Inspirational Quotes by Hannah Whitall Smith
“put together all the tenderest love you know of, multiply it by infinity and you will begin to see glimpses of the love and grace of God.”
topics: christian-happiness
“Nothing else is needed to quiet all your fears, but just this, that GOD IS.”
“Christ came into the world to save sinners, not good people, and your unworthiness is your greatest claim for His salvation.”
“I consider myself as the most wretched of men, full of sores and corruption, and who has committed all sorts of crimes against his King; touched with a sensible regret, I confess to him all my wickedness, I ask His forgiveness, I abandon myself in His hands that He may do what he pleases with me. The King, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastising me, embraces me with love, makes me eat at His table, serves me with His own hands, gives me the key of His treasures; He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways, and treats me in all respects as His favorite. It is thus I consider myself from time to time in His holy presence.”
“He remarked that thinking often spoils everything and that evil usually begins with our thoughts.”
“He who cares for the sparrows and numbers the hairs of our head, cannot possibly fail us.”
“Remember, then, that the real thing in your experience is what your will decides, and not the verdict of your emotions; and that you are far more in danger of hypocrisy and untruth in yielding to the assertions of your feelings, than in holding fast to the decision of your will. So that, if your will is on God’s side, you are no hypocrite at this moment in claiming as your own the blessed reality of belonging altogether to Him, even though your emotions may all declare the contrary.”
“A happy heart can walk in triumphant indifference through a sea of external trouble; while internal anguish cannot find happiness in the most favorable surroundings.”
“That he had so often experienced the ready succours of Divine Grace upon all occasions, that from the same experience, when he had business to do, he did not think of it beforehand; but when it was time to do it, he found in GOD, as in a clear mirror, all that was fit for him to do. That of late he had acted thus, without anticipating care; but before the experience above mentioned, he had used it in his affairs.”
“That we should establish ourselves in a sense of GOD'S Presence, by continually conversing with Him. That it was a shameful thing to quit His conversation, to think of trifles and fooleries. That we should feed”
“Give Him thanks, if you please, with me, for His great goodness towards me, which I can never sufficiently admire, for the many favors He has done to so miserable a sinner as I am. May all things praise Him. Amen.”
“Has the kingdom of God been overadvertised, or is it only that it has been underbelieved; has the Lord Jesus Christ been overestimated, or has He only been undertrusted?”
“Man’s Christianity teaches sacrifice to save ourselves; Christ’s Christianity teaches sacrifice to save others. Man’s Christianity produces the fruitless selfishness of too much of our religion. Christ’s Christianity produces the blessed unselfishness of lives that are poured out for others, as was His.”
“Put together all the tenderest love you know of dear reader the deepest you have ever felt and the strongest that has ever been poured out upon you and heap upon it all the love of all the loving human hearts in the world and then multiply it by infinity and you will begin perhaps to have some faint glimpses of what the love of God in Christ Jesus is. And this is grace.”
“We have to know someone before we can truly love him. In order to know God, we must think about Him often. Once we get to know Him, we will think about Him even more often, because where our treasure is, there also is our heart!”
“That useless thoughts spoil all: that the mischief began there; but that we ought to reject them, as soon as we perceived their impertinence to the matter in hand, or our salvation; and return to our communion with GOD.”
“That when he had thus in prayer filled his mind with great sentiments of that infinite Being, he went to his work appointed in the kitchen (for he was cook to the society); there having first considered severally the things his office required, and when and how each thing was to be done, he spent all the intervals of his time, as well before as after his work, in prayer.”
“That many do not advance in the Christian progress because they stick in penances, and particular exercises, while they neglect the love of GOD, which is the end. That this appeared plainly by their works, and was the reason why we see so little solid virtue.”
“To be one of God's lilies means an interior abandonment of the rarest kind. It means that we are to be infinitely passive, and yet infinitely active also; passive as regards self and its workings, active as regards attention and response to God. It is very hard to explain this so as to be understood But it means that we must lay down all the activity of the creature, as such, and must let only the activities of God work in us, and through us, and by us. Self must step aside, to let God work.”
“My part," was the prompt reply, "was to run away, and the Lord's part was to run after me until He caught me.”
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Hannah Whitall Smith (1832 - 1911)
Was a lay speaker and author in the Holiness movement in the United States and the Higher Life movement in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. She was also active in the Women's suffrage movement and the Temperance movement. Hannah Whitall Smith’s book The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life (1875) is an extremely popular book of Christian mysticism and practical Holiness theology. It is still widely read today. She wrote her spiritual autobiography, The Unselfishness of God And How I Discovered It, in 1903.In 1870 Hannah Whitall Smith wrote what has become a classic of joyous Christianity, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life. The title barely hints at the depths of that perceptive book. It is no shallow "four easy steps to successful living." Studiously, the writer defines the shape of a full and abundant life hid in God. Then she carefully reveals the difficulties to this way and finally charts the results of a life abandoned to God. What is the Christian's secret to a happy life? It is best summed up by her chapter entitled "The Joy of Obedience." Joy comes through obedience to Christ, and joy results from obedience to Christ. Without obedience joy is hollow and artificial.
Hannah Whitall Smith1832-1911
Hannah Tatum Whitall Smith was a lay speaker and author in the Holiness movement in the United States and the Higher Life movement in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. She was also active in the Women's suffrage movement and the Temperance movement.
Hannah Whitall Smith's book The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life (1875) is an extremely popular book of Christian principles and practical Holiness theology. It is still widely read today. She wrote her spiritual autobiography, The Unselfishness of God And How I Discovered It, in 1903. Many publications of that book omit the three chapters which explain how she became a Christian universalist.
Hannah Whitall Smith was a Quaker born in Philadelphia in 1832. Her book 'The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life' has become a classic. Published in 1870, it was a beacon of encouragement in the age in which it was written, and continues to inspire men and women to a more joyful life with Christ. It has sold nearly 2 million copies.
Smith was by no means a dour servant of Christ but rather, her life expressed the joy found in complete surrender. The 'secret' to a happy life, is to trust implicitly in the promises of the Bible. Her goal was not to impress the scholar but to elevate the simple man or woman who longed for a more consecrated way of living.
On a theological level, the sad climax of Hannah's life and ministry was similar to that of her husband. She was raised in the Society of Friends (Quakerism), and for some time was associated with the Plymouth Brethren. She was probably saved under their influence, and thus came to know something of the growth truths.
US evangelist, reformer, suffragist, author. She championed feminist causes and the right of young women to attend college; co-founded Women's Christian Temperance Union. Deeply practical, her writings deal directly with the day to day struggles of ordinary people. She weaves her scriptural theology in and out of the stories of people's lives.