Hannah Whitall Smith > Quotes

“The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith

“Write your own fairytale. . .”
― Hannah Smith

“Comfort & peace never come from anything we know about ourselves, but only & always from what we know about Him.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith

“It is a law of the spiritual life that every act of trust makes the next act less difficult. Trusting becomes like breathing, the natural unconciousness of the redeemed soul.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life

“Most Christians are like a man who was toiling along the road, bending under a heavy burden, when a wagon overtook him. The driver kindly offered to help him on his journey. He joyfully accepted the offer but, when he was seated, continued to bend beneath his burden, which he still kept on his shoulders. "Why do you not lay down your burden?" asked the kind-hearted driver. "Oh!" replied the man, "I feel that it is almost too much to ask you to carry me, and I could not think of letting you carry my burden too." And so Christian who have given themselves into the care and keeping of the Lord Jesus still continue to bend beneath the weight of their burdens and often go weary and heavy-laden throughout the whole length of their journey.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith

“To be a mother is the greatest vocation in the world. No being has a position of such great power and influence. She holds in her hands the destiny of nations, for to her is necessarily committed the making of the nation’s citizens.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith

“Holding onto what was isn't healthy for what is.”
― Hannah 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.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life

“Nothing else is needed to quiet all your fears, but just this, that GOD IS.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith

“Christ came into the world to save sinners, not good people, and your unworthiness is your greatest claim for His salvation.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The God of All Comfort

“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.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life - Hannah Whitall Smith

“He who cares for the sparrows and numbers the hairs of our head, cannot possibly fail us.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The God of All Comfort

“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.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life

“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.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life - Hannah Whitall Smith

“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?”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The God of All Comfort

“My part," was the prompt reply, "was to run away, and the Lord's part was to run after me until He caught me.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The God of All Comfort

“The teaching here is simply this, that anything allowed in the heart which is contrary to the will of God, let it seem ever so insignificant, or be ever so deeply hidden, will cause us to fall before our enemies.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life - Hannah Whitall Smith

“we can and must love the will of God in the trial, for His will is always sweet, whether it be in joy or in sorrow.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life - Hannah Whitall Smith

“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.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith

“Perfect obedience would be perfect happiness, if only we had perfect confidence in the power we were obeying.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life - Hannah Whitall Smith

“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.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life - Hannah Whitall Smith

“The apple in June is a perfect apple for June. It is the best apple that June can produce. But it is very different from the apple in October, which is a perfected apple.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life - Hannah Whitall Smith

“the kingdom of God could not possibly be overadvertised, nor the Lord Jesus Christ overestimated, for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him; and that all the difficulty arises from the fact that we have underbelieved and undertrusted.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The God of All Comfort

“Do we not continually pass by blessings innumerable without notice, and instead fix our eyes on what we feel to be our trials and our losses, and think and talk about these until our whole horizon is filled with them, and we almost begin to think we have no blessings at all?”
― Hannah Whitall Smith

“If our hearts are full of our own wretched 'I ams' we will have no ears to hear His glorious, soul-satisfying 'I am'. We say, 'Alas, I am such a poor week creature,' or 'I am so foolish,' or 'I am so good-for-nothing,' or 'I am so helpless' and we give these pitiful 'I ams' of ours as the reason of the wretchedness and discomfort of our religious lives, and even feel that we are very much to be pitied that things are so hard for us. While all the time we entirely ignore the blank check of God's magnificent 'I am,' which authorizes us to draw upon Him for an abundant supply for every need.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith

“are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. A real work is to be wrought in us and upon us. Besetting sins are to be conquered; evil habits are to be overcome; wrong dispositions and feelings are to be rooted out, and holy tempers and emotions are to be begotten. A”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life

“An idea is a curious thing. It will not work unless you do.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith

“It is not because things are good that we are to thank the Lord, but because He is good.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The God of All Comfort

“Why, I asked myself, should the children of God lead such utterly uncomfortable religious lives when He has led us to believe that His yoke would be easy and His burden light? Why are we tormented with so many spiritual doubts, and such heavy spiritual anxieties? Why do we find it so hard to be sure that God really loves us, and why is it that we never seem able to believe long at a time in His kindness and His care? How is it that we can let ourselves suspect Him of forgetting us and forsaking us in times of need? We can trust our earthly friends, and can be comfortable in their companionship, and why is it then that we cannot trust our heavenly Friend, and that we seem unable to be comfortable in His service?”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The God of All Comfort

“The man who wavers in his faith is upset by the smallest trifles; the man who is steadfast in his faith can look on calmly at the ruin of all his universe.”
― Hannah Whitall Smith, The God of All Comfort