John Charles Ryle (1816–1900) was the first Bishop of Liverpool and the outstanding evangelical Anglican writer of the Victorian era. A Christ Church man and a fine athlete who lost the family fortune at twenty-five, he spent thirty-eight years in country parishes in Suffolk before Disraeli sent him to Liverpool at sixty-four. He wrote as he preached — plainly, directly, and for ordinary people.
All of Ryle’s works are in the public domain.
Sources and honesty about them
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Expository Thoughts on the Gospels and several other works here are taken from the Grace Gems edition, whose text is lightly modernised (for example “Holy Spirit” for Ryle’s “Holy Ghost”, and trimmed Scripture references); Ryle’s original footnotes are not present in that edition. It is, however, the only complete free digital text of all four Gospel volumes.
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Holiness, The Upper Room (CCEL) and Practical Religion and The Cross (Project Gutenberg) are Ryle’s original text, with his own footnotes.
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Not included: Knots Untied, the complete Old Paths, and the complete Light from Old Times exist only as uncorrected OCR scans of printed volumes, and were deliberately left out rather than added in poor quality. The Christian Leaders chapter on Augustus Toplady is likewise missing from the available source.
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Texts that appear twice. Ryle reworked his own tracts into his books, so a few pieces are held here in two forms, under the title each was published with. The main ones: Thirst Relieved (Holiness) and Let Any Man Come (The Upper Room); The Good Way and the tract The Old Paths; Moses — An Example and the tract Faith’s Choice; Thoughts for Young Men and the tract Hints to Young Men. Both are kept.
Each note carries its own source: field recording exactly where its text came from.
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
- Expository Thoughts on the Gospels — all four Gospels
- Matthew (1856)
- Mark (1857)
- Luke (1858)
- John (1865)
Doctrinal & Practical Works
- Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots (1877)
- Practical Religion (1878)
- The Upper Room (1888)
- Coming Events and Present Duties (1879)