PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Practical Religion Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing Christians
Ryle, J. C. (John Charles), 1816-1900 · 171,469 words · 219 reading sections
Part 181
But that God is a reconciled and pardoning Father to any but the members of His Son Jesus Christ, and that any are members of Jesus Christ who do not believe on Him for salvation,--this is a doctrine which I utterly deny. The holiness and justice of God are both against the doctrine. They make it impossible for sinful …
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(_b_) _The conscience of man_ is directly against these teachers. Let them go to the bedside of some dying child of the world, and try to comfort him with their doctrines. Let them see if their vaunted theories will calm his gnawing, restless anxiety about the future, and enable him to depart in peace. Let them show us…
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Who is there among the readers of this paper who _desires to become a son of God_? Let that person see and feel his sins, and flee to Christ for salvation, and this day he shall be placed among the children.--Only acknowledge thine iniquity, and lay hold on the hand that Jesus holds out to thee this day, and sonship, w…
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Settle this down in your heart, and do not let it go. The sons of God are a people "led by the Spirit of God," and always led more or less in the same way. Their experience will tally wonderfully when they compare notes in heaven. This is one mark of sonship. (2) Furthermore, all the sons of God _have the feelings of …
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I do not for a moment deny that this witness of the Spirit is exceedingly various in the extent to which the sons of God possess it. With some it is a loud, clear, ringing, distinct testimony of conscience: "I am Christ's, and Christ is mine." With others it is a little, feeble, stammering whisper, which the devil and …
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Tell me not that you have been baptized and taught the catechism of the Church of England, and therefore must be a child of God. I tell you that the parish register is not the book of life. I tell you that to be styled a child of God, and called regenerate in infancy by the faith and charity of the Prayer-book, is one …
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The very Bible itself only lifts a little of the veil which hangs over this subject. How could it do more? We could not thoroughly understand more if more had been told us. Our mental constitution is as yet too earthly,--our understanding is as yet too carnal to appreciate more if we had it. The Bible generally deals w…
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(_e_) Is _satisfaction_ pleasant to us now? Do we find the world empty? Do we long for the filling up of every void place and gap in our hearts? We shall have it perfectly in glory. We shall no longer have to mourn over cracks in all our earthen vessels, and thorns in all our roses, and bitter dregs in all our sweet cu…
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If you are one of those who are sons and heirs, you may well rejoice and be happy. You may well wait, like the boy Patience in Pilgrim's Progress: your best things are yet to come. You may well bear crosses without murmuring: your light affliction is but for a moment. "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy…
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"Yet a little time and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." (Heb. x. 37.) Then shall be the glorious liberty, and the full manifestation of the sons of God. (Rom. viii. 19, 21.) Then shall the world acknowledge that they were the truly wise. Then shall the sons of God at length come of age, and be no long…
109 wordsSECTION 191THE GREAT GATHERING
"_Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him._"--2 Thess. ii. 1. The text which heads this page contains an expression which deserves no common attention. That expression is,--"Our gathering together." "Our gathering together!" Those three words touch …
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The _manner_ of this "gathering together" is plainly revealed in Scripture. The dead saints shall all be raised, and the living saints shall all be changed. It is written, "The sea shall give up the dead which are in it, and death and hell shall give up the dead that are in them."--"The dead in Christ shall rise first.…
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This mighty, wonderful "gathering together," is the gathering which ought to be often in men's thoughts. It deserves consideration: it demands attention. Gatherings of other kinds are incessantly occupying our minds, political gatherings, scientific gatherings, gatherings for pleasure, gatherings for gain. But the hour…
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(3) For another thing, the gathering together of true Christians will be _a meeting at which none shall be absent_. The weakest lamb shall not be left behind in the wilderness: the youngest babe that ever drew breath shall not be overlooked or forgotten. We shall once more see our beloved friends and relatives who fell…
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(2) _I offer you a plain means of testing your own soul's condition_, if you want to know your own chance of being gathered into God's home. Ask yourself what kind of gatherings you like best here upon earth? Ask yourself whether you really love the assembling together of God's people? How could that man enjoy the mee…
836 wordsSECTION 196THE GREAT SEPARATION
"_Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire._"--Matt. iii. 12. The verse of Scripture which is now before our eyes contains words which were spoken by John the Baptist. They are a prophecy about our Lord J…
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Yes! you may have rare intellectual gifts and high mental attainments: you may sway kingdoms by your counsel, move millions by your pen, or keep crowds in breathless attention by your tongue; but if you have never submitted yourself to the yoke of Christ, and never honoured His Gospel by heartfelt reception of it, you …
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See now what cause there is for self-inquiry. Are you among the wheat, or among the chaff? Neutrality is impossible. Either you are in one class, or in the other. Which is it of the two? You attend church, perhaps. You go to the Lord's table. You like good people. You can distinguish between good preaching and bad. Yo…
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(_b_) Before Christ comes it is useless to _expect to see a perfect Church_. There cannot be such a thing. The wheat and the chaff, in the present state of things, will always be found together. I pity those who leave one Church and join another, because of a few faults and unsound members. I pity them, because they ar…
