Quotes from J.C. Ryle

men try to cheat themselves into the belief that sin is not quite so sinful as God says it is, and that they are not so bad as they really are.

that backsliding generally first begins with neglect of private prayer. Bibles read without prayer; sermons heard without prayer; marriages contracted without prayer; journeys undertaken without prayer; residences chosen without

Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption.

He meant to declare strongly that he trusted in nothing but Jesus Christ crucified for the pardon of his sins and the salvation of his soul. Let others, if they would, look elsewhere for salvation; let others, if they were so disposed, trust in other things for pardon and peace. But for his part, the apostle was determined to rest on nothing, lean on nothing, build his hope on nothing, place confidence in nothing, and glory in nothing except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I will never back away from declaring my belief that there are no spiritual gains without pains. I would as soon expect a farmer to prosper in business who was content with sowing his fields and never looking at them until harvest, as to expect a believer to attain much holiness who was not diligent about his Bible reading, prayer, and the use of his Sundays. Our God is a God who works by means, and He will never bless the soul of that person who pretends to be so superior

it wise to proclaim in so bald, naked, and unqualified a way as many do, that the holiness of converted people is by faith only, and not at all by personal exertion? Is it according to the proportion of God's Word? I doubt it. That

will never hesitate to tell people that inward conflict is no proof that a person is not holy, and that they must not think they are not sanctified because they do not feel entirely free from inward struggle. We will doubtless have such freedom in heaven, but we will never enjoy it in this world.

We must ask them to lay their hands on their hearts and tell us whether their favorite opinions comfort them in the day of sickness, in the hour of death, by the bedside of dying parents, by the grave of a beloved wife or child. We

The name which I have selected will prepare the reader to expect no new doctrines in this volume. It is simple, unadulterated, old-fashioned Evangelical theology. It contains nothing but the "Old Paths" in which the Apostolic Christians, the Reformers, the best English Churchmen for the last three hundred years, and the best Evangelical Christians of the present day, have persistently walked.

But God hath undertaken to right Himself. He will reckon with them. He hath undertaken to see that the debts due to Him are paid. All their sins are written in His book: not one of them is forgotten, and every one must be paid…"He will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face" (Deu 7:10).

And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.

Let us, then, have it settled in our minds that the sinfulness of man does not begin from without, but from within. It is not the result of bad training in early years. It is not picked up from bad companions and bad examples, as some weak Christians are too fond of saying. No! It is a family disease that we all inherit from our first parents, Adam and Eve, and with which we are born.

It is possible to greatly disagree on the meaning of the symbols in the book of Revelation, yet agree entirely and substantially on the matter of Christ's coming and kingdom.

The greater are our affections, the deeper are our afflictions; and the more we love, the more we have to weep. And what is the best receipt for cheerfulness in such a world as this? How shall we get through this valley of tears with least pain? I know no better receipt than the habit of taking everything to God in prayer.

This alleged mystery, though, is a knot that we can untie with the Bible in our hands. We can acknowledge that man has all the marks of a majestic temple about him – a temple in which God once dwelt but which is now in utter ruins, a temple in which a shattered window here and a doorway and a column there still give some faint idea of the magnificence of the original design – but a temple which from end to end has lost its glory and has fallen from its once lofty position.

Remember that a man may be mistaken on this subject, but yet be a holy child of God. It is not the slumbering on this subject that ruins souls, but the lack of grace! Above all, avoid dogmatism and overconfidence, especially when dealing with symbolic prophecy. It is a sad truth, but a truth never to be forgotten, that none have injured the doctrine of the second coming more than its overzealous friends.

People will never set their faces decidedly toward heaven and live like pilgrims until they really feel that they are in danger of hell.

Fathers and mothers, you may send your children to the best schools, give them Bibles and prayer books, and fill them with head knowledge, but if all this time there is no regular training at home, I fear it will go hard in the end with your children's souls. Home is the place where habits are formed; home is the place where the foundations of character are laid; and home gives the bias to our tastes and likings and opinions. Be sure then that there is careful training at home.

La verdad lisa y llana es que el conocimiento correcto del pecado es la raíz de todo el cristianismo salvador.

We cannot do better than follow His plan.

train up your children well – train well for this life, and train well for the life to come; train well for earth, and train well for heaven; train them for God, for Christ, and for eternity.

God says expressly, Train up a child in the way he should go, and He never gave a command that He did not give man grace to perform.

The best public worship is that which produces the best private Christianity. The best Church Services for the congregation are those which make its individual members most holy at home and alone. If we want to know whether our own public worship is doing us good, let us try it by these tests. Does it quicken our conscience? Does it send us to Christ? Does it add to our knowledge? Does it sanctify our life? If it does, we may depend on it, it is worship of which we have no cause to be ashamed.

Nothing, surely, is so likely to prepare us for that heaven where Christ's personal presence will be all, and that glory where we shall meet Christ face to face, as to realize communion with Christ, as an actual living Person here on earth. There is all the difference in the world between an idea and a person.