All that mankind has in common today is suffering. Joy is alive in this suffering only as hope, but nonetheless as joyful faith in a better future. Without this joyful courage there would be no mutual help. The help given by one person to another proves that in spite of everything, faith in future healing cannot die.
- Eberhard Arnold
- Eberhard Arnold, January 1920 From an EssayJustice and love demand that everyone take part in simple practical work with a spade, hatchet, or rake. Everyone should be ready to devote a few hours every day to this practical work; those who have done purely mental work till now will feel its humanizing effect especially. In this way it will be possible for each person’s unique gifts to be kindled. The light that flickers within each heart will then exhibit its once-hidden glow in scholarly research or in music, in expressive words, or in the craftsman’s art in wood, stone, or paint…such work will reveal the joy in life that is in each person. Only death knows idleness and tedium. Where there is life, the mind’s creative will remains alert and comes to expression in the service of the whole.
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Those truths of the spirit’s struggle are best experienced in life itself. In the steadfast constancy of faith, which is the fighting spirit itself, one then says “Yes” to this out of one’s heart. For this fight is indeed the highest love itself, as we know from Blumhardt and above all from the crucified One himself .
- Eberhard Arnold
I am certain that we are facing our true task, which is very great and powerful. What we need is always one and the same, no matter what we call it: the baptism of the Spirit—perfect love—the works of purity and truth—Jesus Christ!
- Eberhard Arnold