John Charles Ryle (1816 - 1900) was a Reformed pastor who possessed solid insights into the growing apostasy of his day. Ryle was the first bishop of the Anglican Church to assume the newly constituted diocese in Liverpool, where he preached for many years. His literary output was substantial, and his works can be found among assorted publishers and booksellers. |
"For my own part, I can only say that I read everything I can get hold of which professes to throw light on my Master's business, and the work of Christ among men. But the more I read, the less I admire modern theology. The more I study the productions of the new schools of theological teachers, the more I marvel that men and women can be satisfied with such writing. There is a vagueness, a mistiness, a shallowness, an indistinctness, a superficiality, an aimlessness, a hollowness about the literature of the broader and kinder systems, as they are called, which, to my mind, stamps their origin on their face. They are of the earth, earthy. I find more of definite soul-satisfying thought in one page of Gurnall than in five pages of such books as the leaders of the so-called Broad Church School put forth. In matters of theology, the old is better." A Biographical Account Of William Gurnall, The Christian In Complete Armour |
"The one true Church is composed of all believers in the Lord Jesus... It is a Church of which all the members have the same marks. They are all born of the Spirit; they all possess repentance towards God, faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, and holiness of life and conversation. They all hate sin, and they all love Christ." The True Church |
"It is a Church which is dependent upon no ministers upon earth, however much it values those who preach the Gospel to its members... it has only one great Head one Shepherd, one chief Bishop - and that is Jesus Christ. He alone, by His Spirit, admits the members of this Church, though ministers may show the door. Till He opens the door no man on earth can open it - neither bishops, nor presbyters, nor convocations, nor synods." The True Church |
"Once let a man repent and believe the Gospel, and that moment he becomes a member of this Church. Like the penitent thief, he may have no opportunity of being baptized; but he has that which is far better than any water-baptism - the baptism of the Spirit. He may not be able to receive the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper; but he eats Christ's body and drinks Christ's blood by faith every day he lives, and no minister on earth can prevent him. He may be excommunicated by ordained men, and cut off from the outward ordinances of the professing Church; but all the ordained men in the world cannot shut him out of the true Church." The True Church |
"This is the only Church which possesses true unity. Its members are entirely agreed on all the weightier matters of religion, for they are all taught by one Spirit. About God, and Christ, and the Spirit, and sin, and their own hearts, and faith, and repentance, and necessity of holiness, and the value of the Bible, and the importance of prayer, and the resurrection, and judgment to come - about all these points they are of one mind. Take three or four of them, strangers to one another, from the remotest corners of the earth; examine them separately on these points; you will find them all of one judgment." The True Church |
"No unholy man belongs to this Church... The two grand objects at which its members aim are apostolic faith and apostolic practice; and they consider the man who talks of following the Apostles without possessing these two things to be no better than sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." The True Church |
"This is the Church which does the work of Christ upon earth. Its members are a little flock, and few in number, compared with the children of the world; one or two here, and two or three there." The True Church |
"This is the Church which shall be truly glorious at the end. When all earthly glory is passed away then shall this Church be presented without spot before God the Father's throne. Thrones, principalities, and powers upon earth shall come to nothing; but the Church of the first-born shall shine as the stars at the last, and be presented with joy before the Father's throne, in the day of Christ's appearing. When the Lord's jewels are made up, and the manifestation of the sons of God takes place, one Church only will be named, and that is the Church of the elect." The True Church |
"All were not Israel who were called Israel, and all are not members of Christ's body who profess themselves Christians. Take notice, you may be a staunch Episcopalian, or Presbyterian, or Independent, or Baptist, or Wesleyan, or Plymouth Brother - and yet not belong to the true Church. And if you do not, it will be better at last if you had never been born." The True Church |
"In knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, in power as preachers, expositors, writers, and critics, the Puritans in their day were second to none. Their works still speak for them on the shelves of every well-furnished theological library. Their commentaries, their expositions, their treatises on practical, casuistical, and experimental divinity, are immeasurably superior to those of their adversaries in the seventeenth century... The Puritans, as a body, have done more to elevate the national character than any class of Englishmen that ever lived... Unhappily, when the Puritans passed away, they were followed by a generation of profligates, triflers, and skeptics; and their reputation has suffered accordingly in passing through prejudiced hands. But - judged with righteous judgment - they will be found men of whom the world was not worthy. The more they are really known, the more they will be esteemed." And Estimate Of Manton, The Works Of Thomas Manton, Vol II |
"He [Thomas Manton] lived in a day when vague, indistinct, and indefinite statements of doctrine were not tolerated. The Christian Church was not regarded by any school as a kind of Pantheon, in which a man might believe and teach anything, everything, or nothing, so long as he was a clever and earnest man. Such views were reserved for our modern times." And Estimate Of Manton, The Works Of Thomas Manton, Vol II |
"The inexpressible shallowness, thinness, and superficiality of many popular sermons in this day is something lamentable and appalling." And Estimate Of Manton, The Works Of Thomas Manton, Vol II |
