Luther and Lewis

If you judge the Church according to reason and outward appearance you are wrong, for you see men who are sinful, weak, afraid, sad, wretched, persecuted, and hunted out of house and home. But when you see that they are baptised, believe in Christ, give evidence of their faith by bearing good fruits, take up their cross with patience and hope, you have seen the truth. That is the true color by which men may know the Christian Church.—Martin Luther, Sermon upon the Beheading of St. John the Baptist.

The essence of a request, as distinct from a compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them.—C. S. Lewis, Business of Heaven, p. 283.