Let Us Pray For Our Children by J.C. Ryle

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Let Us Pray For Our Children by J.C. Ryle

Let us see, furthermore, in this mighty miracle, a lively emblem of Christ’s power to quicken the dead in sins. In Him is life. He quickeneth whom He will. (John 5:21.) 

He can raise to a new life souls that now seem dead in worldliness and sin. He can say to hearts that now appear corrupt and lifeless, ‘Arise to repentance, and live in the service of God.’

Let us never despair of any soul. Let us pray for our children, and faint not. Our young men and our young women may long seem travelling on the way to ruin. But let us pray on. Who can tell but He that met the funeral at the gates of Nain may yet meet our unconverted children, and say with almighty power, ‘Young man, arise.’ With Christ nothing is impossible.”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1879), 1: 211. Ryle is commenting on Luke 7:11-17.

The Model of Sanctification: Jesus Christ by J.C. Ryle

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UPDATE: The new devotional, "Morning Grace, Evening Truth" 365 Days in the Psalms and Gospels with Charles Spurgeon and J.C. Ryle has been released and is available for purchase on Amazon (soft cover and kindle) order HERE. 

The Model of Sanctification: Jesus Christ by J.C. Ryle

The Lord God has mercifully provided His people with everything necessary to their sanctification. He has given those who follow after holiness the clearest of precepts, the best of motives, and the most encouraging of promises.

But this is not all. He has furthermore supplied them with the most perfect pattern and example, even the life of His own Son. By that life he bids us model our own. In the steps of that life He bids us walk. (1 Peter 2:21) It is the model after which we must strive to mold our tempers, our words, and our works, in this evil world. “Would my Master have spoken in this manner? Would my Master have behaved in this way?”–These are the questions by which we ought daily to test ourselves.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 257. {Matthew 20:24-28}

Be Careful in the Peaceful Times by J.C. Ryle

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Be Careful in the Peaceful Times by J.C. Ryle

Let us pray much for humility, and especially for humility in our days of peace and success.

When everything around us seems to prosper, and all our plans work well, – when family trials and sicknesses are kept from us, and the course of our worldly affairs runs smooth, – when our daily crosses are light, and all within and without are like a morning without clouds, – then, then is the time when our souls are in danger!”

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 1, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 359.

What Side Will You Be On? By J.C. Ryle

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What Side Will You Be On? By J.C. Ryle

There will only be two parties of mankind at the last great day: those who are on the right hand of Christ, and those who are on the left; – those who are counted righteous, and those who are wicked; – those who are safe in the ark, and those who are outside; – those who are gathered like wheat into God’s barn, and those who are left behind like tares to be burned. Now, what will your portion be?

~ J.C. Ryle

Practical Religion, “The Great Gathering”, 438.

Sow Righteousness in Your Youth! By J.C. Ryle

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UPDATE: The new devotional, "Morning Grace, Evening Truth" 365 Days in the Psalms and Gospels with Charles Spurgeon and J.C. Ryle has been released and is available for purchase on Amazon (soft cover and kindle) order HERE. 

Sow Righteousness in Your Youth! By J.C. Ryle

Go and ask believers now, and I think many will tell you: “Oh that I could live my young days over again!” He will most likely say, “Oh that I had spent the beginning of my life in a better way! Oh that I had not laid the foundation of evil habits so strongly in the springtime of my journey!”

Young men, I want to save you all this sorrow, if I can. Hell itself is truth known too late. Be wise in time. What youth sows, old age must reap. Do not give the most precious season of your life to that which will not comfort you in the latter days of your life. Sow to yourselves rather in righteousness: break up your hard ground, don’t sow among thorns.

~ J.C. Ryle

Thoughts For Young Men, [Moscow, ID: Charles Nolan Publishing, 2002], 17.

Possessing a Zeal For Christ by J.C. Ryle

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Possessing a Zeal For Christ by J.C. Ryle

We all know that exercise is good for the health, and that regular employment of our muscles and limbs promotes our bodily comfort, and increases our bodily vigor.

Now that which exercise does for our bodies, zeal will do for our souls. It will help mightily to promote inward feelings of joy, peace, comfort, and happiness.

None have so much enjoyment of Christ as those who are ever zealous for His glory—jealous over their own walk—tender over their own consciences—full of anxiety about the souls of others—and ever watching, working, laboring, striving, and toiling to extend the knowledge of Jesus Christ upon earth. Such people live in the full light of the sun, and therefore their hearts are always warm. Such people water others, and therefore they are watered themselves.

~ J.C. Ryle

Practical Religion, “Zeal”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1998], 198.

Training Your Child To Know The Bible by J.C. Ryle

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Training Your Child To Know The Bible by J.C. Ryle

“You cannot make your children love the Bible, I admit. No one but the Holy Spirit can give us a heart to delight in the Word. But you can make sure that your children are acquainted with the Bible; and remember that they can never become acquainted with that blessed book too soon, or too well.

