Nothing is needed more today than love. Nothing is needed more today than unity in love. This abundant, complete, absolute oneness, which permits no thwarting and no disturbing of the unity in which we become one heart and one soul, is needed today more than perhaps at any other time. Just that is most needed from God, the opposite of which has been lashed into greatest fury by the demons. Certainly propertylessness is very much needed today; certainly it is of greatest significance that there be purity in men’s lives, complete abstinence and asceticism before marriage and absolute faithfulness in marriage in the sense that everything which takes place does so out of the Spirit.
- Eberhard Arnold
- Eberhard Arnold, January 1920 From an EssayJustice and love demand that everyone take part in simple practical work with a spade, hatchet, or rake. Everyone should be ready to devote a few hours every day to this practical work; those who have done purely mental work till now will feel its humanizing effect especially. In this way it will be possible for each person’s unique gifts to be kindled. The light that flickers within each heart will then exhibit its once-hidden glow in scholarly research or in music, in expressive words, or in the craftsman’s art in wood, stone, or paint…such work will reveal the joy in life that is in each person. Only death knows idleness and tedium. Where there is life, the mind’s creative will remains alert and comes to expression in the service of the whole.
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The hour of decision has come over the world; even the blind must see it! Therefore it is important now to get together, not for our sake, but the Ark is meant, that it may reach the shore and lay the foundations for a new world. It is meant in the sense that we belong wherever there is the seed of a new world, where the light of peace and unity has broken in through the dark layers which surround the world. All must come together and remain together, for it is the hour of decision, and no disunion can be tolerated. It is a matter of life or death, of love or hatred, of God or Satan.
- Eberhard Arnold
The planet earth is surrounded, as it were, by an insulating layer formed by the thoughts of men, by the mass-impulses of men. And now it is important for God’s Spirit, for God’s love, that somewhere there is a breach, that somewhere absolute love, full brotherliness and complete clarity, also complete readiness for the fight against all evil spirits, can break through and break in. It makes no difference where this place is. One could say it is neither here nor there. Just as the clouds in the sky change continually, thus also this open place through which God’s love and peace break in is not bound to any place. Jesus says that where two or three gather in His name, in His being, in His power, He is in their midst.
- Eberhard Arnold