J.C. Ryle

by

Quotes (307)

ryle.jpg A little child is easily quieted and amused with gaudy toys, and dolls, and rattles, so long as it is not hungry; but once let it feel the cravings of nature within, and we know that nothing will satisfy it but food. Just so it is with man in the matter of his soul. Music, and flowers, and candles, and incense, and banners, and processions, and beautiful vestments, and confessionals, and man-made ceremonies of semi-Romish character, may do well enough for him under certain conditions. But once let him “awake and arise from the dead,” and he will not rest content with these things. They will seem to him mere solemn triflings, and a waste of time. Once let him see his sin, and nothing will satisfy him but the great Physician. He hungers and thirsts, and he must have nothing less than the bread of life.

– J.C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

by

Quotes (300)

ryle.jpg We may depend upon it, men will never come to Jesus, and stay with Jesus, and live for Jesus, unless they really know why they are to come, and what is their need. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin. Without thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world.

-J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

by

Quotes (287)

ryle.jpg A Scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to the extravagantly broad and liberal theology which is so much in vogue at the present time. The tendency of modern thought is to reject dogmas, creeds, and every kind of bounds in religion. It is thought grand and wise to . . . pronounce all earnest and clever teachers to be trustworthy, however heterogeneous and mutually destructive their opinions may be.

-J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

by

Quotes (285)

ryle.jpg “Everything forsooth is true, and nothing is false! Everybody is right, and nobody is wrong! Everybody is likely to be saved, and nobody is to be lost!” The atonement and substitution of Christ, the personality of the Devil, the miraculous element in Scripture, the reality and eternity of future punishment, all these mighty foundation-stones are coolly tossed overboard, like lumber, in order to lighten the ship of Christianity . . . . Stand up for these great verities, and you are called narrow, illiberal, old-fashioned, and a theological fossil! Quote a text, and you are told that all truth is not confined to the pages of an ancient Jewish book . . . . We must charge home into the consciences of these men of broad views, and demand a plain answer to some plain questions. We must ask them to lay their hands on their hearts, and tell us whether their favorite opinions comfort them in the days of sickness, in the hour of death, by the bedside of dying parent, by the grave of beloved wife or child.

-J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

by

Quotes (272)

ryle.jpg On the one hand, God is that eternal Being . . . in whose sight the very “heavens are not clean.” . . . We, on the other hand—poor blind creatures, here today and gone tomorrow, born in sin, surrounded by sinners, living in constant atmosphere of weakness, infirmity, and imperfection—can form none but the most inadequate conceptions of the hideousness of evil. We have no line to fathom it and no measure by which to gauge it. The blind man can see no difference between a masterpiece of Titan or Raphael and the Queen’s head on a village signboard. The deaf man cannot distinguish between a penny whistle and a cathedral organ. . . .  And man, fallen man, I believe, can have no just idea what a vile thing sin is in the sight of that God whose handiwork is absolutely perfect.

-J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

by

Quotes (258)

ryle.jpg It is vain to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a vast quantity of so-called Christianity nowadays which you cannot declare positively unsound, but which, nevertheless, is not full measure, good weight, and sixteen ounces to the pound. It is a Christianity in which there is undeniably “something about Christ, and something about grace, and something about faith, and something about repentance and something about holiness”; but it is not the real “thing as it is” in the Bible. Things are out of place and out of proportion. . . . It neither exercises influence on daily conduct, nor comforts in life, nor gives peace in death; and those who hold it, often awake too late to find that they have got nothing solid under their feet. Now I believe the likeliest way to cure and mend this defective kind of religion is to bring forward more prominently the old scriptural truth about the sinfulness of sin. People will never set their faces decidedly towards Heaven, and live like pilgrims, until they really feel that they are in danger of Hell.

– J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900