You get a sense of awe when you read about encounters where the natural meets the supernatural, but this is even more true when you know that the encounters are real, and that they are being retold to us by real live brothers and sisters in the faith.

These short stories will inspire you and move you. They will make you sit back in amazement at the incredible measures God employs to providentially take care of his flock. The stories are so intriguing that you will not want to put the book away until you have finished reading the whole thing.

For many years, this book was one of my favorite "devotionals" and it is still here today (a testimony to its value) to touch a whole new generation of believers. I recommend it.

I got "When Angels Appear" for my mom because she collects angels. When I got home, I started paging through and ended up sitting on my couch all night with this book. It made me cry, smile, and sent shivers down my spine because the stories are so powerful. The book is made up of short stories that tell true stories of people who have had real encounters with angels. The perfect gift for the Christmas season, for anyone who collects angels, for anyone grieving, actually it's perfect for anyone. It's short enough that you could read it in one afternoon and will stay with you the rest of your life. I highly recommend Hope MacDonald's "When Angels Appear."

The author brings out the promise and truth God has given to all of us. Some possible reasons why some things happen and some that don't. Why that little voice in the back of our mind had us do this or check that with positive results. This book may help to put some things in perspective!

Over the course of many Young Life training sessions, I and several others, were guided through this book by the author, Hope MacDonald. It contains invaluable insights and steps in order to develop a deepening prayer life. I have read it several times as it's a wonderfully easy read and it constantly keeps me in check. She presents prayer as not only possible, but powerful. What an encouraging book!

It radically changed the way in which I look at prayer. I have read it at least 8 times in 15 years! I highly reccommend it!

The Johannesens have devoted the last six years to producing quality editions of the works of George MacDonald. I am not much of a fan of old typefaces, old books, or their facsimiles, but the physical beauty of this duplex edition of these hundred year old books reflects well the beauty of the teachings inscribed on its pages.

Among the essays in _Hope of the Gospel_ is "Sorrow, the Pledge of Joy", which I consider to be one of the all-time masterpieces of devotional literature. Anyone who can read it without weeping must have lived a life much different from mine. This essay appears in a heavily edited form in Rolland Hein's _Life Essential: The Hope of the Gospel_; buy the Johannesen's edition to enjoy this and other essays in their full unedited glory.

It seems to me that the Spanish Civil War is a period that is lost for most of us today. Very few of us lived through it and overshadowed as it was by other events soon afterwards, the passions it aroused, though virulent and enduring in both art and literature, have become dimmed over time. I imagine that in the generation under thirty-five today, those who have the vaguest notion of what took place then, would hardly form a legion. Of course, it is better known that a number of major figures from the literary and artistic world of the twenties went to fight (some on either side) in Spain. It is also probably well known that the Germans, Russians and Italians all sent troops or technical specialists to sharpen their own wares for the conflict to which this one proved but a prelude. Yet the extraordinary passions that were aroused in Spain and that reached out and infected so many of the foreign volunteers, have to be experienced by individuals and perhaps the best way I know of coming close to the tremulous heart of that ugly story is through Malraux. The book has been written as fiction by a master storyteller. The action, all of which is real and much of which was witnessed at first hand, is simply gripping. The tears it should properly evoke will also, I have no doubt, be real ones. In a way, Malraux, who also wrote a similar and equally fine book about revolution in China, is offering us a lament for all that died in those years, for crushed spirits and youth spent as fodder for cannons. It is a magnificent human story; regrettably it is one of tragedy. But if we are to remember the Holocaust of the Nazis, why should we forget the deadly internecine warfare of Spain? Indeed, how could we.

This review concerns the translation by Stuart Gilbert and Alastair Macdonald, which was excellent. Once again, there are so many books in the world, I know, but this one should not be out of print.

In the essay "Sorrow--The Pledge of Joy", George MacDonald wrote: "Out upon such miserable theologians as . . . so cut and pare the words of the Lord as to take the very life from them, quenching all their glory and colour". You won't find these words in the edited version of this essay in _Life Essential_; in my opinion, Hein has so cut and pared the words of MacDonald as to take the very life from them, quenching not all, but much, of their glory and color.

In the introduction, Hein warns us that the editing has taken place, resulting in about half of MacDonald's words being discarded. The ostensible reason is that MacDonald tended to use florid language that is awkward to the modern ear, and that he tended to repeat himself. Search the Internet for MacDonald's original texts and compare them to Hein's editions and see if you don't agree with me that the language Hein cut was often glorious. And when you examine the deletions it will be obvious that elimination of repetition can't explain all of them. On the contrary, the deleted passages often make points not made by the surviving text, points that perhaps made Hein uncomfortable (like, in "Sorrow--The Pledge of Joy", the eternal nature of human relationships: "A heaven without human love it were inhuman, and yet more undivine to desire; it ought not to be desired by any being made in the image of God.")

Do yourself a favor and buy the lovely Johanessen editions of MacDonald's original works instead.