The Holy Spirit Illuminates the Intellect

It is one part of the office of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the intellect, and through the intellect to impart clearness and strength to the conscience. We ought, therefore, highly to value not only those affections, which are originated and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, but also an intellect and conscience, enlightened from the same source. Especially when we consider, that a spiritually enlightened conscience is the surest guide in relation to the true character and the right degree of the affections.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CLVIII.

The Holy Spirit Works in Cooperation With Us

The Holy Spirit does not teach by arbitrary acts, or those acts which have no relation to the constitution of the human mind; but by silently and yet effectually, inspiring and guiding the movements of the natural powers of perception and knowledge, in co-operation with their own action. "Strive, therefore, to enter in."  He who desires and purposes to be holy, must employ the appropriate means to be holy. He must be willing to think and to reason; he must be willing to reflect, to resolve, to pray; doing all, however, under the guidance of the great Inward Teacher, who gives life without countenancing inactivity, who is the inspirer of human movement, but is not the substitute for it.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CLVII.

Depending on God for the Means as Well as the End

God is not only in the beginning and the end; but in all the intermediate methods and instrumentalities which connect them together. He, who lifts a finger or moves a foot in any enterprise without God, does it at the hazard, not only of displeasing God, but of failing of his object. We ought, therefore, to exercise the same sense of dependence and the same submissiveness of spirit in the choice and employment of the means applicable to a given end, which we exercise in relation to the end, when in the Providence of God it is either accomplished or fails to be accomplished. "Except the Lord build  the  house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." Ps. 127:1.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CLVI.

Christ Inward and Christ Outward

In the early periods of our religious experience, we are chiefly interested in what Christ was by SITUATION, his birth in the manger, the incidents of his childhood, his temptations and labors, his betrayal and his crucifixion. At a later period we are interested, in a still higher degree, in what Christ was and is by CHARACTER, his purity, his condescension, his forbearance, his readiness to do and suffer his Father's will, his love. The first method of contemplating Christ is profitable; the second still more so. The tendency of the one is to lead to a Christ outward, to Christ of the times of Herod and of Pilate, to a Christ with blood-stained feet and with a crown of thorns; who is now gone, and who never can exist again, as he was then. The tendency of the other is to lead us to a Christ inward; who lives unchanged in his unity and likeness with his Father; forever  the same in himself, and forever the same in the hearts of those who are born in his image. Christ outward is precious, and always will be precious, historically; "THE STAR OF MEMORY." Christ inward, who can never die, and who reproduces himself in the hearts of his followers, is still more precious, by present realization; the star, the sun of the affections. 

— Religious Maxims (1846) CLV.

Mirrors of God

God, in the formation of his spiritual work, can stamp no image and form no feature, but the image and the feature which exists eternally in himself. And accordingly all holy souls are not only lights in the world; but being born of God and bearing his image, are necessarily mirrors of the Divinity. If the mirror is clear, God is manifest. And just in proportion, as it is stained and soiled, there is no divine reflection. God is no longer a subject of inward consciousness, nor of outward observation.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CLIV.

God Has an Interest in all Creation

Our heavenly Father takes an interest in all the works of his hands. He beholds the reflection of his own wisdom in every blade of grass, in every flower of the desert, in every waterfall. There is no living thing in the earth, the air, or the waters, over which God does not watch with a Father's love. Those, who bear God's image in being possessed of a holy heart, not only connect God with all his works, but sympathize with him in his deep interest for everything he has made.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CLIII.

God Felt It First

When we are injured and afflicted by our fellow men, we should remember, that our heavenly Father felt the wound first.  He always feels in what his people feel, and if, for wise purposes, he is patient and bears with the infliction, whatever it may be, we should both be taught and be encouraged to do likewise.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CLII.