"Is 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... surely the Scriptures teach us that in following holiness the true Christian needs personal exertion and works as well as faith." Holiness - Introduction |
"Is it wise to assert so positively and violently, as many do, that the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans does not describe the experience of the advanced saint, but the experience of the unregenerate man, or of the weak and unestablished believer? I doubt it... Paul says nothing in this chapter which does not precisely tally with the recorded experience of the most eminent saints in every age, and he says several things which no unregenerate man or weak believer would ever think of saying, and cannot say." Holiness - Introduction |
"An opinion which is backed and supported by such men as the best Reformers and Puritans may not carry conviction to all minds in the nineteenth century, but at any rate it would be well to speak of it with respect." Holiness - Introduction |
"Is it wise to draw such a deep, wide, and distinct line of separation between conversion and consecration, or the higher life, so called, as many do draw in the present day? Is this according to the proportion of God's Word? I doubt it... The Word of God always speaks of two great divisions of mankind, and two only. It speaks of the living and the dead in sin, the believer and the unbeliever, the converted and the unconverted, the travellers in the narrow way and the travellers in the broad, the wise and foolish, the children of God and the children of the devil... I question the wisdom of making newfangled divisions which the Bible has not made." Holiness - Introduction |
"I doubt, indeed, whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God!... Are not men in danger of undervaluing and underrating the immense blessedness of conversion?" Holiness - Introduction |
"It would be easy to show that the doctrine of sanctification without personal exertion, by simply yielding ourselves to God, is precisely the doctrine of the antinomian fanatics in the seventeenth century, and that the tendency of it is evil in the extreme... In justification the word to be addressed to man is BELIEVE - only believe; in sanctification the word must be WATCH, PRAY, and FIGHT. What God has divided let us not mingle and confuse." Holiness - Introduction |
"The first thing, therefore, that God does when He makes any one a new creature in Christ is to send light into his heart, and show him that he is a guilty sinner. The material creation in Genesis began with light, and so also does the spiritual creation." Holiness - Sin |
"Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day... sin, to speak more particularly, consists in doing, saying, THINKING, or IMAGINING anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God... the slightest outward or INWARD departure from absolute mathematical parallelism with God's revealed will and character constitutes a sin, and at once makes us guilty in God's sight." Holiness - Sin |
"A man may commit sin and yet be ignorant of it, and fancy himself innocent when he is guilty... We shall do well to remember that when we make our own miserably imperfect knowledge and consciousness the measure of our sinfulness, we are on very dangerous ground." Holiness - Sin |
"The sinfulness of man does not begin from without, but from within... Sin is a disease which pervades and runs through every part of our moral constitution and every faculty of our minds... The disease may be veiled under a thin covering of courtesy, politeness, good manners, and outward decorum; but it lies deep down in the constitution." Holiness - Sin |
"I know no stronger proof of the inspiration of Genesis and the Mosaic account of the origin of man than the power, extent, and universality of sin." Holiness - Sin |
"The life of a believer is a life of victory, and not of failure, but the struggles which go on within his bosom, the fight that he finds it needful to fight daily, the watchful jealousy which he is obliged to exercise over his inner man, the contest between the flesh and the Spirit, the inward groanings which no one knows but he who has experienced them - all, all testify to the same great truth, all show the enormous power and vitality of sin." Holiness - Sin |
"No proof of the fulness of sin, after all, is so overwhelming and unanswerable as the cross and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the whole doctrine of His substitution and atonement. Terribly black must that guilt be for which nothing but the blood of the Son of God could make satisfaction." Holiness - Sin |
"Nothing, I am convinced, will astonish us so much, when we awake in the resurrection day, as the view we shall have of sin... Never till the hour when Christ comes the second time shall we fully realize the sinfulness of sin. Well might George Whitefield say that the anthem in heaven will be, What hath God wrought?" Holiness - Sin |
"A scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to that vague, dim, misty, hazy kind of theology which is so painfully current in the present age. 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... and those who hold it, often awake too late to find that they have got nothing solid under their feet." Holiness - 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." Holiness - Sin |
"The first step towards attaining a higher standard of holiness is to realize more fully the amazing sinfulness of sin." Holiness - Sin |
"If the Bible be true, it is certain that unless we are sanctified, we shall not be saved." Holiness - Sanctification |
"The branch which bears no fruit is no living branch of the vine. The union with Christ which produces no effect on heart and life is a mere formal union, which is worthless before God. The faith which has not a sanctifying influence on the character is no better than the faith of devils... In short, where there is no sanctification of life, there is no real faith in Christ." Holiness - Sanctification |
"Sanctification is the outcome and inseparable consequence of regeneration... A regeneration which a man can have, and yet live carelessly in sin or worldliness, is a regeneration invented by uninspired theologians, but never mentioned in Scripture. On the contrary, St. John expressly says that he that is born of God doth not commit sin... In a word, where there is no sanctification there is no regeneration, and where there is no holy life there is no new birth." Holiness - Sanctification |
