S, you do a great service to all of us, but more especially to your Anglican brethren, by posting +Ryle's works. This hierarch continues to amaze me. He writes almost as a modern Church Father, a Father to the Anglo Saxon world. He is so sublimely Orthodox in his theology. Imagine what it must have been like to sit in church and hear this man preach!
I am pinging the Orthodox list. To my fellow Orthodox, I encourage you to read the sermons and writings of this 19th century Anglican bishop. Doesn't he remind you of the Cappadocian Fathers and even later of the likes of +Symeon the New Theologian?
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. He is good.
I like this:
--We must be holy on earth before we die, if we desire to go to heaven after death. If we hope to dwell with God for ever in the life to come, we must endeavour to be like Him in the life that now is. We must not only admire holiness, and wish for holiness: we must be holy.--
This is the truth the modern world tries to hide. I have read multiple articles about how non-religiously practicing people say they believe and admire those who do practice, but won't make real room in their lives for it. That is a sadness.
But worse is the driving of some to change Jesus' standard of holiness into something weak, that affirms us in our sins, and pats us on the head without asking us to grow.
Lord, be with us and lead us in your ways, and not ours. Amen.