I’m enjoying the reading of J.C. Ryle’s book “Holiness”. WOW.
“Of all the foolish things that parents say about their children there is none worse than the common saying,
‘My son has a good heart at the bottom. He is not what he ought to be; but he has fallen into bad hands. Public schools are bad places. The tutors neglect the boys. Yet he has a good heart at the bottom.’
The truth, unhappily, is diametrically the other way. The first cause of all sin lies in the natural corruption of the boy’s own heart, and not in the school.”
There’s a lot in this short excerpt. And Ryle has a lot more to say.
But get this…
- parents say foolish things to defend their children
- this was published in 1877
- to say our children have ‘good hearts’ is to disagree with Scripture
- public schools never have been designed to teach holiness
- public schools were neglecting our boys long before today
- by ignoring our own child’s spiritual condition is to put him and others at risk
- he’s at risk if we don’t understand he has a spiritual bent to evil
- others are at risk of being influenced by his evil heart
- humanity has abilities to do grand and noble things in the arts, sciences, literature, medical, etc, but the fact still remains that in spiritual things he is utterly dead.
No Comments