Highness

“ But, however, I shall most humbly desire your highness to accept them in gracious part, and to conceive, that if I cannot rest, but must shew my dutiful and devoted affection to your highness in these things which proceed from myself, I shall be much more ready to do it in performance of any of your princely commandments. ”

“ Is fixed to triumph in thy grace:
(Awake, my lute, and bear a part)
My glory is to sing thy praise,
Till all thy nature I partake,
And bright in all thine image wake.
Thee will I praise among thine own;
Thee will I to the world extol,
And make thy truth and goodness known:
Thy goodness, Lord, is over all;
Thy truth and grace the heavens transcend;
Thy faithful mercies never end. ”

“ God of truth, and of love, lead and establish my soul in the paths of justice, mercy, truth, and humility. Make me of a quick understanding in thy fear; nor leave me a moment to my own wisdom, or strength. My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Praise the Lord O my soul!”
“I adore thee, O my God, that thou hast made it lawful for me to pray to thee. Oh, how great is thy condescension to regard such a poor creature as me! I will extol thy goodness, O Lord, my king.” ”

“ Worthy art thou, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for thou hast created all things, and by thy will they were created and have their being. Revelation 4:11
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty. For all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. ”

“ O Lord, I exceedingly rejoice in the greatness of thy majesty and power, the thought of which leads me to beseech of thee to imprint on my soul the deepest reverence and submission towards thy divine majesty. It is my wish for thee to order and dispose of me and all thy creatures according to thy will, for no one can say to thee, Why dost thou so? All things are thine, and they are the works of thy hands. ”

“ Praise and glory—the praise of our whole-hearted adoration, the glory of universal dominion—praise and glory unto Thee, the supreme, the victorious One! The praise of our deep gratitude, the praise that springs spontaneously from the fountain of feeling hearts, is Thine. The glory of eternal dominion, the glory of unrivalled supremacy, the glory of unapproachable majesty, the glory of all-ruling sovereignty, the glory of all-surpassing ascendancy, is Thine. Within our hearts, are embossed in inextinguishable characters of holy fire the hymns of Thy praise. ”

“ And seeing Thou wilt descend and humble Thyself to dwell within me, what is it for the heavens to humble themselves and descend? Let the celestial virtues come into my soul; let lively faith, assured hope, and much-enkindled charity come; let humility, obedience, and devotion come, and convert into heaven that which must be the habitation of the king of heaven Himself! ”

“ The Holy Spirit not only working in them as a Spirit of power, but dwelling in them in the fullness of His grace, and specially that of humility, would through them communicate Himself to these converts for a life of power and holiness and steadfastness now all too little seen.
'How can ye believe, which receive glory from one another?' Brother! nothing can cure you of the desire of receiving glory from men, or of the sensitiveness and pain and anger which come when it is not given, but giving yourself to seek only the glory that comes from God. ”

“ If, by the wonderful beauty of Thy works, I have been led into boldness, if I have sought my own honor among men as I advanced in the work which was destined to Thine honor, pardon me in kindness and charity, and by Thy grace grant that my teaching may be to Thy glory, and the welfare of all men. Praise ye the Lord, ye heavenly Harmonies, and ye that understand the new harmonies, praise the Lord. Praise God, O my soul, as long as I live. ”

“ Verily, thou art both the shame and glory of creatures: Created excellency is exalted in thee to the highest pitch; and all created excellency is beautified and obscured before thee. This is the man, men and angels by whom all things in heaven and earth do flourish and bloom. This is the Tree of Life, the great Vine of Glory, into which we are all ingrafted as so many boughs and twigs; all the glory of his father’s house hangs upon him the Offspring and Issue, as so many chips and pieces darting out from him. ”

“ Every one of these gifts is an undoubted evidence of the majesty, the power, the ascendancy, the all-embracing knowledge of the one true God—exalted be His glory. Consider the sense of touch. Witness how its power hath spread itself over the entire human body. Whereas the faculties of sight and of hearing are each localized in a particular center, the sense of touch embraceth the whole human frame. Glorified be His power, magnified be His sovereignty! ”