“See that your children read the Bible reverently. Train them to look upon it, not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the Word of God, written by the Holy Spirit Himself—all true, all profitable, and able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ.

“See that they read it regularly. Train them to regard it as their soul’s daily food—as something essential to their soul’s daily health. I well know that you cannot make this anything more than a form; but there is no telling the amount of sin which a mere form may indirectly restrain.

“See that they read it all. You need not shrink from bringing any doctrine before them. You need not assume that the leading doctrines of Christianity are things which children cannot understand. Children understand far more of the Bible than we are apt to suppose.

“Fill their minds with Scripture. Let the Word dwell in them richly. Give them the Bible, the whole Bible, even while they are young.”

~ J.C. Ryle

The Upper Room, “The Duties of Parents”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1970], 290-92.

Parenting Quotes from J.C. Ryle

 UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Parenting Quotes from J.C. Ryle

These quotes are from J.C. Ryle's book "The Duties of Parents" which you can find online here for free. 

“Men can see the faults of their neighbors more clearly than their own.”


“Few are to be found, even among grown-up people, who are not more easy to draw than to drive…We are like young horses in the hand of a breaker: handle them kindly, and make much of them, and by and by you may guide them with a thread.”

“Just so you must set before your children their duty—command, threaten, punish, reason—but if affection be wanting in your treatment, your labor will be in vain.”

In regards to the Bible: “They cannot be acquainted with that blessed book too soon, or too well.”

“Tell them of sin, its guilt, its consequences, its power, its vileness: you will find they can comprehend something of this.”

“Surely if there be any habit which your own hand and eye should help in forming, it is the habit of prayer.”

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

“See to it too, if it can be so arranged, that your children go with you to church, and sit near you when they are there. To go to church is one thing, but to behave well at church is quite another. And believe me, there is no security for good behavior like that of having them under your own eye.”

“Teach them to feel that what they know not now, they will probably know hereafter, and to be satisfied there is a reason and a needs-be for everything you require them to do.” 

“Tell your children, too, that we must all be learners in our beginnings, that there is an alphabet to be mastered in every kind of knowledge, that the best horse in the world had need once to be broken, that a day will come when they will see the wisdom of all your training. But in the meantime if you say a thing is right, it must be enough for them, they must believe you, and be content. 

“Parents, determine to make your children obey you, though it may cost you much trouble, and cost them many tears. Let there be no questioning, and reasoning, and disputing, and delaying, and answering again. When you give them a command, let them see plainly that you will have it done.”

“Little weeds need plucking up as much as any. Leave them alone, and they will soon be great.” 

“But if you do not take trouble with your children when they are young, they will give you trouble when they are old. Choose which you prefer.” 

“Archbishop Tillotson made a wise remark when he said, ‘To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is but beckoning to them with the head to show them the way to heaven, while we take them by the hand and lead them in the way to hell.’” 

“The best of schoolmasters will not imprint on their minds as much as they will pick up at your fireside…What they see has a much stronger effect on their minds than what they are told.” 

“Who sins before a child, sins double.”

“You must not think it a strange and unusual thing, that little hearts can be so full of sin.”

“Let me once more press upon you the necessity and importance of using every single means in your power, if you would train children for heaven.”

“I know well that God is a sovereign God, and does all things according to the counsel of His own will. I know that Rehoboam was the son of Solomon, and Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, and that you do not always see godly parents having a godly seed. But I know also that God is a God who works by means, and sure am I, if you make light of such means as I have mentioned, your children are not likely to turn out well.”

Grace To Stand in the World by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Grace To Stand in the World by J.C. Ryle

“True believers are always represented as mixing in the world, doing their duty in it, and glorifying God by patience, meekness, purity, and courage in their several positions, and not by cowardly desertion of them.

Moreover, it is foolish to suppose that we can keep the world and the devil out of our hearts by going into holes and corners. True Christianity and unworldliness are best seen, not in timidly forsaking the post which God has allotted to us, but in boldly standing our ground, and showing the power of grace to overcome evil.”

~ J.C. Ryle

Practical Religion, “The World”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1998], 293.

Counting the Cost: Your Love of Ease by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Counting the Cost: Your Love of Ease by J.C. Ryle

What does it cost to be a true Christian?

“It will cost a man his love of ease. He must take pains and trouble, if he means to run a successful face towards heaven.

He must daily watch and stand his guard, like a soldier on enemy’s ground. He must take heed to his behavior every hour of the day, in every company, and in every place, in public as well as in private, among strangers as well as at home. He must be careful over his time, his tongue, his temper, his thoughts, his imaginations, his motives, his conduct in every relation of life. He must be diligent about his prayers, his Bible-reading, and his use of Sundays, with all their means of grace.

“This also sounds hard. There is nothing we naturally dislike so much as ‘trouble’ about our religion. We hate trouble. We secretly wish we could have a ‘vicarious’ Christianity, and could be good by proxy, and have everything done for us. Anything that requires exertion and labor is entirely against the grain of our hearts. But the soul can have ‘no gains without pains.’ Let us set down that item third in our account. To be a Christian it will cost a man his love of ease.”