"Believers are eminently and peculiarly responsible, and under a special obligation, to live holy lives." Holiness - Sanctification |
"The holiest actions of the holiest saint that ever lived are all more or less full of defects and imperfections. They are either wrong in their motive or defective in their performance, and in themselves are nothing better than splendid sins, deserving God's wrath and condemnation." Holiness - Sanctification |
"Sanctification is a thing that which will be found absolutely necessary as a witness to our character in the great day of judgment. It will be utterly useless to plead that we believed in Christ unless our faith has had some sanctifying effect, and been seen in our lives. Evidence, evidence, evidence, will be the one thing wanted when the great white throne is set, when the books are opened, when the graves give up their tenants, when the dead are arraigned before the bar of God. Without some evidence that our faith in Christ was real and genuine, we shall only rise again to be condemned." Holiness - Sanctification |
"He that supposes works are of no importance, because they cannot justify us, is a very ignorant Christian. Unless he opens his eyes, he will find to his cost that if he comes to the bar of God without some evidence of grace, he had better never have been born." Holiness - Sanctification |
"The notion of a purgatory after death, which shall turn sinners into saints, is a lying invention of man, and is nowhere taught in the Bible. We must be saints before we die, if we are to be saints afterwards in glory." Holiness - Sanctification |
"The favourite idea of many, that dying men need nothing except absolution and forgiveness of sins to fit them for their great change, is a profound delusion. We need the work of the Holy Spirit as well as the work of Christ; we need renewal of the heart as well as the atoning blood; we need to be sanctified as well as to be justified." Holiness - Sanctification |
"Wherever wheat is sown, the devil is sure to sow tares... Let us beware in this day of healing wounds slightly... Let us urge on everyone who exhibits new interest in religion to be content with nothing short of the deep, solid, sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost." Holiness - Sanctification |
"True sanctification does not consist in outward formalism and external devoutness. This is an enormous delusion, but unhappily a very common one. Thousands appear to imagine that true holiness is to be seen in an excessive quantity of bodily religion - in constant attendance on church services, reception of the Lord's Supper, and observance of fasts and saints' days, in multiplied bowings and turnings and gestures and postures during public worship, in self-imposed austerities and petty self-denials... in many cases this external religiousness is made a substitute for inward holiness, and I am quite certain that it falls utterly short of sanctification of heart." Holiness - Sanctification |
"To become a monk, or a nun, or to join a house of mercy, is not the high road to sanctification. TRUE holiness does not make a Christian evade difficulties, but rather face and overcome them. Christ would have his people show that his grace is not a mere hothouse plant, which can only thrive under shelter, but a strong, hardy thing which can flourish in every relation of life." Holiness - Sanctification |
"There is no greater mistake than to suppose that a Christian has nothing more to do with the law and the Ten Commandments because he cannot be justified by keeping them. The same Holy Ghost who convinces the believer of sin by the law, and leads him to Christ for justification, will always lead him to a spiritual use of the law, as a friendly guide, in the pursuit of sanctification." Holiness - Sanctification |
"Genuine sanctification will show itself in an habitual endeavour to do Christ's will, and to live by his practical precepts. These precepts are to be found scattered everywhere throughout the four Gospels, and especially in the Sermon on the Mount. He that supposes they were spoken without the intention of promoting holiness, and that a Christian need not attend to them in his daily life, is really little better than a lunatic, and at any rate is a grossly ignorant person." Holiness - Sanctification |
"Christ will never be found the Saviour of those who know nothing of following his example. Saving faith and real converting grace will always produce some conformity to the image of Jesus." Holiness - Sanctification |
"Let us all 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... What an immense proportion of churchgoers and chapel-goers are in the broad road that leadeth to destruction!" Holiness - Sanctification |
"Let us stand fast in the old paths, follow after eminent holiness ourselves, and recommend it boldly to others." Holiness - Sanctification |
"A man may go great lengths, and yet never reach true holiness. It is not knowledge - Balaam had that; nor great profession - Judas Iscariot had that; nor doing many things - Herod had that; nor zeal for certain matters in religion - Jehu had that; nor morality and outward respectability of conduct - the young ruler had that; nor taking pleasure in hearing preachers - the Jews in Ezekiel's time had that; nor keeping company with godly people - Joab and Gehazi and Demas had that. Yet none of these were holy." Holiness - Holiness |
"A holy man will follow after spiritual mindedness. He will endeavour to set his affections entirely on things above, and to hold things on earth with a very loose hand... He will aim to live like one whose treasure is in heaven, and to pass through this world like a stranger and pilgrim travelling to his home." Holiness - Holiness |
"I do not say for a moment that holiness shuts out the presence of indwelling sin... But it is the excellence of a holy man that he is not a peace with indwelling sin, as others are. He hates it, mourns over it, and longs to be free from its company." Holiness - Holiness |
"Our purest works are no better than filthy rags, when tried by the light of God's holy law. The white robe which Jesus offers, and faith puts on, must be our only righteousness, the name of Christ our only confidence; the Lamb's Book of Life our only title to heaven." Holiness - Holiness |
"To talk of men being saved from the guilt of sin, without being at the same time saved from its dominion in their hearts, is to contradict the witness of all Scripture... Jesus is a complete Saviour. He does not merely take away the guilt of believer's sin. He does more - He breaks its power." Holiness - Holiness |
