Ryle Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Ryle. Here they are! All 100 of them:

I race you, Ryles,” he says in a voice that’s implacable and unwavering amidst the swirling chaos.
K. Bromberg (Fueled (Driven, #2))
It’s easy when we’re on the outside to believe that we would walk away without a second thought if a person mistreated us. It’s easy to say we couldn’t continue to love someone who mistreats us when we aren’t the ones feeling the love of that person. When you experience it firsthand, it isn’t so easy to hate the person who mistreats you when most of the time they’re your godsend. Ryle
Colleen Hoover (It Ends With Us)
I want to be your motherfucking checkered flag, Rylee. Your pace car to lead you through tough times, your pit stop when you need a break, your start line, your finish line, your goddamn victory lane.
K. Bromberg (Crashed (Driven, #3))
Happiness does not depend on outward circumstances, but on the state of the heart.
J.C. Ryle (A Call to Prayer)
Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.
J.C. Ryle (A Call to Prayer)
Ryle Hira: Life is what it is
Elizabeth Haydon (Rhapsody: Child of Blood (Symphony of Ages, #1))
I love who you are and what you make me. I love that your spark has stopped the blur. That you wanted to race with me. That I don't need the superheroes anymore because I need you instead. Shit, we've already done the for better or worse part and the in sickness and in health, so let's do the Til death do us part too. Make a life with me, Ryles. Start with me. End With Me. Complete Me. Be my one and only first. Be my goddamn victory lane and my fucking checkered flag because god knows I'll be yours if you'll let me. Marry Me, Ry?
K. Bromberg (Crashed (Driven, #3))
‎"A humble and prayerful person will find a thousand things in the Bible, which the proud student will utterly fail to discern." ~ J.C. Ryle
J.C. Ryle
I will not be inconsequential, Colton. To you or to anyone else.
K. Bromberg (Driven (Driven, #1))
Hell is truth known too late.
J.C. Ryle (Practical Religion)
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.
J.C. Ryle
I’ve been able to block things out for so long. Ignore emotions. Ignore everything, but you? You tear down walls I didn’t even know I was building. You make me feel, Rylee.
K. Bromberg (Fueled (Driven, #2))
Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor. Jesus can understand you.
J.C. Ryle
Once I fuck you, Rylee—it’s official, you’re mine and only mine.
K. Bromberg (Driven (Driven, #1))
Do nothing that you would not like God to see. Say nothing you would not like God to hear. Write nothing you would not like God to read. Go no place where you would not like God to find you. Read no book of which you would not like God to say, "Show it to Me." Never spend your time in such a way that you would not like to have God say, "What are you doing?
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 (Holiness)
I race you, Ryles
K. Bromberg (Fueled (Driven, #2))
Yes. I kept the magnet Atlas gave me when we were kids. Yes. I kept the journals. No, I didn’t tell you about my tattoo. Yes, I probably should have. And yes, I still love him. And I’ll love him until I die, because he was a huge part of my life. And yes, I’m sure that hurts you. But none of that gave you the right to do what you did to me. Even if you would have walked into my bedroom and caught us in bed together, you still would not have the right to lay a hand on me, you goddamn son of a bitch!
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
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.
J.C. Ryle
I might not be able to tell you the things you need to hear with the traditional words you need to hear them in, but I swear to God, Rylee, I will try. And if I can't, then I'll show you. I'll show you with everything I have-anything it takes-where your place is in my life
K. Bromberg (Fueled (Driven, #2))
I know that you believe he loves you,and i'm sure he does. But he's not loving you the right way. He doesn't love you the way you deserve to be loved. If Ryle truly loves you,he wouldn't allow you to take him back. He would make the decision to leave you himself so that he knows for a fact he can never hurt you again. That's the kind of love a woman deserves,Lily
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
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.
J.C. Ryle
When I think about Ryle hitting you… I get absurdly angry. Because I love him. I do. He’s been my best friend since we were kids. But I also hate him for not being better. Nothing you have done and nothing you could do would excuse any man’s hands on you out of anger. Remember that, Lily. You made the right choice by leaving that situation. You should never feel guilty for that. Pride is the only thing you should feel.
Colleen Hoover (It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us #2))
Within all the darkness of my life, I had found the brilliant spot of light that pushed away the shadows -Rylee Adamson in reference to Liam OShea
Shannon Mayer (Shadowed Threads (Rylee Adamson, #4))
I want you to watch me while I take you, Rylee. I want you to watch each of us as we crash over that edge. I want you to see why this is enough for me. Why I choose you.
