Saturday, September 18, 2021

The Lutheran Librarian Said This on the Phone Today, In So Many Words

John C. Ryle
A link to his work.


Many people will put up with anything in religion, if they may only have a quiet life. They have a morbid dread of what they call “controversy.” They are filled with a morbid fear of what the style, in a vague way, “party spirit,” though they never define clearly what party spirit is. They are possessed with a morbid desire to keep the peace and make all things smooth and pleasant, even though it be at the expense of truth. So long as they have outward calm, smoothness, stillness, and order, they seem content to give up everything else. 
~The Fallibility of Ministers             J.C. Ryle


Whenever we hear teaching which obscures or contradicts justification by faith, we may be sure there is a screw loose somewhere. We should watch against such teaching, and be upon our guard. Once let a man get wrong about justification, and he will bid a long farewell to comfort, to peace, to a lively hope, to anything like assurance in his Christianity. An error here is like a worm at the root.

~The Fallibility of Ministers             J.C. Ryle