"I know that people are fond of talking about death-bed evidences. They will rest on words spoken in the hours of fear, and pain, and weakness, as if they might take comfort in them about the friends they lose. But I am afraid in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, such evidences are not to be depended on. I suspect that, with rare exceptions, men die just as they have lived... They that live unto the Lord are generally the only people who die in the Lord." Holiness - Holiness |
"Surely that man must be in an unhealthy state of soul who can think of all that Jesus suffered, and yet cling to those sins for which that suffering was undergone... Cold must our hearts be if we do not hate sin and labour to get rid of it, though we may have to cut off the right hand pluck out the right eye in doing it." Holiness - Holiness |
"If we know nothing of holiness, we may flatter ourselves as we please, but we have not got the Holy Spirit dwelling in us." Holiness - Holiness |
"Death works no change. The grave makes no alteration. Each will rise again with the same character in which he breathed his last. Where will our place be if we are strangers to holiness now?" Holiness - Holiness |
"To reach the holiday of glory, we must pass through the training school of grace. We must be heavenly-minded, and have heavenly tastes, in the life that now is, or else when shall never find ourselves in heaven in the life to come." Holiness - Holiness |
"Few will be saved because few will take the trouble to seek salvation. Men will not deny themselves and the pleasures of sin and their own way for a little season." Holiness - Holiness |
"We must be saints on earth if ever we mean to be saints in heaven." Holiness - Holiness |
"We do not sufficiently consider how very far a person may go in a profession of religion, and yet have no grace, and be dead in God's sight after all... When the Lord warned them that one would betray him, no one said, Is it Judas?" Holiness - Holiness |
"I fear it is sometimes forgotten that God has married together justification and sanctification... What God has joined together let no man dare to put asunder. Tell me not of your justification unless you have also some marks of sanctification." Holiness - Holiness |
"I sometimes fear if Christ were on earth now, there are not a few who would think his preaching legal; and if Paul were writing his epistles, there are those who would think he had better not write the latter part of most of them as he did. But let us remember that the Lord Jesus DID speak the Sermon on the Mount, and that the Epistle to the Ephesians contains six chapters and not four." Holiness - Holiness |
"There is not a brick or stone laid in the work of our sanctification till we go to Christ. Holiness is his special gift to his believing people. Holiness is the work he carries on in their hearts by the Spirit whom he puts within them." Holiness - Holiness |
"He that would understand the nature of true holiness must know that the Christian is a man of war. If we would be holy, we must fight." Holiness - The Fight |
"There is a vast quantity of religion current in the world which is not true, genuine, Christianity. It passes muster; it satisfies sleepy consciences; but it is not good money. It is not the real thing which was called Christianity 1800 years ago... Of spiritual strife, and exertion, and conflict, and self-denial, and watching, and warring, they know literally nothing at all." Holiness - The Fight |
"The true Christian is called to be a soldier, and must behave as such from the day of his conversion to the day of his death. He is not meant to live a life of religious ease, indolence, and security. He must never imagine for a moment that he can sleep and doze along the way to heaven, like one travelling in an easy carriage." Holiness - The Fight |
"The principal fight of the Christian is with the world, the flesh, and the devil. These are his never-dying foes. These are the three chief enemies against whom he must wage war. Unless he gets the victory over these three, all other victories are useless and vain. If he had a nature like an angel, and were not a fallen creature, the warfare would not be so essential. But with a corrupt heart, a busy devil, and an ensnaring world, he must either fight or be lost." Holiness - The Fight |
"The love of the world's good things, the fear of the world's laughter or blame, the secret desire to keep in with the world, the secret wish to do as others in the world do, and not to run into extremes - all these are spiritual foes which beset the Christian continually on his way to heaven, and must be conquered." Holiness - The 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." Holiness - The Fight |
"To be at peace with the world, the flesh, and the devil is to be at enmity with God, and in the broad way that leadeth to destruction. We have no choice or option. We must either fight or be lost." Holiness - The Fight |
"The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, the go through a scanty 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 this they appear to know nothing at all. Let us take care that this case is not our own." Holiness - The Fight |
"Perhaps you are straining every nerve to obtain money, or place, or power, or pleasure. If that be your case, take care. You are sowing a crop of bitter disappointment. Unless you mind what you are about, your latter end will be to lie down in sorrow." Holiness - The Fight |
"Conversion is not putting a man in an armchair and taking him easily to heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the victory." Holiness - The Cost |
"Christ is willing to receive sinners. But he will not receive them if they will stick to their sins." Holiness - The Cost |
"The cup which our Master drank must be drunk by his disciples. They must be despised and rejected of men." Holiness - The Cost |
"Bold indeed must that man be who would dare to say that we may keep our self-righteousness, our sins, our laziness, and our love of the world, and yet be saved." Holiness - The Cost |
"A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing. A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown." Holiness - The Cost |
"No duty enjoined by Christ can ever be neglected without damage." Holiness - The Cost |
