C.S. Lewis and the Hound of Heaven
'The Holy Spirit is after you. I doubt you'll get away!' Did Lewis really say it — and who said it first? Where did you first hear it?
Summary
C.S. Lewis described his own conversion as being pursued by a God he did not want to meet, and later warned his friend Sheldon Vanauken that the Holy Spirit was after him and would not let him go.
Full anecdote
Before he was a Christian, C.S. Lewis was a confirmed atheist at Oxford. In Surprised by Joy (1955) he recalls that talk of 'man's search for God' struck him as absurd — they might as well have talked about 'the mouse's search for the cat.' In Trinity Term, 1929, he says, he gave in, 'the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.'
Years later the young American Sheldon Vanauken, wrestling with faith at Oxford, wrote to Lewis. Lewis answered (as Vanauken records in A Severe Mercy, 1977): 'I think you are already in the meshes of the net! The Holy Spirit is after you. I doubt if you'll get away!'
Dr. David Jeremiah told the story in a sermon on October 18, 2026. Behind Lewis stands Francis Thompson's poem 'The Hound of Heaven' (1890), and behind Thompson, Psalm 139:7: 'Whither shall I flee from thy presence?' Contributors are invited to verify the letter's wording and date, and to trace the 'pursuing God' image to its earliest sermon use.
Known variants
- 'The Hound of Heaven'
Francis Thompson's 1890 poem pictures God as a relentless pursuer — likely the image's literary ancestor.
- Popular paraphrase
Often retold as 'The Holy Spirit is chasing you and He's not going to let you go.'
References checked
- C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (1955), ch. 14Lewis's own account of his reluctant conversion.
- Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy (1977)Reproduces Lewis's letter: 'The Holy Spirit is after you.'
- Psalm 139:7–10Biblical corollary: there is no fleeing God's presence.
First-hearing on record
First heard by Patrick Boulay
On Sunday, October 18, 2026, during Sunday sermon with Dr. David Jeremiah,
- Program
- Sunday sermon
- Date
- Sunday, October 18, 2026
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