J. C. Ryle Quotes

208 Sourced Quotes

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.

J. C. Ryle
The blood of Christ can cleanse away all sin. But we must 'plead guilty' before God can declare us innocent.

J. C. Ryle
Do something, by God's help, to make heaven more full and hell more empty.

J. C. Ryle
Let it be a settled principle in our minds that the first and chief business of the Church of Christ is to preach the Gospel.

J. C. 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...

J. C. Ryle
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.

J. C. Ryle
Let us read the Bible reverently and diligently, with an honest determination to believe and practice all we find in it.

J. C. Ryle
The love of our Lord Jesus Christ towards sinners is strikingly shown in His steady purpose of heart to die for them.

J. C. Ryle
We must read our Bibles like men digging for hidden treasure.

J. C. Ryle
The man who has nothing more than a kind of Sunday religion -- whose Christianity is like his Sunday clothes put on once a week, and then laid aside -- such a man cannot, of course, be expected to care about growth in grace.

J. C. Ryle
Naked we came upon earth, and naked we go forth, and of all our possessions, we can carry nothing with us.

J. C. Ryle
Without the blessing of the Lord, your best endeavors will do no good. He has the hearts of all men in His hands, and except He touch the hearts of your children by His Spirit, you will weary yourself to no purpose. Water, therefore, the seed you sow on their minds with unceasing prayer.

J. C. Ryle
He that has trained his children for heaven,
rather than for earth- for God rather than for man- he is the parent who will be called wise at the last.

J. C. Ryle
Troublous times, departures from the faith, evil men waxing worse and worse, love waxing cold, are things distinctly predicted.

J. C. Ryle
If we would have good ministers, we must remember our Lord's example, and pray for them. Their work is heavy. Their responsibility is enormous. Their strength is small. Let us see that we support them, and hold up their hands by our prayers.

J. C. Ryle
Let us only take heed that this office of Christ is not set before us in vain. It will profit us nothing at the last day that Jesus was a Shepherd, if during our lifetime, we never heard His voice and followed Him. If we love life, let us join His flock without delay.

J. C. Ryle
It is not hard to deceive ministers, relatives and friends. But it is impossible to deceive Christ.

J. C. Ryle
There is not enough Bible-reading among us. It is not sufficient to have the Book. We must actually READ it, and PRAY over it ourselves. It will do us no good, if it only lies still in our houses. We must be actually familiar with its contents, and have its texts stored in our memories and minds. Knowledge of the Bible never comes by intuition. It can only be obtained by diligent, regular, daily, attentive, wakeful reading.

J. C. Ryle
Any well-read man knows that the moral difference between the condition of the world before Christianity was planted and since Christianity took root is the difference between night and day, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of the devil.

J. C. Ryle
No salvation without regeneration - no spiritual life without a new birth - no heaven without a new heart.

J. C. Ryle
True repentance is no light matter. It is a thorough change of heart about sin, a change showing itself in godly sorrow and humiliation - in heartfelt confession before the throne of grace - in a complete breaking off from sinful habits, and an abiding hatred of all sin. Such repentance is the inseparable companion of saving faith in Christ.

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

J. C. Ryle
A deep sense of sin, a humble willingness to be saved in God's way, a teachable readiness to give up our own prejudices when a more excellent way is shown, these are the principal things. These things the two disciples possessed, and therefore our Lord "went with them" and guided them into all truth.

J. C. Ryle
Necessity is laid upon us. We must fight. There are no promises in the Lord Jesus Christ's epistles to the seven churches, except to those who 'overcome.' Where there is grace, there will be conflict. The believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without a warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight.

J. C. Ryle
A crucified Savior will never be content to have a self-pleasing, self-indulging, worldly-minded people.

J. C. Ryle
Let us strive, every year we live, to become more deeply acquainted with Scripture.

J. C. Ryle
Beware of self-righteousness in every possible shape and form. Some people get as much harm from their "virtues" as others do from their sins.

J. C. Ryle
The nearer we live to God while we live, the more ready we will be to dwell forever in His presence when we die.

J. C. Ryle
The cause of Christ does not need less working, but it does need among the workers, more praying.

J. C. Ryle
Fathers and mothers, do not forget that children learn more by the eye than they do by the ear... Imitation is a far stronger principle with children than memory. What they see has a much stronger effect on their minds than what they are told.

J. C. Ryle