"Many shut their eyes throughout life to the nature of saving religion, and refuse to consider what it really costs to be a Christian. I might describe how at last, when life is ebbing away, they wake up, and make a few spasmodic efforts to turn to God. I might tell you how they find to their amazement that repentance and conversion are no such easy matters as they had supposed, and that it costs a great sum to be a true Christian. They discover that habits of pride, and sinful indulgence, and love of ease, and worldliness are not so easily laid aside as they had dreamed. And so... they leave the world hopeless, graceless, and unfit to meet God. They had flattered themselves all their days that religion would be easy work when they once took it up seriously. But they open their eyes too late, and discover for the first time that they are ruined because they never counted the cost." Holiness - The Cost |
"Sinners are not sufficiently instructed about the holiness of God's law, the depth of their sinfulness, and the real guilt of sin. To be incessantly telling a sinner to come to Christ is of little use unless you tell him why he needs to come, and show him fully his sins. Also, faith is not properly explained. In some cases people are taught that mere feeling is faith. In others they are taught that if they believe that Christ died for sinners they have faith. At this rate the very devils are believers... Last, but not least, the sovereignty of God in saving sinners, and the absolute necessity of preventing grace, are far too much overlooked. Many talk as if conversions could be manufactured at man's pleasure." Holiness - The Cost |
"Your enemies, at most, can only bruise your heel. They may rage loudly, and compass sea and land to work your ruin; but they cannot destroy you. Your Friend is able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by him. None shall ever pluck his sheep out of his hand." Holiness - The Cost |
"A single day in hell will be worse than a whole life spent in carrying the cross. The worm that never dies and the fire that is not quenched are things which it passes man's power to conceive fully or describe." Holiness - The Cost |
"The Lord takes pleasure in all his people, but specially in those that grow." Holiness - Growth |
"The man whose soul is growing feels his own sinfulness and unworthiness more every year... The nearer he draws to God, and the more he sees of God's holiness and perfections, the more thoroughly is he sensible of his own countless imperfections... When first converted, he would tell you he saw but little of them compared to what he sees now." Holiness - Growth |
"The man who is really growing in grace will take greater interest in the salvation of sinners... One of the surest marks of spiritual decline is a decreased interest about the souls of others and the growth of Christ's kingdom. Would any one know whether he is growing in grace? Then let him look within for the increased concern about the salvation of souls." Holiness - Growth |
"Let us seek friends that will stir us up about our prayers, our Bible reading, and our employment of time, about our souls, our salvation, and a world to come." Holiness - Growth |
"Let us cast to the winds as idle talk the common notion that it is possible to be extreme and go too far in religion. this a favourite lie of the devil, and one which he circulates with vast industry... in following the things which make up true religion, and in serving Christ, there can be no extreme." Holiness - Growth |
"If we know anything of growth in grace, and desire to know more, let us not be surprised if we have to go through much trial and affliction in this world... it is the experience of nearly all the most eminent saints. Like their blessed Master, they have been men of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and perfected through sufferings... It is a melancholy fact that constant temporal prosperity, as a general rule, is injurious to a believer's soul... Sicknesses, and losses, and crosses, and anxieties, and disappointments seem absolutely needful to keep us humble, watchful, and spiritual-minded... We shall find that all worked for our good when we reach heaven. Let these thoughts abide in our minds, if we love growth in grace." Holiness - Growth |
"There is a very close connection between true holiness and assurance... where there is the most holiness, there is generally the most assurance." Holiness - Assurance |
"Assurance, such as Paul expresses... is a positive gift of the Holy Ghost... I lay it down fully and broadly, as God's truth, that a true Christian, a converted man, may reach such a comfortable degree of faith in Christ that in general he shall feel entirely confident as to the pardon and safety of his soul... and, in short, though vexed by many an inward conflict with sin, shall look forward to death without trembling and to judgment without dismay. This, I say, is the doctrine of the Bible." Holiness - Assurance |
"There are degrees in our sanctification. In our justification there are none." Holiness - Assurance |
"Uncertainty and suspense are bad enough in any condition -- in the matter of our health, our property, our families, our affections, our earthly callings -- but never so bad as in the affairs of our souls." Holiness - Assurance |
"The river of death is a cold stream, and we have to cross it alone. No earthy friend can help us. The last enemy, the king of terrors, is a strong foe. When our souls are departing, there is no cordial like the strong wine of assurance." Holiness - Assurance |
"A hope that does not purify is a mockery, a delusion, and a snare." Holiness - Assurance |
"Redeemed sinners, justified sinners, and renewed sinners doubtless we must be -- but sinners, sinners, sinners, we shall always be to the very last." Holiness - Assurance |
"It is vain to suppose you will feel assured and persuaded of your own pardon and acceptance with God, unless you count ALL God's commandments concerning ALL things to be right, and hate every sin, whether great or small. One Achan allowed in the camp of your heart will weaken your hands, and lay your consolations low in the dust. You must be daily sowing to the Spirit, if you are to reap the witness of the Spirit. You will not find and feel that all of the Lord's ways are ways of pleasantness, unless you labour in all your ways to please the Lord." Holiness - Assurance |
"There are glorious things in the city of our God, which they who have an assured hope taste, even in their lifetime." Holiness - Assurance |
"If you have not got an assured hope of your own acceptance in Christ, resolve this day to seek it." Holiness - Assurance |
