“if you would cultivate the Spirit’s acquaintance, you must get hold of your thoughts and not allow your mind to be a wilderness in which every kind of unclean beast roams and bird flies. You must have a clean heart.”

“Holy Spirit has will and intelligence and feeling and knowledge and sympathy and ability to love and see and think and hear and speak and desire the same as any person has.”

“Matter is one mode of being; spirit is another mode of being as authentic as matter.”

“To seek proof is to admit doubt, and to obtain proof is to render faith superfluous.”

“So they had that great gathering and there they pondered the matter. Out of it came the Athanasian Creed. You know, most of us are so busy reading religious fiction that we never get around to the creeds. Here’s what it says: “There is one person of the Father and another of the Son and another of the Holy Ghost, but the Godhead of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost is but one. The glory is equal and the majesty co-eternal such as the Father is, such is the Son, such is the Holy Ghost. “The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, and the Holy Ghost is uncreated. The Father is infinite, the: Son is infinite, and the Holy Ghost is infinite. The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Ghost is eternal, and yet there are not three eternals, but one eternal. So there are not three uncreated nor three infinite but one uncreated and one infinite. “So also the Father is almighty and the Son almighty and the Holy Spirit almighty. But there are not three almighties but one. The Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God, yet there are not three Gods but one God. The Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Ghost is Lord, yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord. So the Father is God and the Son is God and so the Father is Lord and the Son is Lord and the Holy Ghost is also these things. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten, the Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created, and the Holy Ghost is of the Father and the Son, not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding.”

“Lord, may I also talk “too much” about You. May I keep You first in everything I do, think or say today. Enable me by Your Spirit, I pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

“About the predictive quality of the Scriptures we ought to be in agreement. If there cannot be any valid foresight, no revelation from God, nothing to warn us or prepare us for tomorrow, this life on earth would have to be considered a gloomy business indeed.”

“A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His Presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality.”

“In the meantime he will have attained a place of soul rest. As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness brings.”

“be”

“we will be brought one by one to the testing place, and we may never know when we are there. At that testing place there will be no dozen possible choices for us; just one and an alternative, but our whole future will be conditioned by the choice we make.”

“Breaking this truth into fragments for our better understanding, it would seem that there is within each of us an enemy which we tolerate at our peril. Jesus called it "life" and "self," or as we would say, the self-life. Its chief characteristic is its possessiveness: the words "gain" and "profit" suggest this. To allow this enemy to live is in the end to lose everything. To repudiate it and give up all for Christ's sake is to lose nothing at last, but to preserve everything unto life eternal. And possibly also a hint is given here as to the only effective way to destroy this foe: it is by the Cross. "Let him take up his cross and follow me.”

“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" This is deep calling unto deep, and the longing heart will understand it.”

“Augustine’s “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.”

“God is here when we are wholly unaware of it. He is manifest only when and as we are aware of His Presence. On our part there must be surrender to the Spirit of God, for His work it is to show us the Father and the Son. If we co-operate with Him in loving obedience God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face.”

“That God is here and that He is speaking—these truths are back of all other Bible truths; without them there could be no revelation at all. God did not write a book and send it by messenger to be read at a distance by unaided minds. He spoke a Book and lives in His spoken words, constantly speaking His words and causing the power of them to persist across the years. God breathed on clay and it became a man; He breathes on men and they become clay. "Return ye children of men" was the word spoken at the Fall by which God decreed the death of every man, and no added word has He needed to speak. The sad procession of mankind across the face of the earth from birth to the grave is proof that His original Word was enough.”

“But the very ransomed children of God themselves: why do they know so little of that habitual conscious communion with God which the Scriptures seem to offer? The answer is our chronic unbelief. Faith enables our spiritual sense to function. Where faith is defective the result will be inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual things. This is the condition of vast numbers of Christians today. No proof is necessary to support that statement. We have but to converse with the first Christian we meet or enter the first church we find open to acquire all the proof we need.”

“Power for service? Yes, but that’s only half of it; maybe that’s only one-tenth of it. The other nine-tenths are that the Holy Ghost may restore to us again the spirit of worship. Out of enraptured, admiring, adoring, worshiping souls, then, God does His work. The work done by a worshiper will have eternity in it.”

“We need today a fresh spirit of anticipation that springs out of the promises of God. We must declare war on the mood of nonexpectation and come together with childlike faith. Only then can we know again the beauty and wonder of the Lord’s presence among us.”

“Many have found the secret of which I speak and, without giving much thought to what is going on within them, constantly practice this habit of inwardly gazing upon God. They know that something inside their hearts sees God. Even when they are compelled to withdraw their conscious attention in order to engage in earthly affairs there is within them a secret communion always going on. Let their attention but be released for a moment from necessary business and it flies at once to God again. This has been the testimony of many Christians, so many that even as I state it thus I have a feeling that I am quoting, though from whom or from how many I cannot possibly know. I do not want to leave the impression that the ordinary means of grace have no value. They most assuredly have. Private prayer should be practiced by every Christian. Long periods of Bible meditation will purify our gaze and direct it; church attendance will enlarge our outlook and increase our love for others. Service and work and activity; all are good and should be engaged in by every Christian. But at the bottom of all these things, giving meaning to them, will be the inward habit of beholding God. A new set of eyes (so to speak) will develop within us enabling us to be looking at God while our outward eyes are seeing the scenes of this passing world.”