Apologist’s Evening Prayer

I just fin­ished Peter Kreeft’s Heaven and Hell, and he closes the book with a piece of poetry writ­ten by C.S. Lewis. I’m sur­prised I haven’t come across this before, the admirer of Lewis that I am (I’m told its from his book Reflec­tions on the Psalms). He seems to be say­ing that there is a cer­tain dan­ger in intel­lec­tual argu­ments and log­i­cal proofs for God’s exis­tence. Namely, that such things may very well deaden one’s faith, turn­ing it into an intel­lec­tual exer­cise, rather than a mat­ter of the heart (if one’s not care­ful). (Unfor­tu­nately) from expe­ri­ence, I can attest to this.

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the vic­to­ries that I seem to score;
From clev­er­ness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audi­ence laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divin­ity
Thou, who wouldst give no other sign, deliver me

Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust instead
Of Thee, their thin-worn image of thy head.
From all me thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the nar­row gate and the needle’s eye,
Take me from all my trumpery lest I die.