Each one of us, of course, must preserve his inner freedom, so that each one follows the holy Shall and the holy Must that lives within him, without making himself in any way dependent.
- Eberhard Arnold
April 27,2026
- Eberhard Arnold From a letter, May 1920How glad I am that you are so positively united with me in the experience of peace and of Jesus’ spirit of love! The question is not at all one of our only refusing to do military service, though people always put it in this negative way. This refusal, after all, follows as a matter of course from a positive experience of the Spirit of Christ. When this Spirit, which is expressed so very intensely in the Sermon on the Mount and in Romans 8, penetrates us and glows in us, then we will become victorious people who must work as long as it is daylight—work in the productive, creative work of love.
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Only the Spirit of Christ can guarantee such a working together. It is a fact that today the Spirit is again urging the realization of this communal life. All are expecting the Christians to give an example; all expect that they will be able to attain what others seek in vain. In our circles, in us all, there is still much weakness. Yet I have the invincible certainty that our small strength will urge us toward results that do not come from ourselves.
- Eberhard Arnold
We are filled with the faith that the living Spirit of Christ is today causing countless small focal points to arise, where not only community of gathering and building up is to be found, but real community of life and of productive work and vocation.
- Eberhard Arnold, April 1920