Practical Religion: Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing ChristiansRyle, J. C. (John Charles)
Religion
Practical Religion: Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing Christians
Ryle, J. C. (John Charles)
Christian life -- Anglican authors
These things, I dare say, may appear to some little and trifling. They
must needs be doing something great, and grand, and striking, and
heroic! I take leave to say that conscientious attention to these little
acts of brotherly-kindness is one of the clearest evidences of having
"the mind of Christ." They are acts in which our blessed Master Himself
was abundant. He was ever "going about doing good" to the sick and
sorrowful. (Acts x. 38.) They are acts to which He attaches great
importance in that most solemn passage of Scripture, the description of
the last judgment. He says there: "I was sick, and ye visited Me."
(Matt. xxv. 36.)
Have you any desire to prove the reality of your charity,--that blessed
grace which so many talk of, and so few practise? If you have, beware of
unfeeling selfishness and neglect of your sick brethren. Search them
out. Assist them if they need aid. Show your sympathy with them. Try to
lighten their burdens. Above all, strive to do good to their souls. It
will do you good if it does no good to them. It will keep your heart
from murmuring. It may prove a blessing to your own soul. I firmly
believe that God is testing and proving us by every case of sickness
within our reach. By permitting suffering, He tries whether Christians
have any feeling. Beware, lest you be weighed in the balances and found
wanting. If you can live in a sick and dying world and not feel for
others, you have yet much to learn.
I leave this branch of my subject here. I throw out the points I have
named as suggestions, and I pray God that they may work in many minds. I
repeat, that habitual preparedness to meet God,--habitual readiness to
suffer patiently,--habitual willingness to sympathize heartily,--are
plain duties which sickness entails on all. They are duties within the
reach of every one. In naming them I ask nothing extravagant or
unreasonable. I bid no man retire into a monastery and ignore the duties
of his station. I only want men to realize that they live in a sick and
dying world, and to live accordingly. And I say boldly, that the man who
lives the life of faith, and holiness, and patience, and charity, is not
only the most true Christian, but the most wise and reasonable man.
And now I conclude all with four words of practical application. I want
the subject of this paper to be turned to some spiritual use. My heart's
desire and prayer to God in placing it in this volume is to do good to
souls.
(1) In the first place, I offer a _question_ to all who read this paper,
to which, as God's ambassador, I entreat their serious attention. It is
a question which grows naturally out of the subject on which I have been
writing. It is a question which concerns all, of every rank, and class,
and condition. I ask you, What will you do when you are ill?
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