Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life

Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life: “… I think we all of us know, as a matter of practical experience, that there is something within us, behind our emotions and behind our wishes, an independent self, that, after all, decides everything and controls everything. Our emotions belong to us, and are suffered and enjoyed by us, but they are not ourselves; and if God is to take possession of us, it must be into this central will or personality that He enters” (80). Many often think of Christianity in terms of churches and morality and movements. But the Way that Jesus taught actually must establish itself in our hearts, in the part of us that no one ever sees. That is where we learn to stand back from natural willfulness and self-interest. That is where we forgive. That is where we find our faith and our consecration and our hope. (Driving into the Dawn, chapter 54)