The minister who keeps back hell from his people in his sermons is neither a faithful nor a charitable man.
J. C. RyleRead
Without holiness on earth we shall never be prepared to enjoy heaven. Heaven is a holy place. The Lord of heaven is a holy Being. The angels are holy creatures. Holiness is written on everything in heaven... How shall we ever be at home and happy in heaven if we die unholy?
Interpretation
Holiness is essential for enjoying a pure and joyful existence, both on earth and in heaven.
This quote emphasizes the importance of holiness as a prerequisite for experiencing true joy and fulfillment in heaven. It suggests that if we are not striving for holiness in our earthly lives, we will not be prepared to thrive in the holy environment of heaven, which is intrinsically linked to purity and spiritual integrity.
In practice
A church sermon discussing the significance of holiness in preparing for the afterlife.
The minister who keeps back hell from his people in his sermons is neither a faithful nor a charitable man.
Good hymns are an immense blessing to the Church. They train people for heaven, where praise is one of the principal occupations.
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.
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
Never be satisfied with the world's standard of Christianity!
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.
Birds know themselves not to be at the center of anything, but at the margins of everything. The end of the map. We only live where someone's horizon sweeps someone else's. We are only noticed on the edge of things; but on the edge of things, we notice much.
Cast a cold eye on life, on death Horseman pass by
Actions defined a man; words were a fart in the wind
This so gnawed at him on some nights that he lay awake wondering just how many unknown and similarly inconsequential accidents and bits of happenstance were at this moment occurring or failing to occur in order to ensure he took his next breath, and the next.
In the war of magic and religion, is magic ultimately the victor? Perhaps priest and magician were once one, but the priest, learning humility in the face of God, discarded the spell for prayer.
A man sometimes devotes his life to a desire which he is not sure will ever be fulfilled. Those who laugh at this folly are, after all, no more than mere spectators of life.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.