109SermonsbyJCRyle
I am done.
1. Settle it down in your mind, that the things of which I have been speaking are all real and true.
I do believe that many never see the great truths of religion in this light. I firmly believe that many never listen to the things they hear from ministers as realities. They regard it all, like Gallio, as a matter of names and words, and nothing more—a huge shadow—a religious play-acting—a vast sham. Macaulay's History of England, Dicken's last Novel, the latest news from France, India, Australia, California, or New York—all these are things they realize. They feel interested and excited about them. But as to the Bible, and heaven, and the kingdom of Christ, and the judgment day—these are subjects that they hear unmoved. They do not really believe them.
Reader, if you have unhappily got into this frame of mind, I charge you to cast it off forever. Whether you mean to hear or forbear, awaken to a thorough conviction that the things I have brought before you are real and true. The wheat, the chaff, the separation, the barn, the fire—all these are great realities; as real as the sun in heaven—as real as the paper which your eyes behold. For my part, I believe in heaven, and I believe in hell. I believe in a coming judgment. I believe in a day of sifting. I am not ashamed to say so. I believe them all, and therefore I write as I do. Oh, reader, take a friend's advice, live as if these things were true!
2. Settle it down in your mind, that the things of which I write concern YOURSELF. They are your business, your affair, and your concern. Many, I am satisfied, never look on religion as a matter that concerns themselves. They attend on its outward part, as a decent and proper fashion. They hear sermons. They read religious books. They have their children christened. But all the time they never ask themselves, "What is all this to me?" They sit in our churches like spectators in a theater, or court of law. They read our writings as if they were reading a report of an interesting trial, or of