Consider Your Ways

by J.C. Ryle, Matt Jury (Editor)

Excerpt: I wish to write a few words to you about your souls. I want those souls to be saved. And I invite you all to take the advice I give you today, and that is, to "Consider your ways." I write to you because the time is short. The day of grace is slipping away — the day of judgment is drawing near — the thread of life is winding up — a few more short years, and every soul of us will have gone to his own place — we shall each of us be in heaven or hell! I dare not wait until you pay attention to my sermons. By all means I must try to save some of you. If you will not consider, when I speak to you from the pulpit, it may be you will consider when I speak to you in print. I cannot reach your hearts, I know well. It is not in me, it needs the finger of God. But I can set before you my earnest wishes for every class among you, and I will do it — the Lord being my helper. Bear with me if I say things that sound sharp and hard. Set it down to my concern for your salvation; I mean it all for your good. I write no other things but what I have gathered from the Bible, and as such I commend them to your consciences. Consider what I say, and the Lord give you understanding in all things.

668 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 3, 2015

About the author

(John Charles Ryle) Ryle started his ministry as curate at the Chapel of Ease in Exbury, Hampshire, moving on to become rector of St Thomas's, Winchester in 1843 and then rector of Helmingham, Suffolk the following year. While at Helmingham he married and was widowed twice. He began publishing popular tracts, and Matthew, Mark and Luke of his series of Expository Thoughts on the Gospels were published in successive years (1856-1858). His final parish was Stradbroke, also in Suffolk, where he moved in 1861, and it was as vicar of All Saints that he became known nationally for his straightforward preaching and firm defence of evangelical principles. He wrote several well-known and still-in-print books, often addressing issues of contemporary relevance for the Church from a biblical standpoint. He completed his Expository Thoughts on the Gospels while at Stradbroke, with his work on the Gospel of John (1869). His third marriage, to Henrietta Amelia Clowes in 1861, lasted until her death in 1889.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This pamphlet is basically an evangelistic address and a call to greater holiness on the part of true believers. Some comments will probably not please the anti-WMO people, but the author preached/wrote as one with a true concern for the good of his flock.