J. C. Ryle Heart Quotations

The Bible applied to the heart by the Holy Ghost is the chief means by which men are built up and established in the faith, after their conversion. It is able to cleanse them, to sanctify them, to instruct them in righteousness, and to furnish them thoroughly for all good works.

Politics, or controversy, or party spirit, or worldliness, have eaten out the heart of lively piety in too many of us. The subject of personal godliness has fallen sadly into the background.

The Christian who keeps their heart diligently in little things shall be kept from great falls.

Nothing so hardens the heart of man as a barren familiarity with sacred things.

Every fresh act of sin lessens fear and remorse, hardens our hearts, blunts the edge of our conscience, and increases our evil inclination.

Until we give God our heart, we give Him nothing at all.

The brightest saint is the man who has the most heart-searching sense of his own sinfulness, and the liveliest sense of his own complete acceptance in Christ.

No prayers can be heard which do not come from a forgiving heart.

Sin and the devil will always find helpers in our hearts.

When a person’s tongue is extensively wrong, it is absurd, no less than unscriptural, to say that their heart is right.

A right heart leans on Christ, hangs on Christ, builds on Christ and cleaves to Christ.

Let us resolve to talk more to believers about the Bible when we meet them. Alas, the conversation of Christians, when they do meet, is often sadly unprofitable! How many frivolous, and trifling, and uncharitable things are said! Let us bring out the Bible more, and it will help to drive the devil away, and keep our hearts in tune. Oh, that we may all strive so to walk together in this evil world; that Jesus may often draw near, and go with us, as He went with the two disciples journeying to Emmaus!

On the one hand stand salvation by free grace for Christ's sake; but on the other stands renewal of the carnal heart by the Spirit. We must be changed as well as forgiven; we must be renewed as well as redeemed.

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

The heart of a man can never be satisfied with the things of this world. It is always empty, and hungry, and thirsty, and dissatisfied, till it comes to Christ. It is only they who hear Christ's voice, and follow Him, and feed on Him by faith, who are 'filled.'.

However corrupt our hearts, and however wicked our past lives, there is hope for us in the Gospel.

Examine your own hearts. Do you see there any habit or custom which you know is wrong in the sight of God? If you do, don't delay for a moment in attacking it. Resolve at once to lay it aside. Nothing darkens the eyes of the mind so much, and deadens the conscience so surely, as an allowed sin. It may be a little one, but it is not any less dangerous.

Let your Christianity be so unmistakable, your eye so single, your heart so whole, your walk so straightforward, that all who see you may have no doubt whose you are, and whom you serve.

The temple in which the Lord Jesus delights most, is a broken and contrite heart, renewed by the Holy Spirit.

Without the blessing of the Lord, your best endeavors will do no good. He has the hearts of all men in His hands, and except He touch the hearts of your children by His Spirit, you will weary yourself to no purpose. Water, therefore, the seed you sow on their minds with unceasing prayer.

Let us never forget that our chief danger is from within. The world and the devil combined, cannot do us as much harm as our own hearts will, if we do not watch and pray.

True repentance is no light matter. It is a thorough change of heart about sin, a change showing itself in godly sorrow and humiliation - in heartfelt confession before the throne of grace - in a complete breaking off from sinful habits, and an abiding hatred of all sin. Such repentance is the inseparable companion of saving faith in Christ.

The heart that has really tasted the grace of Christ, will instinctively hate sin.

Happiness does not depend on outward circumstances, but on the state of the heart.

It must not content us to take our bodies to church if we leave our hearts at home.

Conduct is the grand test of character. Words are one great evidence of the condition of the heart.

Faith in the Lord Jesus is the only sure medicine for troubled hearts.

Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.

To be born again is, as it were, to enter upon a new existence, to have a new mind, a new heart, new views, new principles, new tastes, new affections, new likings, new dislikings, new fears, new joys, new sorrows, new love to things once hated, new hatred to things once loved, new thoughts of God, and ourselves, and the world, and the life to come, and salvation.

Prayer needs neither learning, wisdom or book knowledge to begin it. It needs nothing but heart and will.

The love of our Lord Jesus Christ towards sinners is strikingly shown in His steady purpose of heart to die for them.

Sanctification is that inward spiritual work which the Lord Jesus Christ works in a man by the Holy Spirit when He calls him to be a true believer. He not only washes him from his sins in His own blood, but He also separates him from his natural love of sin and the world, puts a new principle in his heart and makes him practically godly in life.

Our prayers may be weak, stammering, and poor in our eyes. But if they come from a right heart, God understands them. Such prayers are His delight.