“ Will you not fall down in the dust, that He may [p123] find in you the humble heart He loves to dwell in? Will you not now believe that even in you, however low and broken you feel, He doth delight to make His dwelling? ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom;’ with them the King dwells. Oh, this is the path to holiness! be humble, and the holy nearness and presence of God in you will be your holiness. As you hear the command, Be holy, as I am holy, let faith claim the promise, and answer, I will be holy, O Most Holy God! ”

“ What dignity, what grandeur, what Divine nobility there would be in every thought, in every word, in every deed of all our life on earth, were the consciousness ever glowing in our hearts that we too came from God and are going back to God! ”

“ High above the heavens; the throne of his glory is in the highest heavens, which should raise our hearts in praising him, Lam. iii. 41. His glory is above the heavens, that is, above the angels; he is above what they are, for their brightness is nothing to his,—above what they do, for they are under his command and do his pleasure,—and above what even they can speak him to be. He is exalted above all blessing and praise, not only all ours, but all theirs. We must therefore say, with holy admiration, Who is like unto the Lord our God? who of all the princes and potentates of the earth? ”

“ Blessed be God, I was enabled to speak with life, power, and passionate desire of the edification of God’s people. *In the evening, I felt something spiritual and watchful, lest my heart should by any means be drawn away from God. Oh, when shall I come to that blessed world, where every power of my soul will be incessantly and eternally wound up, in heavenly employments and enjoyments, to the highest degree! ”

“ Strive ever after the highest; content thyself with nothing below perfection; be humble in thine own eyes; and more than all, keep thy heart and hand from evil: sin clouds the soul’s aspirations; and the highest life is a life of perfect holiness. With thy noble intellect and ardent mind, keep an unspotted heart!——and so fare thee well, my son. ”

“ Having, then, learnt the end of thy creation, which is my glory, take care to make it the aim and object of all thy actions, that is, to direct all thy works to the greater glory of my name. For the practice of a pure and right intention is as it were the sum of all piety and perfection. If thy eye be single and right, thy whole body will have light; therefore, whether thou eat or drink, or whatever else thou dost, remember to do all to the glory of my name.
Behold a labour that is slight, but whose fruit is without measure; small to the sower, but wonderfully productive of harvest. ”

“ Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know this in the ocean of life the isles of Blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the bark of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep: wake Him. Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power. ”

“ Give unto God that which is God’s, and ascribe unto thyself that which is thine own; that is, give thanks to God for his grace, and acknowledge that nothing is thine, but only sin, and the punishment due thereto.
3. Set thyself always in the lowest place, and the highest shall be given thee; for thou canst not be in the highest, till thou hast been in the lowest.
The chief saints before God are the least in their own eyes: and how much the more glorious, so much the more humble.
Those that are firmly settled and grounded in God, can no way be proud. ”

“ Whom thou disdained to seek for glory's goal."
Two blending paths beneath God's arching skies
Lead straight to Pleasure. Ah, blind heart of youth,
Not up fame's height, not toward the base god's goal,
Doth Pleasure make her way, but 'neath calm skies
Where Duty walks with Love in endless youth. ”

“ Now, when the glory of the highest raiseth up such a melodious song above, among angels, O what should both the glory of the highest God, and the highest good of man do to us! When the greatest glory of God, and the chiefest advantage of man are linked together in this chain, what should we do but admire and adore, adore and admire, and, while we are in this earth, send up our consent to that harmony in heaven! ”

“ And yet Thou speakest, ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit.’ Yes, Lord! when the soul takes the low place, and has low thoughts of itself, that it feels it is nothing, Thou dost love to come and comfort, to dwell with it and revive it. ”

“ There were some of their young men that were in their prime for the enjoyment of the pleasures of this life and yet voluntarily abridged themselves of them; these God raised up by the power of his grace, to be monuments of his grace, to his glory, and to be his witnesses against the impieties of that degenerate age. ”

