But at length, O God, wilt thou not cast Death and hell into the lake of Fire—even into Thine own consuming self? Death shall then die everlastingly ,
And Hell itself will pass away,
And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day
Then indeed wilt thou be all in all. For then our poor brothers and sisters, every one—O God, we trust in thee, the Consuming Fire-- shall have been burnt clean and brought home. For if their moans would turn heaven for us into hell, shall a man be more merciful than God? Shall, of all his glories, God’s mercy alone not be infinite? Shall a brother love a brother more than The Father loves a son?—more than The Brother Christ loves his brother? Would he not die yet again to save one brother more?
As for us, now will we come to thee, our Consuming Fire. And thou wilt not burn us more than we can bear. But thou wilt burn us. And although thou seem to slay us, yet will we trust in thee even for that which thou hast not spoken, if by any means at length we may attain unto the blessedness of those who have not seen and yet have believed.
—The Consuming Fire, Vol. I, Unspoken Sermons
Lord, I am thy child, and know not how to thank thee save by uplifting the offering of the overflowing of thy life, and calling aloud, ‘It is thine; it is mine. I am thine, and therefore I am mine.
—The Hands of the Father, Unspoken Sermons, vol. I
I am going out into the business and turmoil of the day, where so many temptations may come to do less faithfully, less kindly, less diligently than the Lord would have me do. Father, into thy hands. Am I going to do a good deed? Then, of all times, Father, into thy hands, lest the enemy should have me now. Am I going to do a hard duty, from which I would gladly be turned aside? To refuse a friend’s request? Am I in pain? Take my spirit, Lord, and see, as thou art wont, that it has no more than it can bear. Am I going to die? Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. For it is thy business, not mine. Thou wilt know every shade of my suffering, Thou wilt care for me with thy perfect fatherhood.
—The Hands of the Father, Unspoken Sermons, vol. I
O Father, thou art All-in-all, perfect beyond the longing of thy children, and we are all and altogether thine. Thou wilt make us pure and loving and free. We shall stand fearless in thy presence, infinite in the love of each other, because perfect in thy love. Lord Jesus, let the heart of a child be given to us, that so we may arise from the grave of our dead selves and die no more, but see face to face the God of the Living.
—Love Thine Enemy, Unspoken Sermons, Vol I
Lord, evermore give us this Resurrection, like thine own in the body of thy Transfiguration. Let us see and hear, and know, and be seen, and heard, and known, as thou seest, hearest, and knowest. Give us glorified bodies through which to reveal the glorified thoughts which shall then inhabit us, when not only shalt thou reveal God, but each of us shall reveal thee.
And for this, Lord Jesus, come thou, the child, the obedient God, that we may be one with thee, and with every man and woman whom thou hast made, in the Father.
—The God of the Living, Unspoken Sermons, Vol I
“O Lord, they tell me I have so offended against thy law that, as I am, thou canst not look upon me, but threatenest me with eternal banishment from thy presence. But I have never known myself clean: how can I cleanse myself? Thou must take me as I am and cleanse me. Thou requirest of us to forgive: surely thou forgivest feely! Bound thou may be to destroy evil, but art thou bound to keep the sinner alive that thou may punish him, even if it make him no better? Sin cannot be deep as life, for thou art the life; and sorrow and pain go deeper than sin, for they reach to the divine in us. To see men suffer might make us shun evil, but it never could make us hate it. We might see thereby that thou hatest sin, but we never could see that thou lovest the sinner. Chastise us in loving kindness, and we shall not faint. Art not thou thyself, in thy Son, the sacrifice for our sins, the atonement of our breach? Could we ever have come to know good as thou knowest it, save by passing through the sea of sin and the fire of cleansing? They tell me I must say for Christ’s sake, or thou wilt not pardon: it takes the very heart out of my poor love to hear that thou wilt not pardon me except because Christ has loved me; but I give thee thanks that nowhere in the record of thy gospel, does one of thy servants say any such word. Thou bearest our griefs and carriest our sorrows; and surely thou wilt one day enable us to pay every debt we owe to each other! We run within the circle of what men call thy wrath, and find ourselves clasped in the zone of thy love!”
—The Voice of Job, Unspoken Sermons, Vol. II
“Lord God, just and true, let me perish, but endure thou! Let me live because thou livest, because thou savest me from the death in myself, the untruth I have nourished in me, and even called righteousness! Hallowed be thy name, for thou only art true, thou only lovest; thou only art holy, for thou only art humble! Thou only art unselfish; thou only hast never sought thine own, but the things of thy children! Yea, O father, be thou true, and every man a liar!”
—The Final Unmasking, Unspoken Sermons, Vol. III