That is the Ape’s imitation of the real Aslan. Can’t you understand?”

“And you’ve got a better imitation, I suppose!” said Griffle. “No thanks. We’ve been fooled once and we’re not going to be fooled again.”

Tirian had never dreamed that one of the results of an Ape’s setting up a false Aslan would be to stop people from believing in the real one.

This episode is from Lewis’ The Last Battle. Over the past few weeks, that last sentence has returned to my mind often. The dwarfs want to see evidence that Tirian and his band represent a genuinely different alternative to the way the Calormenes operate, and really this is perfectly legitimate.

It’s what the world needs to see in the church. Do they?

Courtesy of simply wallpaper dot net
Courtesy of simply wallpaper dot net
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