Selected Quotations from Mrs. Penn-Lewis: A Memoir

The following are selected quotations from Mrs. Penn-Lewis: A Memoir by Mary N. Garrard

Calvary precedes Pentecost. Death with Christ precedes the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Power! Yes, God’s children need power, but God does not give power to the old creation, nor to the uncrucified soul. Some may have a measure of power, but not what God wants to give. Satan will give power to the ‘old Adam,’ but God will not. —Page 37

But you will never help young people if you do not love them. I do so long that God’s people will be more human, have more heart—cleansed heart, with Christ in it—you can do anything with people you love and who love you. This is not natural love, because it loves the ugly and the unpleasant. It is the “love of God shed abroad in our hearts” that is needed. We are too occupied with our own spiritual growth and progress. Oh God, let us die to ourselves! Lord, come thou and live in us, so that thy life can flow out to others through us! —Page 67

Oh! X—, what selfish lives God’s children are living—making use of the merits of Calvary for their own salvation only, and living for themselves. Sacrifice is counted a foolish thing by the followers of the crucified Christ! In the day of eternity, how few will bear the marks of the Lamb! How short the time to suffer and to sacrifice in the service of souls; how paltry will things look at the judgment seat of Christ! How mean we shall feel when we see in the light of the eyes of fire how little we have given our lives in the service of a world lying in the evil one. —Page 71

Light is an awful thing if not obeyed! —Page 79

Ask the Lord to keep all waste out of your lives, to make the uttermost out of every moment, and to reduce all the necessary earthly duties to the least possible amount of waste or time. —Page 120

Oh the cross, the cross, the cross is the power of God! “I, if I be lifted up, will draw …” Ah, when shall we learn that there is a need in hearts that only the cross will meet, and that the Holy Spirit can make simple the deepest mystery of the cross to the youngest believer! Let us not withhold God’s secret of the cross because we, in our human wisdom, think it too difficult. In proportion as we give the message in the power of God, it will be made clear to souls … —Page 145

I am convinced that to keep the heavenly spirit, we need to sing the songs of heaven. An empty mind will soon become an earthly one. We must fill our minds and hearts with the things of heaven if we are to walk through these days as “heavenly people.” —Page 228

The need of today is undoubtedly a “revival of prayer,” so as to “make up the fence” and close up the “gap” through which the hosts of darkness have rushed in upon the church and the world. (Ezek. 22:30). —Page 232

It is also necessary for the effective proclaiming of the message of the cross, that the messengers should know the message in all its aspects so that it works in power in their own lives. Only those who live the “cross” can preach it effectively. For mentally apprehended, and proclaimed only in words which “man’s wisdom teacheth,” the very message which is the dunamis of God is made of “no effect.” —Page 243