K. Bromberg (Fueled (Driven, #2))
Better to confess Christ 1000 times now and be despised by men, than be disowned by Christ before God on the day of Judgment.
J.C. Ryle
There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction.
J.C. Ryle
Shit, we’ve already done the for better or worse part and the in sickness and health, so let’s do the ’til death do us part too. Make a life with me, Ryles. Start with me. End with me. Complete me. Be my one and only first. Be my goddamn victory lane and my fucking checkered flag because God knows I’ll be yours if you’ll let me. Marry me, Ry?
K. Bromberg (Crashed (Driven, #3))
The devil will tell you nine truths, so that you’ll believe one lie.
Shannon Mayer (Shadowed Threads (Rylee Adamson, #4))
I am one of those old-fashioned ministers who believe the whole Bible and everything that it contains.
J.C. Ryle
Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who has a heaven for every body, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and broad in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own, as truly an idol as any snake or crocodile in an Egyptian temple. The hands of your own fancy and sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible, and beside the God of the Bible there is no God at all.
J.C. Ryle
Laughter, ridicule, opposition and persecution are often the only reward which Christ’s followers get from the world.
J.C. Ryle
I want to drive you to the crest, Rylee. Take you to the brink so that your only thought is of me. So that you cry out my name when your body detonates into a million splinters of pleasure.
K. Bromberg (Driven (Driven, #1))
I want to take my time with you, Rylee. I want to build you up nice and slow and sweet like you need. Push you to crash over that edge. And then I want to fuck you the way I need to. Fast and hard until you’re screaming my name. The way I’ve wanted to since you fell out of that storage closet and into my life.
K. Bromberg (Driven (Driven, #1))
But I don’t want her to live like I lived. I don’t want her to see her father at his worst. I don’t want her to see him when he loses his temper with me to the point that she no longer recognizes him as her father. Because no matter how many good moments she might share with Ryle throughout her lifetime, I know from experience that it would only be the worst ones that stuck with her.
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
I entreat my readers, besides the Bible and the Articles, to read history.
J.C. Ryle (Holiness)
One single soul saved shall outlive and outweigh all the kingdoms of the world.
J.C. Ryle
Don’t tempt the scorpion if you don’t want to get stung.
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing in God's judgment, hating what He hates, loving what He loves, and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word.
J.C. Ryle (Holiness)
Let us never measure our religion by that of others, and think we are doing enough if we have gone beyond our neighbors.
J.C. Ryle (Holiness)
Guard your thoughts, and there will be little fear about your actions.
J.C. Ryle
You sure?” “Nope.” “Excellent, I was worried you suddenly had a plan.
Shannon Mayer (Tracker (Rylee Adamson, #6))
Does she know we live together?” I ask him. “Is she okay with that? I mean, we aren’t married. She goes to church every Sunday. Oh no, Ryle! What if your mother thinks I’m a blasphemous whore?” Ryle nudges his head toward the apartment door and I spin around to see his mother standing in the doorway, a layer of shock on her face. “Mother,” Ryle says. “Meet Lily. My blasphemous whore.
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
He that has learned to feel his sins, and to trust Christ as a Saviour, has learned the two hardest and greatest lessons in Christianity.
J.I. Packer (Faithfulness and Holiness: The Witness of J.C. Ryle)
He does not regard the quantity of faith, but the quality. He does not measure its degree, but its truth. He will not break any bruised reed, nor quench any smoking flax. He will never let it be said that any perished at the foot of the cross.
J.C. Ryle
Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just. Such a God is an idol of your own.
J.C. Ryle
We live in an age when there is a false glare on the things of time and a great mist over the things of eternity.
J.C. Ryle (Free Grace Broadcaster - Issue 211 - Hell)
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.
J.C. Ryle (Thoughts for Young Men)
A person who has a good nose for arguments or jokes may have a bad head for facts.
Gilbert Ryle (The Concept of Mind)
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a third time, and i'm going to run you the fuck through.
Shannon Mayer (Raising Innocence (Rylee Adamson, #3))
Never let us be guilty of sacrificing any portion of truth on the altar of peace.
J.C. Ryle
Tomorrow is the devil's day, but today is God's. Satan does not care how spiritual your intentions are, or how holy your resolutions, if only they are determined to be done tomorrow.
J.C. Ryle (Thoughts for Young Men)
I had that picture made the day after I took it," he says. "It's been in my apartment for months now, because you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen and I wanted to look at it every single day."
