I hope () no reader will suppose that ‘mere’ Christianity is here put forward /as an alternative /to the creeds of the existing communions. . .
It is more like a hall //out of which doors open /into several rooms.
If I can bring anyone /into that hall
I shall have done [what I attempted].
But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals.
The hall is a place to wait in, a place //from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in.
For that purpose [the worst of the rooms] (whichever that may be) is, I think, preferable.
It is true that some people may find () they have to wait /in the hall /for a considerable time,
while others feel certain /almost at once /which door they must knock at.
I do not know [why there is this difference],
but I am sure () God keeps [no one] [waiting] /unless He sees that it is good for him to wait.
When you do get into your room
you will find that the long wait has done you [some kind of good //which you would not have had otherwise].
But you must regard it /as waiting, not as camping.
You must keep on praying for light:
and, of course, even in the hall, you must begin [trying to obey the rules //which are common to the whole house].
And above all you must be asking [which door is the true one]; not which pleases you /best /by its paint and paneling.
In plain language, the question should never be:
‘Do I like that kind of service?’ but ‘Are these doctrines true: Is holiness here?
Does my conscience move me /towards this?
Is my reluctance to knock at this door /due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper?’
When you have reached your own room,
be kind to those //who have chosen different doors and to those //who are still in the hall.
If they are wrong they need your prayers /all the more;
and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them.
That is one of the rules /common to the whole house.
From Mere Christianity
Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis