God himself is the giver. The Spirit gave God’s fiery brand into the Son’s hand. The torch of wrath became the giver of life. The glowing heat of judgment has gushed forth into the fire of life. It lives in the light of love which liberates and gathers us.
- Eberhard Arnold
- Eberhard Arnold, January 1920 From an EssayJustice and love demand that everyone take part in simple practical work with a spade, hatchet, or rake. Everyone should be ready to devote a few hours every day to this practical work; those who have done purely mental work till now will feel its humanizing effect especially. In this way it will be possible for each person’s unique gifts to be kindled. The light that flickers within each heart will then exhibit its once-hidden glow in scholarly research or in music, in expressive words, or in the craftsman’s art in wood, stone, or paint…such work will reveal the joy in life that is in each person. Only death knows idleness and tedium. Where there is life, the mind’s creative will remains alert and comes to expression in the service of the whole.
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The reality of repentance and of our smallness is effective only if one takes the smallness for granted. As long as that which moves us is not God and His kingdom but instead “my” heart, “my” inadequacy, “my” remorse and “my” repentance, the whole thing is and remains a completely heathen idolatry.
- Eberhard Arnold
Like the water of the mountains, the Spirit of the heights seeks the lowest place. He strives downwards. His Church bears the lowly and childlike spirit which alone is of God. She is with Mary in the stable. The Church comes into being with Christ on the gallows. She goes the way of apostolic poverty. With her one mind and one heart, she honors no one but God in Christ Jesus.
- Eberhard Arnold