J. C. Ryle Quotes
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Be very sure of this,-people never reject the Bible because they cannot understand it. They understand it only too well; they understand that it condemns their own behavior; they understand that it witnesses against their own sins, and summons them to judgment.
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The best of men are only men at their very best. Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, - martyrs, fathers, reformers, puritans, - all are sinners, who need a Savior: holy, useful, honorable in their place - but sinners after all.
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The Gospel was not meant merely to reside in our intellect, memories, and tongues, but to be seen in our lives.
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I should as soon expect a farmer to prosper in business who contented himself with sowing his fields and never looking at them till harvest, as expect a believer to attain much holiness who was not diligent about his Bible reading, his prayers, and the use of his Sundays.
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What is the best safeguard against false doctrine? The Bible regularly read, regularly prayed over, regularly studied.
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There is one subject in religion, about which you can never know too much. That subject is Jesus Christ the Lord.
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But if there is one thing clearly and plainly laid down about election, it is this: that elect men and women may be known and distinguished by holy lives.
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Two-thirds of all the strifes, quarrels, and lawsuits in the world arise from one simple cause-money.
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What would you expect? Sin will not come to you saying, 'I am sin.' It would do little harm if it did. Sin always seems 'good, pleasant and desirable' at the time of arrival.
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Miserable indeed is that religious teaching which calls itself Christian, and yet contains nothing of the cross.
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Children are very quick observers; very quick in seeing through some kinds of hypocrisy, very quick in finding out what you really think and feel, very quick in adopting all your ways and opinions. You will often discover that, as the father is, so is the son.
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The fear of punishment, the desire of reward, the sense of duty, are all useful arguments, in their way, to persuade people to holiness. But they are all weak and powerless, until a person loves Christ.
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Let us remember, there is One who daily records all we do for Him, and sees more beauty in His servants' work than His servants do themselves... And then shall His faithful witnesses discover, to their wonder and surprise, that there never was a word spoken on their Master's behalf, which does not receive a reward.
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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.
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Oh, dear friend, if you love your children, I charge you, do not let the early impression of a habit of prayer slip by. If you train your children to do anything, train them, at least, to have a habit of prayer.
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The true Christian delights to hear something about his Master. He likes those sermons best which are full of Christ.
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Young men, I beseech you earnestly, beware of pride. Two things are said to be very rare sights in the world- one is a young man that is humble, and the other is an old man that is content. I fear that this is only too true.
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I am one of those old-fashioned ministers who believe the whole Bible and everything that it contains.
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My chief desire in all my writings, is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and make Him beautiful and glorious in the eyes of people; and to promote the increase of repentance, faith, and holiness upon earth.
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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.
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Let it be a settled principle ...that men's salvation, if saved, is wholly of God; and that man's ruin, if lost, is wholly of himself.
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If you would train your children rightly, train them in the way they should go and not in the way they would.
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When a person’s tongue is extensively wrong, it is absurd, no less than unscriptural, to say that their heart is right.
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The Bible applied to the heart by the Holy Ghost is the chief means by which men are built up and established in the faith, after their conversion. It is able to cleanse them, to sanctify them, to instruct them in righteousness, and to furnish them thoroughly for all good works.