Bishop J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)

[Martin Marprelate]

May 10th will be the bicentenary of the birth of J.C. Ryle, the great Protestant Bishop of Liverpool.

He may not be as well known in the USA as he is among British Reformed Christians. His great book, Holiness and his Expository Thoughts on the Gospels should be on every Christian's bookshelf (or on his Kindle!).

Writing of the vital principles of Christianity, he declared them to be:

The extreme sinfulness of sin, and my own personal sinfulness, hopelessness and personal need. The entire suitableness of our Lord Jesus Christ by His sacrifice, substitution and intercession, to be the Saviour of the sinner's soul. The overwhelming value of a soul, as compared to anything else. The absolute necessity of anybody who would be saved being born again, or converted by the Holy Ghost. The indispensable necessity of holiness of life, being the only true evidence of a true Christian. The absolute need for coming out from the world and being separate from the vain customs, recreations and standard of what's right, as well as from its sins. The supremacy of the Bible as the only rule of what is true in faith, or right in practice, and the need of regularly reading and studying it. The absolute necessity of daily private prayer and communion with God, if anyone intends to lead the life of a true Christian. The enormous value of what are called Protestant principles, as compared with Romanism. The unspeakable excellence and beauty of the doctrine of the Second Advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. the unutterable folly of supposing that Baptism is Regeneration, or formal going to Church Christianity, or taking the sacrament a means of wiping away sin, or clergymen to know more of the Bible than other people, or to be mediators between God and man by virtue of their office.

[Quotation taken from the May issue of the Banner of Truth magazine]

 

[Gerhard Ebersoehn]

Thank God

 

[Rippon]

May 10th will be the bicentenary of the birth of J.C. Ryle, the great Protestant Bishop of Liverpool.

He may not be as well known in the USA as he is among British Reformed Christians. His great book, Holiness and his Expository Thoughts on the Gospels should be on every Christian's bookshelf (or on his Kindle!)

.
(Or on their kindle!)

The famous Anglican was a good friend of Charles Spurgeon. J.C. Ryle was from the Evangelical wing of the Anglican church.

I have profited from his wonderful book Christian Leaders of the 18th Century.

He speaks so clearly and devotionally. I value his works a great deal.

 

[Martin Marprelate]

(Or on their kindle!)

No. On his kindle. Good grammar trumps political correctness every time.

But we agree on one thing- Ryle is great!

 

[ReformedBaptist]

I know J.C. Ryle's work well. I have and have read Holiness. I also have Expository Thoughts and use that in family worship for our teaching/devotional by reading it together.

 

[Jerome]

Have you read his Scattered and Gathered?

A sample:

"Reader, however great the difficulties surrounding many parts of unfulfilled prophecy, two points appear to my own mind to stand out as plainly as if written by a sunbeam. One of these points is the second personal advent of our Lord Jesus Christ before the Millennium.—The other of these points is the future literal gathering of the Jewish nation, and their restoration to their own land.—I tell no man that these two truths are essential to salvation, and that he cannot be saved except he sees them with my eyes. But I tell any man that these truths appear to me distinctly set down in holy Scripture, and that the denial of them is as astonishing and incomprehensible to my own mind as the denial of the divinity of Christ."

 

[Martin Marprelate]

Have you read his Scattered and Gathered?

I have, but I can't lay my hands on a copy now. It is a fine example of how even the very best of men can make fools of themselves in the matter of prophecy.

I think it may be in that book that he wrote in the early 1850s that since the world was being ravaged by war (Crimean War), disease (cholera epidemics in Britain) and famine (Irish potato famine) the horsemen of the Apocalypse were riding and the end could be expected any day.

'.....All these things must happen, but the end is not yet' (Matthew 24:6).