Famous Quotes & Sayings

J. C. Ryle

Such true worship will stand the test of Christ's great principle, “By their fruits you shall know them”. It sanctifies the Christian's life, and makes them walk with God, lifting them above fear and love of the world. It enables a Christian to show God to other folks. Such worship comes from heaven, and has the mark of God upon it.

J. C. Ryle

The early Christians made it a part of their religion to look for his return. They looked backward to the cross and the atonement for sin, and rejoiced in Christ crucified. They looked upward to Christ at the right hand of God, and rejoiced in Christ interceding. They looked forward to the promised return of their Master, and rejoiced in the thought that they would see him again. And we ought to do the same

J. C. Ryle

If you would train your children rightly, train them in the way they should go and not in the way they would.

J. C. Ryle

Christmas is a season which almost all Christians observe in one way or another. Some keep it as a religious season. Some keep it as a holiday. But all over the world, wherever there are Christians, in one way or another Christmas is kept.

J. C. Ryle

Let us awake to a sense of the perilous state of many professing Christians. 'Without holiness no man shall see the Lord'; without sanctification there is no salvation (Hebrews 12:14). Then what an enormous amount of so-called religion there is which is perfectly useless!

J. C. Ryle

Infidelity and skepticism abound everywhere. In one form or another they are to be found in every rank and class of society. Thousands are not ashamed to say that they regard the Bible as an old obsolete Jewish book, which has no special claim on our faith and obedience, and that it contains many inaccuracies and defects. In a day like this, the true Christian should be able to set his foot down firmly, and to render a reason of his confidence in God's Word. He should be able by sound arguments to show good cause why he thinks the Bible is from heaven, and not of men.

J. C. Ryle

The true Christian regards all Christ's friends as his friends, members of the same body, children of the same family, soldiers in the same army, travelers to the same home. When he meets them, he feels as if he had long known them. He is more at home with them in a few minutes, than he is with many worldly people after an acquaintance of several years. And what is the secret of all this? It is simply affection to the same Savior and love to the same Lord.

J. C. Ryle

The Christian who keeps their heart diligently in little things shall be kept from great falls.

J. C. Ryle

A tree may always be known by its fruit, and a true Christian may always be discovered by their habits, tastes & affections.

J. C. Ryle

Two-thirds of all the strifes, quarrels, and lawsuits in the world arise from one simple cause-money.

J. C. Ryle

Bibles read without prayer; sermons heard without prayer; marriages contracted without prayer; journeys undertaken without prayer; residences chosen without prayer; friendships formed without prayer; the daily act of prayer itself hurried over, or gone through without heart: these are the kind of downward steps by which many a Christian descends to a condition of spiritual palsy, or reaches the point where God allows them to have a tremendous fall.

J. C. Ryle

A true Christian is one who has not only peace of conscience, but war within. He may be known by his warfare as well as by his peace.

J. C. Ryle

What will it cost [a person] to be a true Christian? It will cost him his self-righteousn ess. He must cast away all pride and high thoughts, and conceit of his own goodness. He must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner, saved only by free grace, and owing all to the merit and righteousness of another.

J. C. Ryle

For my own part, I believe that in dealing with skeptics, and unbelievers, and enemies of the Bible, Christians are too apt to stand only on the defensive. They are too often content with answering this or that little objection, or discussing this or that little difficulty, which is picked out of Scripture and thrown in their teeth. I believe we ought to act on the aggressive far more than we do, and to press home on the adversaries of [Biblical] inspiration the enormous difficulties of their own position.

J. C. Ryle

The Christianity that saves is a thing personally grasped, personally experienced, personally felt and personally possessed.

J. C. Ryle

To be Christian it will cost a man his love of ease.

J. C. Ryle

The Bible in the pulpit must never supersede the Bible at home.

J. C. Ryle

Persecution, in short, is like the goldsmith's stamp on real silver and gold - it is one of the marks of a converted man.

J. C. Ryle

The true Christian delights to hear something about their Master. They like those sermons best which are full of Christ.

J. C. Ryle

Humility and love are precisely the graces which the men of the world can understand, if they do not comprehend doctrines. They are the graces about which there is no mystery, and they are within reach of all classes... The poorest Christian can every day find occasion for practicing love and humility.

J. C. Ryle

Men fall in private long before they fall in public.

J. C. Ryle

Before Christ comes, it is useless to expect to see the perfect church.

J. C. Ryle

Do you wish to grow in grace and be a holy Christian? Then never forget the value of prayer.

J. C. Ryle

We ought to regard the sacrament of baptism with reverence. An ordinance of which the Lord Jesus Himself partook, is not to be lightly esteemed. An ordinance to which the great Head of the Church submitted, ought to be ever honorable in the eyes of professing Christians.

J. C. Ryle

Let us resolve to talk more to believers about the Bible when we meet them. Alas, the conversation of Christians, when they do meet, is often sadly unprofitable! How many frivolous, and trifling, and uncharitable things are said! Let us bring out the Bible more, and it will help to drive the devil away, and keep our hearts in tune. Oh, that we may all strive so to walk together in this evil world; that Jesus may often draw near, and go with us, as He went with the two disciples journeying to Emmaus!

J. C. Ryle

The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight against spiritual apathy in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a brief round of formal religious services once or twice every week. But of the great spiritual warfare - its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests - of all things they appear to know nothing at all. Let us take care that this case is not our own.

J. C. Ryle

No doubt a man may be saved, like the penitent thief, without having received the Lord's Supper. It is not a matter of absolute and indispensable necessity, like repentance, faith, and conversion. But it is impossible to say that any professing Christian is in a safe, healthy, or satisfactory condition of soul, who habitually refuses to obey Christ and attend the Lord's Table.

J. C. Ryle

Meekness is one of the brightest graces which can adorn the Christian character.

J. C. Ryle

Whatever others around you think, don't you ever be ashamed of being a Christian.

J. C. Ryle

Let us daily strive to copy our Saviour's humility.

J. C. Ryle

The world's idea of greatness is to rule, but Christian greatness consists in serving.

J. C. Ryle

No one ever said at the end of his days; 'I have read my bible too much, I have thought of God too much, I have prayed too much, I have been too careful with my soul'

J. C. Ryle

Millions of people profess and call themselves Christians, whom the Apostle Paul would not have called Christians at all.