Never be satisfied with the world’s standard of Christianity!
– JC Ryle –
from Holiness, Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots (1879)
JC Ryle
February 26, 2013
No time is so well spent as that which a man spends on his knees.
– JC Ryle –
January 26, 2013
If we profess to have any real Christianity, let us strive to be of John the Baptist’s spirit. Let us study humility. This is the grace with which all must begin, who would be saved. We have no true religion about us, until we cast away our high thoughts, and feel ourselves sinners. This is the grace which all saints may follow after, and which none have any excuse for neglecting. All God’s children have not gifts, or money, or time to work, or a wide sphere of usefulness; but all may be humble. This is the grace, above all, which will appear most beautiful in our latter end. Never shall we feel the need of humility so deeply, as when we lie on our deathbeds, and stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. Our whole lives will then appear a long catalogue of imperfections, ourselves nothing, and Christ all.
– JC Ryle –
January 14, 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 –
January 12, 2013
Thankfulness is a flower which will never bloom well except upon a root of deep humility.
– JC Ryle –
July 16, 2012
It is always unpleasant to be spoken against, and forsaken, and lied about, and to stand alone. But there is no help for it. The cup which our Master drank must be drunk by His disciples.
– JC Ryle –
from his book Holiness
May 13, 2012
A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown.
– JC Ryle –
May 10, 2012
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 –
March 11, 2012
Men and women who hear the Gospel regularly, I often fear much for you. I fear lest you become so familiar with the sounds of its doctrines, that insensibly you become dead to its power. I fear lest your religion should sink down into a little vague talk about your own weakness and corruption, and a few sentimental expressions about Christ, while real practical fighting on Christ’s side is altogether neglected. Oh, beware of this state of mind! Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. No victory—no crown! Fight and overcome!
– J.C. Ryle –
from The Great Battle