“There are no hearts which it is impossible for Christ to cure” by J.C. Ryle

“Is your heart right? Then be thankful.

Praise the Lord for His distinguishing mercy, in “calling you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Pet. 2:9)

Think what you were by nature. Think what has been done for you by free undeserved grace.

Your heart may not be all that it ought to be, nor yet all that you hope it will be.

But at any rate your heart is not the old hard heart with which you were born. Surely the man whose heart is changed ought to be full of praise.

Is your heart right? Then be humble and watchful.

You are not yet in heaven, but in the world. You are in the body. The devil is near you, and never sleeps.

Oh, keep your heart with all diligence! Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation.

Ask Christ Himself to keep your heart for you. Ask Him to dwell in it, and reign in it, and garrison it, and to put down every enemy under His feet.

Give the keys of the citadel into the King’s own hands, and leave them there. It is a weighty saying of Solomon: “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” (Prov. 28:26)

Is your heart right? Then be hopeful about the hearts of other people.

Who has made you to differ? Why should not any one in the world be changed, when such an one as you has been made a new creature?

Work on. Pray on. Speak on. Write on. Labour to do all the good you can to souls. Never despair of any one being saved so long as he is alive.

Surely the man who has been changed by grace ought to feel that there are no desperate cases. There are no hearts which it is impossible for Christ to cure.

Is your heart right? Then do not expect too much from it.

Do not be surprised to find it weak and wayward, faint and unstable, often ready to doubt and fear. Your redemption is not complete until your Lord and Saviour comes again. Your full salvation remains yet to be revealed. (Luke 21:28; 1 Pet. 1:5)

You cannot have two heavens,—a heaven here and a heaven hereafter. Changed, renewed, converted, sanctified, as your heart is, you must never forget that it is a man’s heart after all, and the heart of a man living in the midst of a wicked world.

Finally, let me entreat all right-hearted readers to look onward and forward to the day of Christ’s second coming.

A time draws near when Satan shall be bound, and Christ’s saints shall be changed,—when sin shall no more vex us, and the sight of sinners shall no more sadden our minds,—when believers shall at length attend on God without distraction, and love Him with a perfect heart.

For that day let us wait, and watch, and pray. It cannot be very far off. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Surely if our hearts are right, we ought often to cry, “Come quickly: come Lord Jesus!”

–J.C. Ryle, Old Paths: Being Plain Statements of Some of the Weightier Matters of Christianity (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1898/1999), 334-335.