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Who is there now among the readers of this paper that loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity? If I know anything of the heart of a Christian, your greatest trials are in the company of worldly people,--your greatest joys in the company of the saints. Yes! there are many weary days, when your spirit feels broken and c…
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Bear with me while I try to tell you something about Christ's care for poor sinners that believe in Him. Alas, indeed, that it should be needful! But we live in a day of weak and feeble statements. The danger of the state of nature is feebly exposed. The privileges of the state of grace are feebly set forth. Hesitating…
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(_c_) The Lord _cares for His believing people in their deaths_. Their times are all in the Lord's hand. The hairs of their heads are all numbered, and not one can ever fall to the ground without their Father. They are kept on earth till they are ripe and ready for glory, and not one moment longer. When they have had s…
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And can you suppose the Lord Jesus Christ is less merciful and less compassionate? Can you think He would suffer on the cross and die, and yet leave it uncertain whether believers in Him would be saved? Can you think He would wrestle with death and hell, and go down to the grave for our sakes, and yet allow our eternal…
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Their punishment shall be _most severe_. There is no pain like that of burning. Put your finger in the candle for a moment, if you doubt this, and try. Fire is the most destructive and devouring of all elements. Look into the mouth of a blast-furnace, and think what it would be to be there. Fire is of all elements most…
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(_b_) Do you believe the Bible? Then depend upon it, _hell will have inhabitants_. The wicked shall certainly be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God. "These shall go away into everlasting punishment." (Matt. xxv. 46.) The same blessed Saviour who now sits on a throne of grace, will one day sit on a thr…
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I beseech every reader of this paper, in all tender affection, to beware of false views of the subject on which I have been dwelling. Beware of new and strange doctrines about hell and the eternity of punishment. Beware of manufacturing a God of your own,--a God who is all mercy, but not just,--a God who is all love, b…
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Many, I am satisfied, never look on religion as a matter that concerns themselves. They attend on its outward part, as a decent and proper fashion. They hear sermons. They read religious books. They have their children christened. But all the time they never ask themselves, "What is all this to me?" They sit in our chu…
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Take comfort, I say once more, if you have really come to Christ. Take comfort, and know your privileges. Cast every care on Jesus. Tell every want to Jesus. Roll every burden on Jesus: sins,--unbelief,--doubts,--fears,--anxieties,--lay them all on Christ. He loves to see you doing so. He loves to be employed as your H…
127 wordsSECTION 209ETERNITY!
"_The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal._"--2 Cor. iv. 18. A subject stands out on the face of this text which is one of the most solemn and heart-searching in the Bible. That subject is _eternity_.[16] 16: The following pages contain the _substance_ of a sermon which I…
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Humbling and painful as these truths may sound, it is good for us all to realize them and lay them to heart. The houses we live in, the homes we love, the riches we accumulate, the professions we follow, the plans we form, the relations we enter into,--they are only for a time. "The things seen are temporal." "The fash…
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Let us settle it, for another thing, in our minds, that the _future misery_ of those who are finally lost is eternal. This is an awful truth, I am aware, and flesh and blood naturally shrink from the contemplation of it. But I am one of those who believe it to be plainly revealed in Scripture, and I dare not keep it ba…
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(_a_) Let us hold it fast _in the interest of the whole system of revealed religion_. What was the use of God's Son becoming incarnate, agonizing in Gethsemane, and dying on the cross to make atonement, if men can be finally saved without believing on Him? Where is the slightest proof that saving faith in Christ's bloo…
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The life that we live upon earth is short at the very best, and soon gone. "We spend our days as a tale that is told."--"What is our life? It is a vapour: so soon passeth it away, and we are gone." (Psalm xc. 9; James iv. 14.) The life that is before us when we leave this world is an endless eternity, a sea without a b…
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I charge every reader of this paper to remember this, and to make a good use of time. Regard it as the stuff of which life is made, and never waste it or throw it away. Your hours and days and weeks and months and years have all something to say to an eternal condition beyond the grave. What you sow in life you are sur…
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Let us all settle it firmly in our minds that the only way to pass through "things seen" with comfort, and look forward to "things unseen" without fear, is to have Christ for our Saviour and Friend, to lay hold on Christ by faith, to become one with Christ and Christ in us, and while we live in the flesh to live the li…
641 wordsSECTION 216P. S.
Since preaching the above Sermon I have read Canon Farrar's volume, "Eternal Hope." With much that this book contains I cannot at all agree. Anything that comes from the pen of such a well-known writer of course deserves respectful consideration. But I must honestly confess, after reading "Eternal Hope," that I see no …
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As to the _difficulties_ besetting the old or common view of future punishment, I admit their existence, and I do not pretend to explain them. But I always expect to find many mysteries in revealed religion, and I am not stumbled by them. I see other difficulties in the world which I cannot solve, and I am content to w…
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The favourite argument of some, that no religious doctrine can be true which is rejected by the "common opinion" and popular feeling of mankind,--that any texts which contradict this common popular feeling must be wrongly interpreted,--and that therefore eternal punishment cannot be true, because the inward feeling of …
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p.8 thing changed to think p.38 the burden o changed to the burden of p.77 beecome changed to become p.148 still remain to be changed to still remains to be p.241 Aphorisims changed to Aphorisms p.320 all lasses changed to all classes p.335 thorougly changed to thoroughly p.469 still fresh on you mind changed to still …
81 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.