Train Your Children to be Faithful in Attending Church By J.C. Ryle

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Train Your Children to be Faithful in Attending Church By J.C. Ryle

Train them to be faithful and regular in attending church and the Lord’s Supper. 

Tell them of the duty and privilege of going to Church, and joining in the prayers of the congregation.

Tell them that wherever the Lord's people are gathered together, there the Lord Jesus is present in a special way, and that those who are absent must expect, like the Apostle Thomas, to miss out on a blessing. Tell them of the importance of hearing the Word of God preached, and that it is God's ordained way of converting, sanctifying, and building up the souls of men. Tell them how the Apostle Paul commands us not to "give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but to encourage one another—and all the more as we see the Day approaching." [Hebrews 10:25]

It is a sad sight in a church when nobody comes to the Lord's Table but the older people, and the young men and the young women all turn away. But it is a sadder sight still when no children are to be seen in a church, except those who come to the Sunday School, and are often obliged to attend. Let none of this guilt lie at your doors. There are many boys and girls in every city, besides those who come to Sunday School, and you who are their parents and friends should see to it that they come with you to church. 

Do not allow them to grow up with a habit of making vain excuses for not coming. Make them clearly understand, that so long as they are under your roof, it is the rule of your house for every one in good health to honor the Lord on the Lord's day, and that you believe that the healthy person who refuses to go to church on the Lord’s Day brings great harm to his soul. 

Also see to it, if it can be 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 guarantee for good behavior like that of having them under your own watchful eye. 

The minds of young people are easily distracted, and their attention lost, and every possible means should be used to counteract this. I do not like to see them coming to church by themselves—they often get into bad company, and so learn more evil on the Lord's day than in all the rest of the week. Neither do I like to see what I call "a young people's corner" in a church. They often catch habits of inattention and irreverence there, which it takes years to unlearn, if they are ever unlearned at all. What I like to see is a whole family sitting together, old and young, side by side—men, women, and children, serving God as a family. 

But there are some who say that it is useless to urge children to attend church and the Lord’s Supper, because they are too young to understand them. 

Do not listen to such reasoning. I find no such doctrine in the Old Testament. When Moses goes before Pharaoh, I observe that he says, "We will go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters, because we are to celebrate a festival to the LORD." [Exodus 10:9] When Joshua read God’s Law, I notice that the Bible says, "There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children." [Joshua 8:35] And when I turn to the New Testament, I find children mentioned there as partaking in public acts of religion as well as in the Old Testament. When Paul was leaving the disciples at Tyre for the last time, he said, "We left and continued on our way. All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray." [Acts 21:5]

Samuel, in the days of his childhood, appears to have ministered to the Lord some time before he really knew Him, the Bible says, "Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him." [1 Samuel 3:7] The Apostles themselves do not seem to have understood all that our Lord said at the time that it was spoken: "At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about Him." [John 12:16]

Parents, comfort your minds with these examples. Do not be discouraged because your children do not see the full value of church and the Lord’s Supper now. Just train them to have a habit of regular attendance. Set it before their minds as a high, holy, and solemn duty, and believe me, the day will very likely come when they will bless you for your efforts.

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

Discovering Your Depravity 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. 

Discovering Your Depravity by J.C. Ryle

Be very sure that self–knowledge is the first step towards heaven. To know God’s unspeakable perfection, and our own immense imperfection, to see our own unspeakable defectiveness and corruption, is the ABC in saving religion.

The more real inward light we have, the more humble and lowly–minded we shall be, and the more we shall understand the value of that despised thing, the gospel of Christ. He that thinks worst of himself and his own doings is perhaps the best Christian before God. Well would it be for many if they would pray, night and day, this simple prayer: “Lord, show me myself.”

~ J.C. Ryle

Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots, “Unsearchable Riches”, [Moscow, ID: Charles Nolan Publishing, 2001], 346.

