We’re suffering from a believism that never has believed and a receivism that never has received and it leads to deceivism.
– Vance Havner –
The World
A Profession of Religion Without Practice – JC Ryle
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, as there is in England at this present date. Never were there so many empty tubs and tinkling cymbals! Never was there so much formality and so little reality. The whole tone of men’s minds on what constitutes practical Christianity seems lowered. The old golden standard of the behaviour which becomes a Christian man or woman appears debased and degenerated. You may see scores of religious people (so-called) continually doing things which in days gone by would have been thought utterly inconsistent with vital religion. … The ancient tenderness of conscience about such things seems dying away and becoming extinct, like the dodo; and when you venture to remonstrate with young communicants who indulge in them, they only stare at you as an old-fashioned, narrow-minded, fossilized person, and say, “Where is the harm?” In short, laxity of ideas amoung young men, and “fastness” and levity among young women, are only too common characteristics of the rising generation of Christian professors.
– JC Ryle –
1816-1900 AD
Guard Against All Worldly Distractions – William Wilberforce
To so please God, it is also essential to guard against all the distractions of worldly cares. It needs the cultivation of heavenly-mindedness and a spirit of continual prayer. It requires you to watch incessantly over the workings of your own deceitful heart.
– William Wilberforce –
from Real Christianity, 1797
Falling Into Water – Thomas Watson
It is not falling into water that drowns, but lying in it. It is not falling into sin that damns, but lying in it without repentance.
– Thomas Watson –
from The Doctrine of Repentance, 1668
Set Your Heart on the Riches of Grace – Isaac Ambrose
O Christian, never be proud of things that are so transient, injurious, and uncertain as the riches of this evil world! But set your heart on the true and durable riches of grace in Christ Jesus.
– Isaac Ambrose –
May My Time Be Used to the Advantage of Christ – Thomas Chalmers
Pray that the brief remaining time I have in this world may be employed to the best advantage, both for the profit of my own soul and for that of others. More especially may the time spent in company be laid out for Christ, and not lost in the common-places and frivolities of ordinary conversation. May my speech be leavened with religion and yet be adapted to the peculiarities and the needs of every man, so that all offence may, when possible, be shunned, yet many be won to the faith and the following of Jesus.
– Thomas Chalmers –
from Sabbath Scripture Readings
Nothing But Intense, Believing Prayer – Andrew Murray
Nothing but intense, believing prayer can meet the intense spirit of worldliness,
which is complained of everywhere.
– Andrew Murray –
The Holier a Man Becomes – Charles Spurgeon
I believe the holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness which remains in him.
– Charles Spurgeon –
Sin is the Hardest of All Masters – JC Ryle
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 –
from Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Matt 27:1-10], 1856