Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots – paperback (J. C. Ryle)

Holiness

Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots

“This book is simply the best of Ryle, the Puritan-type pastor. Real Christians will find it a gold mine, a feast, a spur and a heart-warmer, food, drink, medicine, and a course of vitamins, all in one.” — J. I. Packer

Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots is perhaps J. C. Ryle’s best-known and best-loved book. Although many things have changed since 1877, when it was first published, one thing remains the same: ‘real practical holiness does not receive the attention it deserves.’  It was to remedy this and to counter false teaching on this most important subject, that Ryle took up his pen.

Table of Contents

1) Sin
2) Sanctification
3) Holiness
4) The Fight
5) The Cost
6) Growth
7) Assurance
8) Moses – An Example
9) Lot – A Beacon
10) A Woman to be Remembered
11) Christ’s Greatest Trophy
12) The Ruler of the Waves
13) The Church which Christ Builds
14) Visible Churches Warned
15) “Lovest Thou Me?”
16) Without Christ
17) Thirst Relieved
18) “Unsearchable Riches”
19) Wants of the Times
20) “Christ is All”
21) Extracts from Old Writers

About the Author

John Charles (J.C.) Ryle (1816-1900) once admitted that, as a young man, he thought that being a Christian was about the most unpleasant possible thought that could come to his mind. But one day in 1837, he was providentially in a church where he heard the Scripture read out loud: “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8). His life was transformed, and by 1841, the Church of England ordained him a minister of the gospel.

In 1880, at 64 years old, after serving 39 years in the ministry, Ryle became the first Bishop of Liverpool, a post he held for 20 years. He was affectionately known as “the working man’s bishop.” Ryle was firm in his theological convictions, never suffering from what he called a “boneless, nerveless, jellyfish condition of soul.” His successor described him as a “man of granite”, and Charles Spurgeon called Ryle, his contemporary, an “evangelical champion.” Ryle passed into heaven in the year 1900.

Today, more than a hundred years after his death, Ryle’s works remain some of the Christian church’s most cherished treasures.