Charges And Addresses

by J.C. Ryle

A man of good scholarship, sterling character, wide sympathies, and tremendous zeal, J. C. Ryle accounted it no light thing to be entrusted with the work of organizing and advancing the cause of God and truth in a diocese noted for its extensive industrial development and in a city of world fame. As a man of God he gave unfeigned allegiance to the plenary inspiration of Holy Scripture. Linked with this was his determination to strive for the maintenance of the Protestant character of the Church of England as by law established in the days of the sixteenth-century Reformation. Doctrine, experience, and practice based upon and shaped by the pure word of God were to him the essentials of the ongoing life of the Church.

In the Liverpool Diocese Ryle faced a formidable task. Called to it at the age of sixty-five, Ryle laboured in season and out of season with untiring pertinacity. To present-day readers he will chiefly be known through his expository and biographical writings. The Charges and Addresses here brought together show how he laboured to educate the clergy of his diocese in biblical principles and to impress upon them the vast importance of maintaining evangelical doctrine and practice in their varied ministries and contacts.

In England Ryle stands in the foremost rank of those who have held forth the word of life and fought the good fight of faith. He is one of the Lord’s standard-bearers of the late Victorian age. The ‘healthful spirit of God’s grace’ was upon him. Being dead he continues to speak to our backslidden generation.

Genres: Theology

464 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

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

[Omri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of repetition in these series of addresses from Ryle during his time as the bishop of Liverpool. But this book helped me immensely to watch him shepherd shepherds of Christ’s church and constantly keep his finger on the pulse of the culture.

His section exposing the error of Higher Criticism (pp. 289-305) is gold! And there are even some nuggets when he touches on the dangers of socialism and Marxism in his day.

This book made much more sense to me after reading Iain Murray’s biography on Ryle (Prepared to Stand Alone) and the concerns that arise in so many of his speeches explain almost all his other writings (Holiness, Practical Religion, Old Paths, Light From Old Times, etc.).

[Tim Hazelbaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps my least favorite Ryle book. But not because of Ryle, because the context and audience was distant.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are wanting to learn from the bishop, pick up anything else from his pen. If you are wanting to learn of the bishop, then you can pick up little better from his own pen than this, save his autobiography.

[Nick Roark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh