There are two ways by which a man may lose his own soul....He may lose his soul by living and dying...like a beast prayerless, godless, graceless, faithless. This is a sure way to hell. Mind that you do not walk in it. He may [also] lose his soul by taking up some kind of religion. He may live and die contenting himself with false Christianity, and resting on a baseless hope. This is the commonest way to hell there is....

There are multitudes of baptized men and women who...give Christ a certain place in their system of religion, but Christ alone is not “all in all” to their souls. No: it is either Christ and the Church; or Christ and the Sacraments; or Christ and His ordained ministers; or Christ and their own goodness or Christ and their prayers; or Christ and their own sincerity and charity, on which they practically rest their souls.

If you are a Christian of this kind I warn you...your religion is an offence to God. You are changing God’s plan of salvation [1] into a plan of your own devising.

—J. C. Ryle
, As cited in The Reformer, May/June 1998, pp. 10-11