The Eternal Promise [Paperback]

Thomas Kelly (Author), Richard Kelly (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2006

This edition adds "Have You Ever Seen a Miracle?" and "Children of the Light." In addition, an introduction by Howard Macy and an index of all three of Kelly's works make this edition especially valuable. Sequel to A Testament to Devotion.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The Eternal Promise includes two of Thomas Kelly's classic essays, "The Gathered Meeting" and "Hasten unto God." Published in this new edition for the first time is an index and an essay, " Have You Ever Seen a Miracle?" of which Douglas Steere writes, " It is Thomas Kelly at his absolute best and will pierce the hearts of ever so many readers."

About the Author

Thomas R. Kelly (1893-1941) was a graduate of Wilmington and Haverford Colleges. He received a Bachelor of Divinity and Ph.D. in philosophy from Hartford Theological Seminary and taught at Wilmington, Earlham and Haverford colleges. His book, A Testament of Devotion, has become a spiritual classic.

Product Details

• Paperback: 165 pages
• Publisher: Friends United Press (June 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 094435002X
• ISBN-13: 978-0944350027
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #415,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Protestantism > Quaker

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Customer Reviews

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN UNRECOGNIZED MYSTIC, October 11, 2009

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Ger Agrey-thatcher - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Eternal Promise (Hardcover)

This volume is the sequel to A TESTAMENT OF DEVOTION. I read Kelly with wonder and love. I cannot write with his power, authority and simplicity. Read instead a short and passionate passage from "The Richard Cary Lecture " in The Eternal Promise by Thomas Kelly himself.

How God Breaks into Human Lives

The experience of God breaking into a human life is the experience of an invasion from beyond of an Other who in gentle power breaks in upon our littleness and in tender expansiveness makes room for Himself. Had we thought Him an intruder? No, God's first odor is sweetness, God's touch an imparting of power. Suddenly, a tender giant walks by our side, no, strides within our puny footsteps. We are no longer our little selves. As two bodies closely fastened together and whirled in the air revolve in part about the heavier body, so life gets a new center, from which are moved. It is as if the center of life had been shifted beyond ourselves, so that we are no longer our old selves. Paul speaks truly when he says that we no longer live, but Christ lives in us, dynamic, energetic, creative, persuasive. In hushed amazement at this majestic Other, our little self grows still and listens for whispers - oh some so faint - and yields itself like a little child to its true Father-guidance. Yes, the sheep surely knows its shepherd in these holy moments of eternity.

It is an amazing discovery to find that that a creative power and Life is at work in the world. God is no longer the object of a belief; He is a Reality, who has continued, within us. His real Presence in the world. God is aggressive. He is an intruder, a lofty lowly conqueror on whom we had counted too little, because we had counted on ourselves. Too long have we supposed that we must carry the banner of religion, that it was our concern. But religion is not our concern; it is God's concern. Our task is to call people to "be still and know that I am God," to hearken to that of God within them, to invite, to unclasp the clenched fists of self-resolution, to be plaint in His firm guidance, sensitive to the inflections of his inner voice.

There is a life beyond earnestness to be found. It is the life rooted and grounded in the Presence, the Life which has been found by the Almighty. Seek it, seek it. Yet it lies beyond seeking. It arises in being found. To have come only as far as religious determination is only to have stood in the vestibule. But our confidence in our shrewdness, in our education, in our talents, in some aspect or other of our self-assured self; is our own undoing. So earnestly busy with anxious, fevered efforts for the Kingdom of God have we been, that we failed to hear the knock upon the door, and to know that our chief task is to open the door and be entered by the Divine Life.