“ The more we canvass and sift and weigh and balance the materials, the more clearly and grandly does his figure rise before us, as the true Head of humanity, the perfect Ideal, not only of wisdom and tenderness and love, but of courage also, because He was and is the simple Truth of God—the expression, at last, in flesh and blood of what He who created us means each one of our race to be. ”

“ When all at once I experienced a feeling of being raised above myself, I felt the presence of God—I tell of the thing just as I was conscious of it as if his goodness and his power were penetrating me altogether. ”

“ We see a few humble, broken–spirited, penitent, praying people, enduring hardships and despised by the world; but we see not the hand of God over them, the face of God smiling on them, the kingdom of glory prepared for them. ”

“ Is it not an overpowering, heartfelt, individual humility, blended with an instinctive adoration or acknowledgment in every faculty of the holy majesty of the One Living God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being? ”

“ O Holy God! give Thou Thyself the answer to Thy question, and teach us and the world what manner of persons Thy people can be, in the day of Thy power, in the beauty of holiness. We bow our knee to Thee, O Father, that Thou wouldst grant us, according to the riches of Thy glory, to be mightily strengthened in the inner man by the Spirit of Holiness. ”

“ Yet Thou dwellest with him that is of a contrite spirit, to revive the heart of the feeble, and to comfort the heart of the contrite. We adore the glory of Thy power; we adore the glory of Thy wisdom: but most of all we adore the glory of Thy justice, the glory of Thy condescension, the glory of Thy love. ”

“ Create in me a pure heart, O my God, and renew a tranquil conscience within me, O my Hope! Through the spirit of power confirm Thou me in Thy Cause, O my Best-Beloved, and by the light of Thy glory reveal unto me Thy path, O Thou the Goal of my desire! ”

“ Finally, O God, grant that the consideration of what thou art, and what we ourselves are, may both humble and lay us low before thee, and also stir up in us the strongest and most ardent aspirations towards thee. We desire to give up ourselves to the conduct of thy Holy Spirit: lead us in thy truth, and teach us, for thou art the God of our salvation. Guide us with thy counsel, and afterwards receive us unto glory; for the merits and intercession of thy blessed Son, our Saviour. ”

“ She teaches us that grand humility which annihilates self, and places the soul as a child-like learner in the face of God's universe! Like the sacred Shepherd, with unsandalled feet, we advance with reverential awe upon the holy ground, and receive assurances that our minute sphere is benignly noticed by the eye of Omniscience; that, amid the surrounding grandeur, man is not overlooked! ”

“ Because the word high when used in Scripture has such spiritual signification, denoting elevation of state, or purity of love and exaltation of wisdom, therefore the Lord is called the Most High, and is said to dwell on high, above the earth and above the heavens. ”

“ On the other hand, one's aspirations may soar to heaven and inspire the earnest struggle of the saint, or seek in highest art the realisation of supremest beauty, or in social service the noblest perfection of human life. ”

“ Then turning to the multitudes he said, I come to you not in the name of man, nor in a strength my own;
8. The wisdom and the virtue that I bring to you are from above; they are the wisdom and the virtue of the God whom we adore. ”

“ If you have any sensibility or imagination, this will establish such an intercourse between you and the Supreme Being, as will be of infinite consequence to you in life. It will communicate an habitual cheerfulness to your tempers, give a firmness and steadiness to your virtue, and enable you to go through all the vicissitudes of human life with propriety and dignity. ”

“ The streams of being, power, and perfection should lead us to the fountain. God is great, infinitely so,—great in power, for he is omnipotent and independent,—great in wealth, for he is self-sufficient and all-sufficient,—great in himself,—great in all his works,—great, and therefore greatly to be praised,—great, and therefore we know him not. ”

“ I seek for all my salvation through the merits and mediation of the meek, humble, patient, suffering Lamb of God, who alone hath power to bring forth the blessed birth of these heavenly virtues in my soul. ”