“Abraham teaches us the right way of conversing with God: "And Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him." When we plead with Him, our faces should be in the dust.”

—  Richard Cecil (clergyman)

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 332.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Abraham teaches us the right way of conversing with God: "And Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him." When …" by Richard Cecil (clergyman)?
Richard Cecil (clergyman) photo
Richard Cecil (clergyman)29
British Evangelical Anglican priest and social reformer 1748–1810

Related quotes

“With a sudden clarity which went beyond the immediacy of his pain or sorrow, Sol Weintraub suddenly understood perfectly why Abraham had agreed to sacrifice Isaac, his son, when the Lord commanded him to do so.
It was not obedience.
It was not even to put the love of God above the love of his son.
Abraham was testing God.
By denying the sacrifice at the last moment, by stopping the knife, God had earned the right—in Abraham’s eyes and the hearts of his offspring—to become the God of Abraham.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 45 (p. 491)

Maimónides photo

“Abraham was the first to teach the Unity of God, to establish the faith, to cause it to remain among coming generations, and to win his fellow-men to his doctrine; as Scripture says of him: "I know him, that he will command," &c.”

Maimónides book The Guide for the Perplexed

Gen. xviii. 19
Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.24

Abraham Lincoln photo

“Abraham Lincoln
his hand and pen
he will be good but
god knows When”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Manuscript poem, as a teenager (ca. 1824–1826) http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/prespoetry/al.html#1, in &quot;Lincoln as Poet&quot; at Library of Congress : Presidents as Poets http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/prespoetry/al.html also in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953) edited by Roy. P. Basler, Vol. 1 <br class="br">1820s

Paul Tillich photo

“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the God of the philosophers is the same God.”

Paul Tillich (1886–1965) German-American theologian and philosopher

Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality (1955), p. 80
Context: Against Pascal I say: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the God of the philosophers is the same God. He is a person and the negation of himself as a person.
Faith comprises both itself and the doubt of itself. The Christ is Jesus and the negation of Jesus.

Ken Follett photo

“But the lesson of Abraham's story is that God demands the best we have to offer, that which is most precious to us.”

Ken Follett book The Pillars of the Earth

Source: The Pillars of the Earth

Brother Lawrence photo

“That we should establish ourselves in a sense of GOD’s Presence, by continually conversing with Him. That it was a shameful thing to quit His conversation, to think of trifles and fooleries.”

Brother Lawrence book The Practice of the Presence of God

Source: The Practice of the Presence of God

Lydia Maria Child photo

“I think we have reason to thank God for Abraham Lincoln.”

Lydia Maria Child (1802–1880) American abolitionist, author and women's rights activist

Letter to George W. Julian (8 April 1865), as quoted in The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery http://books.google.com/books?id=4b8m7cv3wTIC&amp;pg=PA335#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false, by Eric Foner, p. 336 <br class="br">1860s <br class="br">Context: I think we have reason to thank God for Abraham Lincoln. With all his deficiencies, it must be admitted that he has grown continually.

Robert Charles Wilson photo

“Ziegler said, “You know the story in the Bible, the story of Abraham and Isaac?”
“Of course.”
“God instructs Abraham to offer his son as a sacrifice. Isaac makes it as far as the chopping block before God changes his mind.”
Yes. Jacob had always imagined God a little appalled at Abraham’s willingness to cooperate.
Ziegler said, “What’s the moral of the story?”
“Faith.”
“Hardly,” Ziegler said. “Faith has nothing to do with it. Abraham never doubted the existence of God—how could he? The evidence was ample. His virtue wasn’t faith, it was fealty. He was so simplemindedly loyal that he would commit even this awful, terrible act. He was the perfect foot soldier. The ideal pawn. Abraham’s lesson: fealty is rewarded. Not morality. The fable makes morality contingent. Don’t go around killing innocent people, that is, unless you're absolutely certain God want you to. It’s a lunatic’s credo.
“Isaac, on the other hand, learns something much more interesting. He learns that neither God nor his own father can be trusted. Maybe it makes him a better man than Abraham. Suppose Isaac grows up and fathers a child of his own, and God approaches him and makes the same demand. One imagines Isaac saying, ’No. You can take him if you must, but I won’t slaughter my son for you.’ He’s not the good and faithful servant his father was. But he is, perhaps, a more wholesome human being.””

Robert Charles Wilson (1953) author

The Fields of Abraham (pp. 21-22)
The Perseids and Other Stories (2000)

Josefa Iloilo photo

“The National Day of Prayer has great significance for us as a nation. It enables us to recall and to teach the way in which our forebearers sought the wisdom of God faced with critical decisions. It stands as a call to us to humbly come before God, seeking His guidance for our leaders and His grace upon us as a nation.”

Josefa Iloilo (1920–2011) President of Fiji

Opening address to the National Day of Prayer in Suva, 15 May 2005 (excerpts) http://www.fiji.gov.fj/publish/page_4607.shtml

William Wordsworth photo

“Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;
And worship'st at the Temple's inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

It Is a Beautious Evening, l. 12 (1807).

Related topics