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
Never make an intimate friend of anyone who is not a friend of God.  
J.C. Ryle (Thoughts For Young Men)
They are always with you, the ones you love. They never leave you. They fight for you even after they’re gone.
Shannon Mayer (Wounded (Rylee Adamson, #8))
It’s unfathomable how much I want you, Rylee.” He pulls me tighter into him. “How much I’m drawn to you.
K. Bromberg (Driven (Driven, #1))
God, I fucking race you, Ryles,
K. Bromberg (Aced (Driven, #4))
J. C. Ryle observed, “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 serious.
Kevin DeYoung (Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem)
Next to praying there is nothing so important in practical religion as Bible reading. By reading that book we may learn what to believe, what to be, and what to do; how to live with comfort, and how to die in peace.” Happy is that man who possesses a Bible! Happier still is he who reads it! Happiest of all is he who not only reads it, but obeys it, and makes it the rule of his faith and practice!
J.C. Ryle
Ryle," I say carefully. "Did you seriously just knock on twenty-nine doors so you could tell me that the thought of me is making your life hell and I should have sex with you so that you'll never have to think of me again? Are you
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
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.
J.C. Ryle (Holiness)
Hearken, my believing reader. What is the cause of your weakness? Is it not because the fountain of life is little used? Is it not because you are resting on old experiences, and not daily gathering new manna—daily drawing new strength from Christ?
J.C. Ryle
bravery wasn’t being unafraid, it was doing what had to be done even if you were terrified.
Shannon Mayer (Veiled Threat (Rylee Adamson, #7))
She climbs inside the car and they leave, and I just stand there watching them because I don’t know that I’ve ever had a friend like her in my whole life. Maybe it’s the wine. I don’t know, but I love today. Everything about it. I especially love how Ryle looks, leaning against my car, watching me. “You’re really beautiful when you’re happy.
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
I might not be able to tell you the things you need to hear with the traditional words you need to hear them in, but I swear to God, Rylee, I will try. And if I can’t, then I’ll show you. I’ll show you with everything I have—anything it takes—where your place is in my life,” he murmurs to me, shattering every last form of protection I have guarding my heart. He just stole it completely.
K. Bromberg (Fueled (Driven, #2))
The vain man does not think he is vain.
Gilbert Ryle (The Concept of Mind)
Christ's death is the Christian's life. Christ's cross is the Christian's title to heaven. Christ "lifted up" and put to shame on Calvary is the ladder by which Christians "enter into the holiest," and are at length landed in glory.
J.C. Ryle (John (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels): Vol. 1)
She grabs my hands and holds them while I cry. “Don’t be like me, Lily. I know that you believe he loves you, and I’m sure he does. But he’s not loving you the right way. He doesn’t love you the way you deserve to be loved. If Ryle truly loves you, he wouldn’t allow you to take him back. He would make the decision to leave you himself so that he knows for a fact he can never hurt you again. That’s the kind of love a woman deserves, Lily.
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
Another real danger to young men is thoughtlessness and lack of consideration. Lack of thought is one simple reason why thousands of souls are cast away forever. Men will not consider,-will not look forward,-will not look around them,-will not reflect on the end of their present course, and the sure consequences of their present ways,-and awake at last to find they are damned for lack of thinking.
J.C. Ryle
It is not possible to say too much about Christ. But it is quite possible to say too little about hell.
J.C. Ryle (Mark (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels))
Believe me, you cannot stand still in your souls. Habits of good or evil are daily strengthening in your hearts. Every day you are either getting nearer to God, or further off.
J.C. Ryle (Thoughts For Young Men)
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.
J.C. Ryle (A Call to Prayer With Study Guide (Chapel Library))
Love should be the silver thread that runs through all your conduct. Kindness, gentleness, long suffering, forbearance, patience, sympathy, a willingness to enter into childish troubles, a readiness to take part in childish joys, - these are the cords by which a child may be led most easily, - these are the clues you must follow if you would find the way to his heart.
J.C. Ryle
It’s the choices we make after those mistakes that count.
Shannon Mayer (Rising Darkness (Rylee Adamson, #9))
Silence was its own power sometimes. I didn’t use it often enough.
Shannon Mayer (Tracker (Rylee Adamson, #6))
True charity never envies others when they prosper, nor rejoices in the calamities of others when they are in trouble.
J.C. Ryle (Practical Religion Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing Christians)
It stops here, With me and you, It ends with us.
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
Follow Christ for His own sake, if you follow Him at all. Be thorough, be real, be honest, be sound, be whole-hearted. If you have any religion at all, let your religion be real. See that you do not sin the sin of Lot's wife.
J.C. Ryle (Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots)
It is a true saying of good Archbishop Leighton: 'The way of sin is down hill; a man cannot stop when he would.
J.C. Ryle (Thoughts for Young Men)
Faith is to the soul what life is to the body. Prayer is to faith what breath is to life. How a man can live and not breathe is past my comprehension, and how a man can believe and not pray is past my comprehension too.
J.C. Ryle (A Call to Prayer With Study Guide (Chapel Library))
your soul is the one thing worth living for. It is the part of you which ought always be considered first. No place, no employment is good for you, which injures your soul. No friend, no companion deserves your confidence, who makes light of your soul's concerns.
J.C. Ryle (Thoughts For Young Men)
A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swallowed-up in one thing — and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives — or whether he dies; whether he has health — or whether he has sickness; whether he is rich — or whether he is poor; whether he pleases man — or whether he gives offence; whether he is thought wise — or whether he is thought foolish; whether he gets blame — or whether he gets praise; whether he gets honor, or whether he gets shame — for all this the zealous man cares nothing at all. He burns for one thing — and that one thing is to please God, and to advance God's glory. If he is consumed in the very burning — he is content. He 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. Yes, if he is only a pauper, on a perpetual bed of sickness — he will make the wheels of sin around him drive heavily, by continually interceding against it. If he cannot fight in the valley with Joshua — then he will do the prayer-work of Moses, Aaron, and Hur, on the hill. (Exod. 17:9-13.) If he is cut off from working himself — he will give the Lord no rest until help is raised up from another quarter, and the work is done. This is what I mean when I speak of "zeal" in religion.
J.C. Ryle
Men that had understanding of the times." 1 Chr. 12:32 I cannot doubt that this sentence, like every sentence in Scripture was written for our learning. These men of Issachar are set before us as a pattern to be imitated, and an example to be followed, for it is a most important thing to understand the times in which we live, and to understand what those times require. Next to our Bibles and our own hearts, our Lord would have us study our own times.
J.C. Ryle (Holiness)
...once we were loaded, Jeff asked us how it went. Ryan cleared his throat. "Well, I got to use my first public bathroom. That was interesting." "I made out with the Aussie," Rylee stated matter-of-factly. "I made up with the ginger," Miguel said and grinned back at her. Jeff stared at us. "I got slapped in the face," Billings offered. "By me," I supplied. "And we got to talk to Cain at the station on the big screen," Merrick said happily. Jeff still stared while Marissa giggled into her hand. "So it went good then," he stated. "Great.
Shelly Crane (Revolution (Collide, #4))
No one can fault you for being afraid, Rylee, but life’s about taking chances. About having fun and not always playing it safe. So what if he’s a little reckless? The fact that he scares you might be a good thing. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” She leans back and wriggles her eyebrows. “Have some wild, reckless sex with him. He obviously likes you. Who knows, maybe it will turn into something more. Maybe it won’t. But at least you took the chance.
K. Bromberg (Driven (Driven, #1))
Colton’s not finished though. He takes a step toward me, pointing his finger at his chest. “But I’m alive, Rylee, and he’s not!” His words rip into me. A tear slides down my cheek, and I turn my back to him, hiding from his words, thinking if I can’t see the plea and hurt in his eyes, I won’t have to accept the truth in his statement. “I’m the one here in front of you—flesh and blood and needing—so either you accept that it’s you that I want. No one else,” he rants, his voice echoing off of the concrete surrounding us and coming back to me twice as if to reinforce his words. “You need to accept me for who I am, faults and all...” his voice breaks “...or you need to get the fuck out of my life…because right now—right now—this is all that I can give you! All I can offer.
K. Bromberg (Fueled (Driven, #2))
Young man, be of good courage. Care not for what the world says or thinks: you will not be with the world always. Can man save your soul? No. Will man be your judge in the great and dreadful day of account? No. Can man give you a good conscience in life, a good hope in death, a good answer in the morning of resurrection? No! no! no! Man can do nothing of the sort. Then "fear not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings: for the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool" (Isa. 51:7,8). Call to your mind the saying of good Colonel Gardiner: "I fear God, and therefore I have none else to fear." Go and be like him.