"There is a common worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have, and think they have enough -- a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice, which costs nothing, and is worth nothing... But if you really are in earnest about your soul... if you are determined to live by the Bible, if you are resolved to be a New Testament Christian, then, I repeat, you will soon find you must carry a cross. You must endure hard things, you must suffer in behalf of your soul, as Moses did, or you cannot be saved." Holiness - Moses: An Example |
"The offence of the cross is not ceased. God's true people are still a despised little flock. True evangelical religion still brings with it reproach and scorn." Holiness - Moses: An Example |
"You cannot be a friend of Christ and a friend of the world at the same time. You must come out from the children of this world, and be separate; you must put up with much ridicule, trouble, and opposition, or you will be lost forever." Holiness - Moses: An Example |
"Is there any cross in your Christianity? Are there any sharp corners in your religion, anything that ever jars and comes in collision with the earthly-mindedness around you? Or is all smooth and rounded off, and comfortably fitted into custom and fashion? Do you know anything of the afflictions of the gospel? Is your faith and practice ever a subject of scorn and reproach? Are you thought a fool by anyone because of your soul?" Holiness - Moses: An Example |
"It is an awful truth, and worthy of all consideration, that knowledge not acted upon, in God's sight, is not merely useless and unprofitable. It is much worse than that. It will add to our condemnation and increase our guilt in the judgment day. A faith that does not influence a man's practice is not worthy of the name." Holiness - Moses: An Example |
"In walking with God, a man will go just as far as he believes, and no further." Holiness - Moses: An Example |
"Grace is a tender plant. Unless you cherish it and nurse it well, it will soon become sickly in this evil world." Holiness - Lot: A Beacon |
"It is amazing to observe how readily people catch at the least excuse for misunderstanding the things that concern their souls." Holiness - Lot: A Beacon |
"The stream of profession is far broader than it once was, but far less deep in many places. A certain kind of Christianity is almost fashionable now." Holiness - Lot: A Beacon |
"I solemnly warn you not to attempt doing what never can be done -- I mean, to serve Christ and yet keep in with the world." Holiness - Lot: A Beacon |
"They who have the same faith as those holy men whose names are recorded in the Bible -- they who walk in that same narrow path which all the saints of God have trodden -- such persons, and such only, shall have eternal life and never enter into condemnation." The Christian Race - Enoch |
"To walk with God is to walk humbly confessing ourselves unworthy of the least of all His mercies, acknowledging that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves, that we are constantly coming short and backsliding, that we are unprofitable servants, and without His grace are sure to fall." The Christian Race - Enoch |
"Enoch believed that God would one day come to judge the world and give to all men according to their works. Though iniquity abounded and the love of many waxed cold, and all things seemed to go on as if God took no notice of this earth, he still believed that the Lord would come to take account in such an hour as no one expected Him; in faith he saw the judgment close at hand, and he walked with God as one waiting for it. He lived as if he felt this was not his rest; he looked beyond the things which are seen to that abiding city which remaineth for the people of God; by faith he saw that heaven was his only home, and in the Lord's presence alone was fulness of joy. Such was the ruling principle which possessed this holy man of old. Oh that you would pray earnestly for a like precious faith! Without it you will never walk in Enoch's way, and so you will never come to Enoch's end." The Christian Race - Enoch |
"Would you have me suppose they are walking with God who live in any known sin which the Bible condemns? Are they walking with God who regard Him and His service in the second place and the care of this world's matters in the first?... all such must be walking away from God; day after day they get farther from Him, and at last, unless they turn, they will walk into hell." The Christian Race - Enoch |
"They that are utterly deceived and blind may tell you that punishment is not eternal, and hell is a delusion, and the devil a lie; but they will find to their cost they are all true, most fearfully true." The Christian Race - Enoch |
"Know that if you cannot be saints on earth, you never can be saints in heaven." The Christian Race - Enoch |
"Though it be true that few are saved and the way is narrow, there is nothing to prevent any of you entering it, except your own unwillingness, your own unbelieving hearts, your own indifference." The Christian Race - Enoch |
"Remember, all of you, the prophecy Enoch spake -- The Lord cometh to execute judgment. This earth, lovely and fair and shining as it seems, shall be burned up, but your soul shall live forever, either in heaven or in hell; this very church shall crumble into dust, but they that sleep around it shall rise again, bone shall come together unto bone, and all stand before the throne and be judged according to their lives. The Lord grant you may all find mercy in that day, but if you would find it, you must walk with God, and then indeed you shall live by faith and sleep in Jesus and have your portion with the spirits of just men made perfect." The Christian Race - Enoch |
"Unless you really know the character of your own heart, you will never value the gospel as you ought; you will never love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; you will never see how absolutely necessary it was that He should suffer death upon the cross, in order to deliver our souls from hell and bring us unto God." The Christian Race - A Bad Heart |
"Remember, now, O unconverted man, that God has set your secret sins in the light of His countenance; the vilest imaginations of your wicked heart, the deeds you have so carefully concealed from the sight of men, the abominable thoughts which you would not have your dearest friends suspect -- all have been seen through and through by that Pure and Holy One who will one day be your Judge." The Christian Race - A Bad Heart |
