Quotable

God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven….No sooner do we believe that God loves us than there is an impulse to believe that He does so, not because He is Love, but because we are intrinsically lovable….[D]epth beneath depth and subtlety within subtlety, there remains some lingering idea of our own, our very own, attractiveness….Surely we can’t be quite creatures.

—C. S. Lewis

In all Judas’ eminency and profession of Christ, he had no true love of Christ, no saving faith. Judas that preaches, that works miracles, that is often in duties with Christ, yet he is not sincere!

—Anthony Burgess, 1656

O Christian! Study what love is…in the Word, in Christ, in God…[and] thou wilt learn to acknowledge that he that loveth not hath not known God. And thou wilt learn, too, to admit more deeply and truly than ever before, that no effort of thy will can bring forth love; it must be given thee from above.

—Andrew Murray