J. C. Ryle Quotes

Being a Christian means renouncing ourselves, taking up the cross and carrying it with Jesus. There is no other way.

Followers of Jesus who count the cost and are willing to take up their crosses after him must have broad shoulders.

The honour of Jesus Christ is at stake in your bodily life. Are you remaining loyal to the Son of God in the things which beset His life in you? Do you continue to go with Jesus? The way lies through Gethsemane, through the city gate, outside the camp; the way lies alone, and the way lies until there is no trace of a footstep left, only the voice, 'Follow Me.'

Carrying the cross does mean following in Jesus' footsteps. And in His footsteps are rejection, brokenheartedness, persecution and death. There are not two Christs - an easy going one for easy going Christians, and a suffering one for exceptional believers. There is only one Christ. Are we willing to follow His lead?

There are many who say they want to be victorious Christians, but few are willing to endure the discipline necessary to make one a good solider of Jesus Christ. There is a prize to possess, but before we possess it there is a price to be paid, and few will pay it.

If we wish to follow Christ closely, we cannot choose an easy, quiet life. It will be a demanding life, but full of joy.

To be a Christian who is willing to travel with Christ on his downward road requires being willing to detach oneself constantly from any need to be relevant, and to trust ever more deeply the Word of God.

Let us remind ourselves that if we are to be our Lord's disciples, we must take up his Cross and follow him.

In order to mount to the Cross, the summit of sacrifice, and to God, the summit of immateriality, Christ passed through all the stages which the man who struggles passes through.

If you will tell me when God permits a Christian to lay aside his armour, I will tell you when Satan has left off temptation.

A sheep in the midst of wolves is safe compared with the Christian in the midst of ungodly men.

There is no such thing as low-cost Christianity. Following Jesus means swimming against the tide, renouncing evil and selfishness

The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

To be Christian it will cost a man his love of ease.

Not he who scorns the Saviour's yoke Should wear his cross upon the heart.

Any man who takes Jesus Christ seriously becomes the target of the devil. Most church members do not give Satan enough trouble to arouse his opposition

When I first became a Christian I thought I would be glad when I got farther on, and got established. I thought I would be so strong and there would not be any danger; but the longer I live, the more danger I see there is. The only hope of any Christian...is to keep hold of Christ.

We're not thinking straight if we say we want to be like Jesus but we don't want to go through anything Jesus went through!

Most of the world's great souls have been lonely. Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness... Always remember: you cannot carry a cross in company. Though a man were surrounded by a vast crowd, his cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart. Society has turned against him; otherwise he would have no cross. No one is a friend to the man with a cross.

Even the disciples of Jesus all fled from their master's cross. Christians who do not have the feeling that they must flee the crucified Christ have probably not yet understood him in a sufficiently radical way.

Christ also takes from us all inclination or power to boast of our national prestige. To me, it is prestige enough to be a Christian--to bear the cross Christ gives me to carry and to follow in the footsteps of the great Crossbearer.

The first step to be taken by one who wishes to follow Christ is, according to Our Lord’s own words, that of renouncing himself - that is, his own senses, his own passions, his own will, his own judgement, and all the movements of nature, making to God a sacrifice of all these things, and of all their acts, which are surely sacrifices very acceptable to the Lord. And we must never grow weary of this; for if anyone having, so to speak, one foot already in Heaven, should abandon this exercise, when the time should come for him to put the other there, he would run much risk of being lost.

Once again, Jesus calls those who follow him to share his passion.

There is something almost cruel about the Christian's being placed in a world which in every way wants to pressure him to do the opposite of what God bids him to do.

No healthy Christian ever chooses suffering; he chooses God's will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not.