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
Oh, think, think what a state this is to live in! Think, think above all
things, what a state this is to die in! Your life is but a vapour. A few
more years at most and you are gone: your place in the world will soon
be filled up; your house will be occupied by another. The sun will go on
shining; the grass and daises will soon grow thick over your grave; your
body will be food for worms, and your soul will be lost to all eternity.
And all this time there stands open before you a gate of salvation. God
invites you. Jesus Christ offers to save you. All things are ready for
your deliverance. One thing only is wanting, and that is that you should
be willing to be saved.
Oh think of these things, and be wise!
(2) For another thing, I will give plain advice to all who are not yet
inside the strait gate. That advice is simply this: _to enter in without
a day's delay_.
Tell me, if you can, of any one who ever reached heaven excepting
through "the strait gate." I know of none. From Abel, the first who
died, down to the end of the list of Bible names, I see none saved by
any way but that of faith in Christ.
Tell me, if you can, of any one who ever entered in at the strait gate
without "striving." I know of none excepting those who die in infancy.
He that would win heaven must be content to fight for it.
Tell me, if you can, of any one who ever strove earnestly to enter, and
failed to succeed. I know of none. I believe that however weak and
ignorant men may be, they never seek life heartily and conscientiously,
at the right door, and are left without an answer of peace.
Tell me, if you can, of any one who ever entered in at the strait gate,
and was afterwards sorry. I know of none. I believe the footsteps on the
threshold of that gate are all one way. All have found it a good thing
to serve Christ, and have never regretted taking up His cross.
If these things are so, seek Christ without delay, and enter in at the
gate of life while you can! Make a beginning this very day. Go to that
merciful and mighty Saviour in prayer, and pour out your heart before
Him. Confess to Him your guilt and wickedness and sin. Unbosom yourself
freely to Him: keep nothing back. Tell Him that you cast yourself and
all your soul's affairs wholly on His hands, and ask Him to save you
according to His promise, and put His Holy Spirit within you.
There is everything _to encourage you to do this_. Thousands as bad as
you have applied to Christ in this way, and not one of them has been
sent away and refused. They have found a peace of conscience they never
knew before, and have gone on their way rejoicing. They have found
strength for all the trials of life, and none of them have been allowed
to perish in the wilderness. Why should not you also seek Christ?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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