And now I must tell you about the sun. The sun shines. He sends forth his beams and gives warmth. He awakens and strengthens life. Should he disappear, everything would suddenly be dead, really dead! But it is not one and the same thing whether the sun shines on a rock or on a flower. Certainly the sun has also awakened life from rocks. In hearts of stone that will not be called to life, the light of God works in a different way than in a heart that receives the light.
- Eberhard Arnold
- Eberhard Arnold, November 1918 From an EssayWhen poets describe their experience of the powers that move in their inmost hearts, then they speak about longing. If we allow only a few rays of hope from the poets to work upon us, we will be deeply moved by the indissoluble connection between mankind and longing. Even the smallest selection of the poetic outpouring of human longing will confront us with their deepest content: the longing for God and for unity with God. At the deepest level, they have recognized that the essence of all longing is the cry of the soul to God.
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Jesus paves the new way for God to enter the world. This new way seeks out darkness but does not fall prey to it. Not until now can God, in the outpouring of his Spirit, unfold his heart to humankind in full forgiveness and reconciliation.
- Eberhard Arnold, December 1890
There is a certainty in which we accept—really take—that for which we have asked. But this is possible only when the Spirit himself can fully speak within us. God speaks when we are silent. His will becomes powerful when our self-will becomes quiet. His power is evident when our weakness no longer is “strength”.
- Eberhard Arnold