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
Love to the Word is one of the first things that appears in the
converted heathen, at the various Missionary stations throughout the
world. In hot climates and in cold,--among savage people and among
civilized,--in New Zealand, in the South Sea Islands, in Africa, in
Hindostan,--it is always the same. They enjoy hearing it read. They long
to be able to read it themselves. They wonder why Christians did not
send it to them before. How striking is the picture which Moffat draws
of Africaner, the fierce South African chieftain, when first brought
under the power of the Gospel! "Often have I seen him," he says, "under
the shadow of a great rock nearly the live-long day, eagerly perusing
the pages of the Bible."--How touching is the expression of a poor
converted Negro, speaking of the Bible! He said, "It is never old and
never cold."--How affecting was the language of another old negro, when
some would have dissuaded him from learning to read, because of his
great age. "No!" he said, "I will never give it up till I die. It is
worth all the labour to be able to read that one verse, 'God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life.'"
Love to the Bible is one of the grand points of agreement among all
converted men and women in our own land. Episcopalians and
Presbyterians, Baptists and Independents, Methodists and Plymouth
Brethren,--all unite in honouring the Bible, as soon as they are real
Christians. This is the manna which all the tribes of our Israel feed
upon, and find satisfying food. This is the fountain round which all the
various portions of Christ's flock meet together, and from which no
sheep goes thirsty away. Oh, that believers in this country would learn
to cleave more closely to the written Word! Oh, that they would see that
the more the Bible, and the Bible only, is the substance of men's
religion, the more they agree! It is probable there never was an
uninspired book more universally admired than Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress. It is a book which all denominations of Christians delight to
honour. It has won praise from all parties. Now what a striking fact it
is, that the author was pre-eminently a man of one book! He had read
hardly anything but the Bible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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