J.C. Ryle on Religious Knowledge

"...when knowledge only sticks in a man's head, and has no influence over his heart and life, it becomes a most perilous possession. And when, in addition to this, its possessor is self-conceited and self-satisfied, and fancies he knows everything, the result is one of the worst states of soul into which man can fall....Let us use diligently whatever religous knowledge we possess, and ask continually that God would give us more. Let us never forget that the devil himself is a creature of vast head-knowledge, and yet none the better for it, because it is not rightly used. Let our constant prayer be that which David so often sent up in the hundred and nineteenth Psalm, 'Lord, Teach me Thy statutes: - give me understanding: - unite my heart to fear Thy name'" [J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, Volume II (James Clarke & Co., 1957), 182].