Family Gatherings At Christmas By J.C. Ryle

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 Family Gatherings At Christmas By J.C. Ryle

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." -Luke 2:11

Family gatherings at Christmas, we all know, are very common. Thousands of firesides are crowded then, if at no other time of the year. The young man in town snatches a few days from business, and takes a run down to visit "the old folks at home." The young woman gets a short holiday, and comes to visit her father and mother. 

Brothers and sisters meet for a few hours. Parents and children look one another in the face. How much there is to talk about! How many questions to be asked! How many interesting things to be told! Happy indeed is that fireside which sees gathered round it at Christmas, "the whole family!"

Family gatherings at Christmas are natural, and right, and good. I approve them with all my heart. It does me good to see them kept up. They are one of the very few pleasant things which have survived the fall of man. Next to the grace of God, I see no principle which unites people so much in this sinful world, as family feeling. 

Community of blood is a most powerful tie. I have often observed that people will stand up for their relations, merely because they are their relations, and refuse to hear a word against them, even when they have no sympathy with their tastes and ways. Anything which helps to keep up family feeling ought to be commended. It is a wise thing, when it can be done, to gather together at Christmas "the whole family."

Family gatherings, nevertheless, are often sorrowful things. It would be strange indeed, in such a world as this, if they were not. Few are the family circles which do not show gaps and vacant places as years pass away.

 Changes and deaths make sad havoc as time goes on.  Our Christmas gatherings on earth must have an end one day. Our last earthly Christmas must come. Happy indeed, is that Christmas which finds us prepared to meet God!

YOU CAN LISTEN TO THIS DEVOTIONAL HERE ON YOUTUBE

From the sermon “The Family of God”

Jesus Is Coming Again! By J.C. Ryle

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Jesus Is Coming Again! By J.C. Ryle

"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." -Revelation 22:20

What will you see when that great event takes place? You will see the eternal Son of God return in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. He will come to raise the dead saints and to change the living ones, to punish the wicked and to reward the godly, to summon every one before His bar, and to give to every one according to His works. 

He will come to bind Satan, and deprive him of his usurped dominion, to deliver the earth from the curse, and to purify it as the eternal dwelling-place of a holy nation; to cast out sin, and all its accursed consequences- disease, death, sorrow, wars, poverty, injustice, and oppression. You see the world defiled now by the presence of evil. You will see it at length restored to its former state, and the days of paradise before the fall brought back again.

What will you get by looking forward to Jesus coming again? You will get that which is the best remedy against disquiet and depression, hope shed abroad in your heart about things to come. 

When the minds of others are cast down with perplexity, you will feel able to lift up your head and rejoice; when all around seems dark and gloomy, you will see light, and be able to wait patiently for better days.Few things are so remarkable in the present time as the universal anxiety and suspense about the future.

 On all sides, and among all classes, you hear of lack of confidence and gloomy forebodings of coming evil; Church and State alike seem shaken to their foundations: no one seems to know what to expect next. On one thing alone men seem agreed: they look forward with more fear than hope to the future. In a day like this there is no comfort like that of looking forward to Christ coming again. The Christian who reads his Bible, and believes what it contains, can behold the shaking of all things round him unmoved. 

THIS SHORT DEVOTIONAL IS ON YOUTUBE CLICK HERE TO LISTEN. 

From the sermon “Are You Looking”

I Give My Sheep Eternal Life By J.C. Ryle

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I Give My Sheep Eternal Life By J.C. Ryle

And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. -John 10:28

The Lord Jesus says of His sheep, "I give unto them eternal life!" What is the portion which Jesus gives His people? "eternal life", a perfect, never-ending happiness for that which is the most important part of a man, his immortal soul. They shall not be hurt by the second death, which alone is to be really feared. What greater things could our Lord bestow upon His people? Health and riches and honor and pleasures, houses and lands, and wives and children, what are they? How long do they last? It is but threescore years and ten, and we must leave them all, and six feet of vile earth is room enough for us. Naked came we into the world, and naked must we return unto the dust, and carry nothing with us. What is the difference between the rich and the poor in death? They both go unto one and the same place; the worm feeds sweetly on them both; it is but a short time, and you would not be able to distinguish between their bones.

