J. C. Ryle - What Do You Think of...

1. First then let me ask you, what do you think of yourself? What Paul thought of himself, you have seen and heard. Now, what are your thoughts about yourself? Have you found out that grand foundation truth that you are a sinner, a guilty sinner in the sight of God?

The cry for more education in this day is loud and incessant. Ignorance is universally deplored. But, you may depend, there is no ignorance so common and so mischievous as ignorance of ourselves. Yes, men may know all arts and sciences and languages, and political economy and statecraft, and yet be miserably ignorant of their own hearts and their own state before God.

Be very sure that self-knowledge is the first step towards Heaven. To know God's unspeakable perfection, and our own immense imperfection, to see our own unspeakable defectiveness and corruption, is the ABC in saving religion. The more real inward light we have, the more humble and lowly-minded we shall be, and the more we shall understand the value of that despised thing, the gospel of Christ. He who thinks worst of himself and his own doings, is perhaps the best Christian before God. Well would it be for many if they would pray, night and day, this simple prayer: "Lord, show me myself."

2. What do you think of the ministers of Christ? As strange as that question may seem, I truly believe that the kind of answer a man would give to it, if he speaks honestly, is very often a fair test of the state of his heart.

Observe, I am not asking what you think of an idle, worldly, inconsistent clergyman, a sleeping watchman and faithless shepherd. No! I ask what you think of the faithful minister of Christ, who honestly exposes sin, and pricks your conscience? Mind how you answer that question. Too many nowadays like only those ministers who prophesy smooth things and let their sins alone, who flatter their pride and amuse their intellectual taste, but who never sound an alarm, and never tell them of a wrath to come. When Ahab saw Elijah, said, "Have you found me, O my enemy?" (1 Kings 21:20.) When Micaiah was named to Ahab, he cried, "I hate him because he does not prophesy good of me, but evil."(1 Kings 22:8). Alas, there are many like Ahab in the nineteenth century! They like a ministry which does not make them uncomfortable, and send them home ill at ease. How is it with you? Oh, believe me, he is the best friend who tells you the most truth! It is an evil sign in the church when Christ's witnesses are silenced, or persecuted, and men hate him who reproves (Isaiah 29:21). It was a solemn saying of the prophet to Amaziah "Now I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this, and not hearkened to my counsel." (2 Chronicles 25:16).

- J. C. Ryle (Holiness, Chapter 18: Unsearchable Riches)