John Charles Ryle (10 May 1816 – 10 June 1900) was an English Evangelical Anglican bishop. He was the first Anglican bishop of Liverpool.
Happy are they, who in the matter of marriage observe three rules. The first is to marry only in the Lord, and after prayer for God’s approval and blessing. The second is not to expect too much from their partners, and to remember that marriage is, after all, the union of two sinners, and not of two angels. The third rule is to strive first and foremost for one another’s sanctification. The more holy married people are, the happier they are.
Look not to yourselves! You are by nature wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Look simply unto Jesus.
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.
Prayer needs neither learning, wisdom or book knowledge to begin it. It needs nothing but heart and will.
People are backsliders on their knees long before they backslide openly in the eyes of the world.
A sin. . . consists in doing, saying, thinking, or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God
A deep sense of sin, a humble willingness to be saved in God's way, a teachable readiness to give up our own prejudices when a more excellent way is shown, these are the principal things. These things the two disciples possessed, and therefore our Lord "went with them" and guided them into all truth.
There is but one fountain of comfort for a man drawing near to his end, and that is the Bible. . . . All comfort from any other source is a house built upon sand.
There is no fickleness about Jesus: those whom He loves, He loves to the end.
So long as you do not quarrel with sin, you will never be a truly happy man.
True Christians delight to read the Scriptures, because they tell them about their beloved Savior.
What is the best safeguard against false doctrine? The Bible regularly read, regularly prayed over, regularly studied.
We can never make too much of Christ. He is worthy of all the honor that we can give Him.
Let us 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 (Hebrews 12:14). Then what an enormous amount of so-called religion there is which is perfectly useless!
A Bible reading laity is a nation's surest defence against error.
When a person’s tongue is extensively wrong, it is absurd, no less than unscriptural, to say that their heart is right.
Happiness does not depend on outward circumstances, but on the state of the heart.
How can we love sin, when we remember that because of our sins Jesus died?
What will it cost [a person] to be a true Christian? It will cost him his self-righteousn ess. He must cast away all pride and high thoughts, and conceit of his own goodness. He must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner, saved only by free grace, and owing all to the merit and righteousness of another.
Let it be a settled principle in our minds that the first and chief business of the Church of Christ is to preach the Gospel.