Welcome to our collection of quotes by Amy Carmichael. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Amy Carmichael
Amy Beatrice Carmichael (16 December 1867 – 18 January 1951) was an Irish Christian missionary in India who opened an orphanage and founded a mission in Dohnavur. She served in India for 55 years without furlough and wrote many books about the missionary work there.
A cup brimful of sweetness cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, no matter how suddenly jarred.
For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.
I believe truly that Satan cannot endure it and so slips out of the room -- more or less -- when there is a true song.
Drop labels, and to think only of the one true invisible Church, to which all who truly love the Lord belong.
As the needs of all living things must, we have proved that it is a very safe thing to trust in the Lord our God.
We profess to be strangers and pilgrims, seeking after a country of our own, yet we settle down in the most un-stranger-like fashion, exactly as if we were quite at home and meant to stay as long as we could. I don't wonder apostolic miracles have died. Apostolic living certainly has.
I don't wonder apostolic miracles have died. Apostolic living certainly has.
If the praise of man elates me and his blame depresses me; if I cannot rest under misunderstanding without defending myself if I love to be loved more than to love...then I know nothing of Calvary love.
Joy is not gush. Joy is not mere jolliness. Joy is perfect acquiescence ~ acceptance, rest ~ in God's will, whatever comes.
We have all eternity to celebrate the victories but only a few hours before sunset to win them.
If you have never been hurt by a word from God, it is probably that you have never heard God speak.
If I am afraid to speak the truth lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, You do not understand, or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before the other's highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word, then I know nothing of Calvary love. For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.
If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I can enjoy a joke at the expense of another; if I can in any way slight another in conversation, or even in thought, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I say, Yes, I forgive, but I cannot forgive, as though the God, who twice a day washes all the sands on all the shores of all the world, could not wash such memories from my mind, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I put my own good name before the other's highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary's love.
If souls can suffer alongside, and I hardly know it, because the spirit of discernment is not in me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If the ultimate, the hardest, cannot be asked of me; if my fellows hesitate to ask it and turn to someone else, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying Peace, peace, where is no peace; if I forget the poignant word Let love be without dissimulation and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
When an answer I did not expect comes to a prayer which I believed I truly meant, I shrink back from it; if the burden my Lord asks me to bear be not the burden of my heart's choice, and I fret inwardly and do not welcome His will, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I fear to hold another to the highest goal because it is so much easier to avoid doing so, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I do not give a friend The benefit of the doubt, but put the worst construction instead of the best on what is said or done, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I slip into the place that can be filled by Christ alone, making myself the first necessity to a soul instead of leading it to fasten upon Him, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If Thy dear home be fuller, Lord,
For that a little emptier
My house on earth, what rich rewards
That guerdon were.
The mere telling of how a need was met is often like telling of a need, which is asking crookedly instead of straight out. But this much I will say -- with every fresh need has come a fresh supply.
Oh, will you pray? Stop now and pray, lest desire turn to feeling and feeling evaporate.
Strength of my heart, I need not fail,
Not mind to fear but to obey,
With such a Leader, who could quail?
Thou art as Thou wert yesterday.
Strength of my heart, I rest in Thee,
Fulfil Thy purposes through me.
Satan is so much more in earnest than we are -- he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost.
Love knows how to do without what it naturally wants. Love knows how to say, 'What does it matter.'
It is not the place where we are, or the work that we do or cannot do that matters, it is something else. It is the fire within that burns and shines, whatever be our circumstances.
If I am perturbed by the reproach and misunderstanding that may follow action taken for the good of souls for whom I must give account; if I cannot commit the matter and go on in peace and in silence, remembering Gethsemane and the cross, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
The only expenditure, and all its outworkings, for which God can be held to be responsible is that which He directs.
There is only one way of victory over the bitterness and rage that comes naturally to us -- To will what God wills brings peace.
Does it not stir up our hearts, to go forth and help them, does it not make us long to leave our luxury, our exceeding abundant light, and go to them that sit in darkness?
If I find myself half-carelessly taking lapses for granted, Oh, that's what they always do. Oh, of course she talks like that, he acts like that, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian.
