J. C. Ryle Heaven Quotations

What could an unsanctified man do in Heaven, if by any chance he got there? Let that question be fairly looked in the face and fairly answered. No man can possibly be happy in a place where he is not in his element and where all around him is not congenial to his tastes, habits and character.

Such true worship will stand the test of Christ's great principle, “By their fruits you shall know them”. It sanctifies the Christian's life, and makes them walk with God, lifting them above fear and love of the world. It enables a Christian to show God to other folks. Such worship comes from heaven, and has the mark of God upon it.

People will never set their faces decidedly towards heaven, and live like pilgrims, until they really feel that they are in danger of hell.

Without holiness on earth we shall never be prepared to enjoy heaven. Heaven is a holy place. The Lord of heaven is a holy Being. The angels are holy creatures. Holiness is written on everything in heaven... How shall we ever be at home and happy in heaven if we die unholy?

A converted man will not wish to go to heaven alone

No salvation without regeneration - no spiritual life without a new birth - no heaven without a new heart.

That preaching is sadly defective which dwells exclusively on the mercies of God and the joys of heaven, yet never sets forth the terrors of the Lord and the miseries of hell.

According to the men of the world, few are going to hell; According to the Bible, few are going to heaven.

The beginning of the way to heaven, is to feel that we are on the way to hell.

Do something, by God’s help, to make heaven more full and hell more empty.

We must cast away everything which hinders us upon our road towards heaven – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life; the love of riches, pleasures and honors, the spirit of lukewarmness and carelessness and indifference about the things of God – all must be rooted out and forsaken if we are anxious for the prize. We must mortify the deeds of the body, we must crucify our affections for this world.

The cross is the foundation of the Bible: If you have not yet found out that Christ crucified is the foundation of the whole volume, you have hitherto read your Bible to very little profit. Your religion is a heaven without a sun, an arch without a keystone, a compass without a needle, a clock without a spring or weights, a lamp without oil. It will not comfort you; it will not deliver your soul from hell.

True worship leads to a more full knowledge of self, God, heaven, duty, doctrine, practice and experience.

By affliction Christ shows us our emptiness and weakness, draws us to the throne of grace, purifies our affections, weans us from the world, and makes us long for heaven.

To be prayerless is to be without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope, and without heaven.

Christ's death is the Christian's life. Christ's cross is the Christian's title to heaven. Christ "lifted up" and put to shame on Calvary is the ladder by which Christians "enter into the holiest," and are at length landed in glory.

A trial is an instrument by which our Father in heaven makes Christians more holy.

No one ever reached heaven without repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Conversion is not putting a man in an armchair and taking him easily to heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the victory.

The highest form of selfishness is that of the man who is content to go to heaven alone.