Sacred Texts

“ The cross is that high symbol of sacred service, the devotion of one's life to the welfare and salvation of one's fellows. The cross is not the symbol of the sacrifice of the innocent Son of God in the place of guilty sinners and in order to appease the wrath of an offended God, but it does stand forever, on earth and throughout a vast universe, as a sacred symbol of the good bestowing themselves upon the evil and thereby saving them by this very devotion of love. ”

“ Choosing to respond to divine leading; sincerely basing the human life on the highest consciousness of truth, beauty, and goodness, and then co-ordinating these qualities of divinity through wisdom, worship, faith, and love. ”

“ Dost thou believe that the sacred Scripture, or Word of God, is Divine Truth itself, and that it contains a spiritual and celestial sense, heretofore unknown, whence it is divinely inspired and holy in every syllable ”

“ Having this clear perception of divine principles, Almighty God will not send down calamities upon you; and being thus in harmony with the feelings of mankind, you will receive the approbation of our Holy Sages. ”

“ All, indeed, agree in this, that the Holy Scriptures, being dictated by the Holy Ghost, are truly the Word of God, and therefore are infallibly true in what they teach, both as to what we are to believe, and as to what we are to do in order to be saved. ”

“ I desire to put a bridle on my spirit and on my tongue to-night, but when I hear a man telling me that the Word of the living God—that that revelation which our Heavenly Father has graciously given to us his fallen sinful creatures, to tell us of his love, to make known his will, and to declare the way of salvation—that this is to be denied to the masses of the people, I feel within me (I trust a holy) indignation. ”

“ You are all called to carry the good news to those who sit in darkness. This gospel of the kingdom belongs to all who believe it; it shall not be committed to the custody of mere priests. Soon will the Spirit of Truth come upon you, and he shall lead you into all truth. Go you, therefore, into all the world preaching this gospel, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the ages. ”

“ We beseech Thee, therefore, O God, to be graciously pleased, for Christ’s sake, to enlighten, by Thy heavenly grace, the natural darkness of our understandings, to rectify the perversion of our wills, and to sanctify the unholiness of our affections. We deplore, O Lord, our deadness to spiritual things: oh! of Thy great goodness, strengthen, we pray Thee, our faith, quicken our zeal, increase our love, and improve our obedience. Oh! grant us, according to the riches of Thy glory, to be strengthened with might by Thy Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith ”

“ In the Divine holiness we have the highest and inconceivably glorious revelation of the very essence of the Divine Being; in the holiness of the saints the deepest revelation of the change by which their inmost nature is renewed into the likeness of God. ”

“ And all this difference of judgment arises from the varying degrees of intelligence and knowledge with which we approach the image.
Now the Sacred Scriptures present just such a picture, only larger, more comprehensive, truer, deeper, containing all the fair delineation of God's own image, the pattern according to which we are to correct the same divine likeness in our souls, spoiled somewhat and blurred by sin.
Let us look at the outline. There are words and a fact. In the words truth is enunciated, in the fact those words are exhibited as being a divine utterance. ”

“ And yet men can handle these words, and study them, and speak them, and be entire strangers to their holiness, or their power to make holy. It is God Himself, the Holy One, who must make holy through the word. ”

“ Let us ask God to show us how, as He who hath called us is Himself holy, so we are to be holy too; our calling is a holy calling, a calling before and above everything, to Holiness. Let us ask Him to show us what Holiness is, His Holiness first, and then our Holiness; to show us how He has set His heart upon it as the one thing He wants to see in us, as being His own image and likeness; to show us too the unutterable blessedness and glory of sharing with Christ in His Holiness. Oh! that God by His Spirit would teach us what it means that we are called to be holy as He is holy. ”

“ O thou benighted advocate of modern christianity, how long shall thy eye be veiled in reading the New Testament, and thine heart be too gross to perceive the beauty, and comfort, and power of that blessed Spirit that gave life and salvation to ancient christianity? Hast thou lost all admiration for the Spirit's miraculous gifts, power, and blessing? settled down under reconciliation to a load of doubts and fears, hoping that death will remove thy tormenting burden? ”

“ And as we begin to know Him in His infinite righteousness, in His fiery burning zeal against all that is sin, and His infinite self-sacrificing love to free the sinner from his sin, and to bring him to His own perfection, we shall learn to wonder at and worship this glorious God, to feel and deplore our terrible unlikeness to Him, to long and cry for some share in the Divine beauty and blessedness of this Holiness. ”

“ Oh, that we would always listen to Thy Word, and apply it to our life, regulating all our actions on the principles of divine wisdom manifested therein! Let Thy holy Gospel and Thy holy teaching be a light to our lives in the darkness in which we walk, on account of our prejudices, passions, and evil inclinations, and when we take this light for our guide, we are sure that we will come happily to the end for which we were created. ”

“ In the consciousness of the utter impotence of our own wisdom or understanding to know God, our souls must in contrition, brokenness from ourselves and our power or efforts, yield to God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Holiness, to reveal God as the Holy One. ”

“ Does God any where in Scripture, when appealing to his chosen, or expostulating with them, argue on the ground of his abstract perfections, or of his especial love and distinguishing grace towards them? ”

“ From ourselves, when we take away the idea of imperfection, we can form some conception of what God is. But holiness is that which is characteristically Divine, the special contents of a Divine revelation. ”

“ That the essence of religion consisted in the feelings of divine love; and that it was a matter of indifference what opinions Christians entertained concerning points of faith, provided their hearts burned with the sacred flame of piety and love. (2.) That the union of the soul with Christ transforms it into the essence of the Deity. ”

