Quote#God & Faith
You cannot will to possess the spirit of Christ; that must come as…
Quote byElizabeth Prentiss · 1818–1878
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Stepping Heavenward (1869), p. 105. (March 28, 1835).
English (original)
You cannot will to possess the spirit of Christ; that must come as His gift, but you can choose to study His life, and to imitate it.
— Elizabeth Prentiss
More from Elizabeth Prentiss
We must be wise task-masters, and not require of ourselves what we can not possibly perform. Recreation we must have. Otherwise, the strings of our soul, wound up to an unnatural tension, will break.
Sleep, baby, sleep! Thy father's watching the sheep. Thy mother's shaking the dreamland tree, And down drops a little dream for thee. Sleep, baby, sleep!
Ah, what a life is theirs who live in Christ; How vast the mystery! Reaching in height to heaven, and in its depth The unfathomed sea!
You cannot prove to yourself that you love God by examining your feelings towards Him. They are indefinite and they fluctuate. But just so far as you obey Him, just so far, depend upon it, you love Him.
O happy life! life hid with Christ in God! So making me, At home, and by the wayside, and abroad, Alone with Thee!
It sweetens every bit of work to think that I am doing it in humble, far-off, yet real imitation of Jesus.