Light from Old Times 

The nineteenth century was an age that witnessed great progress in many areas of exploration and learning. However, according to J. C. Ryle, it was an age of great ignorance too. “With all the stir made about education,” he wryly observed, “the ignorance of our own country's history is something lamentable and appalling and depressing.” What particularly distressed Ryle was the scant knowledge of the English Reformation evident amongst his contemporaries. In this lay a grave danger: one of the reasons so many congregations drift from their evangelical foundations is their sheer ignorance of Christian history, and their lack of understanding of the major doctrinal controversies and why they matter. Therefore he taught that one of the best ways to stop Christians wavering “with every changing wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14) is to instill in them a deep love for Reformation and Puritan teaching, and a willingness to suffer for those gospel truths. The Bible often calls us to remember the past, Ryle explained, but the devil tries to make us forget. If the church is to be strengthened, then Christians must be persuaded to read the saints of the past and to learn the lessons of church history.

Ryle's abiding hope for Light From Old Times is that our souls will be stirred to prayer and action by the great testimonies of Reformers and Puritans found within its pages, and then that we will dig deeper into the writings of these spiritual giants.

1. Opening
2. John Wycliffe
3. Why Were Our Reformers Burned?
4. John Rogers - Martyr
5. John Hooper - Bishop And Martyr
6. Hooper Part 2
7. Rowland Taylor - Martyr
8. Hugh Latimer - Bishop And Martyr
9. Latimer Part 2
10. Latimer Part Three
11. John Bradford - Martyr
12. Nicholas Ridley - Bishop And Martyr
13. Samuel Ward
14. Ward Part 2
15. Archbishop Laud
16. Laud Part 2
17. Richard Baxter
18. William Gurnall
19. Gurnall Part 2
20. James II And The Seven Bishops
21. James Ii Part 2

J. C. Ryle

John Charles Ryle, the Beloved Bishop of Liverpool, was born on May 10, 1816, and obtained a degree in classical studies from Oxford University. He had aspired for a career in politics, but this dream was derailed by family financial misfortunes that compelled him into becoming an Anglican clergyman in 1841.

Upon becoming a vicar, Ryle’s vigorous evangelical preaching, warm personality, and ability to relate well with the masses earned him success in gospel outreach. He was later appointed Bishop of Liverpool in 1880 at the recommendation of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, a post Ryle he held until retiring at age 83.

J.C. Ryle embodied a singular dedication to a single book; his knowledge of Scripture ran deep within him; his devotion to the Bible was unwavering - he lived and breathed the sacred text. As Ryle himself said, “It is still the first book which fits the child’s mind when he begins to learn religion, and the last to which the old man clings as he leaves the world.”

After his death in 1900 the subsequent Bishop of Liverpool described J.C. Ryle as “the man of granite with the heart of a child.”