"Many people seek fellowship because they are afraid to be alone." p 76.
"Seek God, not happiness." p 84.
"The person who comes into a fellowship because he is running away from himself is misusing it for the sake of diversion." p 76. The fellowship of the Church should be one of the places where we can find ourselves, not used get away from who we are.
"Only in the fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to live rightly in the fellowship." p 77-78.
"Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him who is not in community beware of being alone." p 78.
"Is the Word of God close to him as a comfort and strength?... The individual must realize that his hours of aloneness react upon the community." p 88.
"Every day brings to the Christian many hours in which he will be alone in an unchristian environment... times of testing.... Has the fellowship served to make the individual free, strong, and mature, or has it made him weak and dependent? Has it taken him by the hand for a while in order that he may learn again to walk by himself, or has it made him uneasy and unsure? This is one of the most searching and critical questions that can be put to any Christian fellowship." p 88.
"Right speech comes out of silence, and right silence comes out of speech." p 78.
"We are silent at the beginning of the day because God should have the first word, and we are silent before going to sleep because the last word also belongs to God. We keep silence solely because the last word also belongs to God. We keep silence solely for the sake of the Word, and therefore not in order to show disregard for the Word but rather to honor and receive it." p 79.
"The silence of the Christian is listening silence, humble stillness, that may be interuppted at any time for the sake of humility." p 80.
Intercession/prayer "brings us to a point at which we hear the pulsing heart of all Christian life in unison." p 86.
"The word 'meditation' should not frighten us." p 81.
The time of testing is where "we find out whether the Christian's meditation has led him into the unreal... or whether it has led him into a real contact with God, from which he emerges strengthened and purified. Has it transported him for a moment into a spiritual ecstasy that vanishes when everyday life returns, or has it lodged the Word of God so securely and deeply in his heart that it holds and fortifies him, impelling him to active love, to obedience, to good works? Only the day can decide." p 88.
"I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me." p 86.
Chapter <Intro-1-2-4/5->
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