But if the poor man sleeps in Jesus, while the rich man dies in his sins, oh, what a mighty gulf then is between them! The rich will take up his abode in that fire which is never quenched; the poor will awake to find he has an everlasting treasure in heaven, even eternal life. Eternal life! Compared to which this world's concerns, weighty and important as they seem, are like a drop of water. 

Consider with yourselves how glorious that doctrine is; how thoroughly it takes away all excuse from the impenitent. Pardon and forgiveness are here unconditionally bestowed; we are not told that we must pay off so much every day, and then shall be saved, that would drive us to doubt and despair, but if a man will only hear Christ's voice and follow Him, "Behold "says Jesus, "I give unto him eternal life, there remains no condemnation for him.”

THIS SHORT DEVOTIONAL IS ON YOUTUBE CLICK HERE TO LISTEN. 

From the sermon “The Privileges of Christian"

The Precious Promises of the Bible 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 Precious Promises of the Bible by J.C. Ryle

Let us read our Bibles in private more, and with more pains and diligence. Ignorance of Scripture is the root of all error, and makes a person helpless in the hand of the devil.

There is less private Bible reading, I suspect, than there was fifty years ago. I never can believe that so many men and women would have been “tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine,” some falling into skepticism, some rushing into the wildest and narrowest fanaticism, and some going over to Rome, if there had not grown up a habit of lazy, superficial, careless, perfunctory reading of God’s Word. “You do err not knowing the Scriptures” (Matt. 22:29). The Bible in the pulpit must never supersede the Bible at home.

~ J.C. Ryle

Tract: Needs of the Times

When Secret Backsliding Goes Public 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. 

When Secret Backsliding Goes Public by J.C. Ryle

Great illnesses seldom attack the body, without a previous train of premonitory symptoms. Great falls seldom happen to a saint, without a previous course of secret backsliding.

The church and the world are sometimes shocked by the sudden misconduct of some great professor of religion. Believers are discouraged and stumbled by it. The enemies of God rejoice and blaspheme. But if the truth could be known, the explanation of such cases would generally be found to have been private departure from God. People fall in private, long before they fall in public. The tree falls with a great crash, but the secret decay which accounts for it, is often not discovered until it is down on the ground.

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 376, 377. {Matthew 26:69-75}

Train Your Children in the Habit of Faith 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. 

Train Your Children in the Habit of Faith By J.C. Ryle

Train them to have a habit of faith. 

By this I mean, you should train them to believe what you say. You should try to make them feel confidence in your judgment, and respect your opinions, as better than their own.

You should cause them to think that, when you say a thing is bad for them, it must be bad, and when you say it is good for them, it must be good; that your knowledge, in short, is better than their own, and that they may rely implicitly on your word. Teach them to feel that what they do not know now, they will probably know later, and to be satisfied there is a reason for everything you require them to do. 

Who can describe the blessedness of a real spirit of faith? Or rather, who can tell the misery that unbelief has brought on the world? Unbelief made Eve eat the forbidden fruit—she doubted the truth of God's word: "You will surely die." Unbelief made the old world reject Noah's warning, and so perish in their sin. Unbelief kept Israel in the wilderness—it was the barricade that kept them from entering the promised land. Unbelief made the Jews crucify the Lord of glory—they did not believe the voice of Moses and the prophets, even though they were read to them every day. And unbelief is the reigning sin of man's heart down to this very hour—unbelief in God's promises—unbelief in God's wrath and discipline—unbelief in our own sinfulness—unbelief in our own danger—unbelief in everything that runs counter to the pride and worldliness of our evil hearts. Your training of your children is worth very little if you do not train them to have a habit of implicit faith—faith in their parents' word, confidence that what their parents say must be right. 

