Our Lives: a Sermon that None Can Escape

"We cannot live to ourselves only in this world. Our lives will always be doing either good or harm to those who see them. They are a silent sermon which all can read. It is sad indeed when they are a sermon for the devil's cause, and not for God's. I believe that far more is done for Christ's kingdom by the holy living of believers than we are at all aware of. There is a reality about such living which makes men feel, and obliges them to think. It carries a weight and influence with it which nothing else can give. It makes religion beautiful, and draws men to consider it, like a lighthouse seen afar off. The day of judgment will prove that many besides husbands have been won "without a word" by a holy life (1 Peter 3:1). You may talk to persons about the doctrines of the gospel, and few will listen, and fewer still understand. But your life is an argument that none can escape."

J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 1877, p 50.