Longer Version:
The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian. I had not seen it in Japan where missions is younger. The church here is a field full of wheat and tares.
If I myself dominate myself, if my thoughts revolve round myself, if I am so occupied with myself I rarely have a heart at leisure from itself, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
Every work undertaken in obedienced to a divine command, whether the work be that form of conflict with the powers of darkness that we call prayer, or whether it be the action that follows, leads sooner or later to a new demand on personal devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now you are deep in what seems to me a peculiarly selfless service. The spiritual training of children must be that. You work for the years you will not see. You work for the Invisible all the time, but you work for the Eternal. So it is all worthwhile.
If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider 'not spiritual work' I can best help others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
There may be love, understanding love, all around us, and yet we may be needing some word of life in our own soul, something that would do what only the Divine can do. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
If I belittle those whom I am called to serve, talk of their weak points in contrast perhaps with what I think of as my strong points; if I adopt a superior attitude, forgetting Who made thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou hast not received? then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I take offence easily; if I am content to continue in cold unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
It is great to be faced with the impossible, for nothing is impossible if one is meant to do it. Wisdom will be given, and strength. When the Lord leads, He always strengthens.
One can't save and then pitchfork souls into heaven... Souls are more or less securely fastened to bodies... And as you can't get the souls out and deal with them separately, you have to take them both together.
If you are ever inclined to pray for a missionary, do it at once, where ever you are. Perhaps he may be in great peril at that moment.
I wish thy way. And when in me myself should rise, and long for something otherwise, Then Lord, take sword and spear And slay.
What is the secret to great living? Entire separation to Christ and devotion to Him. Thus speaks every man and woman whose life has made more than a passing flicker in the spiritual realm. It is the life that has no time for trifling that counts.
Can we accept the unexplained, the loss,
The crushing agony, and hold us still.
And nowhere is that clearer vision given
Which pierces a bewildering providence,
And opens windows upon highest heaven,
But where we see Suffering Omnipotence.
All life's training is just exactly what is needed for the true Life-work, still out of view but far away from none of us. Don't grudge me the learning of a new lesson.
There is nothing dreary or doubtful about (the life). It is meant to be continually joyful...We are called to a settled happiness in the Lord whose joy is our strength.
If monotony tries me, and I cannot stand drudgery; if stupid people fret me and little ruffles set me on edge; if I make much of the trifles of life, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If my attitude be on of fear, not faith, about the one who has disappointed me; if I say Just what I expected, if a fall occurs, then I know nothing of Calvary Love.
We knew our Father. There was no need for persuasion. Would not His Fatherliness be longing to give us our hearts' desire (if I may put it so)? How could we press Him as though He were not our own most loving Father?
Give me the Love that leads the way
The Faith that nothing can dismay
The Hope no disappointments tire
The Passion that'll burn like fire
Let me not sink to be a clod
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.
If our children were to grow up truthful they much be taught by those who had a regard for truth; and not just a casual regard, a delicate regard. On this point we were adamant.
Let nothing be said about anyone unless it passes through the three sieves: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
The word comfort is from two Latin words meaning with and strong -- He is with us to make us strong. Comfort is not soft, weakening commiseration; it is true, strengthening love.
Do not fight the thing in detail: turn from it. Look ONLY at your Lord. Sing. Read. Work.
Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is.
The best training is to learn to accept everything as it comes, as from Him whom our soul loves. The tests are always unexpected things, not great things that can be written up, but the common little rubs of life, silly little nothings, things you are ashamed of minding one scrap.
God Hold us to that which drew us first, when the Cross was the attraction, and we wanted nothing else.
Bare heights of loneliness...a wilderness whose burning winds sweep over glowing sands, what are they to HIM? Even there He can refresh us, even there He can renew us.
But God is the God of the waves and the billows, and they are still His when they come over us; and again and again we have proved that the overwhelming thing does not overwhelm. Once more by His interposition deliverance came. We were cast down, but not destroyed.
Let us not be surprised when we have to face difficulties. When the wind blows hard on a tree, the roots stretch and grow the stronger, Let it be so with us. Let us not be weaklings, yielding to every wind that blows, but strong in spirit to resist.