Holiness (Abridged): Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots (Moody Classics)

by J.C. Ryle

For want of “counting the cost,” the children of religious parents often turn out ill, and bring disgrace on Christianity. Familiar from their earliest years with the form and theory of the gospel—taught even from infancy to repeat great leading text, accustomed every week to be instructed in the gospel, or to instruct others in Sunday schools—they often grow up professing a religion without knowing why, or without ever having thought seriously about it. And then when the realities of grown-up life begin to press upon them, they often astound everyone by dropping all their religion and plunging right into the world. And why? They had never thoroughly understood the sacrifices that Christianity entails. They had never been taught to “count the cost.”