J.C. Ryle (Thoughts for Young Men)
I’m mesmerized, lost, and found again. By bright blue eyes, little lips, and a soft cry. By dark hair and perfect ears. By his untouched innocence, unconditional trust, and love: all three given without asking the first time I look into his eyes
K. Bromberg (Aced (Driven, #4))
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 (Practical Religion)
The love of the bible will show itself in a believer's readiness to bear evil as well as to do good. It will make him patient under provocation, forgiving when injured, meek when unjustly attacked, quiet when slandered. It will make him hear much, put up with much and look over much, submit often and deny himself often, all for the sake of peace.
J.C. Ryle (Practical Religion)
. . . Beware of being wise above that which is written. Beware of forming fanciful theories of your own, and then trying to make the Bible square with them. Beware of making selections from your Bible to suit your taste. Dare not to say, ‘I believe this verse, for I like it. I refuse that, for I cannot reconcile it with my views.’ Nay! but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? By what right do you talk in this way? Surely it were better to say, over every chapter in the word, ‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.’ Ah! if men would do this, they would never deny the unquenchable fire.
J.C. Ryle
I dare say you are planning on a late repentance. You do not know what you are doing. You are planning without God. Repentance and faith are the gifts of God, and they are gifts that He often withholds, when they have been long offered in vain. I grant you true repentance is never too late, but I warn you at the same time, late repentance is seldom true. I grant you, one penitent thief was converted in his last hours, that no man might despair; But I warn you, only one was converted, that no man might presume. I grant you it is written, Jesus is ‘Able to save completely those who come to God through him’ (Hebrews 7:25). But I warn you, it is also written by the same Spirit, ‘Since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you’ (Proverbs 1:24-26). Believe me, you will find it no easy matter to turn to God whenever you please.
J.C. Ryle
This better be good,” he grumbled, sleep heavy in his words, the sound of static belying the fact he was a supernatural using a phone. I snorted. “Doran, I need ride.” The phone was so damn sensitive I heard the slide of sheets over his body as he moved around. Unreal. “Do you know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that?” Doran all but purred into the phone, all trace of sleepiness gone.
Shannon Mayer (Tracker (Rylee Adamson, #6))
Minds are not bits of clockwork, they are just bits of not-clockwork. As thus represented, minds are not merely ghosts harnessed to machines, they are themselves just spectral machines. . . . Now the dogma of the Ghost in the Machine does just this. It maintains that there exist both bodies and minds; that there occur physical processes and mental processes; that there are mechanical causes of corporeal movements and mental causes of corporeal movements. I shall argue that these and other analogous conjunctions are absurd.
Gilbert Ryle (The Concept of Mind)
Being a parent is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s made me question my sanity more times than you can imagine,” he says dryly, and I know many of those times were because of me. “And there are times that you have to bite your tongue so hard you’re not sure if it’s going to be in one or two pieces when you open your mouth. It’s exhausting and you’re constantly doubting yourself, wondering if you’re doing the right thing, saying the right thing, being the right thing.
K. Bromberg (Aced (Driven, #4))
Once sin is allowed to settle in your heart, it will not be turned out at your bidding. Custom becomes second nature, and its chains are not easily broken. The prophet has well said, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil" (Jeremiah 13:23). Habits are like stones rolling down hill--the further they roll, the faster and more ungovernable is their course. Habits, like trees, are strengthened by age. A boy may bend an oak when it is a sapling--a hundred men cannot root it up, when it is a full grown tree. A child can wade over the Thames River at its fountain-head--the largest ship in the world can float in it when it gets near the sea. So it is with habits: the older the stronger--the longer they have held possession, the harder they will be to cast out.
J.C. Ryle (Thoughts For Young Men)
He sees by faith an unseen Savior, who . . . loved him, gave Himself for him, paid his debts for him, bore his sins, carried his transgressions, rose again for him, and appears in Heaven for him as his Advocate at the right hand of God. He sees Jesus — and clings to Him. Seeing this Savior and trusting in Him — he feels peace and hope and willingly does battle against the foes of his soul. He sees . . . his own many sins, his own weak heart, a tempting world, a busy devil — and if he looked only at them, he might well despair. BUT he sees also a mighty Savior, an interceding Savior, a sympathizing Savior — His blood, His righteousness, His everlasting priesthood — and he believes that all this is his own. He sees Jesus — and casts his whole weight on Him. Seeing Him, he cheerfully fights on, with a full confidence that he will prove more than conqueror through Him that loved him (Romans 8:37).