I have heard it said by some, that you should require nothing of children which they cannot understand, and that you should explain and give a reason for everything you desire them to do. I solemnly warn you against such a notion. I tell you plainly, I think it is an unsound and corrupt principle. No doubt it is absurd to make a mystery of everything you do, and there are many things which it is good to explain to children, in order that they may see that what we say is reasonable and wise. But to bring them up with the idea that they must take nothing on trust, that they, with their weak and imperfect comprehension, must have the " why " and the "wherefore" made clear to them at every step they take—this is indeed a fearful mistake, and likely to have the worst effect on their minds. 

At certain times, if you are so inclined, reason with your child, but never forget to keep in mind (if you really love him) that he is only a child—that he thinks as a child, he understands as a child, and therefore must not always expect to know the reason for everything. 

Set before him the example of Isaac, in the day when Abraham took him to offer him as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah [Genesis 22]. Isaac asked his father a simple question, "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" and he got no answer but this, "Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb." How, or where, or when, or in what manner, or by what means—all this Isaac was not told; but the answer was enough. He believed that it would all be okay, because his father said so, and he was content. 

Also, tell your children, that we must all be learners in all of our beginnings, that there is an alphabet to be mastered in every kind of knowledge—that the best horse in the world once needed 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, if any point in training is important, it is this. I charge you by the love that you have for your children, use every means to train them to have a habit of faith.

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

Get Rid of Your Idols! 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. 

Get Rid of Your Idols! By J.C. Ryle

Are we honest and sincere in our professed desire to be true Christians? Have we given up all our idols?

Is there no secret sin that we are silently clinging to, and refusing to give up? Is there no thing or person that we are privately loving more than Christ and our souls? These are questions that ought to be answered. The true explanation of the unsatisfactory state of many hearers of the Gospel, is spiritual idolatry. We need not wonder that John says, “Keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21.)

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 240, 241.

Find Out the State of Your Soul! 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.

Find Out the State of Your Soul! By J.C. Ryle

You cannot live forever. You must one day die. You cannot avoid the judgment after death. You must stand before the bar of Christ.

The summons of the Archangel cannot be disobeyed. The last great assembly must be attended. The state of your own soul must one day undergo a thorough investigation. It will be found out one day what you are in God’s sight. Your spiritual condition will at length be brought to light before the whole world. Oh, find out what it is now! While you have time, while you have health, find out the state of your soul.

~ J.C. Ryle

Tract: Never Perish

What Will They Do In Heaven? 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.

What Will They Do In Heaven? By J.C. Ryle

Look at the greater part of those who are called Christians, in every part throughout the land…What are the tastes and pleasures of the majority of the people who live there?…

Observe the manner in which they spend their Sundays. Mark how little delight they seem to feel in the Bible and prayer. Take notice of the low and earthly notions of pleasure and happiness which everywhere prevail, among young and old—among rich and poor. Mark well these things—and then think quietly over this question: ‘What would these people do in heaven?’

~ J.C. Ryle

Regeneration, 26.

Do Not Tolerate False Teaching 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.

Do Not Tolerate False Teaching by J.C. Ryle

If we would hold fast that which is good, we must never tolerate or support any doctrine which is not the pure doctrine of Christ’s Gospel.

There is a hatred which is downright charity – that is the hatred of erroneous doctrine. There is an intolerance which is downright praiseworthy – that is the intolerance of false teaching in the pulpit. Who would ever think of tolerating a little poison given to them day by day? If men come among you who do not preach “all the counsel of God,” who do not preach of Christ, sin, holiness, of ruin, redemption, and regeneration, and do not preach of these things in a Scriptural way, you ought to cease to hear them.

~ J.C. Ryle

Knots Untied, “Private Judgment” [Cambridge, England: James Clarke & Co., 1977], 44.