“ But in addition to these ideas of the more concrete religious objects, religion is full of abstract objects which prove to have an equal power. God's attributes as such, his holiness, his justice, his mercy, his absoluteness, his infinity, his omniscience, his tri-unity, the various mysteries of the redemptive process, the operation of the sacraments, etc., have proved fertile wells of inspiring meditation for Christian believers. ”

“ HOLY, sacred, devoted or set apart for religious worship or observance; a term characteristic of the attributes of perfection and sinlessness of the Persons of the Trinity, as the objects of human worship and reverence, and hence transferred to those human persons who, either by their devotion to a spiritual ascetic life or by their approximation to moral perfection, are considered worthy of reverence. ”

“ It is as this truth enters into us, and we see that there is and can be no good in us but what God works, that we shall see light on the Divine mystery of prayer, and believe in the Holy Spirit as breathing within us desires which God will fulfil when we yield to them, and believingly present them in the name of Christ. ”

“ Every part of the sacred writings has an importance, a dignity, and a spirituality, becoming their divine author—and they are designed by God the Holy Ghost, to exhibit the glorious character of God our Father, as engaged in a covenant of redemption with his dear Son—Likewise, to hold forth the precious Person and finished work of God our Redeemer, as the only foundation and joy of poor guilty men, convinced p. 6of sin, and seeking his salvation. ”

“ The written word of God is the garment of the Divine Thought which is the real Word of God. It takes more than eyes of flesh to see through the temporal garment to the inner Life and Spirit beneath. Only the person who has in himself the illumination of the same Spirit that gave the original revelation can see through the garment of the letter to the eternal message, the ever-living Word hidden within. [12] In the Christianity of the full-grown spiritual man, sacraments and everything external must be used only as pictorial helps and symbolic suggestions for the furtherance of spiritual life. ”

“ As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's image and likeness. ”

“ I. I believe, that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the word of God, and the only rule of faith and practice.
II. I believe, that there is but One only, living, and true God; that there are Three Persons in the Godhead, who are equal in nature, power, and glory; and, that the Son and Holy Ghost, are as truly and properly God, as the Father. These Three divine Persons are distinguished from each other by peculiar relative properties. These Three divine distinct Persons, I profess to reverence, serve, and worship, as the One true God. ”

“ THE RELIGION OF THE IDEAL
You have told me that your Master regards genuine human religion as the individual’s experience with spiritual realities. I have regarded religion as man’s experience of reacting to something which he regards as being worthy of the homage and devotion of all mankind. In this sense, religion symbolizes our supreme devotion to that which represents our highest concept of the ideals of reality and the farthest reach of our minds toward eternal possibilities of spiritual attainment. ”

“ What- ever, therefore, in things human is of a sacred character, whatever belongs either of its own nature or by reason of the end to which it is referred, to the salvation of souls, or to the worship of God, is subject to the power and judgment of the Church. ”

“ We teach them the little things, the first principles of the Gospel, and we talk to them of the goodness of God and of his kind providences, and so on; but, if we could understand the truth with regard to the fulness of the Kingdom of God, our hearts would be full of joy unutterable. These words are as idle tales to the Christian portions of the world, and to those who do not believe in God and in his Son Jesus Christ, and also to many of the Saints. But I know the darkness that is among the people. ”

“ Those who receive the promises of the gospel partake of the divine nature. They are renewed in the spirit of their mind, after the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness; their hearts are set for God and his service; they have a divine temper and disposition of soul; though the law is the ministration of death, and the letter killeth, yet the gospel is the ministration of life, and the Spirit quickeneth those who are naturally dead in trespasses and sins. [4.] Those in whom the Spirit works the divine nature are freed from the bondage of corruption. ”

“ The Holy Spirit is the spirit of all grace and of each grace as well. Purity, power, holiness, faith, love, joy and all grace are brought into being and perfected by Him. Would we grow in grace in particular? Would we be perfect in all graces? We must seek the Holy Spirit by prayer. ”

“ Theology makes a distinction between common and special grace,—between those ordinary influences of the Divine Spirit which rouse the conscience, and awaken some transient aspirations after religion, and those extraordinary influences which actually renew the heart and will. ”

“ A message from the Word of life, from the eternal Word, we should gladly receive: and the present one is this (relating to the nature of God whom we are to serve, and with whom we should covet all indulged communion) — That God is light, and in him is no darkness at all, v. 5. This report asserts the excellency of the divine nature. He is all that beauty and perfection that can be represented to us by light. He is a self-active uncompounded spirituality, purity, wisdom, holiness, and glory. And then the absoluteness and fulness of that excellency and perfection. ”

“ We venerate the Scriptures as a sacred deposit bequeathed to us by the kindest of parents, containing truths of the highest moment, practical lessons of saving morality, and facts of history relating to the life of our divine Saviour, and the conduct of his disciples, eminently interesting and instructive. ”

“ But as the Divine truths contained in them cannot be known without understanding the true sense of these sacred writings, hence the great question arises, How is the true sense of the Scripture to he known? One of the two great bodies of Christians - to wit, Protestants - affirm that the true sense of the Scriptures maybe sufficiently known in all things necessary to salvation by every man of sound judgment who reads them with humility and attention ”

“ So this is all I have learned this winter about God, who is a spirit infinite eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom and power holiness justice goodness and truth, and the word of God is contained in the scriptures of the old and new testament which is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him. ”