"Mark my words: God hath witnessed that except ye choose this way -- the way of repentance and faith -- ye shall have no salvation, and the more free and gracious are the offers which ye reject, so much the more heavily shall ye be judged in the last day." The Christian Race - A Bad Heart |
"Sinner, man or woman, mark that! No salvation without the new birth! Christ hath done everything for thee; He paid the price of our redemption, lived for us, died for us, rose again for us; but all shall avail nothing, if there be not this work in us -- WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN." The Christian Race - Regeneration I |
"I know there are vain dreamers who fancy death will work an alteration that they may die sinners and rise again saints, but it is all a delusion; there is no work nor device nor knowledge in the grave; if we die spiritual we shall rise spiritual, if we die carnal we shall rise carnal, and if we are to be made fit for heaven, our natural hearts must be changed now on earth." The Christian Race - Regeneration I |
"We have been born once of the seed of Adam; WOE to us if we are not born the second time of the seed of God!" The Christian Race - Regeneration I |
"On the one hand stand salvation by free grace for Christ's sake; but on the other stands renewal of the carnal heart by the Spirit. We must be changed as well as forgiven; we must be renewed as well as redeemed." The Christian Race - Regeneration I |
"Men swallow down sermons about Christ's willingness and Christ's power to save, and yet continue in their sins: they seem to forget there must be the Spirit's work within us, as well as Christ's work for us -- there must be something written on the table of our hearts. The strong man, Satan, must be cast out of our house, and Jesus must take possession; and we must begin to know the saints' character experimentally on earth, or we shall never be numbered with them in heaven." The Christian Race - Regeneration I |
"Few indeed are the churches where we should not be constrained to cry, Lord, here are many called, but very few chosen." The Christian Race - Regeneration I |
"Examine yourselves, then, I pray you, whether you are born again... Are ye carnally minded or heavenly minded? Are your affections with the world or with God?... Consider with yourselves how fearful it will be to be shut out; to see God's kingdom afar off, like the rich man in the parable, and a great gulf between; how terrible to go down to the pit from under the very pulpit, well satisfied with your own condition, but still not born again... Beloved, if you love life, search and see what is your condition. What though you find no tokens for good: better a thousand times to know it now and live, than to know it too late and die eternally... Examine yourselves..." The Christian Race - Regeneration I |
"We can no more quicken and impart life to our souls than we can to our bodies; we can no more rise and become new men in our own strength than wash away sins by our own performances. It is impossible! The natural man is as helpless as Lazarus was when he lay still and cold and motionless in the tomb... Beloved, this is a very humbling and awful truth. The conversion of a sinner can never be that light, offhanded affair that some do seem to think it. This great change which must come over us can never be a thing so entirely within our reach and grasp that we may put off the old Adam like a cloak, and put on the new man, just when and where we please... Yes, you may dream of deathbed repentance... but you know not what you are saying... it is work that can only be begun by power divine, and who shall say you may not put it off too long?.. I tremble lest men should loiter and put off their souls' concerns so long that the Spirit may be grieved and leave them in their sins." The Christian Race - Regeneration II |
"We very seldom hear of old men and women being converted: grey hairs are the time for burning the oil of grace and not for buying it, and therefore I say, pray ye that your flight be not in the winter of life." The Christian Race - Regeneration II |
"God does not deal with you as if you were machines or stones; He deals with you as those who can read and hear and pray, and this is the way in which He would have you wait upon Him." The Christian Race - Regeneration II |
"Before the new birth a man can bow at Christ's name, and sometimes wonder at Christ's miracles, but that is all; once born again, a man sees a fulness and a completeness and a sufficiency in Christ of things necessary to salvation, so that he feels as if he could never think upon Him enough." The Christian Race - Regeneration III |
"Nothing so hardens the heart of man as a barren familiarity with sacred things." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"There are thousands of baptized persons in our churches who are proof against immorality and infidelity, and yet fall victims to the love of the world." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"It is saddest of all to observe how many flatter themselves it is all right with their souls when it is all wrong, by reason of this love of the world." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"Follow Christ for his own sake, if you follow him at all. Be thorough, be real, be honest, be sound, be wholehearted. If you have any religion at all, let your religion be real." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"Once let the old doctrine about hell be overthrown, and the whole system of Christianity is unsettled, unscrewed, unpinned, and thrown into disorder." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"No man can honestly read the four Gospels and fail to see that he who would follow the example of Christ MUST speak of hell." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"The eternity of hell is as clearly affirmed in the Bible as the eternity of heaven... Beware of any ministry which does not plainly teach the reality and eternity of hell." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"Professing Christians ought to be often reminded that they may be lost and go to hell." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"The minister who keeps back hell from his people in his sermons is neither a faithful nor a charitable man." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"There is a morbid tenderness amongst us which is not the tenderness of Christ. We have spoken of mercy, but not of judgment; we have preached many sermons about heaven, but few about hell." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"It is impossible to leaven out any portion of God's truth without spoiling the whole. That preaching is sadly defective which dwells exclusively on the mercies of God and the joys of heaven, and never sets forth the terrors of the Lord and the miseries of hell." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"There is a love in God towards sinners which is unspeakable and unsearchable, but it is for those who HEAR CHRIST'S VOICE AND FOLLOW HIM." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"Are you careless about the second advent of Christ? Alas, many are! They live like the men of Sodom, and the men of Noah's day: they eat, and drink, and plant, and build, and marry, and are given in marriage, and behave as if Christ was never going to return." Holiness - A Woman To Be Remembered |
