The person who hears Christian teaching, and practices what they hear, is like a “wise man who built his house on a rock.” They do not content themselves with listening to exhortations to repent, believe in Christ, and live a holy life. They actually repent. They actually believe. They actually cease to do evil, learn to do well, abhor that which is sinful, and cleave to that which is good. They are a doer as well as a hearer.
– JC Ryle –
Never let us be guilty of sacrificing any portion of truth on the altar of peace.
– JC Ryle –
It is the students of the Bible and they alone, who will find it a weapon ready in hand in the day of battle.
– JC Ryle –
Nothing does so much harm to the cause of religion as the quarrels of Christians.
– JC Ryle –
When I speak of a person growing in grace, I mean simply this —that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, and his spiritual mindedness more marked.
– JC Ryle –
“Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
(2 Peter 3:18)
The man who has nothing more than a kind of Sunday religion—whose Christianity is like his Sunday clothes, put on once a week, and then laid aside—such a man cannot, of course, be expected to care about “growth in grace.” He knows nothing about such matters. “They are foolishness to him” (1 Corinthians 2:14). But to everyone who is in downright earnest about his soul, and hungers and thirsts after spiritual life, the question ought to come home with searching power. Do we make progress in our religion? Do we grow?
– JC Ryle –
1816-1900
A zealous man feels that like a lamp he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God appointed him. Such a one will always find a sphere for his zeal. If he cannot preach and work and give money, he will cry and sigh and pray.
– JC Ryle –
Nothing I am sure has such a tendency to quench the fire of religion as the possession of money.
– JC Ryle –
The nature of true repentance is clearly and unmistakably laid down in holy Scripture. It begins with knowledge of sin. It goes on to work sorrow for sin. It leads to confession of sin before God. It shows itself before man by a thorough breaking off from sin. It results in producing a habit of deep hatred for all sin. Above all, it is inseparably connected with lively faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance like this is the characteristic of all true Christians.
– JC Ryle –
from Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, 1856