LIGHT FROM OLD TIMES, by Bishop J. C. Ryle. London: Sovereign Grace Union, 98 Camberwell Grove, S.E. 5. Price 5s net, post free. Illustrated. Pp. 493.
This excellently printed edition (5th) of a very useful and informative book is issued by the Sovereign Grace Union at the very cheap price of five shillings. Bishop Ryle’s biographical and other writings are so well known to many of our readers that we need not say much about them here. The volume before us is made up of a series of papers written in Dr Ryle’s best style, in which simplicity, instruction, and edification are happily blended. The papers deal with John Wycliffe; Why were the Reformers burned? John Rogers, Martyr; John Hooper, Bishop and Martyr; Rowland Taylor, Martyr; Hugh Latimer, Bishop and Martyr; John Bradford, Martyr; Nicholas Ridley, Bishop and Martyr; Samuel Ward; Archbishop Laud; Richard Baxter; William Gurnall, Author of “The Christian in Complete Armour”; and James II. and the Seven Bishops. It is in such volumes that our young people will find instruction as to the vital issues involved in the great religious struggles of the past. Bishop Ryle, being an Episcopalian, is naturally influenced in his outlook by his ecclesiastical connection, hence his defence of William Gurnall remaining in the Church of England in 1662, and of Reynolds’ acceptance of a bishopric, while expressing regret that Baxter and Calamy refused similar offers, and Bates and Manton deaneries. Our sympathies, however, are with those Puritans who went out in 1662, and also with those who refused preferment in the Church of England. But Bishop Ryle, it should be pointed out, is not a believer in the divine right of Episcopacy, and he is broad-minded enough to honour all those who loved the Lord Jesus in sincerity and in truth, though holding to his own church connection. He loved those who contended for the truth of the Gospel, and it is not with an unfeeling heart he records their contendings.
Can we think that God’s children, who are so near and dear to Him, shall always be trampled upon by the powers of darkness? No, certainly. He is interested in all their quarrels, and takes their injuries as done to Himself. When we can be more subtle than the devil, or more strong than God, we may think to thrive against them.—R. Sibbes, D.D.