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, prayerless man, who and what are you that you will not ask anything
of God? Have you made a covenant with death and hell? Are you at peace
with the worm and the fire? Have you no sins to be pardoned? Have you no
fear of eternal torment? Have you no desire after heaven? Oh, that you
would awake from your present folly! Oh, that you would consider your
latter end! Oh, that you would arise and call upon God! Alas, there is a
day coming when men shall pray loudly, "Lord, Lord, open to us," but all
too late;--when many shall cry to the rocks to fall on them, and the
hills to cover them, who would never cry to God. In all affection I warn
you. Beware lest this be the end of your soul. Salvation is very near
you. Do not lose heaven for want of asking.
(2) Let me speak in the next place _to those who have real desires for
salvation_, but know not what steps to take or where to begin. I cannot
but hope that some readers may be in this state of mind, and if there be
but one such I must offer him encouragement and advice.
In every journey there must be a first step. There must be a change from
sitting still to moving forward. The journeyings of Israel from Egypt to
Canaan were long and wearisome. Forty years passed away before they
crossed Jordan. Yet there was someone who moved first when they marched
from Rameses to Succoth. When does a man really take his first step in
coming out from sin and the world? He does it in the day when he first
prays with his heart.
In every building the first stone must be laid, and the first blow must
be struck. The ark was 120 years in building. Yet there was a day when
Noah laid his axe to the first tree he cut down to form it. The temple
of Solomon was a glorious building. But there was a day when the first
huge stone was laid at the foot of Mount Moriah. When does the building
of the Spirit really begin to appear in a man's heart? It begins, so far
as we can judge, when he first pours out his heart to God in prayer.
If any reader of this paper desires salvation, and wants to know what to
do, I advise him to go this very day to the Lord Jesus Christ, in the
first private place he can find, and entreat Him in prayer to save his
soul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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