The minister who keeps back hell from his people in his sermons is neither a faithful nor a charitable man.
J. C. RyleRead
Sicknesses, losses, crosses, anxieties and disappointments seem absolutely needful to keep us humble, watchful and spiritual-minde d. They are as needful as the pruning knife to the vine and the refiner’s furnace to the gold.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Challenges and hardships are essential for personal growth and humility.
This quote emphasizes that difficulties such as sickness, loss, and disappointment are necessary for fostering humility and spiritual awareness. Just as a vine must be pruned to bear fruit, or gold must be refined to achieve its purity, our struggles serve a purpose in shaping our character and understanding of life.
Themes
SufferingGrowthHumilityHardshipSpiritualityChallenges
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech on resilience, this quote can illustrate the value of overcoming hardships.
More from J. C. Ryle
All quotes →Good hymns are an immense blessing to the Church. They train people for heaven, where praise is one of the principal occupations.
J. C. RyleRead
When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply this - that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual mindedness more marked.
J. C. RyleRead
Those who confine God's love exclusively to the elect appear to me to take a narrow and contracted view of God's character and attributes....I have long come to the conclusion that men may be _x000D_ more systematic in their statements than the Bible, and may be led into grave error by idolatrous veneration of a system
J. C. RyleRead
Never be satisfied with the world's standard of Christianity!
J. C. RyleRead
Sunday morning, before we go to hear the Word of God preached...let us not rush into God’s presence careless, reckless, and unprepared, as if it mattered not in what way such work was done. Let us carry with us faith, reverence, and prayer. If these three are our companions, we will hear with profit, and return with praise.
J. C. RyleRead
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You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.
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