God has provided us with powerful encouragements to prayer (writes J.C. Ryle in Practical Religion).
I summarise.
Abstracted from Practical Religion, by J. C. Ryle, chapter 1.
(1) Do we ever think about our souls at all?
Thousands of English people, I fear, cannot answer that question satisfactorily. They never give the subject of religion any place in their thoughts. From the beginning of the year to the end they are absorbed in the pursuit of business, pleasure, politics, money, or self-indulgence of some kind or another. Death, and judgment, and eternity, and heaven, and hell, and a world to come, are never calmly looked at and considered.…
J.C. Ryle was a master of a simple, forthright style. His advice to fellow-preachers is invaluable.
Here’s a summary.
Prefatory remarks
1. Simplicity in preaching is of the utmost importance. We cannot be useful if we cannot be understood, and we cannot be understood if we are not simple.
2. Simplicity in preaching is not easy to attain. It is easier to appear clever than to be intelligible.
3. Simple preaching does not mean childish preaching.…
Election was never intended to prevent men making a diligent use of all means of grace. On the contrary, the neglect of means is a most suspicious symptom, and should make us very doubtful about the state of a man’s soul. Those whom the Holy Ghost draws He always draws to the written Word of God and to prayer. When there is the real grace of God in a heart, there will always be love to the means of grace.…
The Elect of God can only be discerned from those who are not Elect by their faith and life. We cannot climb up into the secret of God’s eternal counsels. We cannot read the book of life. The fruits of the Spirit, seen and manifested in a man’s conversation, are the only grounds on which we can ascertain that he is one of God’s Elect. Where the marks of God’s Elect can be seen, there, and there only, have we any warrant for saying “this is one of the Elect.”…
In his book ‘Coming Events and Present Duties’ (1867/1879), J.C. Ryle summarises his views on prophecy and presents a handful of sermons preached on various aspects of this subject.
Concerning the future of the Jews, Ryle states:-
Ryle develops this conviction in a sermon entitled ‘Scattered Israel to be Gathered’. Based on Jeremiah 31:10, this contains fairly standard teaching for a mid-19th-century Evangelical, and makes the following assertions:-
[The following is the substance of a lecture given at the Old Meeting House, Norwich, as one in a series of talks entitled ‘Light From Old Paths’. I am grateful to Dr John Clements for the invitation.]
J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)
‘For my part, I am quite willing to be eaten of dogs for the next fifty years; but the more distant future shall vindicate me.’
Those words were spoken, not by the subject of my talk tonight, J.C.…
Having set out what he regards as the five leading features of ‘evangelical religion’ (i.e. evangelical faith), J.C. Ryle then goes on to write about what it is not:-
1. It does not despise learning, although it steadily refuses to place any uninspired writings on a level with revelation.
2. It does not undervalue the Church, although it refuses to exalt the Church above Christ, or teach people that membership of the Church is identical with membership of Christ.…
JC. Ryle (1817-1900) was a doughty supporter and proponent of ‘evangelical religion’ (i.e. evangelical faith).
In his celebrated work, Knots Untied, Ryle set out what he regarded as the leading features of such faith:-
“These I consider to be five in number.
a) The first leading feature of Evangelical Religion is the absolute supremacy it assigns to Holy Scripture, as the only rule of faith and practice … Show us anything plainly written in that Book, and, however trying to flesh and blood, we will receive it, believe it, and submit to it.…
Throughout his long ministry, J.C. Ryle (1817-1900) had to defend evangelical (that is to say, gospel) truth on a number of fronts. One of these concerned the threat posed by the Ritualism of the Anglo-Catholic movement.
Ian Farley reports that in 1877 Ryle identified five key teachings of the Ritualists:
