John Charles Ryle citations

“Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor. Jesus can understand you.”

“If you desire salvation, and want to know what to do, I advise you to go this very day to the Lord Jesus Christ, in the first private place you can find, and earnestly and heartily entreat him in prayer to save your soul. Tell him that you have heard that he receives sinners, and he has said, "Him that comes unto me I will in nowise cast out." Tell him that you are a poor vile sinner, and that you come to him on the faith of his own invitation. Tell him you put yourself wholly and entirely in his hands: that you feel vile and helpless, and hopeless in yourself: and that except he saves you, you have no hope of being saved at all. Beseech him to deliver you from guilt, the power, and the consequences of sin. Beseech him to pardon you, and wash you in his own blood. Beseech him to give you a new heart, and plant the Holy Spirit in your soul. Beseech him to give you grace and faith and will and power to be his disciple and servant from this day forever. Oh, reader, go this very day, and tell these things to the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are really in earnest about your soul.”

“Happiness does not depend on outward circumstances, but on the state of the heart.”

“Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.”

“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.”

“I believe that the want of our age is not more "free" handling of the Bible, but more "reverent" handling, more humility, more patient study, and more prayer.”

“Hell is truth known too late.”

“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.”

“There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction.”

“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.”

“Grant that the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible is God's truth, and I know not in what way you can escape the doctrine that there is salvation only in Christ. From the liberality which says every body is right — from the charity which forbids you to say any body is wrong—from the peace which is bought at the expense of truth, may the good Lord deliver you.”

“A holy man will follow after purity of heart. He will dread all filthiness and uncleanness of spirit, and seek to avoid all things that might draw him into it. He knows his own heart is like tinder, and will diligently keep clear of the sparks of temptation. Who shall dare to talk of strength when David can fall? There is many a hint to be gleaned from the ceremonial law. Under it the man who only touched a bone or a dead body or a grave or a diseased person became at once unclean in the sight of God.”

“All the sciences in the world never smoothed down a dying pillow. No earthly philosophy ever supplied hope in death.”

“So long as you do not quarrel with sin, you will never be a truly happy man.”

“Remember that you are to venture the whole salvation of your soul on Christ, and on Christ only. You are to cast loose completely and entirely from all other hopes and trusts. You are not to rest partly on Christ and partly on doing all you can. In the matter of your justification Christ is to be all.”

“When does the building of the Spirit really begin to appear in a man's heart? It begins, so far as we can judge, when he first pours out his heart to God in prayer.”

“Assurance of hope is more than life. It is health, strength, power, vigor, activity, energy, manliness, beauty.”

“Examine your own hearts. Do you see there any habit or custom which you know is wrong in the sight of God? If you do, don't delay for a moment in attacking it. Resolve at once to lay it aside. Nothing darkens the eyes of the mind so much, and deadens the conscience so surely, as an allowed sin. It may be a little one, but it is not any less dangerous.”

“The believer who follows the Lord most fully will ordinarily enjoy the most assured hope, and have the clearest persuasion of his own salvation.”

“Value all books in proportion as they are agreeable to Scripture. Those that are nearest to it are the best, and those that are farthest from it, and most contrary to it, are the worst.”

“The end to which good men's libraries finally come is a melancholy subject. Few things are so much loved by some, and despised and neglected by others, as books, and specially theological books.”

“With all the stir made about education, the ignorance of our own country's history is something lamentable and appalling and depressing.”

“A true worshipper will every year know more of self, and God, and heaven, and duty, and doctrine, and practice, and experience. His religion is a living thing, and will grow.”

“Let it never surprise true Christians if they are slandered and misrepresented in this world. They must not expect to fare better than their Lord.”

“The world's idea of greatness is to rule, but Christian greatness consists in serving.”

“It must not content us to take our bodies to church if we leave our hearts at home.”

“The heart is the part of man which God chiefly notices in religion.”

“Without a divine call no one can be saved. We are all so sunk in sin, and so wedded to the world, that we would never turn to God, unless He first called us by His grace.”

“Before Christ comes, it is useless to expect to see a perfect Church.”