Just as the oak tree converts all chemistry into oak by the peculiar quality of its oak life, so the pure in heart, he that lives the Christ life, will from the dark chemistry of this world—its disappointments and suffering—turn all things into glory and praise.

In regenerating and sanctifying the believing soul, the Holy Spirit pursues this same great law of grafting the life of Christ into the believing heart, and the graces and fruit of the Spirit upon the natural faculties and functions of the human spirit.

Because faith is essential to the spiritual life—both to entering that life, and for any steps of progress in that life—it behooves us to give it all the nourishment possible. Faith can be fed and strengthened, and thus will grow.

Some people today... have been pardoned, but have not got over into the Acts of the Apostles.... But a real Bible Christian has been through repentance at Sinai, has been reconciled at the cross of Christ, and has been baptized with the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.

There are many manifestations of the self life which are not clearly sinful, but neither are they truly Christlike. ...this middle zone of self activity... must be... crucified in order to reach deep abiding union with God, where there is none of self and all of Christ Jesus.

The depth into which we launch will depend upon how perfectly we have given up the shore, and the greatness of our need, and the vision of our possibilities. The fish were to be found in the deep.... So with us; our needs are to be met in the deep things of God.

We acquire physical knowledge through our senses.... We obtain intellectual knowledge by the exercise of reason.... We gain spiritual knowledge through the operation of revealed truth and the agency of the inner spiritual being.

There is no better way in the world to test every trait in a soul than by little things.... It is our unplanned, instinctive actions and words that reveal what we really are, not those large, conspicuous things for which we especially arm ourselves.

All words are loaded with the quality of the soul out of which they proceed. It is eternally impossible for God to utter one word that is not loaded with divinity; and... it is impossible for the devil to utter one word which does not, in some way, contain a lie.

As a rule, lukewarmness of spirit is so decent and well-behaved, that it chloroforms its victim and kills him without a scream of terror. This is what makes it so awfully fatal. While open sin slays its hundreds, nice, respectable lukewarmness slays its tens of thousands.

Very few Christians reach such an intimacy with our dear Lord as to receive and appreciate His individual feelings. Jesus is an infinite lover, and nothing will satisfy Him but a pure, sacred, passionate, and personal love.

We must be subdued, not merely in our own opinion, not merely think ourselves subdued... but subdued so perfectly that the all-seeing eye of God can look us through, and the omniscient One knows that we are subdued.

Her quest was not yet over. For we now see four great barriers her faith had yet to surmount; namely, divine silence, human coldness, class, and humiliation. If we look at these in detail, we find that they illustrate the vital issues in many lives today.

To rush forward in our thinking, speaking, and doing, demonstrates a lack of faith in God, and how little we perceive His presence and dominion over all things. It is true in a thousand different things that "he that believeth shall not make haste."

What is our daily cross? It is those things in our lives that produce suffering of body, mind, or heart. It is those things which in our poor judgment seem to hinder the easy flow of our religious life.... Were there no suffering at all, then there would be no cross at all.

To walk in love—to speak, to act, to purpose, with the love of God pervading our every movement—is the best and sublimest form of existence. To do this there must be a thorough abandonment of self-will, self-opinion, and self-desire.