~ J.C. Ryle

From the series “Four Costs of Becoming a Christian”

Faithfulness and Holiness: The Witness of J.C. Ryle, “The Cost”, [Wheaton: Crossway, 2002], 176.

Parents, Remember the Promises of Scripture by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Parents, Remember the Promises of Scripture by J.C. Ryle

 Train them, remembering continually, the promises of Scripture. 

This point is meant to guard you against discouragement. 

You have an absolute promise on your side, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." [Proverbs 22:6] Think what it is to have such a promise like this.

Promises were the only lamp of hope which cheered the hearts of the patriarchs before the Bible was written. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph—all lived on a few promises, and prospered in their souls. Promises are the energizers which in every age have supported and strengthened the believer. He that has a clear text of Scripture on his side need never be depressed. Fathers and mothers, when your hearts are failing, and ready to give up, look at the words of this text, and take comfort. 

Think about who it is that promises. It is not the word of a man, who may lie or repent; it is the Word of the King of kings, who never changes. Has He ever said something, and not done it? Or has He ever spoken a promise, that He will not make good? Neither is anything too hard for Him to perform. The things that are impossible with men are possible with God. Oh, my friend, if we do not receive the benefit of the promise we are dwelling upon, then the fault is not in Him, but in ourselves. 

Think, too, what the promise contains, before you refuse to take comfort from it. It speaks of a certain time when good training will especially bear fruit—"when he is old." Surely there is comfort in this. You may not see with your own eyes the result of careful training, for you do not know what blessed fruits may spring from it, long after you are dead and gone. It is not God's way to give everything at once. "Later" is the time when He often chooses to work, both in the things of nature and in the things of grace. "Later" is the season when affliction bears the peaceable fruit of righteousness. [Hebrews 12:11] "Later" was the time when the son who refused to work in his father's vineyard repented and went [Matthew 21:29]. And "later" is the time to which parents must look forward to if they do not quickly see success—you must sow in hope and plant in hope. 

"Cast your bread upon the waters," says the Spirit, "for after many days you will find it again." [Ecclesiastes 11:1] I do not doubt, that many children, will rise up in the day of judgment, and bless their parents for good training, who never gave any signs of having profited by it during their parents' lives. Go forward then in faith, and be sure that your labor will not totally be wasted. Three times, Elijah stretch himself upon the widow's child before it revived. Use him as an example and persevere.

The book "The Duties of Parents" can be found here: J.C. 

Ryle

How To Lose the Assurance of Your Salvation by J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

How To Lose the Assurance of Your Salvation by J.C. Ryle

Inconsistency of life is utterly destructive of peace of conscience. The two things are incompatible. They cannot and they will not go together.

If you will have your besetting sins and cannot make up your minds to give them up, if you will shrink from cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right eye when occasion requires it, I will engage you will have no assurance.

A vacillating walk, a backwardness to take a bold and decided line, a readiness to conform to the world, a hesitating witness for Christ, a lingering tone of religion, a clinching from a high standard of holiness and spiritual life, all these make up a sure receipt for bringing a blight upon the garden of your soul.

~ J.C. Ryle

Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots, “Assurance”, [Moscow, ID: Charles Nolan Publishing, 2001], 144, 145.

Are You Ready For The New Year? By J.C. Ryle

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Are You Ready For The New Year? By J.C. Ryle

Reader, I ask you a plain question at the beginning of a New Year. Are you ready? It is a solemn thing to part company with the old year. It is a still more solemn thing to begin a new one. It is like entering a dark passage. We know not what we may meet before the end. All before us is uncertain. We know not what a day may bring forth, much less what may happen in a year. Reader, are you ready? 

Are you ready for death? It must come some day. It may come this year. You cannot live always. This very year may be your last. You have no freehold in this world. You have not so much as a lease. You are nothing better than a tenant at God's will. Your last sickness may come upon you and give you notice to exit. The doctor may visit you and exhaust his skill over your case. You may feel yourself drawing near to the coffin, and the grave, and the worm, and an unseen world, and eternity, and God. Reader, if death should come upon you, are you ready?

Are you ready for bereavements? No doubt there are those in the world whom you love. There are those whose names are engraved on your heart, and round whom your affections are entwined. There are those who are the light of your eyes, and the very sunshine of your existence. But they are all mortal. Any one of them may die this year. Before the daisies blossom again, any one of them may be lying in the tomb. Reader, are you ready?

Reader, if you are not ready, I beseech you to make ready without delay. I tell you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that all things are ready on God's part for your salvation. The Father is ready to receive you. The Lord Jesus is ready to wash your sins away. The Spirit is ready to renew and sanctify you. Angels are ready to rejoice over you. Saints are ready to hold out the right hand to you. Oh! why not make ready this very year?

You can find this Ryle devotional on youtube HERE.