"It is one thing‑to say your prayers and another to pray." A Call To Prayer |
"I can find that nobody will be saved by his prayers, but I cannot find that without prayer anybody will be saved." A Call To Prayer |
"Just as the first sign of life in an infant when born into the world is the act of breathing, so the first act of men and women when they are born again is praying." A Call To Prayer |
"I do not deny that a man may pray without heart and without sincerity. I do not for a moment pretend to say that the mere fact of a person's praying proves everything about his soul. As in every other part of religion, so also in this, there may be deception and hypocrisy. But this I do say, that not praying is a clear proof that a man is not yet a true Christian. He cannot really feel his sins. He cannot love God. He cannot feel himself a debtor to Christ, He cannot long after holiness. He cannot desire heaven. He has yet to be born again. He has yet to be made a new creature. He may boast confidently of election, grace, faith, hope, and knowledge, and deceive ignorant people. But you may rest assured it is all vain talk if he does not pray." A Call To Prayer |
"Of all the evidences of the real work of the Spirit, a habit of hearty private prayer is one of the most satisfactory that can be named. A man may preach from false motives. A man may write books and make fine speeches and seem diligent in good works, and yet be a Judas Iscariot. But a man seldom goes into his closet, and pours out his soul before God in secret, unless he is in earnest. The Lord himself has set his stamp on prayer as the best proof of a true conversion. When he sent Ananias to Saul in Damascus, he gave him no other evidence of his change of heart than this, 'Behold, he prayeth.'" A Call To Prayer |
"I cannot call any one justified until he believes. I dare not say that any one believes until he prays." A Call To Prayer |
"This is the point we want to bring you to; we want to know that you pray. Your views of doctrine may be correct. Your love of Protestantism may be warm and unmistakable. But still this may be nothing more than head knowledge and party spirit. We want to know whether you are actually acquainted with the throne of grace, and whether you can speak to God as well as speak about God." A Call To Prayer |
"Where there is no heart, there may be lip work and tongue work, but there is nothing that God listens to; there is no prayer." A Call To Prayer |
"The desire of man's heart is to get far away from God, and have nothing to do with him. His feeling towards him is not love, but fear. Why then should a man pray when he has no real sense of sin, no real feeling of spiritual wants, no thorough belief in unseen things, no desire after holiness and heaven? Of all these things the vast majority of men know and feel nothing. The multitude walk in the broad way. I cannot forget this. Therefore I say boldly, I believe that few pray." A Call To Prayer |
"Have you forgotten the lives that many live? Can we really believe that people are praying against sin night and day, when we see them plunging into it? Can we suppose they pray against the world, when they are entirely absorbed and taken up with its pursuits? Can we think they really ask God for grace to serve him, when they do not show the slightest desire to serve him at all? Oh, no, it is plain as daylight that the great majority of men either ask nothing of God or do not mean what they say when they do ask, which is just the same thing. Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer. I cannot forget this. I look at men's lives. I believe that few pray." A Call To Prayer |
"There is a way by which any man, however sinful and unworthy, may draw near to God the Father. Jesus Christ has opened that way by the sacrifice he made for us upon the cross. The holiness and justice of God need not frighten sinners and keep them back. Only let them cry to God in the name of Jesus, only let them plead the atoning blood of Jesus, and they shall find God upon a throne of grace, willing and ready to hear. The name of Jesus is a never-failing passport for our prayers. In that name a man may draw near to God with boldness, and ask with confidence. God has engaged to hear him. Think of this. Is not this encouragement?" A Call To Prayer |
"There is an Advocate and Intercessor always waiting to present the prayers of those who come to God through him. That advocate is Jesus Christ. He mingles our prayers with the incense of his own almighty intercession. So mingled, they go up as a sweet savor before the throne of God. Poor as they are in themselves, they are mighty and powerful in the hand of our High Priest and Elder Brother. The bank note without a signature at the bottom is nothing but a worthless piece of paper. The stroke of a pen confers on it all its value. The prayer of a poor child of Adam is a feeble thing in itself, but once endorsed by the hand of the Lord Jesus it availeth much." A Call To Prayer |
"The prayers of the Lord's people are the inspiration of the Lord's Spirit, the work of the Holy Ghost who dwells within them as the Spirit of grace and supplication." A Call To Prayer |
"I see a marvellous proof of love and wisdom in the union of two natures in Christ's person... I want one able to perform all things needful to redeem my soul. This Jesus can do, for He is the eternal Son of God. I want one able to understand my weakness and infirmities, and to deal gently with my soul, while tied to a body of death. This again Jesus can do, for He was the Son of man, and had flesh and blood like my own. Had my Saviour been God only, I might." Holiness - The Ruler Of The Waves |