Quotes by William Adams

Activity in the kingdom of God augments the power of spiritual life, and deepens the consciousness of religious realities.

— William Adams

Life

What do we know about the world unseen? What reasonings, what curiosity, what misgivings there have been concerning that impenetrable mystery! Out of this mystery and vagueness and vastness comes the human form of the Divine Redeemer. He assures us that there is an unmixed and endless life, and that all we have to do to secure it is, to trust ourselves to Him who came to declare it and to confer it.

— William Adams

Life

To-day Christ, in a certain sense, is on trial before us all. In these living hearts, in every one to-day, there will be a judgment of some sort passed upon His sacred person.

— William Adams

Love

This is always the way in which the reality of Christian conversion evidences itself. It makes the selfish man charitable; the churlish, liberal; and implants in the soul, which hitherto has cared only for the things belonging to himself, a disposition to seek also the things of others.

— William Adams

Wisdom

To remember that once we were near the salvation of Christ, so near that our right hand might have touched and taken it, and after all that hand was withheld; this is a memory which will enhance remorse forever.

— William Adams

Wisdom

Eternal life does not depend upon our perfection; but because it does depend upon the grace of Christ and the love of the Spirit, that love shall prompt us to emulate perfection.

— William Adams

Love

There is a boundary to the understanding, and when it is reached, faith is the continuation of reason .

— William Adams

Faith

Our Lord does not praise the centurion for his amiable care of his servants, nor for his generosity to the Jews, nor for his public spirit, nor for his humility, but for his faith.

— William Adams

Faith

Faith is a simple trust in a personal Redeemer. The simpler our trust in Christ for all things, the surer our peace.

— William Adams

Wisdom

The only qualification for knowing Divine things is to love them; to know Christ and to see the light of His revelation, we have only to aspire after a filial temper.

— William Adams

Love

Thirsty, weary, dissatisfied in this sultry life, come as you are; come at once; come because you are invited; as you would not do affront to infinite Generosity, come, and drink, and live forever.

— William Adams

Life

But how shall this love be demonstrated? After what method shall it be expressed? Not by secret musings alone; not by the chanting of religious sonnets alone; not by grateful remembrances of Him—at His table only—but by deeds of love towards those who in a real sense represent Him, because partakers of that nature, our common humanity, which He condescended to assume.

— William Adams

Love

Lovest thou me? This is the one test question of our religion—for he that loveth is born of God.

— William Adams

Wisdom

The law can never save us; and he is nearest to the forgiveness of the gospel who, with a contrite heart, discerns most clearly and feels most profoundly that perfection of the Divine statute which impeaches and condemns him.

— William Adams

Love

Christian penitence is something more than a thought or an emotion or a tear; it is action.

— William Adams

Wisdom

Do you ask why Mary Magdalene was the one chosen to whom first of all Christ should show Himself after the resurrection? This we know—she trusted in Him, and she loved Him; she waited at His sepulchre; she sought, she looked, she wept; and if we would have Christ reveal Himself to us, we, too, must seek and wait and long and trust and love.

— William Adams

Love

Faith is a continuation of reason.

— William Adams

Wisdom

So I departed and was free from imprisonment.

— William Adams

Wisdom

Now being in such grace and favor by reason I learned him some points of geometry and understanding of the art of mathematics with other things, I pleased him so that what I said he would not contrary.

— William Adams

Education

Not only I lost what I had in the ship, but from the captain and the company generally what was good or worth the taking was carried away; all which was done unknown to the emperor.

— William Adams

Wisdom

Therefore I do pray and entreat you in the name of Jesus Christ to do so much as to make my being here in Japan known to my poor wife, in a manner a widow and my two children fatherless; which thing only is my greatest grief of heart and conscience.

— William Adams

Love

From the ship all things were taken out, so that the clothes which I took with me on my back I only had.

— William Adams

Wisdom

In the end of five years I made supplication to the king to go out of this land, desiring to see my poor wife and children according to conscience and nature.

— William Adams

Education

So in process of four or five years the emperor called me, as divers times he had done before.

— William Adams

Wisdom