Quotable

There are few warnings in Scripture more solemn than that [spoken by] the Lord Jesus Christ: “Remember Lot’s wife.” . . . The sum and substance of her transgression lies in these three words, “She looked back.” Does that sin seem small . . . a trifling one to be visited with such a punishment? . . . That look revealed the true character of Lot’s wife. . . . That look . . . told of secret love of the world . . . her heart was in Sodom. . . . The immense danger of worldliness is the grand lesson which the Lord Jesus means us to learn. . . . I would fain cry aloud, “Remember Lot’s wife.” She was no murderess, no adulteress, no thief . . . she [only] looked back. There are thousands of baptized persons in our churches who are proof against immorality and infidelity, and yet fall victims to the love of the world. . . . Have they found the Bible not true? Have the found the Lord Jesus fail to keep His word? No, not at all. But they are . . . infected with the love of this world. . . . It is sad to see how many a gallant ship launches forth on the voyage of life with every prospect of success and, springing this leak of worldliness, goes down with all her freight in full view of the harbor of safety. . . . Beware of following Christ from any secondary motive. . . . Follow Christ for His own sake, if you follow Him at all. Be thorough, be real, be honest, be sound, be wholehearted.

—Anglican Bishop J. C. Ryle, about 100 years ago