JC Ryle

September 20, 2014

All professing Christians should examine themselves and try their own state. It is not those outside the churches where the dead are to be found; there are only too many inside our churches, and close to our pulpits—too many on the benches, and too many in the pews. The land is like the valley in Ezekiel’s vision, “full of bones, very many, and very dry.” (Ezek. 37:2) There are dead souls in all our parishes, and dead souls in all our streets. There is hardly a family in which all live to God; there is hardly a house in which there is not someone dead. Oh, let us all search and look at home! Let us prove our own selves. Are we alive or dead?

– JC Ryle –

July 15, 2014

Sin is, in truth, the hardest of all masters. In its service there is plenty of fair promises, but an utter dearth of performance. Its pleasures are but for a season. Its wages are sorrow, remorse, self-accusation, and too often death. They that sow to the flesh, do indeed reap corruption.

– JC Ryle –

May 10, 2014

I charge you never to give up the old doctrine of the blood of Christ, the complete satisfaction which that atoning blood made for sin, and the impossibility of being saved except by that blood. Let nothing tempt you to believe that it is enough to look only at the example of Christ, or only to receive the sacrament which Christ commanded to be received, for which many nowadays worship like an idol.

– JC Ryle –

April 12, 2014

Nevertheless settle it firmly in our minds that sin is ‘the abominable thing that God hateth’ that God ‘is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and cannot look upon that which is evil.’

–  JC Ryle –

March 30, 2014

The more I read, the less I admire modern theology, the more I study the productions of the new schools of theological teachers, the more I marvel that men and women can be satisfied with such writings. There is a vagueness, a mistiness, a shallowness, an indistinctness, a superficiality, an aimlessness, a hollowness about the literature of the ‘broader and kinder systems’, as they are called, which to my mind stamps their origin on their face. They are of the earth, earthy.

– JC Ryle –

November 9, 2013

Beware of hindering yourselves with any weight of earthly cares. Examine your hearts most closely, and purge out each besetting sin with a godly prayerful jealousy. Remember that blessed rule, “looking unto Jesus.” Peter did run well for a time, when he left the ship to walk upon the sea to Jesus—but when he saw the waves and the storm he was afraid and began to sink. Thus many a one sets out courageously—but after a while corruptions rise high within, corruptions are strong without, the eye is drawn off Jesus, the devil gets an advantage—and the soul begins to sink. Oh, keep your eye steadily fixed on Christ, and you shall go through fire and water and they shall not hurt you.

 – JC Ryle –

October 25, 2013

I must honestly declare my conviction that, since the days of the Reformation, there never has been so much profession of religion without practice, so much talking about God without walking with Him, so much hearing God’s words without doing them.

– JC Ryle –

August 26, 2013

Take advice this day, and resolve to possess the realities of Christianity, as well as the name, and the substance, as well as the form. Do not be content until you know something of the peace, hope, joy, and consolation which Christians enjoyed in former times. Ask yourself what is the reason that you are a stranger to the feelings which men and women experienced in the days of the Apostles: ask yourself why you do not “joy in the Lord,” and feel “peace with God,” like the Romans and Philippians, to whom Paul wrote. Religious feelings, no doubt, are often deceptive; but surely the religion which produces no feelings at all is not the religion of the New Testament. The religion which gives a person no inward comfort can never be a religion from God. Reader, take heed to yourself. Never be satisfied until you know something of the rest that is in Christ.

 – JC Ryle –

May 26, 2013

Think not to say within yourself, “No one can know what his heart is. We must hope the best. No one can find out with any certainty the state of his own soul.” Beware, I say again — beware of such thoughts. The thing can be known. The thing can be found out. Deal honestly and fairly with yourself. Set up a ‘trial’ on the state of your inward man. Summon a jury. Let the Bible preside as judge. Bring up the witnesses. Inquire what your tastes are — where your affections are placed — where your treasure is — what you hate most — what you love most — what pleases you most — what grieves you most. Inquire into all those points impartially, and mark what the answers are. “Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:21) A tree may always be known by its fruit, and a true Christian may always be discovered by their habits, tastes, and affections. Yes! you may soon find out what your heart is, if you are honest, sincere, and impartial.

 – JC Ryle –