J. C. Ryle Quotes

I want people to fill their minds with passages of Scripture while they are well and strong, that they may have sure help in the day of need. I want them to be diligent in studying their Bibles, and becoming familiar with its contents, in order that the grand old Book may stand by them and talk with them when all earthly friends fail.

The Bible applied to the heart by the Holy Ghost is the chief means by which men are built up and established in the faith, after their conversion. It is able to cleanse them, to sanctify them, to instruct them in righteousness, and to furnish them thoroughly for all good works.

We know nothing of humility by nature, for we are all born proud.

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

There will be no universal peace until the Prince of Peace appears.

The true Christian delights to hear something about his Master. He likes those sermons best which are full of Christ.

Let us remember, there is One who daily records all we do for Him, and sees more beauty in His servants' work than His servants do themselves... And then shall His faithful witnesses discover, to their wonder and surprise, that there never was a word spoken on their Master's behalf, which does not receive a reward.

HATE SIN! Instead of loving it, cleaving to it, excusing it, playing with it, we ought to hate it with a deadly hatred.

If you profess to be a child of God, leave it to the Lord Jesus to sanctify you in His own way.

That Bible is read best, which is practised most.

How can we love sin, when we remember that because of our sins Jesus died?

There is one subject in religion, about which you can never know too much. That subject is Jesus Christ the Lord.

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?

If you love Christ, never be ashamed to let others see it and know it. Speak for Him. Witness for Him. Live for Him.

Who shall dare to talk of strength when David can fall?

The work of the preacher resembles that of the sower. Like the sower, the preacher must sow good seed, the Word of God.

Let your Christianity be so unmistakable, your eye so single, your heart so whole, your walk so straightforward, that all who see you may have no doubt whose you are, and whom you serve.

Let us resolve to talk more to believers about the Bible when we meet them. Alas, the conversation of Christians, when they do meet, is often sadly unprofitable! How many frivolous, and trifling, and uncharitable things are said! Let us bring out the Bible more, and it will help to drive the devil away, and keep our hearts in tune. Oh, that we may all strive so to walk together in this evil world; that Jesus may often draw near, and go with us, as He went with the two disciples journeying to Emmaus!

Go to the cross of Christ, all you that want to be delivered from the power of selfishness.

We never know who they are that God will draw, and have nothing to do with it. Our duty is to invite all, and leave it to God to choose the vessels of mercy.

God is far more willing to save sinners than sinners are to be saved.

The first step towards attaining a higher standard of holiness is to realize more fully the amazing sinfulness of sin.

If anyone feels his sins, let him come at once, straight, direct, not merely to church, or to the sacrament, or to repentance, or to prayer, but to Christ Himself.

If you and sin are friends, you and God are not yet reconciled.

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

The true cure for self-righteousness is self-knowledge.

If you would train your children rightly, train them in the way they should go and not in the way they would.

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 as 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.

Make it a part of every day's business to read and meditate on some portion of God's Word. Private means of grace are just as needful every day for our souls as food and clothing are for our bodies.

Wealth is no mark of God’s favor. Poverty is no mark of God’s displeasure.

Without holiness on earth we shall never be prepared to enjoy heaven. Heaven is a holy place. The Lord of heaven is a holy Being. The angels are holy creatures. Holiness is written on everything in heaven... How shall we ever be at home and happy in heaven if we die unholy?

The standard of the world, and the standard of the Lord Jesus, are indeed widely different. They are more than different. They are flatly contradictory one to the other.

People are backsliders on their knees long before they backslide openly in the eyes of the world.

Good hymns are an immense blessing to the Church. They train people for heaven, where praise is one of the principal occupations.

When a person’s tongue is extensively wrong, it is absurd, no less than unscriptural, to say that their heart is right.

If you train your children to anything, train them, at least, to a habit of prayer.

Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption.

Sin and the devil will always find helpers in our hearts.

Death is a solemn event for everyone. It is the winding up of all earthly plans and expectations. It is a separation from all we have loved and lived with. It is often accompanied by much bodily pain and distress. It opens the door to judgement and eternity - to heaven or to hell. It is an event after which there is no change, or space for repentance.

No doubt a man may be saved, like the penitent thief, without having received the Lord's Supper. It is not a matter of absolute and indispensable necessity, like repentance, faith, and conversion. But it is impossible to say that any professing Christian is in a safe, healthy, or satisfactory condition of soul, who habitually refuses to obey Christ and attend the Lord's Table.

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

Parents, do you wish to see your children happy? Take care, then, that you train them to obey when they are spoken to, -to do as they are bid.... Teach them to obey while young, or else they will be fretting against God all their lives long, and wear themselves out with the vain idea of being independent of His control.

Without a thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world.

If you want to find out how much someone loves you, find out how much they pray for you.

Since Satan can't destroy the gospel, he has too often neutralized its usefulness by addition, subtraction or substitution.

The cross is the foundation of the Bible: If you have not yet found out that Christ crucified is the foundation of the whole volume, you have hitherto read your Bible to very little profit. Your religion is a heaven without a sun, an arch without a keystone, a compass without a needle, a clock without a spring or weights, a lamp without oil. It will not comfort you; it will not deliver your soul from hell.

Laughter, ridicule, opposition, persecution, are often the only reward which Christ's followers get from the world.

To be prayerless is to be without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope, and without heaven.