J.C. Ryle (The Gospel of John)
Man,” said a thoughtless, ungodly English traveller to a North American Indian convert, “Man, what is the reason that you make so much of Christ, and talk so much about Him? What has this Christ done for you, that you should make so much ado about Him?” The converted Indian did not answer him in words. He gathered together some dry leaves and moss and made a ring with them on the ground. He picked up a live worm and put it in the middle of the ring. He struck a light and set the moss and leaves on fire. The flame soon rose and the heat scorched the worm. It writhed in agony, and after trying in vain to escape on every side, curled itself up in the middle, as if about to die in despair. At that moment the Indian reached forth his hand, took up the worm gently and placed it on his bosom. “Stranger,” he said to the Englishman, “Do you see that worm? I was that perishing creature. I was dying in my sins, hopeless, helpless, and on the brink of eternal fire. It was Jesus Christ who put forth the arm of His power. It was Jesus Christ who delivered me with the hand of His grace, and plucked me from everlasting burnings. It was Jesus Christ who placed me, a poor sinful worm, near the heart of His love. Stranger, that is the reason why I talk of Jesus Christ and make much of Him. I am not ashamed of it, because I love Him.” If
J.C. Ryle (Holiness)
Myriads of professing Christians nowadays seem utterly unable to distinguish things that differ. Like people afflicted with colour-blindness, they are incapable of discerning what is true and what is false, what is sound and what is unsound. If a preacher of religion is only clever and eloquent and earnest, they appear to think he is all right, however strange and heterogeneous his sermons may be. They are destitute of spiritual sense, apparently, and cannot detect error. Popery or Protestantism, an atonement or no atonement, a personal Holy Ghost or no Holy Ghost, future punishment or no future punishment, ‘high church’ or ‘low church’ or ‘broad church,’ Trinitarianism, Arianism, or Unitarianism—nothing comes amiss to them; they can swallow it all, even if they cannot digest it! Carried away by a fancied liberality and charity, they seem to think everybody is right and nobody is wrong, every clergyman is sound and none are unsound, everybody is going to be saved and nobody going to be lost. Their religion is made of negatives; and the only positive thing about them is that they dislike distinctness and think all extreme and decided and positive views are very naughty and very wrong!
J.C. Ryle (Holiness:Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots (J. C. Ryle Collection Book 1))
Suppose for a moment that you were allowed to enter heaven without holiness. What would you do? What possible enjoyment could you feel there? To which of all the saints would you join yourself, and by whose side would you sit down? Their pleasures are not your pleasures, their tastes not your tastes, their character not your character. How could you possibly be happy, if you had not been holy on earth? Now perhaps you love the company of the light and the careless, the worldly-minded and the covetous, the reveller and the pleasure-seeker, the ungodly and the profane. There will be none such in heaven. Now perhaps you think the saints of God too strict and particular, and serious. You rather avoid them. You have no delight in their society. There will be no other company in heaven. Now perhaps you think praying, and Scripture-reading, and hymn singing, dull and melancholy, and stupid work—a thing to be tolerated now and then, but not enjoyed. You reckon the Sabbath a burden and a weariness; you could not possibly spend more than a small part of it in worshipping God. But remember, heaven is a never-ending Sabbath. The inhabitants thereof rest not day or night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty” and singing the praise of the Lamb. How could an unholy man find pleasure in occupation such as this? Think you that such an one would delight to meet David, and Paul, and John, after a life spent in doing the very things they spoke against? Would he take sweet counsel with them, and find that he and they had much in common?—Think you, above all, that he would rejoice to meet Jesus, the Crucified One, face to face, after cleaving to the sins for which He died, after loving His enemies and despising His friends? Would he stand before Him with confidence, and join in the cry, “This is our God; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation”? (Isa. xxv. 9.) Think you not rather that the tongue of an unholy man would cleave to the roof of his mouth with shame, and his only desire would be to be cast out! He would feel a stranger in a land he knew not, a black sheep amidst Christ’s holy flock. The voice of Cherubim and Seraphim, the song of Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven, would be a language he could not understand. The very air would seem an air he could not breathe. I know not what others may think, but to me it does seem clear that heaven would be a miserable place to an unholy man. It cannot be otherwise. People may say, in a vague way, “they hope to go to heaven;” but they do not consider what they say. There must be a certain “meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light.” Our hearts must be somewhat in tune. 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 we shall never find ourselves in heaven, in the life to come.
J.C. Ryle (Holiness)