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But history has proved that it is easier to destroy the world than to reform it; for men crucified the Lord of Glory, who came to unite earth with heaven, and man with God. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 21. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to this world as the unwearied servant of man's necessity. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 19. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 23. We are all woven together in the great web of humanity, and we cannot, without loss, withdraw our sympathies from one another. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 29. A kind, courteous Christian is the most powerful argument that can be produced in favor of Christianity. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 30. The revelation of God's love to man centers in the cross. Its full significance tongue cannot utter, pen cannot portray, the mind of man cannot comprehend. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 33. God permits every human being to exercise his individuality. He desires no one to submerge his mind in the mind of a fellow mortal. Those who desire to be transformed in mind and character are not to look to men, but to the divine Example. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 35. Before the world, God is developing us as living witnesses to what men and women may become through the grace of Christ. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 35. Christ, the Light of the world, veiled the dazzling splendor of His divinity and came to live as a man among men, that they might, without being consumed, become acquainted with their Creator. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 39. By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 45. Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 45. It was Satan's purpose to bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 45. God is love, and His law is love. Its two great principles are love to God and love to man. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 46. Pardon and justification are one and the same thing. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 74. Faith, in itself, is an act of the mind. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 77. Although the compassion of man may fail, still God loves and pities, and reaches out His helping hand. God's everlasting arms encircle the soul that turns to Him for aid. . . . God loves to have His children ask Him, and trust Him to do for them those things which they cannot do for themselves. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 78. We need a childlike simplicity that will lead us to tell the Lord all our wants, and believe that according to His riches and goodness and love He will satisfy our needs. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 79. God never compels the obedience of man. He leaves all free to choose whom they will serve. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 89. Those who live nearest to Jesus discern most clearly the frailty and sinfulness of humanity, and their only hope is in the merit of a crucified and risen Saviour. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 91. The more we contemplate the character of Christ, and the more we experience of His saving power, the more keenly shall we realize our own weakness and imperfection, and the more earnestly shall we look to Him as our strength and our Redeemer. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 97. We cannot for one moment separate ourselves from Christ with safety. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 100. The love of Jesus--who can comprehend it? Infinitely more tender and self-denying than a mother's love! If we would know the value of a human soul, we must look in living faith upon the cross, and thus begin the study which shall be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 100. The influence of the prayer of faith is as far-reaching as eternity. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 102. If Christ is abiding in the heart, His love will diffuse itself to others through its possessor, and will bind heart to heart. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 103. Through the Saviour's sacrifice, communion with God is again made possible. We may not in person approach into His presence; in our sin we may not look upon His face; but we can behold Him and commune with Him in Jesus, the Saviour. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 106. The light that shines forth from the life of the true Christian testifies to his union with Christ. Self is hidden from view, and Christ is revealed. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 107. We must see our need of a physician. We are sick, and do not know it. . . . But we cannot convert our own hearts. This work can be done only by the power of the Holy Spirit. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 114. Let the bright beams from the face of Jesus shine into your hearts, to shine upon others through you. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 119. It is a part of God's plan to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which He would not bestow did we not thus ask. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 120. Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. . . . Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 122. The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watchcare, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 122. We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged. Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 123. Through faith in Christ, every deficiency of character may be supplied, every defilement cleansed, every fault corrected, every excellence developed. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 125. Faith is trusting God--believing that He loves us, and knows best what is for our good. Thus, instead of our own, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 126. As surely as the oak is in the acorn, so surely is the gift of God in His promise. If we receive the promise, we have the gift. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 126. Unselfishness underlies all true development. Through unselfish service we receive the highest culture of every faculty. More and more fully do we become partakers of the divine nature. We are fitted for heaven; for we receive heaven into our hearts. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 155. Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator--individuality, power to think and to do. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 155. Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for His children. Godliness--godlikeness--is the goal to be reached. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 155. To have the consciousness that the eye of the Lord is upon us, and that His ear is open to our prayers, is a satisfaction indeed. To know that we have a never-failing Friend to whom we can confide all the secrets of the soul is a happiness which words can never express. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 161. Our part is to rest on the word with unwavering faith, believing that God will do according to His promise. Let faith cut its way through the shadows of the enemy. When a questioning doubt arises, go to Christ, and let the soul be encouraged by communion with Him. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 197. We are to pray for union, and then live in such a way that God can answer our prayers. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 200. Prayer is the life of the soul, the foundation of spiritual growth. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 207. To His faithful followers Christ has been a daily companion and familiar friend. They have lived in close contact, in constant communion with God. . . . They are prepared for the communion of heaven; for they have heaven in their hearts. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 212. There is nothing that the world needs so much as the manifestation through humanity of the Saviour's love. All heaven is waiting for men and women through whom God can reveal the power of Christianity. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 225. The most difficult sermon to preach and the hardest to practice is self-denial. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 232. Supreme love for God and unselfish love for one another--this is the best gift that our heavenly Father can bestow. This love is not an impulse, but a divine principle, a permanent power. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 234. Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessing can be retained only as it is shared. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 244. What is pure religion? Christ has told us that pure religion is the exercise of pity, sympathy, and love in the home, in the church, and in the world. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 252. We owe everything to grace, sovereign grace. Grace ordained our redemption, our regeneration, and our adoption to heirship with Jesus Christ. Let this grace be revealed to others. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 256. Our growth in grace, our joy, our usefulness--all depend upon our union with Christ. It is by communion with Him, daily, hourly--by abiding in Him--that we are to grow in grace. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 259. Christ in His self-denial, Christ in His humiliation, Christ in His purity and holiness, Christ in His matchless love--this is the subject for the soul's contemplation. It is by loving Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him, that you are to be transformed into His likeness. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 259. Lord, take my heart; for I cannot give it. It is Thy property. Keep it pure, for I cannot keep it for Thee. Save me in spite of myself, my weak, unchristlike self. Mold me, fashion me, raise me into a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Thy love can flow through my soul. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 260. The more our sense of need drives us to Him and to the Word of God, the more exalted views we shall have of His character, and the more fully we shall reflect His image. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 274. Amidst all life's perplexities and dangers and conflicting claims the one safe and sure rule is to do what God says. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 289. The highest evidence of nobility in a Christian is self-control. He who can stand unmoved amid a storm of abuse is one of God's heroes. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 292. As the will of man cooperates with the will of God, it becomes omnipotent. Whatever is to be done at His command may be accomplished in His strength. All His biddings are enablings. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 298. It is necessary for our peace and happiness in this life that our thoughts center in Christ. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 308. The greatest work that can be done in our world is to glorify God by living the character of Christ. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 313. The knowledge of God that works transformation of character is our great need. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 320. The way to heaven is a cross-bearing way; the road is straight and narrow, but we will go forward with cheerfulness knowing that the King of glory once trod this way before us. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 350. We shall never know, until we are face to face with God, . . . how many burdens He has borne for us, and how many burdens He would have been glad to bear if, with childlike faith, we had brought them to Him. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 353. The unstudied, unconscious influence of a holy life is the most convincing sermon that can be given in favor of Christianity. Argument, even when unanswerable, may provoke only opposition; but a godly example has a power that it is impossible wholly to resist. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 360. He would have us look up and behold His dear face of love. The blessed Saviour stands by many whose eyes are so blinded by tears that they do not discern Him. He longs to clasp our hands, to have us look to Him in simple faith, permitting Him to guide us. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 364. None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 369. The precious Saviour will send help just when we need it. The way to heaven is consecrated by His footprints. Every thorn that wounds our feet has wounded His. Every cross that we are called to bear He has borne before us. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 375. God's purpose is not merely to deliver from the suffering that is the inevitable result of sin, but to save from sin itself. -- Reflecting Christ, p. 377. |